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Montage Controls Locked Out (Fixed - FYI)

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Jason
Posts: 7910
Illustrious Member
Topic starter
 

Skip to the solution: Make sure "Local Control" under "MIDI I/O" is "On" if the below happens to you.

An interesting issue here. Most of the buttons are working and interacting with the GUI. The Number A [1]-16 and Number B,C [1]-[8] are working, DATA DIAL is working, recorder buttons (play, record, etc) are working, ARP and Motion Seq ON/OFF are working, the [TONE] [EQ/FX] [ARP/MS] as well as [ASSIGN] (left of superknob) buttons are working.

Not working: faders, assignable knobs, superknob, scene buttons, [ASSIGN 1] [ASSIGN 2], [MOTION SEQ HOLD] [MOTION SEQ TRIGGER], and the keyboard keys.

I have MIDI disconnected currently.

When I say "not working" I mean that turning knobs or moving faders or pressing buttons does not make the LEDs assigned to those buttons/faders/knobs move or change. For the piano keys - no sound comes out although I can change to any preset since the touchscreen and [CATEGORY SEARCH] button works.

The keyboard is getting "scanned in" because I can hold down the bottom key which turns off auto poweroff.

If I setup a dummy destination with "auto select" on - when I press a key hard I can see aftertouch gets recognized.

Changing presets does change the LEDs for superknob, faders, assignable knobs - so the control of the LEDs is working fine.

NOTE: figured out the issue - "local control".

One more "how I got here" statement: I was in the middle of looking at the "Marine Life" PERFORMANCE following along one of BM's posts. I didn't make any changes to the settings, config, etc - but I did notice I could not - no matter what I did - get the drums to start playing. I was looking at all the requirements (velocity, range, master and part ARP on, etc), zone settings, etc and still no drums. I wanted to hear some of the things BM was saying about the special effects in the drum kit. I checked the routing, mixer, etc. All looked good. Pressing keys on the keyboard made other PARTs sound. This part just wasn't working. I looked at XA, clues in the destination curves - nothing. Then I just powered off and back on. Upon powering back on - none of the keys worked and the behavior was as described above.

If the problem was the local control - it seems there's a mode where local control can be "half way" engaged - some kind of corner case. One of those "cannot reproduce" kind of flukes. Maybe it's already a known/fixed thing.

That is a cool drum kit now that I have Montage working again.

 
Posted : 01/11/2016 4:35 pm
Bad Mister
Posts: 12304
 

To inherit settings from a Part or not to inherit settings from a Part
A few things, in you use the [CATEGORY SEARCH] function to "Part Search" as in finding the "Seafloor Kit" one of the Easter Eggs found inside a Performance - this time in the "Marine Life" Performance, the "ARP PLAY ONLY" function maybe active. "ARP PLAY ONLY" is usually activated on Drum Kits under arpeggio control so that if you STOP the Arp, you don't have to hear a different drum under every key you press- it allows this sound to only play in response to Note-on data from the Arpeggiator.

When using the CATEGORY SEARCH function "Part Search" you have the option of copying the Part with or with certain programming... That is what the "Parameter with Part" option is about. If you deselect ARP/MS you copy the Part without inheriting the Arpeggio and Motion Sequence setup from the Source Performance. So had you cleared the "Arp/MS" option, the Kit would have been copied in without inheriting the "Arp Play Only" setting set to On.

See "Using Montage Category Search"

All Controllers should work Local On or Local Off
Also you want to be able to operate your Super Knob, Assign Knobs, Faders, etc., etc., etc., when LOCAL CONTROL is On or Off.

Of course, they all work when Local Control is On. (This is the normal standalone situation, the Local keyboard is directly connected to the Local tone generator).
When you connect to a computer for MIDI recording, it is standard operating procedure to break the Local Control connection. This way all physical controllers including note-one, and all the control devices generate MIDI messages that go OUT via USB to the computer, initially.

In order to complete the circuit so the messages arrive back at the Montage tone engine, you must select (highlight) a MIDI Track set to Receive MIDI from Montage keyboard (port 1), and echo or thru the data back to the Montage tone generator on the Midi channel the data came in on... If you are in Multi mode, that means the Cubase MIDI Track would be set to "Any".

But you definitely want to be able to use all your controllers whether in Standalone (Local Control On) or one of the two MIDI RECORD Quick Setups: for normal and arp record.

So the solution is Local Control On works because that's normal stand alone, but if recording normal MIDI play or arp MIDI data, you want to ensure the completed routing to and back from a MIDI Track properly setup to route the signal back to the Montage tone engine.

Hope that helps.

 
Posted : 01/11/2016 7:35 pm
Jason
Posts: 7910
Illustrious Member
Topic starter
 

Phil, I did see when I was having the issue that "ARP play only" was ON. I did try it both ways but knew that "on" was correct. The ARP list showed some as "mute 4/4" so I selected the arps that were listed as dub step. I'm away from the board to see if the ARP list is the same. Didn't think ARP/ms inherit was cleared but I can double check. I never really use that feature outside of when I was learning what could be done but it's easy to errantly touch so I'll double check.

The more odd thing was that the keyboard was not responsive as described until I changed local control and this behavior stayed the same through multiple power cycles.

Was passing on what fixed this as a PSA. Like I was saying - a metastable type state.

