Midi Controller for the machinedrum

hey,
i would like to have all volume sliders at hand… right now switching from instrument to instrument is a bit unintuitive…
i guess the main volume sliders can be controlled by midi?
which midi controller would be good for that with the Machinedrum?
thanks!
emil

https://www.elektronauts.com/t/megacommand-minicommand-resurrection-mclive

hm. would like to have at least 12 controller for direct managing the volume…
not possible?

the mini command just has 4…

From megacommand manual: “The mixer page displays the audio levels, or parameter values of the sixteen MD tracks ofthe current Kit.”

yes, but you just have 4 controllers… like i said, i would like to have at least 12 tracks directly on a midi controller. no paging.
is this not possible with any other controller?

any midi controller will work as long as you can assign the midi cc to the control.
CC# is in the back of the MD manual.

Megacommand uses 1 knob to control the volume for any of the tracks. the other 3 control the filter on any track.

It works by holding down the step button(s) of which track(s) you want to control and turning the knob on the megacommand. no paging as all 16 tracks are on 1 page of the megacommand with level meters

i usually hav the mute function open, so pushing one of the step buttons is not an option…
by the way, the midi command does not seem to be available, so… is it really worth the hassle of building one yourself?

beside this, could someone recommend me a midi controller with at least 12 fader?
most of the new midi controller just have usb connection, no midi out…

Faderfox MX12, it is even designed to be the same size as the classic silver boxes & mk1 analogs.

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Can mute and solo from same mixer page on megacommand.
Won’t even use my MD without it anymore, so yes, worth it.

If you don’t mind building and just need faders: https://16n-faderbank.github.io/

Also any 5$ Usb to midi cable from Amazon works:

That one won’t do sysex tho

I can reassure, getting the megacommand is definitely worth it, might take a bit to get comfortable with the new workflow, but once this happened nothing can beat this midi-controller, as it is specialized for the MD! For faders and such I’d follow @finalform suggestion.

Concerning getting the megacommand, just message @JustinValer he might have some spare units left, that’s how I got mine this year.

Also, if you want to go all-in you, could most probably combine the faderfox and megacommand solution, that would actually boost up the performance level of the MD by quite a bit. Megacommand features two midi sections, which allow using other midi-gear with it aswell ^^

What does the megacommand cost?

IIRC the volume faders have 4 cc’s spread across 4 channels. So make sure, if you want to use your controller without help of a computer, that you can configure the channel each fader sends its cc on within one scene or snapshot or whatever terminology the mf uses.

I think the faderfox controllers are the best midi controllers ever and I built a megacommand earlier this year and love it.
These suggestions are on the more costly side of things though.
Personally I’d first consider using 2 nanokontrols hooked up to a computer that then sends midi to the md or a raspberry/whatstheother one based midi processor/host/merge solution. This would be considerably cheaper and maybe aid you in finding out more about how you want to use your tools. Just some thoughts.

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frnk, you´re absolutely right. its a bit on the costly side…
any suggestions which controller can be used without a computer and which is a bit sheaper? maybe 9 faders would work for the start…

Evolution UC33 comes to mind if you can find one cheap. They are old and discontinued though, but I still see people using them so I guess they hold up okay.

Something like the Akai MidiMix seems like a modern alternative but, like lots of modern gear, is USB only so you’d need some kind of host.

If you want something more compact maybe the Behringer X Touch Mini would fit the bill? Endless rotaries rather than faders but with lights around them and I think you can set up two “pages” of controls for easy access to 16 channels. Again USB only. I have one and it’s not bad for the price, feels a bit cheap but does the job.

thanks! yes i was thinking that you need a host, too. but someone above mentioned that a usb to midi connector should be enough to use them standalone…
any experience with that?

I think there might be a mix up there, as far as I know you can’t just use a standard MIDI-USB cable to allow you to connect a USB-only controller to a MIDI device… you need a USB host of some kind (computer or other hardware) which can talk to the USB device.

I guess it makes it cheaper for manufacturers because they don’t need any electronics to talk MIDI inside the device, just a chip which can speak USB.

There are non-computer options for this though, a Raspberry Pi + a USB-MIDI cable would be a cheap way: https://ejlabs.net/raspberry-pi-as-usb-midi-host/ or there are hardware options like https://www.thomann.de/gb/miditech_usb_midi_host.htm. If you have a computer or iPad/iPhone, you could use it just for this purpose alternatively (I use the MidiPipe application on Mac for this sometimes, there will be ways to do it on iOS, I’m not sure about Android but probably there too).

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thanks a lot.
and i also found this video, explaining what you just said it in lenghty detail :slight_smile: :