Ableton Forum

I am using an M-Audio Axiom 2nd Generation. The keys work fine but I'm having trouble with the pads. This question is to help me to understand whether this is a software or hardware problem.

The problem is that when I use the trigger pads, kicks and snare often go missing (i.e. I can't hear them). When I play them on the white keys they are fine. So, at first I thought this was a problem with the pads themselves. So I downloaded Midi - Monitor on Mac. This software simply shows you when a key is being hit. To my surprise it was capturing the notes being hit on the keyboard even when Ableton was not playing any sound.

I have been using the instruments Impulse, Drum Rack, and Battery (Native Instruments). I noticed that in Drum Rack and Impulse, where I should normally see the play triangle light up when I hit the note, it doesn't light up when the velocity is very low. So, the midi note IS being sent to the computer, but Ableton is not playing the note. Then, I noticed something else. I noticed that the little box in the top right hand corner of Ableton "Midi Track In Indicator" IS lighting up. So, Ableton is registering that a note was sent, but not playing it.

It seems as though Ableton has a threshold for how high the velocity must be before it will play the note. I've tried adjusting the velocity curve on the pads but that did nothing. I've tried turning up and down the velocity setting on the Drum Rack but that did nothing either. Also, I had the same problem when I used to use Logic. Basically, I've never been able to get the pads on my Axiom to work properly. I'm left wondering:

Are the Axiom pads simply too sensitive and it is sending too low a velocity for the DAW to register it as a note? Or, is the DAW at fault here for cutting out notes with too low a threshold? I just want this to work. If I knew that buying an Akai MPD24 would fix this problem, I would go out and buy one right now. But, it could just have the same problem.

Any ideas?

Kruddler wrote: To my surprise it was capturing the notes being hit on the keyboard even when Ableton was not playing any sound.

you mentioned having trouble with the pads: are the padhits being registered in midimonitor?
So with the keyboard you can hear the low-velocity hits?

I would start by establishing if impulse(or Battery) shows the same behaviour when sending midi from a clip and when sending midi from the pads.

are the padhits being registered in midimonitor?

Yes.

So with the keyboard you can hear the low-velocity hits?

It's just a midi controller. There are no sounds on my keyboard. But, you meant sound coming from Ableton - no, that's the problem.

I would start by establishing if impulse(or Battery) shows the same behaviour when sending midi from a clip and when sending midi from the pads.

Good idea. I ran a clip full of drum hits on the lowest velocity (1). The sound came through fine.

OK. I was wrong. I loaded up Logic Pro and several drumkit instruments worked fine. I used Battery in both Logic, and Ableton. It worked in Logic, but not in Ableton. In Ableton, the kick often went missing. So I tried a different driver for my keyboard. It turns out that the problem is with the Axiom DirectLink drivers. If I switch to Axiom 25 classic, the problem goes away.

I will be reporting this as a bug to both Ableton and M-Audio.

I have reported this to M-Audio and Ableton. M-Audio asked for this information so I am posting it here just in case:

What version of Mac OS X are you running?

Snow Leopard. But, this occurs in Windows as well.

Are you using the default Pad Curve C2?

The problem occurs with all the different pad curves.

Did you load a particular preset kit for Drum Rack or just individual samples?

Both. This occurs with loaded samples (Drum Rack) Preset kit (Impulse), and Battery (external VST)

If it was samples, which pads triggered the kick, snare, and hat?

I tried it with several different mappings. Pads P1, and P5 were the least responsive.

To confirm, when you say the kick goes missing, does it record the MIDI note for that hit? Or is the velocity really low and you just don't hear it trigger the sample?

The midi does not get recorded.

Also, if you don't configure the Axiom in the control surface section and simply use it as a standard MIDI controller with only Track turned ON, do all notes still record/trigger?

Yes. The problem still occurs.

This problem is easy to recreate. If you follow the steps I outlined, you will see the problem straight away.