Author Topic: How do I force my MCU controller to initialize ?  (Read 4971 times)

Offline educampi

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 12
How do I force my MCU controller to initialize ?
« on: July 13, 2019, 09:36:37 PM »
Hi,
When opening Cakewalk, I currently have to press play at least once for my controller to start. After that it starts working.
Is there any initialization step that I should put in the preset so that happens when the plugin loads, without needing to press anything?

Thanks!

Offline azslow3

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1679
Re: How do I force my MCU controller to initialize ?
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2019, 11:00:40 PM »
Can you remind me which controller you are using? MCU in general need "Hello" and reply on it, that can be organized.

Offline educampi

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 12
Re: How do I force my MCU controller to initialize ?
« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2019, 08:55:53 PM »
Hi,
It's a Komplete Kontrol s88 mk2 from Native Instruments.

Thanks,

Offline azslow3

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1679
Re: How do I force my MCU controller to initialize ?
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2019, 03:17:08 PM »
Well, you can try to do the same as build-in MCU preset ("Hello" control, if I remember correctly). So send some "MCU hello", wait for reply, reset all monitors (to update the controller) and remember it is initialized. Not sure that will work with NI (I mean not sure it reply to MCU hello, but you can try manually send it with "Specific MIDI send" action and see if something is replied).

Note that NI MK2 can work throw OSC and special (new) MIDI based protocol. So proper DAW integration can use that instead of MCU emulation.

Offline educampi

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 12
Re: How do I force my MCU controller to initialize ?
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2019, 07:32:42 PM »
Thanks, I couldn't make the 'Hello' work, but no problem, having to press play once per Cakewalk session is not the end of the world.

Not sure how to setup OSC for komplete Kontrol, it seems it uses a service 'Native Instruments Host Integration', and well, is over my capabilities at the moment.
Maybe If I learn Java at one point I could try adapting what someone did for Bitwig
https://github.com/git-moss/DrivenByMoss/tree/master/src/main/java/de/mossgrabers/controller/kontrol/mkii

Thanks for your assistance :)

Offline azslow3

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1679
Re: How do I force my MCU controller to initialize ?
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2019, 11:28:11 PM »
For Mk2, OSC is the way. And yes, the only semi-public description is in the plug-in you mention. You do not need to know java... just understand to which port you need to connect OSC and which initialization message to sent. The rest is as for MIDI.

But there is MIDI implementation, common for all keyboards (and it is not Mackie based). There is documentation, but again not public. There is open source plug-in for REAPER which use it.

I have too many projects on hold and fancy project which I try to write at the moment ("auto-accompaniment", as known from many keyboards, but I  want that as a  DAW plug-in. Fixed build-in styles in my Kawai DP are too boring  ;)). So I am not ready to dive into that area myself (and I do not have NI keyboards).