Impossible to remote kontrol transport

[Anders Madsen]

I have struggled a couple of decades (three, more like it) to get Cakewalk to cooperate with gazillions of midi remotes and keyboards without stable success. And this christmas I got the Komplete kontrol A61. I had high expectations as I had briefly seen success stories in forums. Turns out Cakewalk is not supported. Even the workarounds are obsolete, and I can not even use the transport controls.
How hard can it be?
I'm on day 3 in learning Ableton, the demo. And MIDI works a charm. I've got 30 days to decide.

 

[Blades]

Interesting. The transport on several devices is what I have always had success with. The following all have transport controls and all work in Cakewalk here:

Edirol pcr800

Bcf2000

Contour shuttle pro

PreSonus faderport 8

Frontier designs Tranzport

I wonder why you are having issues with multiples if them when transport controls are so easily mapped to keyboard shortcuts. Devices with dedicated transport controls shouldn't be giving an issue. 

[Anders Madsen]

Here are the ones with no lasting success (I have forgotten the name of a couple from the 90's except the  Gold star)
Gold star GMX 49
Oxygen 25
Korg Nano kontrol
Komplete kontrol A61

Some have had a certain dergree of function. But suddenly they stopped working. Ain't nobody got time for that!
How do you assign keyboard shortcuts to MIDI transport control? (Aside from the Mackie/generic surface stand-in list)
I know that in my last blunder, everybody's waiting for Native Instruments to deliver.
But Ableton looks promising..
But if I could assign th "Play" button on the Komplete kontrol keyboard to spacebar in Cakewalk, that would be great!

 

Edited December 30, 2018 by Anders Madsen

[azslow3]

On 12/29/2018 at 11:58 PM, Anders Madsen said:

I have struggled a couple of decades (three, more like it) to get Cakewalk to cooperate with gazillions of midi remotes and keyboards without stable success.

And this christmas I got the Komplete kontrol A61. I had high expectations as I had briefly seen success stories in forums. Turns out Cakewalk is not supported. Even the workarounds are obsolete, and I can not even use the transport controls.
How hard can it be?
I'm on day 3 in learning Ableton, the demo. And MIDI works a charm. I've got 30 days to decide.

Most people have no problems getting transport to work with any MIDI device. As long as the device is really MIDI.

NI has decided to drop MIDI for controlling part in S 2 keyboards. I do not know how it is with A. If MIDI from transport buttons is working, it can work in Cakewalk (it theoretically should, but not sure in current firmware/future or with extra NI bridge...).

Generic Surface, ACT MIDI, AZ Controller.  Any from these 3 plug-ins can do the trick for any MIDI device (AZ Controller also can do this with OSC, so for S2, but no one has done that so far).

How hard can it be? At most deleting not existing devices in Windows device manager, deleting 2 files in Cakewalk and spending 10 minutes with documentation. Definitively manageable in 3 decades...

Ableton is a nice program.  But there are not many people which use it instead of Cakewalk/S1/Cubase/ProTools/REAPER/etc.  Ableton has specific workflow targeting specific purpure, people use it in addition to conventional DAWs (when they need related functionality).

 

 

 

[Anders Madsen]

Thx, Azlow!

I really want to use my old favourite Cakewalk.
So I'm struggling to assign transport kontrols to keybord shortcuts. But all I find are notes in the list. This dialogue box makes no sense to me:

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by Anders Madsen

[Craig Anderton]

The Komplete Kontrol keyboards have advanced functionality (e.g., transport and mixer control) with the following host programs:

Logic X 10.3.1 or higher
GarageBand 10.2.0 or higher
Ableton Live 9.2.3 or higher
Cubase Artist / Pro 8.5 or higher
Nuendo 7.1.35 or higher

Cakewalk, Pro Tools, Studio One, Reason, Reaper, Samplitude, Digital Performer, and Acid Pro do not have the same level of integration.

[azslow3]

52 minutes ago, Anders Madsen said:

Thx, Azlow!

I really want to use my old favourite Cakewalk.
So I'm struggling to assign transport kontrols to keybord shortcuts. But all I find are notes in the list. This dialogue box makes no sense to me:

 

That dialog serves just one purpose, enable some control over Cakewalk from keyboards/DPs which have no DAW controller functionality.

For example if you have Digital Piano with 3 pedals, that assignment allow you to use up to 88 commands when let say left pedal is pressed. That is great feature I was missing in REAPER when I have switched. I have missed it so much that I have re-created that functionality there  (till AZ Controller is written for REAPER).

But specialized controllers are working throw specialized route. That has many advantages, including multi-functional buttons and combinations, feedback, etc.:

• Generic Surface is the simplest to learn and support all MIDI events (f.e. SysEx as on some MMC capable controllers). But it has fixed list of available operations
• Cakewalk ACT MIDI allow all commands from "General Bindings" page in preferences and simple one modifier combinations. But it does work fine with MIDI CC messages only (Note off are "leaking" in stock version) and implements fixed number of physical controls (8+1 buttons, 8+8 knobs or sliders)
• AZ Controller is most tricky to understand and configure from these 3, but it has no limitations (has feedback, OSC support, etc.)

