Connecting Multiple Midi Controllers

[drsooty]

Hello All,

I am new to the forum and hope you can help because I am a little confused as a midi noob!

I have 3 midi controllers, an APC40, Behringer BCF200 and Korg microKontrol.

I need to set these up for live performance for 2 people. I need to keep the APC40 standard setup fully functional and operating independently of the 2 other controllers.

I would like to be able to midi map the 2 other devices to various VST's and FX. the problem is that there seems to be some duplication in the hardware assigned (?) midi values.

For example CC7 is a fader on the bcf200 and a fader on the microKontrol so I cannot map the 2 faders independently. Is there as method to fix this so that every midi control from all devices is unique?

Apologies for the long post!

Thanks In Advance...

[outershpongolia]

You need the editor for the MIDI controllers..

Put everything on the BCF on a different MIDI channel than the microKONTROL.. You won't need to change the CC#'s or any of that kind of stuff as long as you program them for different MIDI channels. This is not done with Live, it is done with the MIDI editor that goes with your separate MIDI controllers, download it off of their website.

You'll also want to make sure none of the controls on either controller are going to interfere with what the APC is doing, not sure if this is a problem or not, because of the "secret handshake" between APC and Live.

The only good thing about messing with the MIDI editor for your controller is the fact that you can purposely set two midi controllers to control the same function.. For example, my setup has a scene launch, and scene up, scene down.. My drummer also has those on his controller. Only way to map two controllers to the same function in Live is to set their channel, cc, note etc the same in the editors.

Hope my rant helps, I couldn't wrap my head around this until I learned what MIDI CC#'s, Program Changes, Note Values and so on were.

[drsooty]

You need the editor for the MIDI controllers..

Put everything on the BCF on a different MIDI channel than the microKONTROL.. You won't need to change the CC#'s or any of that kind of stuff as long as you program them for different MIDI channels. This is not done with Live, it is done with the MIDI editor that goes with your separate MIDI controllers, download it off of their website.

You'll also want to make sure none of the controls on either controller are going to interfere with what the APC is doing, not sure if this is a problem or not, because of the "secret handshake" between APC and Live.

The only good thing about messing with the MIDI editor for your controller is the fact that you can purposely set two midi controllers to control the same function.. For example, my setup has a scene launch, and scene up, scene down.. My drummer also has those on his controller. Only way to map two controllers to the same function in Live is to set their channel, cc, note etc the same in the editors.

Hope my rant helps, I couldn't wrap my head around this until I learned what MIDI CC#'s, Program Changes, Note Values and so on were.

Thanks for the reply mate.. very helpful.

I am on a steep midi learning curve at the moment! But I think I am getting somewhere.

I think I can figure out how to change midi channel the korg but Behringers documentation for the BCF2000 doesn't seem to have any details on it.

just out of interest, what midi controllers are you using and what process did you got through to change midi channels?

Cheers..

edit:

I think the APC40 uses midi channels 1-9 so in theory could Iu assign the other devices on channel 10-16 with no conflict?

[outershpongolia]

I pretty much know just enough about basic MIDI to set my stuff up the way I want.

Well MIDI CC # 0 is pitch bend and # 1 is mod wheel.. Also #64 is sustain pedal.. So AFAIK you'd want to stay away from these numbers unless you want that knob to do that specific function.

Basically it breaks down like this. My nanoKONTROL is channels 5-6-7-8, Xiosynth 1-2-3-4 (but I really only use channel 1). and LPD8 is channel 10 (which is commonly drums/percussion MIDI channel but idk if it even makes a difference).. My buddies trigger finger is channel 10 also, and controls some of the same stuff I have on the LDP8, and you'd have to make these the same MIDI channel and CC in order for both controllers to access the same function within Live, like I explained earlier.

How I did it comes down to the editors for each controller.. Korg Kontrol Editor, XioEditor, and LPD8 Editor, also had to mess with Enigma - which is for a bunch of M-AUDIO stuff.

So yeah, put the microKONTROL on a different channel than the BCF2000, as long as the BCF isn't messing with the APC40 currently you should be set.

You might run into problems with toggle or momentary, and default values/on-off values and blah blah blah.. that stuff's a little more complicated so I could hopefully answer any of those questions when the arise..

Just recently figured out how to assign a serious of 8 buttons to the same chain selector, each button sends a different value but the same CC so it will select the chain that corresponds to the button. That was a breakthrough for me as far as this stuff goes!

[drsooty]

I pretty much know just enough about basic MIDI to set my stuff up the way I want.

Well MIDI CC # 0 is pitch bend and # 1 is mod wheel.. Also #64 is sustain pedal.. So AFAIK you'd want to stay away from these numbers unless you want that knob to do that specific function.

Basically it breaks down like this. My nanoKONTROL is channels 5-6-7-8, Xiosynth 1-2-3-4 (but I really only use channel 1). and LPD8 is channel 10 (which is commonly drums/percussion MIDI channel but idk if it even makes a difference).. My buddies trigger finger is channel 10 also, and controls some of the same stuff I have on the LDP8, and you'd have to make these the same MIDI channel and CC in order for both controllers to access the same function within Live, like I explained earlier.

How I did it comes down to the editors for each controller.. Korg Kontrol Editor, XioEditor, and LPD8 Editor, also had to mess with Enigma - which is for a bunch of M-AUDIO stuff.

So yeah, put the microKONTROL on a different channel than the BCF2000, as long as the BCF isn't messing with the APC40 currently you should be set.

You might run into problems with toggle or momentary, and default values/on-off values and blah blah blah.. that stuff's a little more complicated so I could hopefully answer any of those questions when the arise..

Just recently figured out how to assign a serious of 8 buttons to the same chain selector, each button sends a different value but the same CC so it will select the chain that corresponds to the button. That was a breakthrough for me as far as this stuff goes!

It sounds like you have a good setup... The chain selector sounds interesting but I may put my midi learning on hold until i have to troubleshoot again! lol... Just listened to your myspace.. pretty good.. is that a live drummer and ableton?

My next mission is deciding how to assign each midi controller now..

Thanks for the help.. its much appreciated..

I have now managed to set BCF2000 to channel 10 and Korg to channel 12..

Alot of messing around.. I did it by selecting each individual control and setting cc, channel each time.. Is there a quicker way!! Although I've done it now so hopefully wont need to do it again!

[outershpongolia]

Quicker way? Global MIDI channel would help, but who cares you already went through all of them so don't worry about it.

Thanks, the myspace is older stuff, and yes there is live drums.. We plan to record some more solid tracks soon so check back!

Our set up is in the "Post your setup" thread, can't find the post tho..