Compact MIDI controllers for your fingers are plentiful, but tiny foot controllers are far fewer. map~map aka Marcus Fischer decided to build his own by performing a simple but clever mod of the KORG nanoKEY. Now, personally, I find the nanoKEY the one product in the nano series that’s lacking; it feels more like a QWERTY keyboard than anything resembling a MIDI keyboard. But Marcus transforms it into the world’s most compact and portable foot controller. You may have to be somewhat delicate with your toes, but he says the solution works perfectly!

i’ve been wanting a compact usb midi foot pedal for a long time. i built one out of a usb number pad last year but it was less than ideal. tonight i popped all of the keys but five off of my korg nanokey in order to see how it would work as a pedal. it turned out that it worked really well. i cut some small pieces of plywood out to raise the key height and some scrap plexiglass to cover up the missing keys. a little spray paint and double stick tape and it was all finished.
i think it turned out pretty well. not bad for a cheap keyboard and scrap materials.

279 / nanopedal

Those wooden blocks look quite lovely. KORG, you may have inadvertently created a new product.

Today was full of good news for people interested in carrying pads in the palm of their hand.

Fans of the Nintendo DS in North America, the Korg DS-10 Plus synthesizer for Big N’s game system is now coming to your side of the Pacific Ocean. (That also bodes well, I think, for other parts of the world.) The DS-10 I think really deserves some credit for making a straight-up music title a hit on gaming platforms, and its success certainly surpassed my own expectations. It’s not a game, it’s not an interactive experience, it’s not a music game – it’s actually a synth and music workstation that happens to run on a game platform. The DS-10 Plus beefs up the original’s features, though it now has a commercially-available rival in the form of Rockstar’s Beaterator for PSP.

In Plus for both the DS and DSi:

• MUTE/SOLO built into the SONG mode
• EDIT/PLAY enabled for all modes within the SONG mode

Apparently DSi-exclusive (as I had speculated in the original story on the new edition):

• Twice the analog synths (4 of them, instead of 2)
• Twice the drum machines (8 instead of 4)
• Twice the tracks (12 instead of 6)
• Expanded song mode: programmable track mute, realtime editing (that is, edit parameters inside the song mode
• Two effects layers instead of just the usual effects routing (the equivalent of running two instances of DS-10)

(Previously: Korg DS-10 Plus Coming, with Beefed-Up Features for Nintendo DSi)

I’m also pleased that, if the Joystiq story confirming North American distribution is correct, only the extra effects layers require the newer-model Nintendo DSi. It sounds as though the rest of this functionality works just fine on other DS models.

Correction: As Liam notes in comments, and as I’ve clarified above, many of the new features are indeed DSi-exclusive. That means this is probably worth upgrading if you have a DSi, and a reasonable purchase if you don’t already have DS-10, but something you’ll ignore if you have a pre-DSi system and the earlier DS-10 title. Joystiq apparently mis-interpreted the press release, which is easy enough to do; it’s confusingly written.

XSEED press release

Via Joystiq’s David Hinkle:
XSEED bringing Korg DS-10 Plus to North America

KORG has other new product announcements, and I think both are going to be big hits for them.

The SV-1 stage piano falls well into the category of “why didn’t anyone else do this first?” First, it looks beautiful – finally, a keyboard designed for the stage that actually looks good onstage. (I don’t know, maybe manufacturers assume us keyboardists are ugly?) Second, it combines all the sounds many gigging keyboardists need, instead of an odd assortment that covers some bases but not all, or overkill workstation keyboards that do too much and get too complex. Third, it’s finally a hardware keyboard that learns some recent lessons from software – you need to model the characteristics of the real thing, and people expect good amp models, and the like. Fourth, it’s… okay, it’s just really, really pretty, which I expect will change how everyone feels about the whole package.

Updated: Yes, in fairness, Nord has potent competition waiting for the KORG, and available first. I think either the Nord Stage or Nord Combo win handily if organ sounds are important, and both are designed to double as external controllers if you do like software. The Nord also has more bells and whistles for editing and sound control. On the other hand, the KORG will clearly appeal to people who are in it mainly for the electric piano side of the coin. And pretty as the Nord is – as much as they’re both shades of red – I think the KORG is still pretty darned sexy-looking.

In addition to all the specs and such, KORG has the manual online, so you can get into the details.

SV1 Support

Oh, yeah, just one gripe – I always think it’s silly when you put a window in front of the tube. But I won’t knock it; I expect it helps on the sales floor. At least the side that faces the audience looks like a racecar.

Now, I have just one request for the whole industry: some of us really do like our computers. Can we please, please have one top-flight software keyboard controller that’s worth spending extra dollars on and looks like it means business? Unfortunately, the industry has decided the “pros” want nice hardware keyboards, and anyone using software is probably a basement producer – which is why you see the pros, when they want a software controller, using hardware like the Yamaha Motif for the job even when there’s no actual sound coming out of it.

