PadKontrol lights - should they light up when a beat sounds?

joewalch · Post by **joewalch** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:27 pm

Hi

Just bought a padkontrol. Great surface but I though the buttons would light up when ableton sends midi to say a note is being played?

It doesn't seem to do this, is this right? Am I doing something wrong?

Night Spirit · Post by **Night Spirit** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 10:20 pm

My padkontrol does no do this. It lights up on touch and randomly when its in its screensaver standby type mode. Not sure if this function is possible, but if it were you would have to make sure that the padkontrol is receiving midi data from ableton and not just vice versa.

joewalch · Post by **joewalch** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 10:29 pm

I've done a bit of research and it seems you need some "middleware" to do this. I've posted on the korg forum for some recommended software. Will post here when I get it.

Why woudl it have midi in if this was not possible?

Seems mad as my cheap as chips BCF2000 does just this!

kraze · Post by **kraze** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 2:40 pm

No it doesn't do that. It obviously needs to be able to get midi in form the sequencer to do that.

However, you can get it to work using the amazing Nativecontrol or farmpad.

Why do you want that anyways? An oldschool mpc doesn't do that.

joewalch · Post by **joewalch** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 6:31 pm

OK so imagine you are using battery 3. Battery gives you feedback of which instrument is playing. It helps when you are using a lot of different sounds.

It would be massively helpful if the Padkontrol could do this as well so you can see what instruments are playign wihtout have to cross reference with Battery.

NB. Night Spirit: I have configured live to send midi signals out to the PadKontrol but it makes no difference.

kraze · Post by **kraze** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 11:36 pm

Yes, i get what you want, but battery is also modeled on mpcs and they still don't have that..........

It's easy to get it going but it's pretty pointless. The PadKontrol is able to do so much more!

So, to answer your question: No, that is not an intended function.

joewalch · Post by **joewalch** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:35 am

Shame really as Akai's XR20 does! I know it can do so much more but I bought this as a responsive drum control surface which is all I want it to be!

funky shit · Post by **funky shit** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 3:32 pm

You can do this. I remember making the pads light up by just sending midi notes. It might nt work with drum racks or impulse. Try installin the latest driver from the korg site,

joewalch · Post by **joewalch** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 3:43 pm

Really? although I was really looking for it to work with the drum machine.

Re the drivers I can only find drivers for the Kaos Pad on their website. Could you let me know have a link to the correct place please?

Thanks

joewalch · Post by **joewalch** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 6:23 pm

I have the answer, thanks to a really kind guy at NativeKontrol.

1. Go to Preferences and turn the Track switches on for padKONTROL 1 PORT A and padKONTROL 1 CTRL.
2. Insert an instrument rack.
3. Add Battery or any instrument to the instrument rack.
4. Add an additional instrument rack
5. Set the rack's MIDI From as the instrument you just added, eg Battery
6. Set the MIDI To to the channel used by the PadKontrol normally defaults as Channel 10.

Worthy of a Sticky?