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06-17-2017, 01:03 PM
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#1
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 210
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The ultimate drum machine hits the stash!
To me, music is all about tactile interaction and there are times when mouse clicking just doesn't really work. I've always loved the old-fashioned drum machines and when I saw the Akai APC Mini with its 9 faders and 80-something illuminated buttons I just had to hook it up to JNIF's awesome Megababy sequencer.
Well, here it is!. The ultimate drum machine - 64 pads, velocity control via the faders... and more!. Full duplex interaction with the sequencer, what you click comes up on the Akai and vice-versa.... Lights, colours, action!....I hope you enjoy!.....
https://stash.reaper.fm/v/30965/Megab...ai_support.zip
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06-17-2017, 02:30 PM
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#2
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Scotland
Posts: 422
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06-19-2017, 03:58 AM
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#3
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 3,978
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Cool ajaym, really nice upgrade to wonderful megababy sequencer.
Now, just how to make it work using OSC (instead of external MIDI equipment). Would be amazing to use phone or tablet for this task.
OSC messages are not visible to normal track as MIDI messages so even cannot be properly re-mapped to those that new megababy-Akai mod does use :-(
Also, ajaym, could it be easily possible to modify the script (how?) to use sections of 16 steps instead 8 as it is now, I think?
I would be rather controlling all 16 steps in a beat visible at once. Now it make difference which 8 steps in a 16 beat sequence are actually playing. So I can enter only 8 steps in first half of a playing beat if it starts to play and later second 8 steps (= 2nd half beat). And it is impossible to program 16-step beat when transport is not running... Or am I missing some background? I have to say that I do not own an Akai APC controllers, but tried and looked at inputs/outputs and megababy behavior using loggers and MIDI keyboard to send messages.
Thanks for info
akademie
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06-19-2017, 07:30 AM
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#4
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 1,725
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Awesome. Could you put together a demo so we can see this in action? Is it limited to 8 steps?
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06-19-2017, 12:35 PM
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#5
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Northeast Michigan
Posts: 3,460
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Brown
Awesome. Could you put together a demo so we can see this in action? Is it limited to 8 steps?
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Seconded.
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06-19-2017, 12:38 PM
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#6
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 3,669
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fucking FINALLY. you just made my day. off to play, going to have to tweak this to suit a launchpad pro. thank you so much.
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06-19-2017, 01:04 PM
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#7
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 3,669
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is there any way you could update the documentation to show the default midi assignments? the documentation is very good, but for example, the following passage would be more useful if it described what midi signal from the akai is actually doing what:
Quote:
Row shift
Megababy supports 32 pattern cells per beat (column) and the Akai allows you to control 8 cell rows at a time. Press the column button labelled with an up arrow (READ: what message does this send?) to shift to higher rows and press the column button labelled with a down arrow to shift to lower rows. (here again).
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i'll probably just use bidule to map my launchpad to mirror the akai's output so that i don't have to modify your plugin much/at all
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06-19-2017, 01:40 PM
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#8
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 210
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Hi folks, thanks for the great feedback.
I'll try and answer the questions you raised here as best I can
1. The Akai MIDI assignments. Akai (or more accurately the brand owners for 'Akai Professional' , who have nothing to do with Akai the company), try hard to trip over their own feet so they didn't feel the need to publish the MIDI assignments. However they aren't hard to figure out and this link
http://community.akaipro.com/akai_pr...n-for-apc-mini
seems to be a good reference
2. A video. Good idea. I'm still a bit tired from the heat over here at present - the studio in the attic gets up to 35 degrees during the day - but when things cool down a bit I'll have a look at that.
3. Controlling patterns longer than 8 beats. Of course the plugin handles that. Megababy derives its beat position from the Reaper timeline. Patterns longer than 8 beats are displayed in 8 beat blocks; as the beat position moves over block boundaries the Akai will refresh to show the current block. You can enter pattern cells at any time, so for a longer pattern if you slow it down and then play it you can obviously enter stuff in real time. Or you can stop the transport at any point and change the pattern for the current block.
Finally you can just set Reaper to loop over a time range and this will cause Megababy to repeat part of a pattern and you can obviously then modify it as you want from the Akai.
4. Controlling 16 beats at a time. Well, um, you only have 64 buttons arranged 8 X 8 so not sure how that would work. I did play once with a Tenori-On - which has 256 buttons - and I *nearly* bought it - but couldn't quite justify the price. If there's a cheap controller with 256 buttons let me know - I want one!. Otherwise the compromise is, 8 beats at a time... I get you could remap the buttons to two sets of four buttons X 8 but, that's not a lot of parts and I don't think it would turn out very intuitive. You need more buttons. 'course you could buy two and figure out how to get the software to split patterns across them
APC Mini - under 100 bucks. Monome 256... ummm. 700 bucks or maybe more.... good Kickstarter project if anyone wants to build something low-cost!
5. Trust me, this *is* worth buying an APC for if you like tactile feedback. Honest!. I am a senior software engineer with a day job, so I have tested this pretty thoroughly and I *think* it's solid.