The other announcement is a redesigned WAVEDRUM. For those of you who haven’t discovered the Cult of Wavedrum (and the rival Roland Handsonic), this may be a bigger deal than you think. As it happens, the electronic music world often wants stuff that doesn’t fall in a predictable category. Digital virtual bongo head? Why, yes, people want that – to play virtual conga or tabla, or just as a controller for other sounds. The new Wavedrum is built with more sounds, more effects, and more sensors for a wider sonic palette, including newer features like physically-modeled sounds and the ability to apply different effects to different parts of the surface. I’m guessing it’s still no match for boutique controllers, but it could give the Handsonic a serious run for its money – not least because it looks a heck of a lot better. (Hey, it matters.)

WAVEDRUM Product Page

Let us know if either of these items strike your fancy and I can dig up more from my Long Island neighbors at KORG.

It aims to do what for sampling what the insanely-popular microKORG keyboard has done for synths: that is, invade bedrooms and bands everywhere, and inspire a kind of love that other hardware finds elusive. But it also combines the micro-keyboard form factor and mic with everything that has made the KAOSS Pad series popular. It’s kind of a bundle of things about KORG that the masses love. So, perhaps that’s why the microSAMPLER leaked well before its introduction. I’m about the last to cover it, I think, so let’s see if I can get right to the point of what the microSAMPLER looks to be, and what it isn’t.

It’s a sampler for keyboard lovers. As the video notes, the world doesn’t need another sampler with pads. The keyboard is put to good use. It’s velocity-sensitive, though with mini keys to keep it compact. You can map different samples to different keys, slicing up your sample so that different lengths (from a 64th note to two measures). You can give keys different one-shot samples, for drum-style sounds. You can play looped samples. And you can map a single sample across the keyboard.

It’s built for capturing live. The mic has been torture-tested in lousy acoustic environments and onstage in the microKORG. It’s the design of the interface that makes this fun – and potentially worth considering over the software solutions that aim to do the same stuff. “Auto-Next” mode lets you tap in BPM from a source and automatically slice on the fly.

That isn’t an iPhone slot. The microSAMPLER has slots in which you can stick stuff, as noted by engadget. Yes, the photos and videos show iPhones and iPods, but they aren’t a dock, and you can put something more interesting in there – like a Game Boy or a PSP running LGPT. Rich Formidoni, the specialist you see in the video, tells me he’s tempted to use them for pretzels or mints. Heck yes. You can even sample the crunching sound. And I have just two words: aftermarket cupholder. (Coming soon to the CDM Store?)

You can resample and add effects. Resampling lets you “bounce” samples with effects or grab your playing to produce new samples. And the effects are borrowed from the KAOSS series, including tasty and distinctive-sounding ring modulator and grain shifter effects.

Loops and patterns. You can overdub pattern recordings into a pattern sequencer, switch between patterns, and take advantage of a loop recording feature derived from the KAOSSILATOR.

It’s really, totally ugly. I mean that as a compliment. Like somewhere deep in the Korg product design archives, the case design for the microSAMPLER has been lurking in a pile of schematic drawings from 1986. Not ugly in the bizarre way, like when KORG unveiled a camouflage version of the microKORG (handy for use in a duck blind). Ugly in a cool way, as if we’ve always had microSAMPLERs. Is “timelessly dated” a phrase?

It’s lo-fi when you want it to be. You can sample at a full 48 kHz (though, oddly, not at 44.1), but you can also crank down to 12 or 6 kHz for retro sampling capabilities. Updated: there is a decimator, too. I didn’t see it in the specs, but the microSAMPLER in fact has a 24-bit to 4-bit decimator effect. You can resample that, so while you can’t natively sample at lower bitrates, you get the same result.

It weighs only 4 pounds, and connects to your computer via USB, with editor/librarian software for Windows and Mac and import of WAV/AIFF files.

It runs on batteries.

Sample memory: 8 banks, 39 samples per bank, 160 seconds maximum per sample, for a total of between 21 and 170 minutes of mono samples depending on your sampling rate. (Check the specs.) That seems just enough to sacrifice some of the flexibility of computers with the accessibility of hardware.

US$750 I believe is list price, so, given what we’ve seen from KORG products before, expect a street below that.

The KORG piece is not without competition. Roland has just unveiled an updated version of its popular SP-404, the SP-404SX. It’s really the opposite of this unit; it’s a conventional, compact rectangle with pads as controllers. (Actually, it’s too bad Roland doesn’t have an option for a gooseneck mic for the SP-404.) At the other end of the spectrum, Native Instruments and Tim Exile have their own software-style solution to how to sample creatively live, using Reaktor under the hood – which means you get some very different-sounding granular effects than what’s accomplished by the KORG DSP. That’s to say nothing of loop samplers in the recent versions of Logic and Live. And I’m personally intrigued to see other takes on how to put together live samplers. In fact, I don’t think you could really compare any of these methods – we’re lucky enough to have commercial and DIY solutions that provide a range of options. So mostly what I’d like to see, aside from looking at the hardware, is people doing interesting creative an artistic work with these capabilities. There’s certainly no excuse for boring performances. Sample on. (Now, I’d better go off and practice.)

