microkontrol - native or not?

j250x · Post by **j250x** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:45 pm

I presumed when ableton said they would be supporting the microkontrol in Live 6 that it would be in native mode. However, all i seem to be able to do with mine in the Live 6 demo is exactly what Live was like before, making manual controller mappings.

Is there any native support that I have missed? What exactly is the new feature in Live 6 which supports the mK?

catalyst · Post by **catalyst** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 3:50 pm

Well, it is supposedly supported natively as it is listed in the control surfaces list, but like you I can't for the life of me get the microkontrol to 'automap' either.. have tried all combinations I can think of in the midi prefs, 'locking' an instrument to the mk etc.. bah

What are others experiences with the mk or kontrol49 so far ?

mdk · Post by **mdk** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 3:58 pm

same...no luck whatsoever with my kontrol49

i posted a thread about it in the bugs / problems forum.

epytryga · Post by **epytryga** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 4:58 pm

use the "cubase" preset in the default factory presets...and it will work

LOFA · Post by **LOFA** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 5:49 pm

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 056#334056

mdk · Post by **mdk** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:01 pm

epytryga wrote:use the "cubase" preset in the default factory presets...and it will work

ah, right..of course its the cubase preset.

Thanks for that i've got it the Kontrol49 working now.

catalyst · Post by **catalyst** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:05 pm

epytryga wrote:use the "cubase" preset in the default factory presets...and it will work

ah.. the irony, when the reason im looking at live 6 is to get rid of cubase

thanks man, working now - bit disappointed to note that the 'labels' on the encoders don't change after automap but hey.. better than before !

cheers

j250x · Post by **j250x** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:16 pm

this cubase preset doesnt answer my question, nor add any functionality over what I could do with my mK in Live 5. I could use the mK as a controller there as well, but it wasnt in native mode. How is there any more support for the mK in Live 5 than in live 6?

LOFA · Post by **LOFA** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:43 pm

j250x wrote:this cubase preset doesnt answer my question, nor add any functionality over what I could do with my mK in Live 5. I could use the mK as a controller there as well, but it wasnt in native mode. How is there any more support for the mK in Live 5 than in live 6?

go to the link I posted. Folow the instructions. If you have to, trash every freaking mk folder on your system. Install the correct librarian (see link-I forget which one) and use the preferences that are suggested (also in that link).

You want to use the microkontrol under "microkontrol" mode. It does plenty.

j250x · Post by **j250x** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:16 pm

ok, done all this. reinstalled librarian, copied your scene setting onto my mK. still nothing new happening. it works fine, but it works exactly the same as it used to in Live 5. whats new?

blakflag · Post by **blakflag** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:02 pm

No, there's no native mode. Yes, that does suck. It's "supported" like any other generic controller without readouts is supported.

johnpitcairn · Post by **johnpitcairn** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:08 pm

Slight pimpage: for those of you on a Mac, LC Xmu will get you auto-updating LCDs on the MK and K49 in native mode, using Mackie Control protocol. And yes, you can control VSTs. Universal Binary next week.

LOFA · Post by **LOFA** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:14 am

johnpitcairn wrote:Slight pimpage: for those of you on a Mac, LC Xmu will get you auto-updating LCDs on the MK and K49 in native mode, using Mackie Control protocol. And yes, you can control VSTs. Universal Binary next week.

Could you expand on this procedure or direct us to a link in your forum?

Thanks!

EDIT:

Basically we just emulate a mackie control I imagine. Duh. It's late.

I would really like to see when I have a chance what kind of manipulations your app can perform on an sl25 remote.

j250x · Post by **j250x** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 3:36 pm

I'm really dissapointed about this. I dont see how ableton can advertise it as supported when it gives no functionality beyond that of any standard MIDI controller.

johnpitcairn · Post by **johnpitcairn** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:56 pm

LOFA wrote:Could you expand on this procedure or direct us to a link in your forum?

Er ... you own LC Xmu and a microKONTROL, I would assume you know how it works...

Yes, it's Mackie Control emulation for the MK or K49, but the unit doesn't do a decent MC emulation by itself (it can only do MC buttons), so LC Xmu kicks it into native mode and works with the resulting ugly sysex, which gets you a bunch of good stuff:

True endless relative encoders for jump-free parameter control.

Soft takeover on the faders for jump-free parameter control.

Pads emulate MC buttons, with LEDs lit to indicate state. Pads can be bypassed to send notes (default is MPC preset 1 pad notes).

Six control buttons (setting, message, etc) emulate MC buttons, with LEDs lit to indicate state.

Keyboard notes are passed thru, but can be used to emulate additional MC buttons if desired.

The MC LCD screen is replicated on the MK/K49 LCDs, so you get realtime parameter names above the encoders. The LCDs attempt to automatically show the top or bottom line of the MC LCD as appropriate (and this behaviour can be customised), or by user-controlled switching.

MC-emulation can be bypassed to send regular notes (pads) and CCs (faders/encoders), change keyboard channel, send program/bank changes, and you can drop out of native mode entirely to use regular Korg "scenes", then re-enter native mode MC-emulation.

To edit a VST plugin in Live using the KONTROL via LC Xmu:

1 - Select the desired track with the emulated "select" buttons (pads 1-8, selected one lights up), or the mouse/keyboard.

2 - Press the emulated "devices" button (pad 14, which lights up).

3 - Press and release the "modifier" button (exit) to switch the LCD top/bottom row on the MK screens. Bottom row will show current devices for the current track (holding "devices" down will also show the bottom row). The emulated page down/up buttons (pads 15/16) will step through groups of 8 devices.

4 - Use "mode rotate" (joystick down, or just modifier + pad 5) to flip thru LC Xmu modes to "vselect", which puts the emulated v-select buttons (MC v-pot push) on pads 1-8. LC Xmu modes allow 8 pads to emulate up to 80 MC buttons.

5 - Press the appropriate emulated "v-select" button (now pad 1-8) to select the device to edit.

Then the emulated page down/up buttons will step through 8 parameters of the device at a time.

Parameters are edited using the endless encoders, jump-free. Pressing v-select flips switch parameters between on/off, or resets continuous parameters to their default.

The faders normally control volume for the current bank of 8 tracks. Pressing the emulated bank left/right buttons (hex lock and enter) moves through the mixer 8 channels at a time.

To switch to another device on the selected track, press "device" again, followed by the appropriate v-select. To switch back to pan on the encoders, press "pan" (pad 13).

All MK-to-MC assignments are editable if desired.

Once you learn how the MC works with Live, it becomes pretty fast, you always have the parameters on the MK LCD screens, and the workflow never changes, even when you add/remove plugins, switch songs, acquire new plugins, trash prefs, whatever.

You never need to midi-learn anything in Live, unless you want to (set the control to "pass through" in LC Xmu and learn that via the LC Xmu passthrough port).

I would really like to see when I have a chance what kind of manipulations your app can perform on an sl25 remote.

There's no dedicated support for the SL's automapping in LC Xmu, so it will just function as a dumb MC emulation, ie you don't get MC parameter names updating on the SL screens. I'm prepared to investigate this possibility, but frankly, I'd have to purchase a unit, and I'm not exactly inundated with users asking for SL support.