Beginner needing help with external controller

Seraphmoon · Post by **Seraphmoon** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 11:05 pm

Hello everyone, so I will make this short and to the point, I am an acoustic piano player, I finally sold an old harley of mine and bought the Kronos 2 and an Akai MPK261 so I can start messing around with different sounds and start covering some music like Type O negative and such. My question is, how do I make where I can play piano sounds on the Kronos, and play, say violin sounds, on the Akai at the same time.

I am a TOTAL newbie here, never messed with anything like this before, I know, why get a Kronos when I don't know what the hell I am doing, well I read it was one of the best and I don't want to have to upgrade in a few years and I had the money. I have read the instruction book, looked at youtube videos, and read in forums, but I really don't know what to even type in the search bar to find what I am looking for.

If this has been answered before, a link to a previous post would more than suffice, if not I would greatly appreciate to know what cords to plug in what ports, and what to do to the Kronos and the Akai to get it to work.

Thanks, Brad.

jones · Post by **jones** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 1:03 am

I don't see where the Akai offers anything the kronos can't do itself.?
I use my kronos to trigger VST instruments such as Omnisphere in the DAW reaper.

I use midi to usb cable which I bought at geetar centre.
Midi plugs at the kronos to the usb port on the computer.
M-Track audio interface from a usb port on the computer driving powered monitor speakers.

Have you looked at the akai youtube videos?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FimEnoOL2c0

Seraphmoon · Post by **Seraphmoon** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 1:08 am

Thanks for the reply, I am actually not doing anything with a computer or a DAW. It is just my Kronos running into the mixer and then to the PA speakers. I bought the AKAI so I can play different sounds on both keyboards at the same time in a live setting.

jones · Post by **jones** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 3:06 am

Akai midi cable out to kronos midi socket in.
Or use USB cable.

Put the kronos into combi mode and choose your sounds, set a track to rx external and that should rx midi trigger from the akai.

Try this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Eo-1y1-zZg

jones · Post by **jones** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 3:31 am

Yeh I just looked at mine, in the combi screen hit timbre parameter tab, then midi tab, that is the screen to select which midi channel controls which track.
Put your instrument on a particular track, which ever you want, then assign a midi ch to it and then set the akai to midi out on the same midi channel.

So many buttons, so little time.!

Seraphmoon · Post by **Seraphmoon** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 11:46 am

@Jones- Thank you so much! I had actually seen that video before, but I didn't even know which cables to hook up and such, following your instructions I was up and running in 5 minutes. You sir are a gentleman and a scholar.

benbabylon · Post by **benbabylon** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 5:44 pm

Hey guys I kind of have a follow up question to this, since you guys have been so helpful. So, to my understanding, it is possible to basically add "another octave" (kind of) to your Kronos (even 88?) so that you can still use your full 8 keyboard to play other things but then have the MIDI controller do something separate? So, for example, if I want all the 88 keys to play piano, and my 25 MIDI keys to play strings? But I don't want strings to play on any of my 88 Kronos keys and don't want piano to play on the 25 of my MIDI keys.

benbabylon · Post by **benbabylon** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 5:49 pm

Here's actually another situation. I wanna hook up a 8-pad drum pad. I would get a long Midi Cable so that the drummer of the band can use it. I want the drum pad to trigger samples from the Kronos, but I want to program it and control it. Is that possible?

Seraphmoon · Post by **Seraphmoon** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 5:59 pm

Ya man, that is exactly what I was wanting to do, works like a charm!

benbabylon · Post by **benbabylon** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 7:37 am

Awesome! Good to know. Thanks!