Thanks for your feedback.

 
Posted : 01/11/2016 9:09 pm
Bad Mister
Posts: 12304
 

No, no, the default "Parameter with Part" is initially selected for ARP/MS, for SCENE and for ZONE, (green), you would have to have opted out of copying those settings. So when you selected the Kit you "opted in" to copy the assigned Arpeggio settings, including the "Arp Play Only" setting. So in Marine Life this Kit is set to only play from the arpeggio phrases assigned to its Arpeggiator.

"Arp Play Only" is a choice you make when you decide how you are going to use the kit. If your goal is to checkout the kit, you probably want to play it it manually, that is, ....not have it set to "Arp Play Only" On.

So which is the correct setting is really totally dependent on your goal for copying/using this Drum Kit.

So by using the default setting, and opting in, on ARP/MS (without knowing it), you also brought along the 8 Arpeggio phrases assigned to this Part in the source Performance (Marine Life). The Arp phrase "Mute 4/4" brings us to a very important Arpeggio concept. The concept of a musical rest. The "Mute" arpeggio phrase types come in different Time Signatures, and exist so that you can program the arpeggio to "rest" for a particular Part, during a section. A rest, like in music is a pause, this is different from an on/off command that would stop the Arpeggiator. If you used a Off command, you would require both an On command and another note-on trigger to restart the Arpeggiator. The "Mute 4/4" allows the arp to continue to run but not sound the drums, so when an Arp Select or (Scene) button with a phrase is recalled, it will simply begin to play the phrase, right on time, no new note-on event necessary to restart.

The "Mute X/X" Arps are the very final ones among the 10,000. Once you discover these, you realize, of course you'd have to have these... They are "rests". Allows to properly pause and bring back in instruments under arp control.

 
Posted : 02/11/2016 1:09 am
Jason
Posts: 7910
Illustrious Member
Topic starter
 

Bad Mister wrote:

No, no, the default "Parameter with Part" is initially selected for ARP/MS, for SCENE and for ZONE, (green), you would have to have opted out of copying those settings.

I was simply playing the PERFORMANCE as-is. The above involved no copying or otherwise modifying the preset. I had thought the "Parameter with Part" had no place in what I was communicating - but trusted maybe I missed something - but looks like I may have misled you if I was not clear about using the "Marine Life" preset verbatim - just to hear the drum sounds. My initial road was just to play - set scenes maybe the drums (ARP) would turn on. No editing. I checked various parameters which would affect this. Good that I do not have to look at "Parameter with Part" since that was a misread of my steps.

I didn't really "bring in" anything - considering all actions were taken by:

1) [CATEGORY SEARCH]
2) TS: magnifying glass, type "Marine Life", select "All" as filter
3) [ENTER]
4) Press white and black keys - no drums
5) Press SCENE [1]-[8] - lay arm across keys - no drums
6) Start looking at settings
a) Check master/part arp is ON - check all arp settings - toggle from default setting to alternate to try to "kick start"
b) Drum kit volume, range, routing, etc.
c) Offset values (if control curves are involved)
d) Verify keyboard control
e) Power cycle (after this, even though previously some PARTs of the "Marine Life" PERFORMANCE were sounding - now no PARTS of any PERFORMANCE sounded and no assign/SK/faders would move the LEDs as described even trying to "catch" the setting by full 0-127-0-127 rotate or slide)
f) Look at more global MIDI settings

Really, an intentional look through the possibilities (not shotgun). Local control did fix the described issue.

I can return to the "locked out" condition (faders/assignable knob/superknob) by turning off local control of the keyboard. This makes sense to me. Not sure how it got that way and have to think/assume user error [accidental hit]. It's odd that there was the inbetween time when half of "Marine Life" would play and drums would not.

Keep in mind that preceding this, I did a bulk load and had been otherwise doing other MIDI experiments which could very well explain the "lost in the woods" nature of the keyboard response when "Marine Life" was halfway working and not sounding drums in spite of what appeared to be a valid configuration to play the arp. It was like this "from the get go" of selecting the PERFORMANCE (preset).

The Mute arps - was just saying in my debug was sticking with ARPs that did not show the mute/rests. Generally inferring the right meaning for what these ARPs did. I wanted to have the most active drum ARP selected.

 
Posted : 02/11/2016 4:50 am
Mr. Spock
Posts: 0
Eminent Member
 

Bad Mister wrote:

But you definitely want to be able to use all your controllers whether in Standalone (Local Control On) or one of the two MIDI RECORD Quick Setups: for normal and arp record.

So the solution is Local Control On works because that's normal stand alone, but if recording normal MIDI play or arp MIDI data, you want to ensure the completed routing to and back from a MIDI Track properly setup to route the signal back to the Montage tone engine.

Hope that helps.

I'm using my Montage with Cubase Pro 8.5
I trigger Cubase Cord pads from Montage keyboard and it's great but with local on the arps don't sound the same 🙁

When the midi comes back from playing Cubase chord pads from Montage with Local Control on the Arppegio changes .
It plays but it's not as vibrant as it is when local is off very fustrating trying to figure it out .

Strange with local control off everything plays fine but you have no access to Montage controls but with local control on you get the control but the arps become
less present missing notes etc....

 
Posted : 11/11/2016 6:26 am
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