Need midi controller recommendations for A4 & Octa Live PA

Ritec · 2015-02-12T18:12:17.000Z

TL;DR what’s the best controller for Octatrack and A4 ?

Hello there, recently I’ve been settling on the “ultimate” Live PA setup. I I’ve come to the conclusion that the best setup for me would be
an MPC2500 with midi outputs to an Octatrack and to The Analog A4. The MPC would be the master controller.

I already have all these machines and I am a huge MPC fan and have used it as the brains of my operation for a while, however I would like to have more faders, knobs and buttons in order to control the Octatrack and the A4 through the MPC. That said, I am looking for a controller to do this with… Right now I’ve been eyeing the Nektar Panorama P1, but does anyone else have any recommendations?

Ideally I would love to have INDEPENDENT faders for all tracks in the Octatrack and the A4 as well as mute unmute and at least one or 2 more knobs to be mapped to effect send / pan / lfos etc etc.

Any ideas?

MK7 · 2015-02-12T18:52:08.000Z

MPD32!

Just to give an impression - I used the following mapping in a setup like yours:

Bank A:

Faders: highpass filters for tracks 1-8
Knobs: Pitch and Hold for tracks 2-5 (drums except kick)

Bank B:

Faders: 1: highpass filter (kick), 2-8 lowpass filter
Knobs: A4 performance mode knobs

Bank C:

Faders: 1: -"-, 2-8 cue send (external delay)
Knobs: Rate and internal fx send for tracks 2-5

Tracks 6-8 contained pickup machines. That’s why I did not map any knobs to these tracks. Pickup record start and stop was mapped to drum pads.

Drum pads:
Bank A: OT track trigs + pickup start/stop
Bank B: OT pattern changes or OT chromatic mode
Bank C: A4 auto mode
Bank C: A4 perf mode

Sometimes with a MidiPal between MPD32 and OT to map aftertouch, velocities and note off on tracks 1-8 to cue send, amp vol and amp vol=0, respectively.

If this setup involves to much jumping between pages for your taste, just combine the MPD32 with a MIDI keyboard! MPD32->OT, keyboard->A4. Depending on your budget, I recommend the Behringer (!) UMX250 (it’s not the best company, but this keyboard feels great to me) or Akai MPK225.

EDIT: I own a Rytm now. That’s why the MPD32 controls the Rytm, the Rytm and the Rytm atm

Ritec · 2015-02-12T19:29:40.000Z

That mapping sounds sweet!!
You do need to convert the usb midi to 5 pin midi correct?
If so how do you handle this?

Elektronot · 2015-02-12T19:40:13.000Z

The 5k has 4 sliders and 8 knobs.

MK7 · 2015-02-12T20:12:16.000Z

Thx. No, the MPD32 has Midi ports

Ritec · 2015-02-12T20:22:22.000Z

""Ritec"":

That mapping sounds sweet!!
You do need to convert the usb midi to 5 pin midi correct?
If so how do you handle this?

I hate the 5k with a passion.
this is my 5k smoking up, it happened twice.

guga · 2015-02-12T20:51:32.000Z

wooo…serious problem there for akai

edit: usually these devices have to pass controls and what not…can’t believe they were/are putting out such a thing, which is also, really dangerous…can’t imagine someone not knowing about this issue, turning on all the gears, leave the studio for a couple of minutes and risk that it all goes on fire

bluewolfse7en · 2015-02-12T21:16:47.000Z

Bitstream 3x if you can find one. Still a few lurking in music shop storerooms & they pop up on ebay from time to time.
Love mine

image.jpg1024×768 159 KB

guga · 2015-02-12T21:20:49.000Z

would be really nice if they would start to produce it again…i never managed to get one but always though it’s a great MIDI controller.

