Controlling KARMA Motif with an External Pad Device

Transcription

1 Controlling KARMA Motif with an External Pad Device Revision 29-Aug-2012 by Stephen Kay Introduction In this tutorial, we ll look at controlling KARMA Motif with a Korg nanopad2. However, the basic concepts presented here should work for any programmable external controller or pad device. Note: this setup works well for live performance and jamming with the KARMA Performances. However, it is not possible to record the external device s operations into the Motif s internal sequencer. Please see the other Recording with an External Pad Device using the Motif s Sequencer tutorial for an alternate method that is capable of being recorded into the internal sequencer. The necessary connections With a Korg nanopad2, you have to install Korg s USB Driver on the computer. We ll assume that you ve already done so. You connect the nanopad2 (or other external controller) to the computer, not to the Motif. This tutorial uses a Mac, but the procedure should be nearly identical for Windows. 1. Open the MIDI Port Manager from the Window Menu (you can also use the command on the MIDI Setup (Global) Editor s Menu Button, or the Performance Editor > MIDI Setup page s Menu Button). 2. Locate the Input Port corresponding to the nanopad2, and checkmark it to open the port. In this example is at the end of the Input Port list, named PAD Korg Inc. nanopad2. You do not need to open the corresponding Output Port. Close the dialog. Regardless of which external device you want to use, you need to locate and open the input port that the device is connected to your computer on, before it becomes available in the various input port menus of KARMA Motif. 3. Go to the MIDI Setup (Global) Editor > RTC Setup page (shown below). Here we have most of the various controller CC and Note Number settings that allow KARMA to be controlled by external devices. The values are already set to the recommended defaults but can be restored to the factory settings at any time using the RTC Setup page s Menu Button > Restore Default Settings. 4. Select the nanopad s Port that we just opened in the Receive Port Menu. The MIDI Channel should be set to 1 and the Receive Active checkbox on. This directs the operations of the nanopad to all of the features and settings on this page. Page 1

2 5. If you want to control Scene Changes with the nanopad, change the Scene CC Mode to 8 CCs, so that you can use 8 pads to select the first 8 scenes. (The nanopad cannot send specific values for CCs the velocity of the pad is always the CC value, so we cannot use a single CC with different values, which is normally the default setting.) 6. If you want to change RT Control Layers, you ll need to select one of the other Control Layer CC Modes of operation, since again the nanopad cannot send specific values of CC from the pads. For now, choose the Cycle method, so that one pad can be used to cycle through all 7 RT Control Layers (six Module Layers plus the Master Layer). 7. However, this would only take care of some of KARMA s features. Noticeably absent from this page are the Fill, Stutter, Retrigger etc. That s because those features can be independently configured in each Performance, and are stored as part of each Performance. We need to look elsewhere for those. 8. Go to the Performance Editor > Dynamic MIDI page. Here we have the settings for Retrigger, Fill, the three different Stutter Buttons, and sometimes the A.Sw1 and A.Sw2. All of the Performances are configured the same with regards to the controlling CCs being used (the Source popup menus). These are the CCs that will be sent from the nanopad or other external device. 9. Set the Alternate Dynamic MIDI Port/Channel at the bottom left to the same nanopad2 port that we assigned in the RTC Setup page, and MIDI Channel 1. Turn on the Merge checkbox, which merges the operation of this port in with everything that is already assigned. 10. Now, the fact is that this assignment is stored in each Performance this is not a Global setting that we ve changed (unlike the settings on the RTC Setup page). So to copy this change to all Performances in the KDF file (so that you don t have to do them one-by-one), use the Dynamic MIDI page s Menu Button command Copy Alt. Dyn MIDI Port Settings to all Performances 11. Once this is completed, every Performance will have this setting on the Dynamic MIDI page. Alternately, you can just modify each Performance selectively as you wish. Note that you would need to save the KDF file to make these changes permanent. That completes the required settings to control KARMA from an external controller (other than the actual programming of the device to send the correct messages). At this point, if you have a nanopad2, you can download a nanopad editor file that is pre-configured according to the rest of this document (see next section). Page 2