Updated: how loop recording works. In fact, you can get LoopStation-style loops which loop at the length of the initial recording. But likely to be more ideal is the ability to match tempo on the fly. Here’s an explanation from product specialist Rich:

The length of a conventional sample won’t determine the system tempo… but when you’re using the Looper effect, which records like a Kaossilator, it will continue to loop the same amount of time you used to record.

It does work the other way around, though. Samples can be set to timestretch on the fly, on an individual basis, to fit whatever the tapped system tempo is.

I think that actually covers what most people want – even if it would be cool to set the primary tempo to the length of a loop.

Getting handy with the $60 KORG Nano Series controllers and Ableton Live keeps getting more sophisticated. I did a "quick hack" using the text-based MIDI Remote Scripts with the nano as an example, and provided a download. Next, Raymond Weitekamp modified those scripts and added a monome for a full-blown Live performance. But now James Waterworth aka Myralfur takes the whole idea to the next level, with a fully custom set of scripts with control of additional channels, more control over tracks, and most importantly, interactive scene triggers.

I’ve built a custom python script for the nanoKontrol based on the hacked python scripts for the Axiom controller decompyled from live 7. It adds the ability to switch up to controlling channels 9-16 by changing midi channel (or changing up to scene 2 on the nanokontrol, which I had sending out on midi channel 2 instead of 1). It also has track on/off, solo/cue, panning, and also has the bottom row of buttons triggering clips on the relevant track, with forward and reverse skipping up and down scenes, and the loop button triggering the selected scene.

Best of all, you really don’t need to know – ahem – what you’re doing with scripting to make this work. Just follow the instructions below, and you’re ready to play – so you can get back to your set.

Now, James has polished off the script and fixed compatibility with Ableton Live 8, and this is ready for public testing. Give it a go and let us know what you think. I’ll work on a permanent home for all of this stuff, but for now, let’s just use comments for any issues. For some insane sounds, be sure to check out Myralfur’s music and DJ mixes on Soundcloud, too! He’s working on a rig that also incorporates a Sony PlayStation 3 controller.

nanoKONTROLMyr

A midi remote script for use with Ableton Live 8 and the Korg nanoKontrol.

Set-Up

1. Download and Unzip the file.

2. Move the nanoKONTROLMyr folder to the MidiRemoteScript folder within your Ableton Live application folder.

3. Open your Korg nano series editor and load the presets within the NanoKontrol Presets folder, over-writing your previous settings.

4. Select nanoKONTROLMyr as a control surface in the midi pane of the preferences window.

Mappings

Banks

Bank 1 controls tracks 1 – 8

Bank 2 controls tracks 9 – 16

Bank 3 maps the encoders to the selected device and provides functions for moving tracks and devices.

Bank 4 is free for mapping to whatever you like, sending on midi channel 4.

Global

The Ninth Slider is Always mapped to Master Volume, regardless of bank or midi channel.

The Ninth Encoder is Always mapped to Cue Volume, regardless of bank or midi channel.

Transport

Transport functions only work when receiving midi cc numbers on channel 16.

Different functions are called when in session view and arranger view for some of the buttons. The Loop button acts as a Shift to allow more functions to be called with the other transport buttons.

Loop = Shift

Play = Play (Scene Launch when Shift held)

Stop = Stop (Stop All Clips when Shift held)

Record = Record (Overdub On/Off when Shift held)

Session Specific

Rewind = Scene Up (Scene Up by 5 when Shift held)

Forward = Scene Down (Scene Down by 5 when Shift held)

Arranger Specific

Rewind = Cue Position Left

Forward = Cue Position Right

Encoders

The Encoders map to the Pans of the tracks. When sent on different midi channel numbers they map to different tracks. Channel 1 maps to tracks 1 – 8 and Channel 2 maps to 9 – 16 etc.

When sent on midi channel 16 they map to the selected device. This works in conjunction with the pads and buttons sending on channel 16 which provide functions for moving track and controlling devices.

Sliders

The Sliders map to the Volumes of the tracks. The tracks they are mapped to changes with the midi channel they are sent on. Channel 1 maps to tracks 1 – 8 and Channel 2 maps to 9 – 16 etc.

There is as yet no function for when they are sent on channel 16.

Top Row of Buttons

The buttons on the top row turn Tracks On/Off. The Ninth Button on the row acts as a Shift and when this is held the other buttons Record Arm the tracks. They function the same as the sliders and encoders in that they map to tracks depending on the midi channel.

However, when sent on midi channel 16 the buttons select and view tracks 1 – 8 mapping the encoders above to the first device in that track.

Bottom Row of Bottons/Pads

The buttons, or pads, on the bottom row Trigger Clips. The Ninth Button on the row acts as a Shift and when this is held the other buttons Stop the relevant clips. They function the same as the sliders, encoders and top row of buttons in that they map to tracks depending on the midi channel.

However, when sent on midi channel 16 the buttons provide various functions for controlling devices.

