NOOB Needs Help with Midi Focus Issues
Hi All,
Forgive me but I need help. Every time I try to assign my pads on my Akai MPD218 using the midi focus section of settings, the app does not remember or bind the correct input. For example, I hit "trigger pad 1" and then tap pad 1 on the akai, the binding goes from "none" to "mpd218 Port A: Chan.1: CC 12". Then I hit "trigger pad 2" and then tap pad 2 on the akai. The binding goes from "none" to "mpd218 Port A: Chan.1: CC 3" or it will or "......Chan.1: CC 13" or ".......Chan.1: CC12". No matter what it changes the Trigger Pad 1 binding back to "none".
When trying to "Auto Learn", the loop icon in the top tool bar starts flashing/stuttering and when pressing pads on the akai, nothing gets binded or sometimes it will randomly bind to 2 or 3 pads without me pressing anything at all.
This cannot be rocket science. I've followed instructions, videos, manual etc. What am I missing?
Please help. Thank you!
Comments
I thought the MPD218 is supposed to send note numbers for the pads not CC's?
How is your MPD218 configured?
I guess there are others with the MPD218 here. I'm just using the classic MPK Mini Mk2...
I actually dint know what CCs are. Forgive my naivety.
The mpd is blank until you assign it to the software. So no mpd configurations yet and that is the issue.
So right now, the mpd and beatmaker app are useless to me until I can get them to “talk” to each other.
It’s frustrating since I bough the two together hoping it would be plug and play like most things. And in videos and documents it should be. Not sure what I’m missing.
@jointeffort I don't own any of the Akai controllers, but I would recommend installing the PC/Mac configuration app that lets you modify (or reset) the settings on your controller (it works by rewriting the device's settings over USB)
Did you buy the controller new or used? If used, the previous owner may have tweakd the default settings, which may be causing your problems. Use the Akai configuration tool to reset the controller to factory default.
By default, most midi controllers are configured for their piano keys and drum pads to send midi notes (like C-1, C#-1, etc) and Midi CC is used for all the other controls, such as dials, buttons, and faders. However, it is possible to override this configuration using the desktop Akai configuration app. It sounds like BM3 does not like drum pads being assigned to CC midi... and this makes sense because Midi CC data does not contain note-on + note-off information that is essential for BM3's drum pads to work correctly.
Another possible cause is that the controller has multiple scenes/modes, and you need to switch it back to the first 'mode' before binding it in BM3
The good news is that there are many other MPD users happily using their controllers with BM3 - so I know you will find a solution is you persevere
This video might be useful
(...and also proves that the pads can be modified to send program change/midi CC instead of notes)
Thank you! I will try that and review the video you posted as well. The Akai MPD218 was purchased new.
This is a definite side-note but I like how MPC Beats 'auto configures' a midi-controller.
(Ie. in the case of the MPK Mini Mk2 it just over-writes the current 'ram program buffer' so everything is pre-mapped and works without mapping a thing, naturally the values can be remapped later if needed).
Same goes for Ableton Live, it has a 'profile' for MPK Mini Mk2 and dumps the config to the device ram when selected. This makes it easy to switch hosts and always have the device properly configured without any hassle.
So in BM3's case it could have a list of 'supported devices' and just dump a default configuration to the ram buffer of the device and, boom done! (This would naturally require that someone made the default mappings for all the supported devices but still, it would make things a bit smoother).
Cheers!
Yeah, this is what I think most customers expect... easy plug and play. When you press “Auto Learn” in BM3 and discover there’s not a whole lot automatic about it, it’s kind of disappointing. Especially when a newbie user, I didn’t really have any idea what if anything to map to what other than for the eight pads on my MPK Mini Mk3.
True but most people dont even kn ow you need to hold a button down when you connect it to the ipad.