MIDI Learn and track reordering

Probably not a new problem, but I am only now beginning to abuse MIDI Learn (I don't use the MX-1's notoriously noisy analog side, and I figured the five leftmost channel strips are a splendid MIDI control surface: MFX and BFX buttons are nice for toggling performance effects and yes their lighting reflects the MPC toggle's state, tone potentiometer to control one instrument parameter, and slider obviously for volume - I don't assign the mute button, because noise control requires those unused channels to be muted).

Anyway, I had nicely MIDI Learned a setup, changed a track's order and I was disappointed to find that the MIDI Learn item had become devoid of a target. Sad. MIDI Learn is tied not to a track as a "track object" but to a track slot. Same logic by which MIDI Learn doesn't target a particular effect but "Insert enable 2" - the effect in the second insert effect slot. Sucks, but I guess this is deep into the internal data model and won't change without costly, and therefore never prioritized, data model migrations.

Also I wonder how y'all manage MIDI Learn: after even just a couple dozen items, making sense of the unordered, unorderable and unfilterable list is a bit wild... Damn list controls (at least ordering and filtering - no, not the sort that you control with a knob) are a standard feature wherever there is a chart nowadays, but not at Akai. The only saving feature is that twiddling the MIDI control makes the selected list item jump to the one assigned to that MIDI input, if any.

They probably forgot "MIDI learn" when they added track and FX reordering. I'd say this is a bug.

But there are other bugs as well. I just ran into some weird "ghost mapping". A cc was for some reason not only controlling a plugin parameter but also the track volume! I had to delete the "learning" for the plugin parameter to get rid of the unseen volume mapping.

Anyways, MIDI learn needs lots of love by some developer to get it a proper UI.

I tell you how I fare as I was just about to create a bigger mapping. What I can tell you so far is:

What is working is mapping of MIDI cc to control XYFX inserts. In the end thy are are only normal FX with an extra UI.
Flex Beat Player can also be used with a controller. Mind that the target is "Pad Hold" and not "Pad". I have no idea what the latter is for though it may be the pattern.

What is not working is muting a MIDI track. Dull. Also tracks mutes with MIDI do not trigger a mute group. You have to replicate the group with more "MIDI learn" mappings.

Indeed XYFX MIDI mapping works - I learned the Korg Nanopad 2's pad's X and Y axis to a track's XYFX's.

That MIDI learn requires a trick though: my pad's X and Y axis are CC 1 and 2 (strange - defaults are supposed to be 118 and 119, so I guess the previous owner changed that) but they are only emitted while the pad is pressed... On pad release the Nanopad 2 sends CC16 - which is its default for "Touch Enable", with values either 127 (on) or 0 (off). So, while pressing the pad and visually controlling that MIDI Learn gets the correct CC, disable MIDI Learn and only then release the pad.

And don't forget to MIDI Learn CC 16 as a Momentary Button ! Doing without is possible but the latching behaviour that requires a tap to disengage hasn't been to my liking. I wonder if that is related to the "Pad Hold and not Pad" issue you are mentioning.

Jean-Marc Liotier wrote:Indeed XYFX MIDI mapping works - I learned the Korg Nanopad 2's pad's X and Y axis to a track's XYFX's.

That MIDI learn requires a trick though.

I use an Erae 2 and had to map "X axis", "Y axis" and "enable" in 3 steps. Didn't know at first that I had to map "enable" to emulate the touch on the screen. With the Erae I went to use the pressure CC for enable. Like you I went for Momentary Button.

Jean-Marc Liotier wrote:I wonder if that is related to the "Pad Hold and not Pad" issue you are mentioning.

I was ony referring to the weird parameter namings of Flex Beat. It allows "Pad x", "Pad Edit x" and "Pad Hold x" to be mapped. "Pad Hold x" is the one that acts like a touch on the screen.

Masi wrote:I was ony referring to the weird parameter namings of Flex Beat. It allows "Pad x", "Pad Edit x" and "Pad Hold x" to be mapped. "Pad Hold x" is the one that acts like a touch on the screen.

Wait what ? You managed to MIDI Learn some Flex Beat controls ? Pleaaaase clarify !