Ableton Forum

Bare with me please because i'm new to ableton and midi.

I can't assign individual audio clips from an impulse kit to the pads on the mpk mini.

If i load an impulse kit on a midi track, the keyboard on the mpk mini (or my computer) will trigger the sounds. But I can't correctly map it so it launches from the drum pads instead.

I know the pads are working because if I have a clip loaded in session view, I'm able to map that to launch from one of the drum pads. (although i get some mystery piano note when i hit play and there is no piano or anything else loaded in the project).

Where do you actually click inside of impulse to map the 'play' function for each indidual sample? I think this may be part of my problem. When I click on midi map mode, the 'play' button which can be triggered with the mouse doesn't appear in blue (indicating that its not mappable ?).

I think my akai mpk mini editor software is working as it installed easily. Some other members had trouble with that. But I really don't know what to do with it anyway. But I think something in there or ableton needs to be tweaked so I eliminate the mystery piano noise that i'm hearing.

There is also another recent thread that contains some remote scripts for the mpk mini. Would those somehow help?

Sorry for the noobness. Any help appreciated. Thanks...

Hi, Ableton and midi controller noob here too. I appear to be having the exact same issues you are.

My MPK Mini will trigger the Impulse drums through the upper octave range of the keyboard, but not the drum pads. The drum pads will trigger clips, though it does so about 2.5 notes lower than the base octave level for some reason. I too have checked out the other threads with the different scripts and presets, but I am using a PC and the Mac-centric instructions aren't very helpful. I have no idea where in my file structure I should put these for them to be of use.

Of note, I've noticed that in the Midi Sync tab of the Preferences window I can select the MPK Mini for Input and Output, but not Control Surface. Might this have something to do with the problem? It shows other MPKs in the pulldown menu, just no Mini. My MPK Mini Editor software appears to be working fine (no crashing), but I have no idea what to do with it. Akai's Quickstart Guide is of little help either. I don't really understand how CC's and PC's may factor into this (if at all).

Any help, FAQ's, or pointers in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks.

I've tried loading all 4 presets that come included with the mpk mini software. None of them specify that it's a present for ableton. What I mean is, in akai software go to 'upload preset' - navigate to the presets in your browser and try uploading each one.

I also downloaded the preset editor from akai website and that didn't have any additional presets in there

And all 4 presets did not change very much as far as response. still no impulse drum sounds on the drum pads. if i load a conventional instrument, notes will play on both the keys and the drum pads. I can launch an individual clip from the drum pad after midi mapping that. But when i launch the clip i always get some mystery sound. The other day it was a random piano tone and last night it was a drum hit.

I ran across this thread below. Read through it a few times and still not sure how to apply the knowledge. there is a script, but it applies more to mac users. I'm using a PC / windows 7 with ableton 8.2.1

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... &hilit=mpk

Just checked with my mpk scripts/presets ( http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=157076 )

Pads in fact dont work out of the box, but the easiest way to circumvent the issue is dropping in a MIDI Effect (Pitch) before the Impulse and setting it to +24st.

You need to upload the preset file to your MPK through the editor though because the Pads are in a different order by default as far as i remember.

Success!!!

Just wanted to post an update. A friend of mine went through setting it up with me last night and we found that the problem was, in fact, the MPK Mini Editor. For some reason the version bundled with the controller would not communicate with it so any attempts to change and upload settings did nothing. Gurge, if you're still having issues I'd recommend downloading the latest version of the "MPK mini - Preset Editor Software" from the Docs and Downloads at Akai Pro's site here: http://www.akaipro.com/mpkmini For some reason my controller had to be unplugged and plugged back in each time before opening the editor and making any changes. Otherwise it wouldn't always detect it. If the editor is working correctly any changes uploaded should be confirmed by a green "Done" button popping up on the screen momentarily.

After I got the software issue sorted out, getting my drum pads to trigger the Impulse drums was a matter of setting the channel and note settings in the editor to coincide with the channel and note settings on the Impulse track in Ableton. In my case, Pad 1 started at note C3 and took whole note steps up from there for each one (no sharps/#). The way I set mine up is I assigned my keyboard and knobs to channel 1 and my drum pads to channel 2 in the editor. You can really set it to any channel you want as long as they are different and your Impulse drums will be segregated from whatever you're playing on the keys.

Let me know if this works for you or if you have any other problems or questions. Good luck!

Glad you figured it out

with impulse, I never did. I may try what you recommended when i get the chance.

I'm just using drum rack at this point (my first experience with it) MUCH easier and it maps right to the drum pads without any funny business.

with any of the AKAI controllers with pads you need to be using the pads to send MIDI notes to Impulse and have the notes function set by pressing the appropriate button. Using the editor you need to set the pads so they send C3-C4 (natural notes) which is what Impulse responds to (see your Ableton Live manual which states this). The editor will allow you to set these notes (Pad 1 = C3, Pad 2 = D3...) and you need to save the preset you just created so that it loads to the controller.

Then selecting "PAD" function (LPD-8) or "Pad Bank 1 (or 2)" on the MPK Mini hitting the pads will send the appropriate notes to trigger Impulse (make sure you have record armed on the track or it will do nothing).

My suggestion is to download MIDIOX which is a free and useful debugging tool and has a monitor function for monitoring MIDI incoming data. You can google for it and download the documentation to figure out how it works but is very intuitive. Once you are monitoring your chosen controller you can see the data sent by any key, pad, button or dial. If it's showing up on the monitor it's being delivered to Live. Make sure you quit out of MIDIOX so it doesn't gobble up the MIDI data that would otherwise be delivered to Ableton - hope this helps.

Thanks for the tip from NuM3R1K. Downloading the mini editor again totally solved my problems. I was wondering why my changes were never happening.



Seamus