Ritec · 2015-02-12T21:36:39.000Z

""guga"":

wooo…serious problem there for akai

edit: usually these devices have to pass controls and what not…can’t believe they were/are putting out such a thing, which is also, really dangerous…can’t imagine someone not knowing about this issue, turning on all the gears, leave the studio for a couple of minutes and risk that it all goes on fire

Yes I saw this in the octatrack thread about midi controller and it looks amazing, but unfortunately it’s hard to find… the panorama 1 seems like the most similar thing that is available out there. I was thinking about going with that.
[[i]http://www.nektartech.com/Nektar%20site/Products/P1/P1-hero.png[/i]](http://www.nektartech.com/Nektar site/Products/P1/P1-hero.png)

Elektronot · 2015-02-12T21:39:03.000Z

I hear ya. I wouldn’t buy Akai unless it was vintage, or Push.

The Nektar stuff is hella plasticy FYI

Ritec · 2015-02-12T21:59:07.000Z

Yes also it does not have 5 pin midi requiring extra equipment to translate it.

Ritec · 2015-02-13T04:20:46.000Z

Does anyone have any experiece with the novation zero xl mk2 http://www.zzounds.com/item–NOVZEROSLMK2?siid=86016 ?

Ma-chew · 2015-02-13T04:53:37.000Z

I use an Axiom 49 at the moment and it’s doing the trick.
Although I am looking to replace it for something with more control.

The axiom 49 has 9 Faders/Sliders I use for track volume on the OT
It also has buttons below the sliders that I use to arm one shot recorder trigs on each track except button 8 and 9.

I use a different zone to use the key bed to control the A4.

Pretty simple.

XponentOne · 2015-02-13T09:24:18.000Z

Wow my jaw hit the floor at that 5k - and they are refusing to replace it, only repair it?!?! Its not like its a cosmetic issue or something, jesus!

Donald_Joseph · 2015-02-13T15:12:25.000Z

I have a Bitstream 3x and it does what we all want our midi controllers to do (fully assignable faders, knobs, etc.), but with it comes a lot of frustration wrapping your brain around the editor and finding a usable version. I have a WinXP VM on my Mac just for editing my Bitstream…

Honestly, I’m contemplating the Novation Control XL since it fully (and easily) assignable and my Kenton USB Host will give me the DIN ports I need to connect to my Elektrons. I purchased the Kenton USB Host to use with the Midi Fighter Twister. Not a big fan of the Midi Fighter gear, but the encoders can be configured to reset when you click them which is perfect for the Performance pads of the Rtym. I figure the Novation Cont XL will be easier to edit than the bitstream, there’s support, it’s more portable and I didn’t really use any of the other fancy features of the bitstream like the arpeggiator, LFO, etc due to the editor being a bit discouraging.

I contemplated the Novation Zero SL, but they’re a little bulky and I’ve heard stories of them losing their mappings.

rozzbud · 2015-02-13T16:15:02.000Z

launch control XL doesn’t work with usb-midi hosts

Ritec · 2015-02-13T20:07:00.000Z

""Ma-chew!!"":

I use an Axiom 49 at the moment and it’s doing the trick.
Although I am looking to replace it for something with more control.

The axiom 49 has 9 Faders/Sliders I use for track volume on the OT
It also has buttons below the sliders that I use to arm one shot recorder trigs on each track except button 8 and 9.

I use a different zone to use the key bed to control the A4.

Pretty simple.

They repaired it once and then it happened again… that’s when I filmed it. The second time they refused to fix it even though it’s certainly a factory defect. This happened several years ago, about 4 or so… it was terrible, most unproductive time of my life in terms of music creation, also a huge waste of money and time given that I bought the machine for $2,500 an could not use it for half the time I had it… what a waste. Anyhow, that’s the past.
Now to the future yeah I am now between the novation sl mkII or theat mpd32.

Ritec · 2015-02-16T03:23:45.000Z

So I ended up buying an Ohm RGB Slim from ebay for $285 which is a great price, but dumb me did not realize the slim only had usb out until it was too late. Oh well… IS there a cable out there that will convert USB B to midi in out?
If not I’ll use it for a while and just resell it, can probably even get a couple bucks out of it.

rozzbud · 2015-02-17T12:00:45.000Z

if you use the search engine you’ll find threads about the ohm line. The limiting factor as a hardware controller is that the assignments of cc’s and/or midi channels are only partially customizable.