3 Loading the Karma-Lab nanopad2 file Download the file from the KARMA Motif Docs page: karma-lab.com/kmo/docs -> KARMA_Motif_nanoPAD2-1.zip 1. From inside the Korg Kontrol Editor, with your nanopad2 hooked up and active, use the File Menu > Open command to load the KARMAMotif-1.nanopad2_set document, which loads the four scenes into the Editor. 2. Click on the Global button, then click [OPEN] and select the KARMAMotif-1.nanopad2_glob file to load the Global Settings. 3. Inside the Global page, click the [WRITE] button to send the global settings to the nanopad. When finished, click the [CLOSE] button. 4. From the Communication Menu, select Write Scene Set this will write all four scenes into the nanopad. 5. You may now quit the editor and try out the nanopad with KARMA Motif! How the nanopad2 scenes are set up The nanopad2 has four scenes each scene can change the 16 functions that are assigned to the 16 pads. The concept I went with here is to keep certain common operations essentially the same in all four scenes (the bottom row of 8 buttons), and change the functions of the top row of 8 buttons. This way, you always have access to the Fill, Stutter, Retrigger, Stop etc., but can also access all 16 Chord Triggers, Scene Changes, Switches and more by changing nanopad2 scenes. In summary: Top Row (Pads 1 to 8) Bottom Row (Pads 9 to 16) Scene 1: Chord Triggers 1 to 8 Retrigger, Stutter, On/Off, Latch, Stop, Fill Scene 2: Chord Triggers 9 to 16 Retrigger, Stutter, On/Off, Latch, Stop, Fill Scene 3: Scenes 1 to 8 Retrigger, Stutter, RT Control Layer, Latch, Stop, Fill Scene 4: Track Mutes/RT Switches 1 to 8 Retrigger, Stutter, View: Mix/RTC, Latch, Stop, Fill Of course, other arrangements are possible (and might even be better!) and I encourage you to experiment with your own setups and share the settings with other nanopad2 users. The file only provides for the mappings of the 16 pads in the four nanopad2 scenes. At present, there s no way to use the XY pad to affect the Modules or Keyboard Layers, because there s no way to merge the output of the nanopad2 into the input of the Modules and Keyboard Layers on the Performance Editor > MIDI Setup page. Perhaps I will consider adding this in a future update. You could potentially use the XY pad to control something like Direct Indexing on the Dynamic MIDI page, but that s for a future discussion. Page 3

4 SCENE 1 Chord Triggers 1~8 and KARMA Features Pads 1 to 8: Chord Triggers 1 to 8 MIDI Note 0~7 Momentary Bottom row: Pad 9: Retrigger CC#83 Momentary Pad 10: Stutter - Fast CC#84 Momentary Pad 11: Stutter Medium CC#85 Momentary Pad 12: Stutter Slow CC#88 Momentary Pad 13: KARMA On/Off CC#14 Toggle Pad 14: Latch On/Off CC#31 Toggle Pad 15: Stop CC#48 Momentary Pad 16: Fill CC#82 Momentary SCENE 2 Chord Triggers 9~16 (arps/hits) and KARMA Features Pads 1 to 8: Chord Triggers 9 to 16 (Motif arps generally) MIDI Note 8~15 Momentary Bottom row: Same as Scene 1 Page 4

5 SCENE 3 Scenes 1~8 and KARMA Features Note: Pad 13 is assigned to cycle through the RT Control Layers, rather than the KARMA On/Off button as in the previous two scenes. This allows you to change the RT Control Layer and therefore change scenes in any particular layer, not just the Master Control Layer. Pads 1 to 8: Scenes 1 to 8 (current RT Control Layer) CC#33~40 Momentary Bottom row: Same as Scene 1, except: Pad 13: RT Control Layer (Cycle) CC#41 Momentary SCENE 4 Track Mutes/RT Switches and KARMA Features Note: Pad 13 is assigned to switch between the Mix View and RTC View. This controls whether the top row of pads targets the 8 Track Mutes, or the 8 RT Switches. Pads 1 to 8: Track Mutes or RT Switches 1 to 8 CC#102~109 Toggle (RT Switches in current Control Layer) Bottom row: Same as Scene 1, except: Pad 13: View: Mix/RTC CC#57 Toggle Page 5

