Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

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Elepheel
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:12 am

Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by Elepheel » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:21 am

Hey guys

So I've used Live 8 before, and recently upgraded to 9.

Pretty happy with the new features, but there is one thing that I'd like to alter.

In 8, it used to be that the keys of a keyboard MIDI controller would correspond to the pads of the drum rack, going from left to right, bottom to top.

Now however, it seems to be configured to be played in the actual order of the pads, like on a Launchpad, rather than the previous way I described. I don't know how to describe it, but I'd drop a sample into a pad that I would expect a certain key to play, and it wouldn't, it would be triggering a slot on some other row. And I never edited the mappings, so that's odd to me.

Is there some default activated setting I have to switch off to go back to how it used to be?

Any advice is much appreciated

Stromkraft
Posts: 7033
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:34 am

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by Stromkraft » Sat Apr 15, 2017 10:58 am

Elepheel wrote: Now however, it seems to be configured to be played in the actual order of the pads, like on a Launchpad, rather than the previous way I described. I don't know how to describe it, but I'd drop a sample into a pad that I would expect a certain key to play, and it wouldn't, it would be triggering a slot on some other row. And I never edited the mappings, so that's odd to me.
Incoming notes and outgoing notes can be different in a drum rack. I think that was true in Live 8 as well however. Could that be it?

You show these with the IO button on the left of the drum rack

If you mean only incoming notes vs the triggered rack pads I think they do respond to the note they're set to respond to and the next pad is a half tone higher all the way. I don't see how this is two ways? Can you please clarify?
Make some music!

chrk
Posts: 1728
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:36 pm

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by chrk » Sat Apr 15, 2017 2:09 pm

Elepheel wrote:In 8, it used to be that the keys of a keyboard MIDI controller would correspond to the pads of the drum rack, going from left to right, bottom to top.
That hasn't changed in Live 9's drumrack. The pad view is still 16 semitones left to right bottom to top.

What midi keyboard are you using? It may be transposed by an octave.

I've experienced this with a Korg padKontrol: whenever I've registered it as a control surface (which isn't really worth it, since it only assigns ONE of the two programmable knobs on the unit), the pads were one octave off from their original note values.

Elepheel
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:12 am

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by Elepheel » Sun Apr 16, 2017 6:35 am

Thanks for the responses guys.

I will try my best to convey what exactly I'm experiencing. First off, I'm using an Akai MPKmini 2.

Here are the settings I'm working with.

Image

I have done a bit of fiddling in there for the thumbstick, but never touched the keyboard's transposition or default octave.

Now check out this GIF I recorded.

Image

What you're seeing is a standard Drum Rack that I dropped a couple samples into.

When I press the first key on the keyboard, the furthest left, default octave, it plays E1. I expect it to play C1, but ok? Next key, F1, logical. Next key F#1, makes sense. Next key, G1, fine by me.

But then the next key, instead of going to the upper row to the left and playing G#1, as I expect it to, it plays a note that's not even on the visible part of the grid, E2. Look to the left, you can see where it lights up yellow, a note without any sample in it. I click the sample I want to play with my cursor, and you can see the slot it's in light up. That's just to show what I intend to happen, which mysteriously doesn't.

Additional observation: every time I scroll up and down the grid of the Drum Rack, the same key on my controller plays whichever slot is in a certain position. By that I mean, the same exact key that triggers E1 will trigger G#2 and C4 etc. all just by scrolling up and down the grid, no change of octave whatsoever.

I do get the feeling that this new Drum Rack might be more geared to controllers with a drum pad layout, the Push or others, different sets of drums to scroll through and switch between. But the way I got comfortable using the Drum Rack is having a long ass row of samples that can span multiple octaves, and just traveling up and down the octaves of my keyboard with the controller to get to each set of samples, without even touching the instrument in Live.

What is my predicament here?

chrk
Posts: 1728
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:36 pm

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by chrk » Sun Apr 16, 2017 7:33 am

Elepheel wrote:I do get the feeling that this new Drum Rack might be more geared to controllers with a drum pad layout, the Push or others,
The drum rack itself hasn't signifficantly changed from Live 8 to 9, if at all.

