Using MPC LIVE 2 w Ableton Drum Rack!

Trying to use MPC LIVE 2 as controller fro Drum Rack in Ableton.

mpc live boasts ableton integration but so far i have no experienced anything that feels integrated at all.

after some searching, it looks like there is a method to map the mpc pads to drum rack pads via some very convoluted and complex "external instrument" mapping to each pad in drum rack and sending each pad to its own channel.

there has to be a more straighforward way just to use my mpc as a controller to control the pads on drum rack without all that mess...

does anyone have any idea?

thanks again.

this is perhaps one of the few things that pisses me off with my mpc live.
i mainly use it standalone, but i'm an Ableton Live Certified Trainer and teaching music production and sound design (mainly with ableton) is my day job. i'd love to be able to always use the live as main controller because it has almost everything i need (except faders maybe). why on earth its impossible to use it as both midi controller and sound card without using the mpc software and\or akai's wifi midi driver?!! this drives me nuts...
so im still using nanokontrol and nanokey as easy controllers when i teach, but i hope with some future updates we'll be able to use the mpc as a classic midi controller and soundcard without the bs,plug in the usb and it appears in the audio interface and midi ports preferences. why this nonsense limitation, akai?

hyena wrote:.... i hope with some future updates we'll be able to use the mpc as a classic midi controller and soundcard without the bs,plug in the usb and it appears in the audio interface and midi ports preferences. why this nonsense limitation, akai?

Enabling 'controller mode' and use "MPC Public" midi port on your software ?

Im kinda confused.... With a Midi/Audio Interface, I can trigger alot of DAW Midi Functions from my LIVE.

dzsteez wrote:Trying to use MPC LIVE 2 as controller fro Drum Rack in Ableton.

mpc live boasts ableton integration but so far i have no experienced anything that feels integrated at all.

I mean, as far as Ableton Control - it works pretty damn awesome.

dzsteez wrote:after some searching, it looks like there is a method to map the mpc pads to drum rack pads via some very convoluted and complex "external instrument" mapping to each pad in drum rack and sending each pad to its own channel.

there has to be a more straighforward way just to use my mpc as a controller to control the pads on drum rack without all that mess...

does anyone have any idea?

thanks again.

I use my Live 2 as a generic pad controller for Reason's Kong drum machine quite easily. You do have to map the pads to the particular device you want to control in MIDI control mode (out of the box, my Live 2 didn't match the pads as they're triggered via specific keys), and open a song file with that mapping after you've created an instance of the MPC Software plugin in your DAW, but that took me like 5 minutes to setup one time only.

SakisX wrote:

hyena wrote:.... i hope with some future updates we'll be able to use the mpc as a classic midi controller and soundcard without the bs,plug in the usb and it appears in the audio interface and midi ports preferences. why this nonsense limitation, akai?

Enabling 'controller mode' and use "MPC Public" midi port on your software ?

man if you read my entire post i said "without using akai mpc software or akai wifi midi driver"
the good news tho is that i tried again without using akai midi driver and it works by hitting remote midi on the live control page(new in 2.9?), via wifi. gonna check how stable it is now. thanks for having me retry this.

anyway, still no way to use it as "keyboard" or pad controller in this mode. pads just control the session view clips. what i'd like to see is a simple way of having the computer recognize it as a generic midi controller and sound card VIA USB, so i can use pads and stuff and use its audio i\o's. no need for fancy control surface integration on my side (it's cool is there, but why no support for basic audio\midi interfacing via simple usb??)
if you have workarounds not involving mpc software or wifi\ethernet let me know. thanks.

EDIT: you probably still on older firmware, on 2.9 the PUBLIC output when in controller mode isnt there anymore, you only have DAW as choice, and it just works with mpc software, can't even send midi notes from a midi track with mpc vst plugin to another midi track

I was able to get mine working to control the drum rack as expected. Create a new empty project and select 'MIDI Control' from the main menu. From there you have to map every pad to the correct note that the drum rack expects... it takes a long time to do it across each bank. Afterwards, save this project so that you can reuse it every time you launch Ableton. You'll need to stay in the MIDI Control for the mappings to trigger.

This whole process is very convoluted. It'd be great if someone knew a better way.

hyena wrote:.... why on earth its impossible to use it as both midi controller and sound card without using the mpc software and\or akai's wifi midi driver?!! this drives me nuts.......

