Same Midi controller knob mapping for all synth plugins?

[Slartibart]

Hello,

This is an issue I have not been able to figure out, although I think it should be possible?!

I have a Roland a800pro midi controller, and I would like to configure Live, so that e.g. knob 1 of the controller is always controls cutoff frequency (and knob 2 resonance, ...), for all synth plugins. E.g. Omnisphere, Zenology, Spire. etc. I.e. when I have configured this once, the knobs will have the same function for the active track, no matter which plugin is used. This works (kind of) for Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol using the automatic "Best of parameters", but not for other soft synths. Any suggestions how to get this to work, without having to do midi mapping every time for a project? Thanks!

-Slartibart

[The Rabbits]

Add your synth to the track then click the little triangle button between the Enable button and the spanner button. This opens the device parameters panel.

Then click the Configure button. Now, if you adjust a control on the synth, it will get added to the panel. Just add them in the order you want. You can drag the controls around to re-order or click them and then hit your delete key to remove them.

Once you have them arranged the way you want, click Configure to turn off mapping mode. Then right-click in the title of the device and select Save As Default Configuration. Now those controls will be mapped every time you add that synth to a track. Same process works for almost any VST device, though there are a few that don't play nicely.

Once you've done this, you control the synth or device the same way you control standard Live devices. Use Device Mode or whatever it's called on your controller.

Do not use the MIDI mapping button at the top of the Live window to map controllers to the device parameters. That will get very confusing! I know from experience.

If your controller can do multiple banks of controls on Lives built in devices, the same thing works for VST parameters. This is in the manual, but it took me ages to find it and I don't see it mentioned in many youTube videos.

[Slartibart]

Hello,

Excellent! This seems to work great in a few tests I did! Will be configuring some more synths now! Thanks!

-Slartibart

[J777]

OK I recently upgraded from Live version 5 and I was having some trouble with this feature using Roland Cloud VSTs on my Arturia Minilab so I went out and got a Novation Launchkey 25 which I have to say seems to have done an excellent job of providing control for up to 32 knobs/sliders per midi channel because you get 4 banks of 8 knobs each.

I guess the only thing that would be handy is if when you right clicked Edit Midi Map Ctrl+M you could manually change the midi channel for the presaved settings. For instance, what if I wanted 2 or 3 Juno 106 instances? Basically the midi mapping is saved, but if you want to have it on another channel you have to reprogram it. This isn't the hardest thing to do, I think I will end up creating a template set with like 10 standard instruments on channels 1-10 and then leave the other channels open for programing other random instruments. I would like to know if anyone else has any other suggestions though, perhaps there is another way to edit the midi mapping that I am missing?

Also, I would like to know if anyone is really impressed with any other controllers for this type of function. I love my tiny Minilab, but it was just not working smoothly with Ableton on this. It works like with Analog Lab, but not this. I'm already extremely impressed with the Launchkey. This tutorial/review goes over tons of other Live integration features:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqSLeGsjevY

[[jur]]

OK I recently upgraded from Live version 5

Congrats!
Instead of using midi mapping you should look into "Control Surfaces" in the midi preferences.
The controllers listed here offer the famous "blue hand" control over the selected device. The trick with 3rd party plugins is to rack them and map your favorite parameters to macros. This way your control surface 8 knobs will always instantly control the macros.
If you controller isn't listed, have a look at "user remote script".

[The Rabbits]

You don't need to group them and use macros. If your controller can access banks of controls for built-in devices it can do the same for vsts. My Launchkeys can deal with 8 banks of 8 controls which covers most vsts.

It's like this is a secret or something no one talks about. It's not fight club!

[[jur]]

You don't need to group them and use macros. If your controller can access banks of controls for built-in devices it can do the same for vsts. My Launchkeys can deal with 8 banks of 8 controls which covers most vsts.

It's like this is a secret or something no one talks about. It's not fight club!

Sure, but macros have advantages, like ranges, renaming, multi-parameter per macros etc... macros advantages, in short. And it's way more easy to manage and remember 8 (or now up to 16 in L11) parameters than 8x8.
We have options

[The Rabbits]

You don't need to group them and use macros. If your controller can access banks of controls for built-in devices it can do the same for vsts. My Launchkeys can deal with 8 banks of 8 controls which covers most vsts.

It's like this is a secret or something no one talks about. It's not fight club!

Sure, but macros have advantages, like ranges, renaming, multi-parameter per macros etc... macros advantages, in short. And it's way more easy to manage and remember 8 (or now up to 16 in L11) parameters than 8x8.
We have options

Agree. I like macros too, and 16 with randomisation and preset management is great!!

But you can also see the mapped device parameters names for your vst. It does take a while to get used to where the banks are without a dividing line for each set of 8. Hint, hint ableton.

64 is a lot to manage, but at least you can see the control names for vsts, unlike the built-in devices. Learning them is a painful process!!

My only real wish is that we could select colors and edit the names for the vst controls like we can for macros.