6 Reference List of default KARMA Control Assignments In general, it s probably better to program your pad device to use the recommended default settings of KARMA Motif, rather than change the settings in KARMA Motif to match your device. Here s a complete list of the CC and Note settings for controlling various KARMA features from external controllers: CC# Function Note 14 KARMA On/Off 15 Tempo Knob 16 A. Knob 1 17 A. Knob 2 22 Ribbon 23 RT Slider 1/Track Volume 1 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 24 RT Slider 2/Track Volume 2 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 25 RT Slider 3/Track Volume 3 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 26 RT Slider 4/Track Volume 4 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 27 RT Slider 5/Track Volume 5 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 28 RT Slider 6/Track Volume 6 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 29 RT Slider 7/Track Volume 7 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 30 RT Slider 8/Track Volume 8 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 31 Latch On/Off 33 Scene 1 (or Scene Change, 1 CC + value) 34 Scene 2 when using separate CCs for scenes 35 Scene 3 when using separate CCs for scenes 36 Scene 4 when using separate CCs for scenes 37 Scene 5 when using separate CCs for scenes 38 Scene 6 when using separate CCs for scenes 39 Scene 7 when using separate CCs for scenes 40 Scene 8 when using separate CCs for scenes 41 RT Control/Master (or 1 CC + value) 42 RT Control Module Layer 1 when using separate CCs for layers 43 RT Control Module Layer 2 when using separate CCs for layers 44 RT Control Module Layer 3 when using separate CCs for layers 45 RT Control Module Layer 4 when using separate CCs for layers 46 RT Control Module Layer 5 when using separate CCs for layers 47 RT Control Module Layer 6 when using separate CCs for layers 48 Stop! 49 Knob 1 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 50 Knob 2 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 51 Knob 3 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 52 Knob 4 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 53 Knob 5 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 54 Knob 6 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 55 Knob 7 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 56 Knob 8 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 57 Mix/RTC View Select 58 Compare 59 Chord Assign button 60 Transpose Up Page 6

7 61 Transpose Down 62 Master Volume 63 Silence Input Notes 82 Fill stored in each performance 83 Retrigger KARMA stored in each performance 84 Stutter-Fast stored in each performance 85 Stutter-Med stored in each performance 86 A.Switch 1 87 A.Switch 2 88 Stutter-Slow stored in each performance 102 RT Switch 1/Track Mute 1 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 103 RT Switch 2/Track Mute 2 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 104 RT Switch 3/Track Mute 3 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 105 RT Switch 4/Track Mute 4 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 106 RT Switch 5/Track Mute 5 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 107 RT Switch 6/Track Mute 6 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 108 RT Switch 7/Track Mute 7 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 109 RT Switch 8/Track Mute 8 function depends on current View (Mix/RTC) 110 Chord Trigger 1 when using CC's for Pads 111 Chord Trigger 2 when using CC's for Pads 112 Chord Trigger 3 when using CC's for Pads 113 Chord Trigger 4 when using CC's for Pads 114 Chord Trigger 5 when using CC's for Pads 115 Chord Trigger 6 when using CC's for Pads 116 Chord Trigger 7 when using CC's for Pads 117 Chord Trigger 8 when using CC's for Pads In addition, by default KARMA Motif uses note numbers for the 16 chord triggers: Note # Function 0 Chord Trigger 1 1 Chord Trigger 2 2 Chord Trigger 3 3 Chord Trigger 4 4 Chord Trigger 5 5 Chord Trigger 6 6 Chord Trigger 7 7 Chord Trigger 8 8 Chord Trigger 9 9 Chord Trigger Chord Trigger Chord Trigger Chord Trigger Chord Trigger Chord Trigger Chord Trigger 16 Page 7