Button 10 = Track Left

Button 11 = Track Right

Button 12 = Device Left

Button 13 = Device Right

Button 14 = Bank 1

Button 15 = Bank 2

Button 16 = Device On/Off

Button 17 = Clip View/Device View

Download:

nanoKONTROLMyr.zip

dromama from Altitude Sickness on Vimeo.

Turning one knob and bouncing up and down may work for some, but virtuoso electronic performers want more live control out of music. Why? Because we have more fun. Raymond Weitekamp is a monome power user based at Princeton who has organized like-minded monomists. As with Edison’s performance work yesterday, Raymond is working to develop real performance technique.

He’s already got the monome doing more that button mashing, thanks to clever mapping of tilt controls. (Check out the custom housing, too.) But to provide additional timbral controls, Raymond makes use of the Korg nanoKONTROL and the humble MIDI Remote Scripts I made and documented here on CDM. The nano provides some compact, accessible controls for adjusting the active rack. Details below.

If you want to learn from this setup, Raymond is sharing everything he’s doing, so you can take this in a direction that works in your performance rig. Here’s the full setup:

Software:
-smack-a-duck: vimeo.com/4739761
-mlr_aes_mdb: princeton.edu/~rweiteka/mlr_raw_0.2.zip
-midi_bends: princeton.edu/~rweiteka/midi_bends_0.3G_RAW.zip
-midi_bends midi remote script: princeton.edu/~rweiteka/MIDI_Bends_LiveRemote.zip
-nanokontrol midi remote script: createdigitalmusic.com/media/files/korg/korgnano_live.zip
-ableton live

Discussion:
post.monome.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=5458

Samples:
Drums from the “droms” sample pack by ro: post.monome.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=5414
Beach Boys – Mama Says
Viktor Vaughn – Raedawn

Thanks:
ro, tehn, soundcyst, peter kirn

From that discussion thread (well worth checking the whole thing out), here’s the basics on how the bits fit together:

Since it may not be immediately obvious what’s going on, I’ll elaborate for the curious amongst you:

mlr_aes_mdb => soundflower => live
midi_bends => IAC midi bus + midi remote script => live
nanoKontrol => midi remote script => live
smack-a-duck => soundflower => live

I modified Peter Kirn’s midi remote script for the nanoKontrol, and wrote my own for midi_bends. The tilting of the monome on the left (Tuppernicus) is controlling the 8 encoders of whatever the active FX rack is. The knobs on the nanoKontrol control those same 8 encoders. This way, I can use either to control the same FX parameters. I like this a lot better than 1:1 midi mapping, because it allows multiple methods for controlling the same parameters. Tuppernicus also controls the FX toggles (4 FX x 6 channels), drum rack, and active channel/effect rack. The monome on the right (Tupperbot) is running my slightly tweaked (added rowfix) version of mlr_aes_mdb 0.4.

Ableton Live is just one choice, of course. I’m actually trying to get some similar tools together on the Linux side, where this sort of combination fits naturally with the JACK audio server. I hope to have something to share by mid-fall.

The KORG nanoSERIES has a rabid following among many Ableton Live users, and with good reason. The nanoPAD and nanoKONTROL street for about US$60, provide basic knobs + faders + transport (KONTROL) and pads and X/Y control (PAD), plus a fully-featured, cross-platform editor, but still fit in a backpack. They’re small enough to use in coach on an airplane.

Having to open Live templates, however, just to get the mappings you want is a big pain. So, instead I’ve created a basic set of MIDI Remote Scripts and Kontrol Editor templates for Mac and Windows, Live 6.x and later, and wanted to share them with you.

If you’re Windows-based and a big fan of the nano, I will say that I recommend you use something else altogether – the brilliant nativeKontrol. It’s a hell of a lot more sophisticated, gives you more control, and still requires no template:
nanoLive

Of course, there are some advantages to my (otherwise inferior) humble solution. It’s free, it works on Mac, it’s completely editable, and much of the idea was to provide an easy way of learning about MIDI Remote Scripting. (Check out the tutorial below.) Now, knowing CDM readers, I imagine someone out there can improve what I’ve done, so feel free to modify it and please send us a copy of what you’ve created!

korgnano_live.zip [Cross-platform archive; will update with a fancier release later on once I've gotten some feedback]

Ableton Live MIDI Remote Scripting How To: Custom Korg nanoSERIES Control

And, of course, read all the instructions…

Install instructions:

1. For full control, upload the templates to your Korg nanoSeries using the Kontrol Editor, via the Communication menu. (See your manual for more.)

2. Place the proper folder(s) in your User Remote Scripts folder, inside your user preferences folder (NOT the Live program folder). That’s something like (Windows Vista/7):

[Windows boot drive] > Users > [username[ > AppData > Roaming > Ableton > Live [version] > Preferences > User Remote Scripts

or (Mac OS)

[boot drive] > [Library folder] > Preferences > Ableton > Live [version] > User Remote Scripts

3. Start Ableton Live 6.x or later (restart if it was already running)

4. Select the device. Choose Preferences > MIDI/Sync, select Control Surface in the first column (nanoPAD or nanoKONTROL), and then its Input and Output ports. Finally, enable the Control Surface Input for Track and Remote. Note that you can have more than one control surface, so if you’ve got both nano’s plugged into a hub, set them both up!

