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HI all, I'm considering getting a small midi controller to use with Mixcraft 9 and want to know if anyone is using these without issue with Mixcraft 9? I'm a guitarist and know little about midi controllers - but want to get something that has compatibility to learn to use some mixcraft features and vst instruments. For compatibility, I'm not sure if the control surface area of mixcraft is relevant, but photo of control surface preferences is attached for reference.

Is anybody using these without compatibility problems with Mixcraft? (Sorry if this is a dumb question - I am just ignorant on potential compatibility concerns or how midi controllers can/should even be used with DAWs, and mainly want to get a starter something that works without trouble).

Novation Launchkey mk3 mini (25 mini key version)
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... controller
(in the control surfaces section of mixcraft it lists launchkey mini, but other launchkey options mentioned list mk2, so not sure if mk3 is different or are cross compatible?)

Novation Launchkey mk3 (full size keys 25 or 37 key version)
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... controller

Novation Impulse 25 (more full featured version of above 2 maybe?)
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... controller


Akai mini MPK mk3 (25 mini key)
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... controller

Akai MPK225 (25 full size keys, seems one of most pupular and full featured small controllers)
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... controller

So my main question is: Is anyone using any of these (current mk3 versions) above with Mixcraft, and is compatibility good? If not, are there some preferred midi controllers that should work well out of box with Mixcraft 9? Are there some of the newer versions of controllers that I should avoid? Sorry for dumb questions, I just don't know enough to even know what to ask - I just don't want to buy a brick as my main use case is to plug it into my PC and use with mixcraft 9.

Attached is photo of the control surface from mixcraft if it is relevant.

I have 3 midi controllers and all work well with Mixcraft:

- Midiplus Minicontrol 32
- Korg nanoKontrol 2
- Novation Launchkey Mini MK2 (i use it mainly for performance mode and drumming)

Control Surface means controllers that are compatible with Performance mode, that's not the section where you configure MIDI controllers for general use and playing, any controller you will connect will show up under the MIDI section rather.

ferez21 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 2:55 pm Control Surface means controllers that are compatible with Performance mode, that's not the section where you configure MIDI controllers for general use and playing, any controller you will connect will show up under the MIDI section rather.

ahh. thanks for that info re: midi vs. control surface section. Your post has me curious about whether the novation mk2 and the current mk3 are similarly equally compatible?

Sturdy wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:30 pm

ferez21 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 2:55 pm Control Surface means controllers that are compatible with Performance mode, that's not the section where you configure MIDI controllers for general use and playing, any controller you will connect will show up under the MIDI section rather.

ahh. thanks for that info re: midi vs. control surface section. Your post has me curious about whether the novation mk2 and the current mk3 are similarly equally compatible?

The Novation Mini MK2 and MK3 are pretty identical in their MIDI functionality, so i am almost certain you'll have no issues.

Where the MK3 differs is with some additional on board functionality like the arpeggiator and auto chords, but these do not change anything in the way it interfaces with the DAW.

I do not own the MK3 so this is all based on an educated assumption and past experience with about a dozen of different MIDI controllers

Akai Professional MPK249 works great for me. Faders, knobs and transport, keys and pads, DAW Navigation arrows for scrolling. USB MIDI.
It has been a journey to arrive at something that works flawlessly after some work. I now have a MIXCRAFT profile setup in the MPK!

tonehound wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:19 pm Akai Professional MPK249 works great for me. Faders, knobs and transport, keys and pads, DAW Navigation arrows for scrolling. USB MIDI.
It has been a journey to arrive at something that works flawlessly after some work. I now have a MIXCRAFT profile setup in the MPK!

Cool. Thanks for the information. I'll be new to this, so apologize if I'm asking weird question, but I understand there's a "learn" function to teach Mixcraft what actions to associate with the knobs, faders, transport, pads, etc - so if I understand you went through each assignable mixcraft function and linked that to the a specific controller action? When you say it was a journey - were there some parts that didn't go as expected? thanks in advance.

Sturdy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:14 am

tonehound wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:19 pm Akai Professional MPK249 works great for me. Faders, knobs and transport, keys and pads, DAW Navigation arrows for scrolling. USB MIDI.
It has been a journey to arrive at something that works flawlessly after some work. I now have a MIXCRAFT profile setup in the MPK!