So there are several options how to configure the transport buttons, but MIDI assignments in the keyboard shortcut section is not the way to go in this case.

At the moment I do not like NI:

1. They have declared NKS (in part of common switching presets and light guide) proprietary and are not going to change that
2. They are selling TFT monitors and LEDs as accessibility tool... (at least they have plans to change that with A, but for some reason that has not happened last months).

If they fix at least issue (2), I can try to support S 2 and A. Technically that is possible (with AZ Controller).

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by azslow3

[Anders Madsen]

Thanks, guys!
I've been reading and trying and testing. Banging my head to walls in all directions.
NI has turned confusing design and vague formulations into an art form. 
Their concept of client software; kontrol, kontakt, kontroller editor, native access, maschine and what not all contain more or less same instruments in a soup.
On top comes the "player" series, in which i got a "full version" downloaded, which turned out to be a set of demos.
And my kontroller editor does not work with A-series.
Why on earth did they bundle it?
Wasting weeks to understand, finding mostly stupid stuff, and things i cannot do with my new A-series keyboard.

Oh! And I got back to Cakewalk the other day: What a nice pair of familiar, favourite jeans!   
 

Edited January 7, 2019 by Moxica

[Alio Loco]

I have just purchased an NI A61. 

The keyboard is working but the transport controls are not.
Can anybody at all help me with A61/Cakewalk integration? I feel so alone

Even if there is a way for me to individually bind buttons and knobs. I'm an oldschool muso learning the ways of the digital world so I'm feeling a little lost

Thanks,
Alex

[A'Tuin]

I had transport control working but has stopped working now. I will just have to move my hand another foot to use the mixer instead.

[A'Tuin]

I suspect this is related to 'bome midi' as I recall seeing a dialog installing it as part of an update, since then the transport function stopped working.

[ptheisen]

You should be able to get this working. I have the NI M32, which is similar to the A61, exactly the same controls,  it just has 32 mini keys instead of 61 full size keys. I'm guessing the underlying software is almost identical. My M32 is able to control a small amount of DAW functionality with no issues. You may want to confirm the following to get it working on your computer:

Please make sure you have the latest firmware for your A61, and the latest version of Komplete Kontrol, which is 2.3.

Once Komplete Kontrol is installed, you should run the stand-alone version of Komplete Kontrol and configure that to work with the A61.

Once that is working, go into the preferences for CbB . Under Midi Devices, make sure Komplete Kontrol A DAW is present and checked in both the input and output categories, and make sure Komplete Kontrol A61 MIDI is present and checked in the input category. Then, under Midi Control Surfaces, in the list of connected  controllers, you should have a Mackie Control with input and output of Komplete Kontrol A DAW. The inputs and outputs for the controllers often get jumbled, especially if you start CBb prior to all of the controllers being connected and turned on. If need be, straighten these out. If you don't have a Mackie Control in the list, add a new controller using Mackie Control and set its input and output to Komplete Kontrol A DAW. Save these settings. Then, for good measure, close CbB and restart your computer.

When you restart CbB, make sure the A61 is in MIDI mode. If the PLUG-IN/MIDI button in the upper right is lit at all, you are not in MIDI mode. The PLAY, REC and STOP buttons will also be unlit. To go into MIDI mode, press shift and the PLUGIN/MIDI button. When you release both buttons, the light should go out in the PLUGIN/MIDI button, and turn on in the PLAY, REC and STOP buttons on the left. The A61 should now have the following functionality:

PLAY, REC and STOP will work as expected.

The 4-D encoder knob on the right will scroll the timeline when turned clockwise or counter-clockwise, scroll tracks when nudged up or down and scroll track parameters when nudged left and right. This is assuming that, between the track view and the console view, the track view was the last one "touched". This corresponds with the top to bottom arrangement of tracks in the track view.  If the console view was the last of those two views to be touched, the up/down/left/right behavior is reversed to correspond with the left to right arrangement of tracks in the console view, as long as the console view is visible.  If the console view was last touched, but is not visible (it is in the multidock and a different view is selected there), left/right/up/down does nothing!

Hope this helps!

[A'Tuin]

Thanks for the advice, I went through it line for line, word for word. No go...BUT. I have 3 controllers, 1 is a Arduino foot switch controller (when stood playing guitar, Azlow control ), number 2 is a Beringer x-touch ( Mackie) and 3 is the KK A49 (MMCL_Mackie). Whilst trying out the procedure, I noticed in the control bar, surfaces, AZ controller 'active', Mackie#1 '16trks, 16busses' and finally MMCL_Mackie#1, 'connecting.......

So then I checked its properties for 'disable handshake' and it was checked, tried uncheck..no go.

So I deleted it, set it the same but chose MMCL_Mackie#2. Saved the template, shut down CbB, restarted pc. It worked. Go figure?

But thanks anyway.