Usage instructions

nanoKONTROL Scene 1 is for device control. The buttons act as triggers for pads in drum devices, and the faders control the eight Macro encoders in any selected Rack. You’re free to assign the scene 1 knobs to whatever you like.

Scenes 2-3 control tracks: the top button record arms tracks, leaving the button button free for whatever you like (mute, enable/disable). The faders control level on tracks 1-8, and knobs control the first send for each track.

Scene 4 is basically unassigned and ready for custom assignments.

Across all scenes, fader 9 is the master level. Transport buttons are automatically mapped and will work as expected.

Because there are so many controls free, I’ve created a sample template that pre-maps some parameters. In case you prefer to work that way, that template can get you started.

nanoPAD: The nano is much simpler, but I’ve set up the X/Y pad to dynamically trigger the first two parameters in a rack, making this much more fun to use with a Drum Rack. I like having access to all 8 Macros, so I’ve spread them across the four scenes. The pads will dynamically map to the first 16 pads, with 1-12 on scene 1 and 13-16 on the top of scene 2. There was some trickery to allow you to map these pads more or less as you see them in the software, beyond those first 16. I’ve provided alternative versions that allow easier continuous melodic control or keep CC 1 + 2 consistent across all four scenes.

(I didn’t say that very well, so if anyone’s feeling really motivated and wants to do a quick post or video of this or even modify them and make them better, feel free!)

To avoid accidentally triggering parameters with the X/Y pad, you can either turn flam/roll mode on all the time, or make sure instruments you want to play are added to racks first.

For more detailed instructions on Live setup and how MIDI Remote Scripts work, please see the separate tutorial!

Scripts for KORG nanoSERIES and Ableton Live by Create Digital Music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Want to help motivate me to do more stuff like this? (I and others on Planet CDM really will — open to non-KORG, non-Ableton requests!)

When software has “Live” as its name, you know control will be everything. So it’s great that many control surfaces will behave intelligently out of the box with Ableton Live, including devices like the Akai APC40 and Novation ReMOTE SL. If you’ve used one of these products, you’ve no doubt been able to click a device rack in Live and have a blue hand icon appear in the title bar, automatically assigning, say, the first eight macro knobs in a drum rack to your eight hardware encoders.

But what if you have hardware that isn’t covered by this functionality that you want to use? The easiest solution is something called MIDI Remote Scripting. It’s been available since Live 6, but it seems not many people know that it’s there or how to use it. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s such an easy hack that it’s worth at least exploring.

For this tutorial, I’ll take the example of the Korg nanoKONTROL and nanoPAD. They’re a likely candidate, at about US$60 street each and with some handy controls (kontrols?) for mixer channels and drum racks. But you could take any hardware and apply the same technique — even something you’ve built yourself — so long as it sends simple MIDI messages.

The upshot: you get simple “automap” functionality without something specific like Automap (or drivers, in general).

Required for this tutorial: Ableton Live 6.x or later. I’ve tested only the full version of Live on Mac and Windows, though I think at least some of the “lighter” versions should work, as well.

This is a long article but a relatively short and easy process. I’m just giving you everything you could possibly want to know about the nanoSERIES and MIDI Remote Scripting!

Introducing MIDI Remote Scripts

Ableton Live uses compiled Python scripts to provide custom support for controllers, as I understand it. I’ve never looked into this specific functionality, and generally you wouldn’t unless you’re a hardware vendor working with Ableton.

As of Live 6, though, there’s a hack provided for everything else, called MIDI Remote Scripts. They’re simple text files that let you specify mappings of MIDI note, Control Change, and channel messages to common parameters in Live. This text file is compiled into a Python script for the hardware when Live launches. Basically, the Remote Script covers:

• The 16 visible pads in Drum Racks
• Device Rack encoders (the 8 Macros for each Device Rack)
• Bank parameters for switching between banks of encoders in devices that aren’t in racks
• Volume faders 1-8, plus the master volume setting
• Sends for tracks 1-8 (just the first two sends)
• Track arm buttons for recording into tracks 1-8
• Transport controls

Now, if you’re not familiar with Device Racks and Drum Racks, and how to use them for instruments and effects, you should absolutely go brush up now. Really, go ahead – I’ll wait. The rack functionality introduced in Live 6 is essential, because it allows you to take complex sets of effects and instruments and map them intelligently to just eight controls.

You’ll notice there’s plenty of stuff that’s not on here. There’s nothing to do with clips. There’s no way of banking up to track counts higher than 8. There’s no way to easily bank between sets of pads in Drum Racks with more slots. There’s no headphone level. There’s record arm, but not track enable/disable. I could go on…

But you do get a pretty decent base set of functionality if the list above looks appealing. Since you’re just using MIDI, you can manually assign any additional remaining hardware MIDI controls to your favorite parameters.

