Any MIDI gurus out there that could help me figure this out?

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Mbira

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
2,422
Location
Austin, TX
Hi guys,
I'm finding I'm not sure where to turn for help on this topic since it is involving so many different pieces of equipment :-D  Maybe someone here can help me out.

First-I'm on a Mac.

OK.  I have a DIY Megadrum midi drum trigger set up with a whole bunch of piezo triggers that we use to control playback of events in Ableton.

There are 7 triggers.  Each sending on channel 10 and each sending a different Note number from C1-A1.

The scenes in Ableton are mapped to play when the respective notes are hit.  Important:  For "Scenes" in Ableton, I can't choose a specific channel for Ableton to listen to.  It just gets assigned whatever channel/note is being sent.

Everythign works great when doing one song, and up until now, we open a new set in Ableton for every song, and the new set has the same mappings.  The downside is there is long lag between songs on stage.

So the solution is to make one giant set in ableton with all our songs and remap those triggers to different notes (or different channels but with the same notes) for each song.

OK-still following?  Great. :-D

So I also have a Behringer FCB1010.

So what I want to do is figure out a way to use the Behringer to somehow change the channel of the incoming Megadrum notes.  Basically, I need to be able to switch the banks with the Behringer...

Any idea?

 
From what I gather from your problem's is you have one input with 7 triggers. You want to use 30 (Fictional number) of sounds loops videos etc now called "whatever.. Triggered from those 7 triggers ".

Most midi devices I've used don't let you change the Midi Channel via a foot switch. They will let you change preset programs up or down.

One way would be have different presets that trigger your separated "whatever" in the big full show live setup.  Using the same channel the new patch triggers are mapped to different keys for that new song.

Another option would be to use a midi effect at the beginning of each song change and just alter the incoming midi's pitch to fit in the new trigers assigned notes for that song. You may have to reset everything occasionally, but it's probably the easier solution.


I'm surre there is 10 more ways too.
 
I'm not sure I understand either of your examples. :(

To be more specific, the seven triggers are each sending a pre-assigned midi note number on a pre-assigned channel.

It appears that there is no way to use program changes or the like to make ableton read those notes in a different way.

I'm thinking I need to use some intermediary device (Midipipe?) and somehow agrigate the Behringer MIDI foot controller and the Megadrum drum triggers so that when I hit a button on the behringer that tells Midipipe to filter and change the incoming signal from the drum triggers?  Then that would all go into Ableton?

Not sure if any of that is actually possible though!
 
Say you have 21 scenes files that you want to trigger via Ableton.

Since your midi device can't change the trigger notes, or channel easily in midi set an option is to do the following in Ableton:

You could make the great big session as you had mentioned and assign those 21 wav files to fire on 21 different key triggers under the same Midi input channel. Shortly before you need to trigger them  apply/automate an midi effect on the incoming midi channel that pitches the effect up to the corresponding notes shifting them up another octave etc to line them up correctly as needed.

Take a look at option #5

http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/production/quick-tip-using-midi-effects-in-ableton-live-part-1/


I honestly don't use ableton.. I'm a Protools/Logic guy.
 
Yeah-that stuff is in a different part of ableton that where you trigger scenes to play.  There is no midi automation there. 

I did manage to get Midipipe to aggregate the behringer foot controller and the Megadrum to send info as one device.  it looks like I can use applescript within Midipipe to adjust the midi info ableton receives based on the behringer pedal pushed.  Now I just have to learn applescript :(
 
A scene is a cell all the way to the right of the grid.  When you click it, it launches all the clip in the row.  It's a way of controlling the playback of many clips at once.  You can assign a midi note (or any specific midi command) to it to launch.  it then launches the clips and sends back a midi "feedback" note that I use to control LEDs in an arduino to tell me which midi trigger I had pushed.  I'm diving into Applescript here to make this work...hopefully I'll get it sorted :)
 
Is it an option for you to scroll through the scenes? I trigger Ableton with just 4 pads programmed for Play, Stop, and Next/Prev Scene. It's a parameter that can only be assigned when learning midi controls. First image here:
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=100284&view=previous

Hope that helps, I'm learning how to use Ableton to trigger our live show at the moment.
 
I want the ability to play any of the songs in our set in any order, so a previous/next feature won't work...

..I'm working on the applescript to control this behavior, and I'm so close I can taste it.  Will keep folks posted.
 
Got it sorted and I am in Midi controller god heaven :-D

I Created a few "pipes" in midipipe using Applescripts.  I now use my Behringer FCB1010 to control the midi note number output of the Megadrum triggers.  I also got all the LEDS working correctly in the Arduino.

In short, with the push of a footswitch I can immediately jump to any of our songs in our set and use the same 7 midi triggers to scroll my way through the sections.  The arduino controls LEDS that light up in the trigger to confirm that we have indeed triggered the thing.  I am so happy right now :-D  I have been neglecting this for over a year because I thought it would be impossible.  It was damn hard and took 3 days of solid work, but it's done:-D
 
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