Tezza Posted July 30, 2019 Share Posted July 30, 2019 I tried to get the A-series Kontrol keyboard tested at a retail outlet in the city , said could I bring my laptop in to try with my kontrol software, they said no, only have a few, they are in boxes, can only buy a box. None are even on demo. They do have some demos of other keyboards though, not many, they won't take it out of the box to let you try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennysville Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 I find the ACT very easy to use on my Keylab 88 even All the way to the transport controls. All you need to do is to first of all map your buttons first by using the midi learn function as desired. Thereafter, click on the options page and then resssign whatever control you need and map accordingly. If you require any assistance in setting up, please let me know 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianPi Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 (edited) See the video tutorial to see how "MIDI learn" works. I would recommend to use a free user mode in Keylab mkII for all this setup. DAW modes (all I tried) will send relative values and CbB will just not get them right. Technically they are digital-encoders, and not fixed 270° potentiometers. Also for the transport buttons be sure to select the second MIDI device that gets open when connecting through USB (And installing the proper driver). Those transport button seem hardwired to always send MIDI messages through this phantom second device, not the primary one, and furthermore, cannot be reprogrammed in user modes, so in the end you'll have to setup two ACT devices: One for device 1 (pan pots/sliders and DAW Commands) and the other for device 2 (For the handy transport buttons) You can have as many ACT devices active in CbB as you want, as far they don't collide each other, so no issue. For this disable features (banks/buttons) not used whether in one ACT or the other. For a better experience you should also program the DAW command buttons in the user mode in the mkII to be triggers and not toggles, otherwise you'll have to click twice to toggle mute/solo/etc. Better do this with MIDI Control Center. MIDI learn plays really dumb in here. Unfortunately there are only 8 virtual buttons available in CbB you are free to map as you want (in terms of both CbB and the keyboard), as the shift feature is either useless or cumbersome. There will be no way to do Scrub whatsoever in user mode, as the central knob is hardwired to do lcd-menu navigation, but this seems to be not supported by CbB neither. In my case I only kept mute, solo, arm, undo, stop, play/pause, rec and loop on/off. I'm fine with that. Too bad those cannot be colored in mkII/MIDI Center as the ones below faders. Other solution could be to create even more ACT devices to map more hardware buttons. It should work I think, not sure about two ACT using the same MIDI input however. Hopefully all this helps someone as it took me a while to figure it out, and even more to explain all this here If someone has a better solution, please let us know. Edited March 24, 2022 by Adrian Piccioli 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azslow3 Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 9 hours ago, Adrian Piccioli said: See the video tutorial to see how "MIDI learn" works. I would recommend to use a free user mode in Keylab mkII for all this setup. DAW modes (all I tried) will send relative values and CbB will just not get them right. Technically they are digital-encoders, and not fixed 270° potentiometers. ... Other solution could be to create even more ACT devices to map more hardware buttons. It should work I think, not sure about two ACT using the same MIDI input however. Physical encoders technically send relative values, and that is good for DAW control since they are always at "right position" when you change which parameter the same encoder controls. CbB has to be told to use such values, after that it will "get them right". In "ACT MIDI Controller" you need to Ctrl+Click on cell to configure that, in "Cakewalk Generic surface" that is in "MIDI message interpretation" section, in "AZ Controller" it is in the Value Action parameters. Several "ACT MIDI Controller"s assigned to the same MIDI input can course "MIDI leaks". Controller block assigned messages, but these blocks are not summed. So only blocked in the last controller for particular MIDI input messages are really blocked. In case 8+8+8 limit in "ACT MIDI Controller" is a problem, "Cakewalk Generic surface" may be better solution. For ultimate flexibility there is "AZ Controller". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianPi Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 (edited) Oh, that's so good to know. Will change the configuration right away then, thank you! (Update) In relative mode they pan the other way around though. Moving left pans to the right and moving to right pans left. Edited March 24, 2022 by Adrian Piccioli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azslow3 Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 It depends what encoders send when they are turned. Check if that can be changes in User mode (unfortunately from the documentation seems like not) or try DAW modes (different). "Cakewalk Generic surface" support reversed controls, "AZ Controller" supports almost all possible variations, but "ACT MIDI Controller" does not support that at the moment. Note that in case you want "ACT MIDI Controller" and you will not find DAW mode which works, ask Cakewalk to support Keylab style encoders. I am almost sure msmcleod will help (also "ACT MIDI Controller" is open source, theoretically any C++ programmer can make related modification 😏) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Smith Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 I was playing with my MKII 61 last evening and discovered the same feature that exists in many DAWS. I simply right clicked on a control in Cakewalk, selected learn and moved the control to map it. Since I only mapped a few controls I'm not sure how extensive this is. I was using Manual mode in the Arturia when I did this. If I save a