Rerouting MIDI messages to APC40 LEDs

[lukedumke]

I'm currently working on customizing portions of my APC40 in order to manipulate certain device parameters in Ableton Live. However, I ran into a problem when attempting to reroute messages to the corresponding LEDs of the APC40. Currently, I have 6 buttons on the APC (/midi/note/6/48, /midi/note/6/49, /midi/note/7/48, /midi/note/7/49, /midi/note/8/48, and /midi/note/8/49) being routed to Live as /midi/cc1/16 with various ranges. I'm using them to control a single arpeggiation rotary knob in Live, which controls "rate", so that i can quickly jump to different values of the grid (1/4 notes, 16th notes, etc). This custom routing works beautifully, but I can't seem to figure out how to route messages back to the APC in order to light up the corresponding LEDs.

For example; I'd like the LED of the button corresponding to "16th notes" to remain lit when the parameter is set to "16th notes" in Live and to turn off when I press the button corresponding to "1/4 notes" in Live (which would trigger that button's LED to remain lit).


I'm fairly new to this, but I hope this is enough info to start with. I've also attached a screen shot of the routing. Thanks.

Routings.jpgScalings.jpg

[camille]

Hi Luke,

I looks like a very interesting way of using OSCulator and the APC40!

You should normally receive from Live a /midi/cc1/16 message back when you touch the control in live. Like you did with the MIDI notes, you can "demux" the MIDI CC in order to show every value received. Then, for each value, you duplicate the messages, and assign the relevant MIDI Note events that will light on or off the LEDs on the APC40.

Note that you can simply force a MIDI Note to be exclusively on or off the same way you did, that is, by editing the scalings.

I hope this answers your question.
If not, let me know I might have a chance to try your configuration on a friend's APC40.


Best,
Cam

[lukedumke]

Thanks so much! I was getting those return messages before and even tried to demux them at one point, but was having trouble accessing the LEDs. Duplicating was definitely the key, as well as figuring out the correct scalings so that only the active button would remain lit.

I'm not sure if my final routings were the most efficient way to go about it, but it works exactly as I was hoping it would. I ended up duplicating each message and having it send not only an "LED on" message for the active button, but "LED offs" for all of the remaining buttons which are not active. I've attached a couple of screen shots if you are curious.

Set 35 APC Saclings.jpgSet 35 APC Routings.jpg

What I've done is mapped the buttons to the "grid" rate of a beat repeater inserted on my master track, set to "mix mode," in Live. This way I can capture and create more complex rhythms on the fly based off of what is currently playing. I originally had the "grid" mapped to encoder knob on the APC, which was simple, but did not allow me to jump to the exact grid rate I wanted without delay, or uncertainty. Now I know (and can visually see) which grid rate is active, as well as jump back and forth quickly and with more control.