Cool. Thanks for the information. I'll be new to this, so apologize if I'm asking weird question, but I understand there's a "learn" function to teach Mixcraft what actions to associate with the knobs, faders, transport, pads, etc - so if I understand you went through each assignable mixcraft function and linked that to the a specific controller action? When you say it was a journey - were there some parts that didn't go as expected? thanks in advance.

I know this question wasn't pointed at me, but i will mention that i indeed used Mixcraft's interface "learn" function to assign the transport controls on my Korg nano, it was painless and took 5-10 minutes.

I used the learn function. My frustration was all the things I wanted to map like scrolling through the VST library without a mouse scroll wheel.
The journey was after three different hardware MIDI controller purchases: The Korg Studio NanoKontrol would not talk with Mixcraft. A clone by Worlde bought on Amazon mapped great but the faders are short throw and were a pain to mix precisely with. The Novation Launchkey worked but would not retain the MIDI values after saving. A reboot of Mixcraft meant remapping all of the functions. REject!

The Akai MPK249 has the long throw faders, all the transport, arm and panning. It has a navigation wheel that allows for vertical and horizontal scrolling. It does not have enough mappable buttons so I could use solo and mute and save and undo from the Akai keyboard. In a perfect world, it could use more.

The best thing is it all works and has aided my workflow immensely.

It would be great to find a MIDI controller that has a knob, button or fader for all of Mixcraft functions and tools!

tonehound wrote: ↑Mon Aug 02, 2021 3:11 pm It would be great to find a MIDI controller that has a knob, button or fader for all of Mixcraft functions and tools!

To be honest, the MIDI learn function for the interface in Mixcraft is already more than what most DAWs offer, and while it doesn't cover all of your needs, it still gives a lot of customizability.

tonehound wrote: ↑Mon Aug 02, 2021 3:11 pmThe Korg Studio NanoKontrol would not talk with Mixcraft.

I have the NanoKontrol2, mapped perfectly, including the lights. Can't imagine their process changed that much between models?

M

I had the NanoKontrol2 but wanted longer throw faders so I upgraded to the Studio version. Never did get a connect even with two different units. Sent the first back thinking it was defective, the second unit had the same issues. Ironically, I had the World e clone version of the NanoKontrol2 and it mapped and connected easy. So... if you don't need the long throw faders and want an inexpensive control surface, I would go with the World e or Panda control surface available on Amazon for cheap. It works!

If you want it all on the keyboard, the Akai MPK249 is doing the trick. It just needs two more buttons for the Save and Undo functions to be perfect. I can live with the compromise and go to the mouse for those.

All, OP here. I currently got a Nektar Impact LX25 B-stock (last generation board maybe?). I saw a review on sweetwater of someone who said they set it up with Mixcraft and sounded like with the midi learn they were able to setup everything they wanted. I haven't set about setting everything up myself yet, but have messed around some with the midi-learn in some plugins and it worked. I'm brand new to this, so I don't know what I don't know, but so far I'm plugging along fine. Have recorded several songs/parts so far without issue, but haven't mapped things like transports, patches, tracks and knobs yet. I'm mostly a guitar player so my habit is to use mouse when operating daw, but I'll eventually get to the controls on the controller too. thanks for the comments. It helped me understand.

@Sturdy

It can seem daunting at times but like most everything else, it's not that difficult once tried. MC midi learn is really easy, if you haven't seen this it'll definitely help.

https://youtu.be/AFVTJKVTwvA

M

Rolling Estonian wrote: ↑Sun Aug 15, 2021 8:22 am It can seem daunting at times but like most everything else, it's not that difficult once tried. MC midi learn is really easy, if you haven't seen this it'll definitely help.

https://youtu.be/AFVTJKVTwvA

That video is awesome! Appreciated . Going to do that now. I didn't even know the right search terms to find what I needed to know, so this is perfect.

edit: I noticed that in the video his controller is on midi channel 1, and when I follow along with my controller it seems to be on midi channel 16. I don't know if that comes into play at some point, but if there's a good reason I should change my controller to channel 1 please let me know. thanks. this is really good stuff.