Two or several Midi Hardware Controllers - one per Group

McClaneonfire
McClaneonfire Member Posts: 148 Member
edited February 2022 in Maschine

Hello to the community,

how can I do this:

I have a Maschine Mikro MK3 and a Yamaha Reface CP Keyboard. The MK3 I set to trigger a Group with the great Butch Vig Drums instrument. Another Group has the Kontakt set with 3 Pianos / Synth instruments. This Group I want to play ONLY with the Yamaha Reface CP Keyboard (via USB Midi). The thing is when the Keys Group is activated the Mikro MK3 can't trigger the Drums Group but triggers the Keys Group on top.

How to solve this?

Here a Screenshot:

Thank you guys!

Best Answers

  • Murat Kayi
    Murat Kayi Member Posts: 429 Pro
    Answer ✓

    Only one group will ever be in focus, which will remember the state it was in when you left it. People with more than one Maschine controller connected have been wanting to do the same thing you are trying and it's not happening

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 2,811 mod
    edited February 2022 Answer ✓

    You solve it by having your Maschine controller focused on the Drum Group while the other Group has your MIDI keyboard set as input, exactly like you have done.

    Why are you "activating" the Key's Group if don't wish to trigger it with the MAS controller? To tweak parameters? If so you can perhaps setup macros as a workaround if that keyboard's knobs can send CC's (?)

    The Keyboard (Yamaha Reface CP, pink circled) works no matter in which Group (Drums or Keys) I'm jumping in. BUT the Mikro MK3 only plays the Drums Group when I'm IN the that very Group. When I'm in the Keys Group it plays Keys - although the Midi Input Source points to the Keyboard. I don't get it...

    It does exactly what it implies, locks your 3rd party MIDI keyboard to that Sound/Group , this makes it so that the Sound is always triggered by that specific external MIDI regardless of whatever the Maschine Controller is focused on. The problem you're facing is that this setting means nothing to the Maschine controller itself, as it does not care what the input is, it overwrites it and always controls whatever is in focus.

Answers

  • Murat Kayi
    Murat Kayi Member Posts: 429 Pro
    Answer ✓

    Only one group will ever be in focus, which will remember the state it was in when you left it. People with more than one Maschine controller connected have been wanting to do the same thing you are trying and it's not happening

  • McClaneonfire
    McClaneonfire Member Posts: 148 Member

    Ouh what a pity, thank you! I thought I didn't understand the whole Midi-Routing or something...

    Is there any other way around to play with two Hardware Controllers? Maybe not by putting instruments per Group?

    I don't get this whole Midi channel thing. I thought that's what it is for, to route signals from A to B. Well I'm not a professional as you see.

  • McClaneonfire
    McClaneonfire Member Posts: 148 Member

    Or is it possible within a DAW like Ableton Live?

  • Olihop
    Olihop Member Posts: 152 Advisor

    The only solution is to switch the mikro mk3 to midi mode too

  • McClaneonfire
    McClaneonfire Member Posts: 148 Member
    edited February 2022

    Ok a question:

    what is the Midi Source Input for? When I assign a specific controller (Yamaha Reface Keyboard Group B / Mikro MK3 Group A) it only works half way:

    The Keyboard (Yamaha Reface CP, pink circled) works no matter in which Group (Drums or Keys) I'm jumping in. BUT the Mikro MK3 only plays the Drums Group when I'm IN the that very Group. When I'm in the Keys Group it plays Keys - although the Midi Input Source points to the Keyboard. I don't get it...


  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 2,811 mod
    edited February 2022 Answer ✓

    You solve it by having your Maschine controller focused on the Drum Group while the other Group has your MIDI keyboard set as input, exactly like you have done.

    Why are you "activating" the Key's Group if don't wish to trigger it with the MAS controller? To tweak parameters? If so you can perhaps setup macros as a workaround if that keyboard's knobs can send CC's (?)

    The Keyboard (Yamaha Reface CP, pink circled) works no matter in which Group (Drums or Keys) I'm jumping in. BUT the Mikro MK3 only plays the Drums Group when I'm IN the that very Group. When I'm in the Keys Group it plays Keys - although the Midi Input Source points to the Keyboard. I don't get it...