And the most important thing about all of this is that parameters for the Device Rack are dynamic. So while there are eight of them, that covers any selected device anywhere in your set. Click on the device, and the blue hand lets you know the device is under your control. Whichever controls you’ve chosen — say, eight huge mechanical knobs on a DIY hardware controllers — will map automatically.

Finding and Editing the MIDI Remote Scripts

I do mean finding. Your first job is to find the MIDI Remote Script location on your drive.

First, here’s where it’s not: it’s not in the Ableton program folder itself. There is, in fact, a User Remote Scripts folder in there, but it’s not the one you want to use. (I bring this up only because I tried to put my customized text file in that folder, had my script show up in Live’s preferences, but then couldn’t understand why nothing was working. Learn from my mistake, and be wiser.)

Instead, you’ll want to navigate to your user preferences folder.

On Windows Vista/Windows 7, my Live preferences live in:

[Windows boot drive] > Users > Peter > AppData > Roaming > Ableton > Live 8.04 [or your version] > Preferences > User Remote Scripts

(Yours may be in Local rather than Roaming, depending on whether you installed Live for all users. On XP, the path is similar, but in your boot drive’s Documents and Settings.)

On Mac:

[Library folder] > Preferences > Ableton > Live 8.04 [or your version] > User Remote Scripts

Note that on the Mac, in similar fashion to the Remote/Roaming difference on Windows, you may need either the Library folder at the root level of your boot drive or the Library folder inside your user folder (the one you see when you click Home, Documents, etc.).

You’ll find two files in that folder. One is a how-to text file, as pictured above, though it doesn’t tell you that much. The other is a sample file.

To create your custom script, you’ll want to duplicate the UserConfiguration.txt script and place it in a folder with the name you want to appear in Live. So, for my custom nanoKONTROL script, I have:

User Remote Scripts > nanoKONTROL > UserConfiguration.txt

Note that the new file will still be called UserConfiguration.txt.

Customizing in the nanoSERIES Editor

Let’s take a quick side trip to set up our KORG nanoSERIES controllers the way we want.

Out of the box, the KORG nanos don’t come with any software disc, because you don’t need them – just plug them in, and they work. And, in fact, if you’re happy with the default MIDI assignments, you never need to go beyond this. In this case, though, I was interested in remapping some stuff, particularly on the nanoKONTROL buttons, so I went ahead and started editing.

You can head to the Korg Nano site and navigate through support, or even easier is to head to this direct link:

Support Results for nanoSERIES

(If you’re outside the Americas, there may be a different link.)

Click Downloads and choose Kontrol Editor for Mac or PC. (You may also want to grab KORG’s own USB MIDI Driver.)

The Kontrol Editor is really quite nice to use and surprisingly powerful for a $60 piece of hardware. At the top, you’ll see buttons for the scenes on the nanoPAD and nanoKONTROL. There’s a visual representation of the controller which, by default, displays MIDI Control Change and note number assignments. (To change what this preview displays, select the dropdown just below the picture of your nano.) The Browse tab allows you to navigate your file structure, but keep Control selected to change assignments.

You can safely ignore the boxes above the controller for now, which control scene settings and channels. Instead, focus on everything on top of and below the controller. On the nanoKONTROL, the faders’ CC assignments are just below the faders. (Look carefully; that can be a bit confusing at first.)

I’m providing my download of my template, so you don’t have to muck with this, necessarily. But here was my strategy:

nanoKONTROL I was most interested in reassigning the buttons next to the faders. Selecting “Momentary” lights up the button only as you’re pressing it; “Toggle” has it turn on and off. Note that this doesn’t actually impact the messages it sends; just the lights. For Scene 1, I wanted these buttons to double as triggers for my drum pads, so I changed all of them to Assign Type: Notes and adjusted Button Behavior to Momentary. For the remaining scenes, they’re record arm buttons, so those I left as Control Change assignments and Toggle behavior.

The tricky part of this is that KORG has nine faders and encoders instead of eight, and everything in Live is grouped in eight. I made the ninth fader a master. You might manually assign the knob above that ninth fader to headphone out.

nanoPAD All the fun in the nanoPAD editor is to be had on the X/Y controller. The two boxes that are pre-assigned represent X control and Y control on the pad. The third box allows you to define an additional controller for touch across the whole pad. On the pads themselves, note that you can assign up to eight(!) control change or note messages, not just one.

For this project, I just wanted to adjust the note settings to map more intelligently across my Drum Racks, which I’ll explain with the download. That means, unfortunately, going through one by one and changing pitch assignments. For the pad, I’m of two minds. You can keep those CC assignments consistent across all four scenes, or use each scene to control different parameters for a total of eight (conveniently, the number of macros on a Live Device Rack) Note that the scene descriptions at top are just text you add, so the “Drum Kit” or “Chromatic” labels are really just suggestions; they have no functional purpose. You can change them if you want, but the editor is the only place you’ll see them.

User Configuration Settings

Lastly, let’s walk through the changes to make to UserConfiguration.

