Midi controller, presets, sharing mappings?

[chrr]

Hi,

Newbie here, even though I was quite good with Logic Audio on MacOS 7 and Digidesign HW in the 90s

Starting over as a hobbyist making ambient-style video soundtracks, I chose Mulab and would like to use a cheap hardware controller. Arturia Minilab MKII seems OK to me, opinions welcome.
Are there any controllers with readymade Mulab presets?
Also, can project/module Midi maps be imported/exported? Is there an online library? I couldn't find anything by searching this forum and Google... A complete map for Minilab-Musynth would be great!

[MuTools]

Are there any controllers with readymade Mulab presets?
Also, can project/module Midi maps be imported/exported? Is there an online library? I couldn't find anything by searching this forum and Google... A complete map for Minilab-Musynth would be great!

Unfortunately there are not yet such preset maps atm.

[chrr]

Unfortunately there are not yet such preset maps atm.

OK, thanks. I've only skimmed the manual so far, but it seems MIDI maps are saved with module presets, which can be exported, so I guess they can be shared, right?

The Minilab MKII has 8 banks x 14 pots, and these can follow the keyboard MIDI channel, so in theory that means controlling 1792 parameters. And then there's templates which can be dragged and dropped with the Arturian MIDI Control Center. All this info only from the manuals: maybe I'm dreaming. I'd appreciate any "will work/won't" comments before I buy the controller along with Mulab. Like I said, I've been out of the game for quite a while...

I guess a hardware controller doesn't show up as a module (yet). How do we process the incoming MIDI data then, for example with an Event Processor in the Modular Editor?

By the way, congratulations to Mutools: clean, intuitive, elegant design, both for the program and the UI. AND excellent documentation!

[pljones]

The basics are that you decide what you want to control (e.g. "Metronome Gain"), Right-click, Map MIDI Controller, move the hardware controller, check the numbers are right and adjust as needed - and you're done.

However, a critical factor is MIDI focus. By default, this follows user-interface focus - click on a module, MIDI messages go there, click elsewhere, MIDI messages no longer get to the first module but go to the now-selected module. This means you can use, say, CC1 on Channel 1 to control two different modules by having that module selected when you're using it.

Of course, it also means you need to have the wanted module selected when controlling it. You can turn that off but I generally work with it on. That's because, if you need fixed targets, you can do that per project. For example, you might map Channel 1 to Rack 1, etc. and then you could set the MIDI mapping for Rack 1 to the module within the rack and targets within those module (if it's a MUX in the slot, this goes deeper as needed).

So you can probably do what you want to do - it just needs setting up. If you've a common hardware set up, you can then save this as a project template so it's just there when you need it.

[chrr]

The basics are that you decide what you want to control...

Excellent explanation, thanks a lot!

"MIDI focus": I was wondering about exactly this, and had kind of intuited it worked this way, but never read anything about it before.

"Fixed targets": not what I want, but I hope to find details about this setup anyway in order to better understand how the whole thing works. "You can turn that off": where?

[Michael L]

An entirely different approach that I sometimes use is to have a mouse in my right hand to 'hover over' a parameter and give it focus, and a wireless trackpad under my left hand to change the parameters. If I'm tweaking a lot of parameters, it's easier for me get into the flow.

[pljones]

"You can turn that off": where?

PROJECT -> Automatic MIDI Input Focus

[chrr]

Update (in case Search brings someone here):
I've returned the Minilab MKII because the endless knobs have much too fine a resolution. If you want to do a slow CC change like a filter sweep, it takes 3 or 4 full turns to go from 0 to 127. You can't comfortably go by ear and hand and get a clean automation curve. "Knob Acceleration" in the Midi Control Center is no use here, and the Arturia doc is wrong in stating that this parameter will "specify how many turns of a knob it will takes to change a parameter
value from its minimum value to its maximum." It controls how much a knob will accelerate CC change in relation to the speed with which you turn it. The number of turns for min-max is only a consequence. Even when you set it to "Fast", if you turn it slowly you're f*cked.

Design flaw in an otherwise solid controller. I ordered the Novation LaunchControl XL Mk2 (300-degree knobs) which makes me hope M8 will support the HUI protocol. Also a Korg Microkey 25.