template in Cakewalk for the Arturia it should save my mappings. This is provided I don't change the internal programming in the MKII using Arturia's software midi mapper. It doesn't appear the Arturia site gets many visits from those inclined to know the gear and instead they rely on people in a forum who often comment on equipment they don't own, so I'm not getting much love there. In Cubase 12 the MKII is sending put panning messages to my number 1 track in Mackie HUI mode when I'm not panning. It just sends out a "pan hard left" message. Everything else works just ok so far. I attempted to get the same random midi transmissions in Cakewalk's midi event manager but for some reason it isn't picking up midi data. If I can identify it I can at least filter it. The keys on the MKII 61 are decent synth keys. They probably would not make a professional pianist happy. The 88 key version is said to have weighted keys. I have not tried that version. The jury is still out for me on the effectiveness of midi controller keyboard .vs simply using keystrokes and a mouse. I mean, I can use a key stroke to rewind as quickly as I can push a rewind button. For me the perceived benefit is more at the mixing stages because using a fader or knob is far superior to using a mouse , especially when writing automation. For transport control and simply playing midi data in, I can get by with decent keys and my mouse/computer keyboard. The processes that tie together several steps in software would be helpful which is why I was excited about Cubase 12 new midi editor that lets you tie many more functions inside the DAW than most and build your own controllers mapped to anything. I'm not sure if I can tie it all to the pads on the MKII. If I can I will be pretty hyped about that. Cakewalk's ACT can get you there too aside from the bugs aslow mentioned. I found ACT to be much less intuitive. Aslow is a natural at computer programs. I am not. I have to work at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianPi Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 (edited) On 3/24/2022 at 5:13 PM, azslow3 said: It depends what encoders send when they are turned. Check if that can be changes in User mode (unfortunately from the documentation seems like not) or try DAW modes (different). "Cakewalk Generic surface" support reversed controls, "AZ Controller" supports almost all possible variations, but "ACT MIDI Controller" does not support that at the moment. Note that in case you want "ACT MIDI Controller" and you will not find DAW mode which works, ask Cakewalk to support Keylab style encoders. I am almost sure msmcleod will help (also "ACT MIDI Controller" is open source, theoretically any C++ programmer can make related modification 😏) Youp, found an open-sourced SDK in github (MIT licence) . https://github.com/Cakewalk/Cakewalk-Control-Surface-SDK Compiles surprisingly fine in VS2017 🤓 Edited August 5, 2023 by AdrianPi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azslow3 Posted March 26, 2022 Share Posted March 26, 2022 12 hours ago, Tim Smith said: I was playing with my MKII 61 last evening and discovered the same feature that exists in many DAWS. I simply right clicked on a control in Cakewalk, selected learn and moved the control to map it. Since I only mapped a few controls I'm not sure how extensive this is. For the whole project in a DAW (with DAW and plug-ins parameters) the number of things to control is huge. And so the mapping has to be "smarter" then in case of one plug-in. That is what ACT try to target for Cakewalk. For occasional arbitrary control or control of small subset of parameters, MIDI mapping can work. 12 hours ago, Tim Smith said: The processes that tie together several steps in software would be helpful which is why I was excited about Cubase 12 new midi editor that lets you tie many more functions inside the DAW than most and build your own controllers mapped to anything. From the video about "MIDI Remote Integration" assistant it is nice from graphics and workflow perspectives. From the end result that is not what some people call "deep integration" provided by custom scripts/programs/presets, which BTW take long time to create (and required MIDI/DAW/programming knowledge). 10 hours ago, Adrian Piccioli said: Youp, found an open-sourced SDK in github (MIT licence) . https://github.com/Cakewalk/Cakewalk-Control-Surface-SDK Compiles fine in VS2017 🤓 If you need a tip what you should change so it works with User mode Arturia encoders, let me know 😏 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Drudy Posted April 15, 2022 Share Posted April 15, 2022 On 11/19/2019 at 1:54 AM, kennysville said: I find the ACT very easy to use on my Keylab 88 even All the way to the transport controls. All you need to do is to first of all map your buttons first by using the midi learn function as desired. Thereafter, click on the options page and then resssign whatever control you need and map accordingly. If you require any assistance in setting up, please let me know Is is possible to export the map you made? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Drudy Posted April 15, 2022 Share Posted April 15, 2022 On 11/19/2019 at 1:54 AM, kennysville said: I find the ACT very easy to use on my Keylab 88 even All the way to the transport controls. All you need to do is to first of all map your buttons first by using the midi learn function as desired. Thereafter, click on the options page and then resssign whatever control you need and map accordingly. If you require any assistance in setting up, please let me know When I use ''learn'' for the transport keys, the keylab does not seem to be sending any midi that is being received. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wookiee Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 On 4/15/2022 at 1:43 PM, Andy Drudy said: When I use ''learn'' for the transport keys, the keylab does not seem to be sending any midi that is being received. Are you on a MIDI track? I know that sounds a bit strange but I found that the best way to get it to work, presumably synths respond to the keyboard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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