[Globals]:

For InputName and OutputName, it’s essential that you match exactly the text listed by a MIDI device when it’s connected to your computer. For the nanos, that’s “nanoPAD” and “nanoSERIES.” You can verify this by opening your Live preferences and checking under MIDI.

You also need to double-check your GlobalChannel. Numbering starts at zero, so channel 1 is channel 0, and 10 is 9. You can plug multiple nanoSERIES devices into a USB hub — even an unpowered hub, the power draw is so low — so I like to assign different channels to different devices to avoid confusion.

In the rest of the document, any channel that references “-1″ is equivalent to the default. For that reason, I recommend leaving channel assignments along and just changing the default global channel.

Pads and Device Controls

Here’s the fun part: you can set up pads and Device Controls (Macro) encoders to dynamically control the active device. Choose note messages for the pads, and Control Change messages (with the associated numbers) for the encoders.

Here’s the trick: you need to have everything assigned, or it won’t work. In other words, you can’t assign just the first few encoders or just the first few pads, or, oddly, Live will refuse to recognize this as a mappable device.

Banks and Locking

I didn’t find Banks as useful. Banks allow you to choose banks of unassigned controllers. That can get confusing, though, so I still recommend using Device Racks to manually pick and choose which macros you want assigned.

There is, however, an assignment for LockButton. This allows you to pick a button that will “lock” your dynamic controls to one device. So, for instance, let’s say you have a rack of effects you want to control with your nanoKONTROL. When you’re at home in the studio, you might want to mouse around and click different devices for tangible control. But live onstage, you want just one live performance effects rack. Lock the device, and you won’t accidentally click something else and lose control.

I didn’t assign this on the nanoKONTROL because there wasn’t a convenient parameter to assign, but you can still lock a Device from within Live.

[MixerControls]

This gives you limited automatic control of mixer levels (for channels 1-8), sends (1-2 for each of those channels), record enable (for arming tracks), and the master mixer level. I like having a master to control, so having that ninth fader on the nanoKONTROL wound up being very nice.

Now, it is a little annoying to be limited to eight tracks, but there are two important factors here. Firstly, this is a dynamic assignment, meaning you don’t need to manually assign anything or make a special Live session template. That means you can mix and match MIDI and audio tracks arbitrarily, which you can’t do with a template. Secondly, sometimes having the arbitrary limit of eight channels is ideal in live performance — and it means you don’t have to bank around.

Transport

This winds up working perfectly: you get play, stop, record, forward scrub, reverse scrub, and even a loop on/off switch. Of course, you don’t get some of the other parameters you get from an Akai APC40, like turning on and off MIDI overdub. But, hey, you spent sixty bucks on the Korg and you really can’t balance an APC40 and your laptop on Greyhound.

Setting Up Live

Once your MIDI Remote Script is in the proper folder, your device will show up automatically in Live. That’s especially cool if you’re a DIYer; you could have Maria’s Arcade Button Mashapalooza show up if you want.

Select a configured device just as you would any other control surface. Choose Preferences > MIDI/Sync, select Control Surface in the first column (nanoPAD, for instance), and then its Input and Output ports. Finally, enable the Control Surface Input for Track and Remote. This will allow you to manually override assignments if you want, and to assign controls on your hardware you didn’t assign in the MIDI Remote Script, both via the usual MIDI Map method.

Because I want to be able to easily record-toggle multiple tracks — and because anything else will mean the “toggle” lights on the nanoKONTROL are wrong — I also like to turn off “exclusive” arming in preferences. This way, you can record-enable multiple tracks at once, so that when you want to feed MIDI into your soft synth on track 7, your vocoded vocal track on track 2 doesn’t immediately switch off. Go to Preferences > Record/Warp/Launch > Record > Exclusive and make sure Arm is unlit. (Pictured above.)

One last tip, as suggested by Mike Hatsis of Trackteam Audio: use the Drum Rack’s Auto Select feature, and you’ll automatically toggle the interface to whatever part of the rack’s various pads you happen to trigger. (This works in Live 7 and later only.) This way, you can easily toggle more than the 16 visible pads. On my nanoPAD template, for instance, I’ve already gone to the trouble of mapping the remaining scenes, so the first 16 pads map automatically, and then scenes 2-4 can access other pad slots.

To enable Auto Select, make sure the Chain is visible in the rack, then click the small A button as pictured above.

Alternatives, Future

Now, go forth and have fun!

Granted, this isn’t a perfect control mechanism. If you need to bank more easily between tracks, control a whole lot of mechanisms that aren’t here, focus on clips, or … well, do anything other than the stuff described above … it’s not ideal.

On the other hand, I find this resolves about half of the situations that would otherwise require manual MIDI assignments and, worse, templates rather than dynamic assignment. For basic MIDI tasks, it’s a hack, but a useful hack.

What about the future? HyperControl from M-Audio and Automap from Novation both have more sophisticated integration. The Akai APC40 goes further than previous devices as far as dynamic clip triggering and shortcuts. And other integration is possible with Ableton’s own scripts than what you can do here, although you don’t necessarily get support for all the hardware you’d like to use.

