Re: [LCtalk] Midi-controller

[Blair Willis]

On Jan 9, 2008, at 5:32 PM, P. Koelman wrote:
> > Well for MIDI search Google for MIDI notes and controller messages.
>
> I find a lot of information about keyboards, but this is not a 
> keyboard is it...

All MIDI devices communicate with MIDI, simply a numbers language (like 
DMX) but with more options.

A good resource for MIDI info is:

http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tutr/miditutr.htm

You need a good understanding of MIDI Channels, Note Numbers, Velocity, 
and CC's at least.

Most MIDI controllers won't allow you to assign Note On Numbers and 
Velocity to a fader, which is what we ultimately want to do.  (To have a 
fader control a DMX channel like a traditional lighting desk.)

The Yamaha 01V will allow you to assign hex values to the faders (or so 
it appears according to the users manual I found online), so you can use 
those to send a "Note On" in a certain range.

For controllers that don't allow Note control via fader, you could route 
through a computer and filter CC's -> Note On with a program like Plogue 
Bidule or another MIDI Utility.

> > No I do not have MAX, do I need it?

Not necessarily.  I don't use it in my setup.

> > For "Go" ing to cues you can use controller, as well as bank select + 
> > program change messages, see page 30 of the LC+ Reference v2.0a1.pdf.
>
> Please don't just throw in words assuming I would understand them... 
> What has bank select got to do with "Go"ing a cue? And what program do 
> I need to change?
> Is a program a cuelist? or is bank select a cuelist?

Bank and Program change messages are MIDI terms, check out the tutorials 
above for a better understanding.  That will let you go directly to a 
cue/scene.  I choose not to use any cues in the LanBox and instead use 
it as a simple MIDI->DMX interface.  All my cues/scenes are setup in 
Ableton Live as sequenced MIDI events.

> By the way, the O1V has motorised faders, does that automatically mean 
> that the faders will be set to values in the lanbox? (e.g. if I change 
> something in LCedit, will the fader jump to the right spot)

No, not necessarily.  In order to motorized faders to be controlled via 
MIDI, the controlling device needs to send MIDI information to update 
their positions.  There is a MIDI Out function on the LanBox, but I 
don't use it.  Conceivably you could receive the MIDI Out information 
from the LanBox and direct it to the O1V to adjust fader position.

I've not had the best results running LCedit at the same time as my MIDI 
setup.  I've chosen to not use LCedit at all now, and my system works 
better for me.  You might be better off running both, but getting the 
O1V faders to move might be a bit of a luxury that you should worry 
about later.

I'd not even thought about the possibility of using a MIDI capable mixer 
in the setup.  It may be overkill, unless you are using it as an audio 
mixer too and this is just an added bonus.  My current MIDI hardware of 
choice (for faders) is a Peavey PC1600x.  It's out of production and 
only available used, but it's one of the few devices that allows Note On 
control via faders.  It took me months just to find one.  I've used a 
Novation SL-37 as well, but that requires setting up the faders for MIDI 
CC's and converting them to Note On within the computer.

Blair