    It does exactly what it implies, locks your 3rd party MIDI keyboard to that Sound/Group , this makes it so that the Sound is always triggered by that specific external MIDI regardless of whatever the Maschine Controller is focused on. The problem you're facing is that this setting means nothing to the Maschine controller itself, as it does not care what the input is, it overwrites it and always controls whatever is in focus.

  • McClaneonfire
    McClaneonfire Member Posts: 148 Member

    Ahaaa, so the focus can't be taken off the MK3... which sucks. So if I had the MK3 replaced by some other Midi-Hardware-Controller this focus thing would not apply. I see, I see :D

    Thank you guys for your infos!

  • McClaneonfire
    McClaneonfire Member Posts: 148 Member

    You are right, so I just stay in the Drums Group and each Controller works...

  • McClaneonfire
    McClaneonfire Member Posts: 148 Member

    Apart from that, I still don't get this Midi Channel thing. If I set Midi Channel Output to 3 in one Group and do the same in some loaded software intrument with its Input set to Channel 3 - it does not connect like that. But it appears I do not get behind the Midi Routing at all urgs. Guess I need it visually explained...

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 2,811 mod

    I don't understand what you mean by that... If you set a Sound/Group to receive/send from a particular Channel that's what it will do, only that Channel will trigger it, if it's your DAW sending the MIDI thru a track or a MIDI device it works as it's intended for the most part.

    Are you trying to use MIDI Channels as a way to individually play several instruments in the same Kontakt instance inside Maschine-Plug?? I would advise against that, use one Kontakt per Sound/Pad .

  • McClaneonfire
    McClaneonfire Member Posts: 148 Member

    Ah I have Group Drums with the Butch Vig Drums instrument; and Group Keys with Kontakt containing several instrumenst. So I'd have to set the Butch Vig within a Kontakt plugin, too?

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 2,811 mod
    edited February 2022

    No... There's some confusion here, it already is running inside Kontakt because Butch Vig Drums is a Kontakt instrument, there is no other way of loading it except using Kontakt.

    Maybe what confuses you is the way things are presented in the GUI, if you load a Kontakt Instrument from the Maschine Browser it's name won't be "Kontakt" but it still is. A similar example would be Abbey Road Drums, if I load it from the Maschine Browser it's name won't be Kontakt, but it is.

    Press the Pencil Icon and it expands and shows you Kontakt, should be the same in Butch Vig Drums.

    What I am saying is to load each of your Keys instruments, the things you want to trigger via your MIDI Keyboard into a single Pad, instead of having them all in one pad in a single Kontakt instance - This way you can tell each Pad what MIDI Channel to use easily.

  • McClaneonfire
    McClaneonfire Member Posts: 148 Member

    Thank you for all your help to everyone!

    Allright, I see now, Kontakt is the Base for many instruments, good to know.

    I'm still not sure about your last hint regarding the "Pad to Midi Channel". You mean to put it like this:

    ... instead of what I did before - putting all 4 instruments into 1 Kontakt-instance, right?

    But still I don't understand the possibilities of the routing. I tried to change Midi Channels like putting Midi Input for example in the Soundslot 4 to Channel xy and same in the Loaded Tube instrument. Which does not work, it only works at Omni OR Channel 1 - no matter what.

    I guess the whole concept is not yet settled in my brain 🤪


  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 2,811 mod
    edited March 2022

    Yes.

    If you select a MIDI Port in Maschine you don't need to mess with the ports inside Kontakt at all, Maschine will only pass the MIDI it receives to the instrument if it's coming from the Channel you picked.

    If your keyboard allows you to change MIDI channels this means you can basically switch which instrument you're controlling from the Keyboard itself; meaning you can keep the Maschine controller on the Drum Group. You could also use this to send several MIDI tracks from a DAW to trigger individual instruments, or different physical midi devices, etc....

    Keep in mind most of this only applies to "playing", for recording is a whole other story, Maschine has no arm-to-record so if it receives MIDI from a device while recording that group will automatically be focused and record the input.

  • McClaneonfire
    McClaneonfire Member Posts: 148 Member

    Thank all of you for the helpful infos! Musical weekend here I come 🤓

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