Midi setup question

SF · Post by SF » Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:02 pm

hi everyone, i'm new here and i was wondering if could get some advice. i know there are a lot of threads about midi setup which i've browsed through but i'm still confused.

i have an ESX, a Microkorg, a KP3, Ableton5 on an older laptop w. an interface, and I just bought a behringer BCR2000 because I want to get more into live looping and automate things more. normally I just record in layers, i don't perform live right now and i'm not technically minded.

i'm really in to bands like atlas sound who do experimental electronic looping stuff. the ESX is sort of the backbone of my recording process, the beats/tempo/samples are mainly on there, so I was thinking of doing a midi out from the ESX to ableton to synch the tempo and then have the microkorg and the KP3 as slaves to ableton, and then the BCR2000 would adjust live loops in ableton via usb midi mapping.... does that make sense?
or should I have the BCR2000 as the master controlling everything via ableton?

i'm not sure about how much midi can actually automate these manuals are pretty confusing to me. ideally i would switch to a certain pattern on the ESX, and that would turn the microkorg to the corrosponding patch/synch the tempo, and synch the KP3's tempo/go to the corrosponding sample bank. if thats possible.

anyway i guess i'm just asking how would you go about setting this up.
getting really confused with all these midi implementation charts

radiatesky · Post by **radiatesky** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:23 am

Normally in a non-computer setup, I would put the electribe first, but it sounds like the BCR controlling everything idea is way more logical. The problem is separating messages to various devices, which is tedious to map at first, but not impossible. I would dedicate a knob to tempo on the electribe, as I hate this as a menu choice. Hope this helps.

www.coloringpad.blogspot.com
æther generator
++0+
radiate sky

SF · Post by SF » Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:08 pm

thanks that definitely does make sense, I was trying to program things with the esx > laptop for a while yesterday but it was not working at all. I don't think midi synching works from the esx > ableton. I'll probably try with the Behringer today. At the very least if I can just get all the tempos synched that would be great.

blitzdj86 · Post by **blitzdj86** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 12:26 pm

ableton doesn't like being told to do by other machines, so yeah best to have it as the master.

set each piece of gear to a different midi channel and you will have no worries controlling all of them - just set each knob on the BCR to whichever channel + CC number you want it to control.. Or you could use the BCR's preset system - have one preset for each piece of gear you have (then maybe also one 'mixed' one)

SF · Post by SF » Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:08 pm

thanks!! still figuring out how to program the BCR with ableton. what youre saying helps me simplify the way i'm thinking about it though.

going to try and get ableton > kp3 working today. also I think I somehow screwed up my Microkorg patches via midi. Guess I should turn the write option off when I'm messing around with it.