Map movement of an audio effect rack macro to MIDI CC output

[alexleonard]

I have an audio track which has an audio effect rack on it. The macros are mapped to various effects in the rack.

I have been trying, to no avail, to work out if it's possible to also map the changing value of a macro knob in this audio effect rack to be sent to a MIDI output as MIDI CC data.

So when I turn up say macro 1, then MIDI Output X sends MIDI CC value Y.

The idea being that when I open a filter in the effect rack, the VJ I'm working with gets a comparative value as MIDI CC level and can have that assigned to to influence some aspect of his visuals set.

I'm on MacOS, using 12.3.6 full suite.

Any thoughts appreciated!

[phil archer]

Hey Alex,

Would this work?

Create a new MIDI track

Add a CC Control device

Add an Expression Control device after it

In the 1st section of the Expression Control device set the source to "Modwheel", map the target to Macro 1 of your audio effect rack, and set the output range to "Unipolar 100%"

Set the output of the MIDI track to wherever you want to send your MIDI CC data so the VJ can receive it

Then, you would use the Mod Wheel dial on the CC Control device to control Macro 1 on your effect rack (instead of adjusting the Macro dial directly) and this would also send MIDI CC data out from the track to the VJ. The Expression control device can work with up to 5 input sources that you could map to 5 different Macros, so as long as you didn't need more than that it might do the trick?

Phil

[alexleonard]

Hey Phil!

Thanks for the answer, and an interesting approach.

I've been testing it out in an empty project and it does work, but it's definitely not an ideal solution. A simple example being a low pass filter sweep. I have to set the filter frequency (or the macro) to it's lowest value, and then the expression control adds its value to that, unlike the macro control which is a bit more intuitive.

So it definitely works, but it's a bit less than ideal for setup and general intuitiveness in a live context.

I was really hoping there was some sort of passthrough M4L device that I could pop into my audio effect rack and either:

1. send directly out to MIDI CC, or
2. route to another channel

Perhaps time to make something

[phil archer]

Ah yeah, I see...

Good luck making a M4L device for it!

[[jur]]

Phil was on a good track, but there's a better solution.
Instead of using Expression Control, you should use something like Multimap Observer.

- You map the observer to an audio Fx rack macro,
- on the other end you map the observer's destination mapper to a CC Control knob.
- set the CC Control to send whatever midi CC you desire.
- Now when you tweak your audio Fx macro, the mapped CC Control knob will automatically follow and output its midi
- Rinse and repeat for more parameters.

The M4L device I linked has 1 observer that can control 8 destinations.
For your project you might instead want something with e.g 8 observers each controlling a single destination. Maybe there's already such device available, search on maxforlive.com is your friend, but otherwise you can quite easily modify the device I linked.

Another great option for doing this would be using Performer from the Performance Pack so you don't even need to edit any M4L device.

[[jur]]

I made a video to show you how to set this up using Performer.
It's here, looks like it'll be available for 2 days.

[[jur]]

Btw, in the video I'm passing Performer's midi through a midi track, which in turn sends the midi out. This is not required, Performer can send midi directly to the available midi ports (even when it's on an audio track, as with the set up in the video).

[dontfret]

I have encountered this conundrum before and you inspired me to finally do something about it.

I imagine you already have Pitch and Time Machines. If not go get that.

I copied the "Max Midi Sender" device into an audio patch and added a 1-127 mappable knob and CC controller number:

https://maxforlive.com/library/device/1 ... send-audio

- plop the "Midi send audio" patch into your Audio effect rack
- map it how you like
- drop the standard "Max Midi Receiver" patch from Pitch and Time into a midi track or just select the audio track in your midi routing and send away.

Seems to work for me, let me know if this helps.

happy music making!

[alexleonard]

Thanks to both Jur and dontfret for their answers. Looks very helpful! I've been away the last few days and have a hectic week ahead, but hopefully will get to review all this soon and work out the best option for my purposes Thanks so much!