Hi, I just got a LPD8 but I’m not keen on installing the preset editor or whatever. Haven’t tried that yet.
I can confirm that, out of the box, the Akai LPD8 doesn’t work with Duplex.
What exactly do I need to do to get this working?
Ask pelle if he made an alternative configuration, or install the damn editor.
That’s pretty much like saying you got a printer but aren’t keen on installing the drivers. LPD8 isn’t good for much without the editor.
Out of curiosity, why would you not want to install the editor?
Yes, exactly. I don’t install printer drivers. 
It’s 2011, not 1995. Never would I buy a printer that required 3rd party drivers on OSX or Linux. If it’s not class compliant, or maintained centrally, I don’t want it on my system. Heck even my Edirol soundcard doesn’t have drivers.
LPD8 works fine with my own Lua scripts, I’m a bit confused why the defaults don’t work out of the box. Seems like extra hurdles other controllers don’t have.
I will most likely cave and install sometime in the future. Just not anytime soon. On hold for now.
Well, have you read what the author of the preset had to say?
If you want a quality preset, that is.
You don’t need CC though, the default buttons sends notes? I’m looking at the Ohm64.xml for example. I see CC for dials, but notes for buttons?
AkaiLPD8.xml on the other hand is using CC for everything, but it’s not necessary?
I’ll look into it and see if I can make my own config file.
Ok Duplex pros, I need help.
Out of the box, e.g. I purchase an AKAI LPD8 from the store, plug it in, and set it to “pad”, then this config works for Mixer:
Click to view contents
AkaiLPD8
Per128 (www.per128.com) / Modified by conner_bw
Controlmap for Akai LPD8
Mixer = Mute, Levels, Effects = Page, Param values
Bi-directional lights happening and all. Looking good!
Caveat 1: It’s also triggering Instrument notes. There must be a way to block this? E.g. don’t play notes? For example, in my own Lua, or if I use Renoise’s MIDI MAP, and map a “Pad” to something, it does not launch notes.
Caveat 2: Not working for “Effects”. I’m not sure why that would be the case. On the other hand, I don’t even know what this app is supposed to do…
For the record, this is the first time I use Duplex. I’ve been a cheerleader since day one. But, I’ve not read the documentation. Never plugged in any hardware to use it.
PS: I write my own Lua scripts. I’m not a dummy as I hope most of you know. I just have a fulltime job, a 18 month old daughter, I was born in the 70s, so I have other stuff to do than fiddle around with other people’s code and install preset editors I will never use. I was under the impression Duplex was “plug and play” and I’m hoping we can make the LPD8 in line with that vision. I don’t see any technical reason why this can’t be the case?
And I’m not the first?
Caveat #1: Sounds like you have the device enabled in Renoise as well (MIDI input device). Just turn it off, or Renoise will try to write notes and/or CC commands all over the place. This is the only real downside to having proper bi-directional communication in Renoise, we can’t tell Renoise to ignore a certain device/parts of it. At least not yet.
Caveat #2: Not sure what you’re experiencing - at work right now, so I can’t check.
Apropos the Effect application et al: I need to document these apps as youtube videos. Lot’s of tips and tricks that only few people know about.
[font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]
Nope, that’s why the first thing I did was to say: ask pelle if he made a configuration.
Genius! Works now.
Ok. Do you have an LPD8 too? Basically mixer is working great, Effects does nothing. I’m running 0.98 according to the manifest (in actuality, it’s latest revision in Google Code’s SVN)
Cheers!
Nope, but it shouldn’t matter much really - many of the device supported by Duplex has been written in a co-operation between someone who has the device, and someone who is familiar with Duplex (me, sato or someone else). Most MIDI devices are mostly 95% similar anyway.
But while we are at the subject of applications, we could bring the Recorder and N.O.W to the LPD8 - they are both well-suited for such a compact controller. If I’ll make the basic device-configs tonight, perhaps you can spend a few minutes to tweak and test?
Of course. Now that I have a piece of hardware other than guitars and a Midiman Oxygen 8 circa 2002, this is more interesting to me.
I need some help here, as I am trying to bring Grid Pie (the Duplex port) to this controller.
Basically, I have a working setup but the “copy pattern” feature for Grid Pie is based on holding the button for a moment. However, this will only work if the LPD8 tell us that a button has been released.
In the current LPD8 control-maps, the buttons are specified as “togglebutton”. What this means is, that they toggle their state when pressed, instead of lighting up while being pressed. In other words, no release event means the feature isn’t available. But then I just downloaded and installed the LPD8 editor, and it seems that the preset which is already supplied with Duplex is actually stating that buttons are “momentary” (just another name for a pushbutton).
So if anyone could test, and confirm that the latest version of Grid Pie / Duplex is actually working with release & hold events, that would be great!
If it’s working, we should update the control-map files for the other LPD8 configurations as well (Mixer, Effect, N.O.W).
Download the latest Duplex release here
See:
Off video testing, hold doesn’t do anything special. Am I doing it wrong?
You can quickly determine if the device is sending the release events by enabling “MIDI dump” in the Duplex menu (messages are written to the console)
I am working blindfolded, as I don’t have the hardware, but the editor seems to specify those buttons as being momentary…
Edit: quoting from the Duplex manual, here are the various button types
Bump.
Sorry, new fulltime job, new dad… Renoise at the bottom of a long list.
Using latest XML layout from other thread.
Turn square on:
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 25
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 0
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 0
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 7F
Turn square off:
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 6D
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 0
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 7F
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 0
Gibberish to me at this point in time.
-=-=-
Actually, I got it to do something but it’s weird to me?
Double click and hold, then release:
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 7A
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 0
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 0
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 7F
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 7F
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6F 7F
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 70 7F
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 71 7F
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 0
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 7F
Works. (7 times out of 10)
Great - let me just explain what’s happening:
Turn square on:
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 25 MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 0 MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 0 MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 7F
So, if all you did there was to hit a pad and hold it for a second or so, that’s damn strange. The device should just give us a press event, not a release one as well.
But I’m a bit confused - you have two entries, “Turn square on”, “Turn square off”. What you did there was to press - and hold - the pad for a while? Or did you tap it twice?
Let’s look at the next log with the “double-tap” gesture. Unfortunately, the MIDI dump is not timestamped (note to self: I really should add this feature)
Just ignore the entries with “send” in them (these are bidirectional updates from Duplex)
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 7A MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 0 MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 0
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 7F
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 7F MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6F 7F
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 70 7F
MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 71 7F
MidiDevice: LPD8 received MIDI B0 6E 0 MidiDevice: LPD8 send MIDI B0 6E 7F
Sorry, this is just me describing the state of the light on the LPD8. In both cases, I press, hold, and release.
It’s strange really. You are saying, when you double-tap and hold, it works like 7 out of 10 times.
And the controller sometimes decide to include a release when you press it, sometimes not.
This is really weird, sounds almost like a device malfunction.
But we can switch back to “togglebutton” in the control-map, at least we avoid those glitches then.