MIDI Remote Scripting is frozen in time in Live 6, so as its own documentation says, there’s some stuff missing. I don’t expect it to be updated, however — too bad, as it is a nice hack.

The Ableton Live API is likely where future action is at. While it’s not an official or supported feature, I have no reason to suspect that it’s going away. On the contrary, you should be able to use API functions controlling clips and most functions of the user interface in Live dynamically. This functionality will be baked into Max for Live if you’re a Max user, but should also be accessible via the hacker-spported, community-based Python API wrapper. Most promisingly, hackers have already wrapped this Python API into both MIDI and OSC implementations, meaning you should have a choice between using Max for Live and supporting this functionality directly from hardware, even without M4L.

I’ll be documenting what’s coming very soon, both on the Max and Python/OSC sides. In the meantime, here’s a preview of what the API will do from our friend Andrew Benson at Cycling ‘74. Andrew is himself a visualist, so I expect we’ll see some nifty visual applications.

Max-for-Live: A Sneak Peak at the Live API features

And looking beyond even Live, I think we’re now in a world in which we’re finally moving beyond simple MIDI learn. That’s a big relief. Next stop: OSC.

KORG owners: Downloads coming in a separate article later today!

Corrections/tips: More to add? Let me know and I’ll update the story. -Ed.

Korg’s nano series has been a huge hit. Now it’s Akai’s turn, with their own mini USB pad and keyboard controllers. (Note: given lengthy product turnaround in this industry, these may actually have been designed before the nano – but that’s not as important, ultimately, as which models you like.) The Akai assumes you want something that’s a bit bulkier than the Korg nano line – with, presumably, a payoff in playability.

MusicRadar gets the scoop on the mini models to be announced at Summer NAMM. (Really? People still go to that?) Our friend Ben Rogerson says Akai tells them these are expected Q3 of this year – just in time for back to school. Matrixsynth posted the full press release though we do expect official details Friday.

Update: Akai tells CDM they will make the official announcement on Friday, by which time we’ll have more details to share.

The LPK25 keyboard looks like the biggest competitor here. Korg’s competing nanoKEY sacrifices quite a bit of playability to fit into an ultra-compact space, with an action that — while, incredibly, velocity-sensitive — feels like a laptop keyboard. The LPK25 has some sort of synth action. That ups the weight to “under a pound,” and it remains to be seen whether Akai will match Korg’s unbelievable US$60 street price. But for actually playing a keyboard, the LPK looks like it could be the one to beat – while still fitting on a coach airplane seat tray along with your netbook. And it’s got an arpeggiator, too, not that you really need one with something that only works with software.

The LPD8 is interesting, too, with 8 pads and 8 knobs. But here, to me the Korg may continue to reign supreme. I don’t see scene controls on the Akai LPD8, for one. (I thought the Akai didn’t have scenes, but it looks like program changes 1-4 are that — albeit minus those handy LEDs on the Korg.) Korg’s ultra-light pads — unlike the keyboard — are eminently playable, and feel fantastic. And while the Akai knobs are nice, I imagine I’ll still prefer the hold/flam/roll buttons and X/Y trackpad controller on the Korg. Korg also has some terrific software editing functions. Of course, some people would rather have knobs. That’s why choice is good.

That said, the LPK25 promises to fill a niche I’ve been waiting for someone to fill — a tiny keyboard you can throw in your backpack for programming tunes in a coffee shop.

Stay tuned – I’m finishing up not only a mini (ahem) review of the nanos this week, but also some new templates and scripts that make them easier to use with Ableton Live.

Fans of the Nintendo DS may have been immune to the siren song of Nintendo’s tweaked DSi model. Unfortunately, I have a feeling a bunch of you are about to upgrade your handheld game system. Why? Because the folks at AQ Interactive are doing an upgraded version of the DS-10 software synth for the game platform, now on the DSi. Palm Sounds gets the scoop.

New in this version:

• Twice the analog synths (4 of them, instead of 2)
• Twice the drum machines (8 instead of 4)
• Twice the tracks (12 instead of 6)
• Expanded song mode: programmable track mute, realtime editing (that is, edit parameters inside the song mode

They’re also announcing distribution through retailers. The new features appear to be platform-specific — that is, all this doubling business appears to be thanks to the greater horsepower of the DSi. My guess – though this is unconfirmed – is that if you can get this for the pre-DSi DS, you won’t be able to switch to the “Dual Mode.” The other slight disappointment is that it doesn’t sound as though online features or collaborative features have been enhanced. On the other hand, AQ is promising that they’ll be in brick-and-mortar retailers, not the online-only distribution they had on the original. I’m hopeful that may also mean distribution outside the US — either for an online DSi purchase, perhaps, or for the cartridge. (The DSi still supports physical carts – hence the mention of retailers.)

The best part of all of this, though, is watching Nobuyoshi Sano – the composer/arranger behind Namco games like Ridge Racer and Tekken – do a Steve Jobs keynote impression.

Via Brandon at the best-game-blog Offworld, who notes that in US dollars this represents a $10 discount.