Michael Rowe Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 Hi folks I'm a beginner, and am having some trouble with certain areas. I would like to learn how to designate the controls on my keyboard to play certain sounds, tracks etc. I have NO idea how this is done. I have an Alesis V49 - pretty basic, but all I can get it to do is be a keyboard. To make music I need to create a separate track for every sound, and position them in order. Now, I know this is fine if I'm just arranging, but what if I want to play live, and use the keys for piano, and assign the drum pads to trigger/play specific beats, loops, grooves, whatever. I am completely lost. I've searched for simple tutorials high and low and have found nothing that explains this to a beginner like me. I'm lost in a lot of terminology like, channels, programs, banks, maps, control surfaces etc... Can anyone help a noob? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Jones Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 Michael, thinking out loud here as I'm a guitar player who knows very little about MIDI... You can set up your synthesizers to receive MIDI data on specific channels 1 though 16, then change which channel your keyboard is sending on, which would in turn activate sound from one of your synths. The Alesis manual should tell you how to change the channel on that, and each synth will have a different procedure for setting the MIDI channel as well. You might not be able to set up the keyboard with different MIDI channels for different sections of keys or pads, though. It might be a matter of sending on ALL MIDI channels and selecting which synth you want to be playing. Someone who knows a lot more about MIDI will be able to give you more guidance on this. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacab Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 (edited) Michael, it sounds like you understand the fundamentals of hooking up the keyboard and arranging the tracks with different instrument sounds. Larry has provided some useful tips as far as changing from one sound to another. That mostly boils down to either switching the MIDI transmit channel on your keyboard, or by selecting the track that you want to be active in Cakewalk, which allows you to play the sound assigned to the selected track. So that part is clear, I think. But the second part about playing live and triggering beats, loops, and grooves is a bit more complicated in Cakewalk, but it can be done to a limited extent. This ability is really the forte of DAWs like Ableton Live, which were designed around this usage case. Cakewalk is a linear DAW and is designed to be more like a multi-track tape recorder that moves along a linear timeline as it plays back or records parts in the project tracks, so the only included tool that really supports independent looping of clips in this type of workflow is the Matrix View. Menu: "Views > Matrix View". This can be synchronized with your project. It works, and is worth checking out, but may not be the most flexible tool available. http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=0x200C7 There are other 3rd party instruments that you can insert as plugins, such as various drum sampler/synths, with pads that will let you assign and trigger samples and beats. via MIDI. Edited March 13, 2019 by abacab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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