0. Connect your MPC via USB with your PC
1. Put the MPC on "Controller Mode"
2. Open MPC Public port on your DAW
3. Hit pads , twist knobs ,press buttons
4 (optional) ,put something on top of the screen to cover&ignore the 'Looking for computer'

You now have a generic midi controller (and sound card) without MPC Software or Network (wifi/ethernet) driver...

SakisX wrote:

hyena wrote:.... why on earth its impossible to use it as both midi controller and sound card without using the mpc software and\or akai's wifi midi driver?!! this drives me nuts.......

0. Connect your MPC via USB with your PC
1. Put the MPC on "Controller Mode"
2. Open MPC Public port on your DAW
3. Hit pads , twist knobs ,press buttons
4 (optional) ,put something on top of the screen to cover&ignore the 'Looking for computer'

You now have a generic midi controller (and sound card) without MPC Software or Network (wifi/ethernet) driver...

WOW!!!! thanks SakisX this is the solution i needed but couldn't find anywhere!!! works perfectly! thanks a lot!!! <3

Nopayne wrote:I was able to get mine working to control the drum rack as expected. Create a new empty project and select 'MIDI Control' from the main menu. From there you have to map every pad to the correct note that the drum rack expects... it takes a long time to do it across each bank. Afterwards, save this project so that you can reuse it every time you launch Ableton. You'll need to stay in the MIDI Control for the mappings to trigger.

This whole process is very convoluted. It'd be great if someone knew a better way.

ok, so you do it with just the usb cable connected and mpc ports open in the daw? this is interesting as well, gonna try it! but i suppose it doesnt work as audio interface this way, right?

hyena wrote:
ok, so you do it with just the usb cable connected and mpc ports open in the daw? this is interesting as well, gonna try it! but i suppose it doesnt work as audio interface this way, right?

I haven't messed with the audio interface tbh so I couldn't tell you about that.

My method seems similar to the other one posted, although I'm not sure how mapping the pads/controls works in that case. It's something I might try as well.

SakisX wrote:

hyena wrote:.... why on earth its impossible to use it as both midi controller and sound card without using the mpc software and\or akai's wifi midi driver?!! this drives me nuts.......

0. Connect your MPC via USB with your PC
1. Put the MPC on "Controller Mode"
2. Open MPC Public port on your DAW
3. Hit pads , twist knobs ,press buttons
4 (optional) ,put something on top of the screen to cover&ignore the 'Looking for computer'

You now have a generic midi controller (and sound card) without MPC Software or Network (wifi/ethernet) driver...

—————————————————————-

Am I close to relief?

@SakisX
Would you mind to specify?
I do as you suggested, but when I open up MPC one public port in midi prefs in Ableton, my MPC just shows a pink smile and says: “looking for computer”


There must be something missing

Zsolt wrote:
—————————————————————-

Am I close to relief?

@SakisX
Would you mind to specify?
I do as you suggested, but when I open up MPC one public port in midi prefs in Ableton, my MPC just shows a pink smile and says: “looking for computer”


There must be something missing

No, it's normal since in that mode MPC is looking for the mpc software. That's why I suggested to ignore the screen (step 4)!
It's the way for using it as a generic audio/midi controller without MPC software.
Personally I'd use the software as VST inside Live (haven't tried it) and check if I could map the midi to the drum rack

SakisX wrote:

Zsolt wrote:
—————————————————————-

Am I close to relief?

@SakisX
Would you mind to specify?
I do as you suggested, but when I open up MPC one public port in midi prefs in Ableton, my MPC just shows a pink smile and says: “looking for computer”


There must be something missing

No, it's normal since in that mode MPC is looking for the mpc software. That's why I suggested to ignore the screen (step 4)!
It's the way for using it as a generic audio/midi controller without MPC software.
Personally I'd use the software as VST inside Live (haven't tried it) and check if I could map the midi to the drum rack

This works but can you please show me how to map the MPC pads so that it matches the Ableton drum layout. This is driving me crazy!!

C5ICK wrote:This works but can you please show me how to map the MPC pads so that it matches the Ableton drum layout. This is driving me crazy!!

You can't do that, but you can do the opposite, map the Drum rack pads to the MPC's Layout and save that configuration as a Drum Rack template in Live.