6. Coming back to MIDI assignments if you look at the code you'll see that it translates MIDI messages to logical operations in one place, so you should have no trouble modifying this for another similar controller if you want.
7. OSC - haven't really looked at it. I did think of a tablet interface but then I own a Surface Pro so I can interact via that directly. However, touch latency is significant - I tried this - and it didn't really work out that well, to be honest.
Last edited by ajaym; 06-19-2017 at 01:49 PM.
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06-19-2017, 06:29 PM
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#9
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 3,669
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it'd be great if the vertical position bar was able to trigger the lights of the control surface. does it do that yet, and i just don't see it cuz i'm using a launchpad? i didnt get to sink too deep into this today.
Quote:
Akai (or more accurately the brand owners for 'Akai Professional' , who have nothing to do with Akai the company), try hard to trip over their own feet
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oh trust me i know. those guys are bozos and their social media reads like a "hip" uncle's godawful attempt at urban patois
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06-24-2017, 09:00 PM
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#10
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 3,669
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nope, this doesn't get to leave the first page for a while
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07-25-2017, 07:03 AM
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#11
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 3,669
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ajaym, i have 2 old launchpads that i have sitting side by side over here... could we (you) make a 16 step version of this?
i saw your last post talking about this in this thread -- what about simply transposing the existing akai notes that control this plugin +64 for the next steps?
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08-27-2017, 02:12 PM
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#12
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 89
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A demonstration video on YouTube would be useful...
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08-27-2017, 07:04 PM
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#13
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,002
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Thanks so much for this! Looks like other guys love it. Too bad I don't have a clue what this is or what is it for, hahaha. A video would be nice, lololol. Hugs?
__________________
I want to live PEACEFULLY PLEASE WORLD "LEADERS" GET THIS DONE/LET IT BE FOR GOOD AND MAKE HISTORYYYYYYY! Thanks.
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07-28-2018, 01:40 PM
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#14
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 373
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+1
Demo video or something would be awesome.
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07-29-2018, 02:37 PM
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#15
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Posts: 405
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My experience with drum sequencing is
1. Mid-1980's Yamaha box
2. EZDrummer 2
Nothing in between...So can you use your new app with the the Akai APC to sequence EZDrummer samples?
__________________
Jeffrey's REAPER tracks Are on Spotify as well as most other streaming services, under the name Karmic Cage.
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12-31-2018, 05:49 AM
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#16
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 92
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Thanks ajaym for the great work!
I only found out about this yesterday and was soooo excited, so finally today I got to try it out with my AKAI APC40... but it doesn't work with this controller. One would assume Akai Pro would use the same protocol on both controllers, only expanded for the additional controls of the APC40, but it seems that's not the case.
I can't toggle beats from the Akai, but it does reflect the lit beats from megababy. Also the transport is lighting up different buttons more or less all over the place.
I had a look at the script, but I'm afraid I know nothing of scripting, so there's just no way I can modify it and make it work for the APC40. Anyone in my situation with the skills to do this? I'd really very much appreciate it!
Thanks a lot!
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12-31-2018, 05:52 AM
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#18
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 92
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Oh, and I should mention: I'm talking about the APC40 mkII.
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02-08-2019, 11:42 AM
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#19
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,199
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Can and/or does this support Maschine Jam in a similar way? I just picked one up and would love the ability to use it with Megababy. That would be dope.
Thanks!
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09-08-2020, 12:57 PM
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#20
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 89
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Looks like you quietly updated your mod to v1.2 this summer.
The documentation seems to be quite comprhensive, but - as they say - seeing is believing. So... is there any chance that a demo video will be made?
I don't own an APC Mini and I would rather see this mod in action before I decide to buy one.
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09-09-2020, 12:20 AM
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#21
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
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Everywhere I could find the APC40 Mk2 & the APC Mini advertised, it was presented as being specifically for Ableton Live. Hopefully it would be relatively easy to re-program to work in other ways with Reaper?
__________________
Ici on parles Franglais
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09-09-2020, 04:45 AM
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#22
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 3,669
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it's just a midi controller. ableton has marketed the shit out of several lines of controllers that work perfectly well with other software. the only difference is that ableton did the work that users like ajaym have to do on their own
i use a launchpad pro 3 with reaper in a way that the ableton people would never have considered - and i'm not even a good programmer. i've just been building an elaborate Bidule web since 2013 that essentially acts as a midi-based OS for my launchpad. "roll your own Push"
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09-14-2020, 07:56 AM
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#23
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 1,725
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So did anyone actually get this to work with Megababy?
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09-14-2020, 11:16 AM
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#25
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Reaper HAS send control via midi !!!
Posts: 4,031
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3 years passed, no youtube video, cool.
I prefer anyway hackey trackey, compared to that it would not be able to compete, because saike made a magical tracker for Reaper, no normal tracker has those features. Megababy is something like Nanobaby beside it.
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