The MPK mini shows up as a choice for a control surface in Live's midi preferences. It's completely possible that its surface script causes what you're experiencing there. And I can see your Pad and Keyboard/Controls MIDI channel are both set to 1, you may want to make them send on different channels.

Look at your midi preferences, set one row to control surface = none with its in- and output ports to the MKP mini and try again.

If you want to keep it as a control surface, you may have to edit its UserConfiguration.txt, but I don't know any details. You may want to contact Ableton's and AKAI's support on those.

Elepheel
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:12 am

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by Elepheel » Sun Apr 16, 2017 8:01 am

I think I've cracked this.

As soon as I took it off as a Control Surface, but kept it as a MIDI Port, it started functioning as it's supposed to.

Sorry if this was a newbie mistake, but I genuinely never encountered anything like this.

Either way, thanks for the input chrk and Stromkraft, I truly appreciate it. :)

chrk
Posts: 1728
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:36 pm

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by chrk » Sun Apr 16, 2017 8:32 am

Elepheel wrote:Sorry if this was a newbie mistake,
Not a newbie mistake at all. I only know this 'trick' from the forums.

My own intuition would be just to reset that preference by putting 'None' in all three rows, but as it seems, it'll come back on when you restart Live and the device is detected. I think someone from Ableton chimed in with the above solution in a similar discussion.

Good it works for you, and you're welcome.

chrk
Posts: 1728
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:36 pm

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by chrk » Sun Apr 16, 2017 8:36 am

Ah, here it pops up, too: Stop Ableton from loading default control surface script

You may want to keep that in mind when Live auto activates the control surface.

grassmouth
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2019 9:21 pm

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by grassmouth » Sat Jun 08, 2019 9:24 pm

Useful info that.

Managed to get my MPK back to performing as expected when using the keys. But now have the similar problem that the Pads don't assign correctly. When I have MPK mini2 assigned as control surface I can cycle through Bank A/B and access the bottom 8 and top 8 pads, but when not it gets jumbled again.

Is there anyway to have the best of both worlds?

DiskTuna
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2019 10:32 am

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by DiskTuna » Sat Oct 26, 2019 10:35 am

This may be an older topic but I ran into it yesterday. And with MPC Essentials too btw.

Spent hours looking for an answer, then found a keymap for MPC Essentials. Made one for Ableton.

Hope this may help someone, some day, you can download keymaps here https://www.disktuna.com/?smd_process_d ... ad_id=6852. Unzip files.

You also need the editor which you can download here https://www.akaipro.com/kb/akai-pro-mpk ... he-editor/.

Install and open the editor. Click File > Get Favorite, select one that is free.

Now click File > Open Favorite and browse for the .mpkplay files. Select the one you need (AbleTon_Live or MPC_Essentials).

Click File > Send Favorite > Select a free Favorite.

KarnageX
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2020 4:11 am

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by KarnageX » Mon Jan 27, 2020 4:15 am

I just stumbled upon this thread today. My apologies if I'm very late. I too had this issue. Here is an easy and efficient solution.
Use your MPK editor to map the Pads on octave up. For example, C1 map it on the MPK editor as C2 and so on.
Next you will want to make sure your Pads and your keys are not both set to channel 1. Switch the pads to channel 2. Send to whichever program you are setting. Then select send to Ram.

Hipsh
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu May 21, 2020 6:15 pm

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by Hipsh » Thu May 21, 2020 6:16 pm

Elepheel wrote:
Sun Apr 16, 2017 8:01 am
As soon as I took it off as a Control Surface, but kept it as a MIDI Port, it started functioning as it's supposed to.
Worked for me.

Thanks!

Trimothy
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2021 8:41 am

Re: Drum Rack layout/ mapping issue?

Post by Trimothy » Sat Apr 24, 2021 8:42 am

KarnageX wrote:
Mon Jan 27, 2020 4:15 am
I just stumbled upon this thread today. My apologies if I'm very late. I too had this issue. Here is an easy and efficient solution.
Use your MPK editor to map the Pads on octave up. For example, C1 map it on the MPK editor as C2 and so on.
Next you will want to make sure your Pads and your keys are not both set to channel 1. Switch the pads to channel 2. Send to whichever program you are setting. Then select send to Ram.
Worked for me, thanks!

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