Hello,
I’m having trouble connecting my APC 40 Mk II to VCV Rack.
I tried connecting it via MIDI Map and via MIDI-CAT, and I’m using MIDI-MON to monitor messages. All these modules detect the controller (Windows MIDI - APC40 mkII 0 - All channels), but the software is not receiving any messages from my controller.
What can I do to solve this?
EDIT: I’m using Windows
Thank you
screen capture?
Added one to the original post
I do have one of those somewhere, but I don’t think i ever hooked it up to VCV.
I remember something about having to send it sysex to switch it to generic mode - or it would use a custom ableton protocol.
F0 47 00 73 60 00 04 XX 08 04 01 F7
XX is mode.
40 - Generic Mode
41 - Ableton Live Mode
42 - Alternate Ableton Live Mode
there’s a script for mac, on widows you’ll have to find another way of sending sysex. I still use midiox.
Sysex is a kind of message that I can send from the computer to the controller? Thank you, I’ll search how to do that in Windows.
Yes. you enter that string of numbers in midiox for example, and send it to the device.
Thank you, I’ll try that. I think it may be because of the mode the controller is in, because I tried using it in Ableton Live now and it’s not connecting to the program, for some reason it isn’t changing to the usually automatic Ableton Live mode.
OOPS - What I wrote is for MK I.
I have no clue about MK II
I noticed that, but I think it may be a similar situation.
Something kinda confusing just happened.
So, it wasn’t working with Live, so I tried connecting it through another USB port. This time it worked, but when I tried VCV with that port there was no connection and it stopped working in Live too when I tried it again. (one software at once)
Different numbers for APC40 mk 2
APC40 MK2 F0 47 7f 29 60 00 04 42 09 07 01 f7
Modes
0x40 Generic (Startup Default) Track select Radio- Channel Toggle
0x41 Ableton Live (LED Ring Remote Controlled) Momentary All
0x42 Alternate Ableton Live Momentary All
0x43 Note Mode (APC 20 only)
from Akai APC 40 MKii Change Mode - #10 by SteveC - Bome Forum
I used this software, Pocket MIDI, and it’s detecting messages from my controller when VCV Rack isn’t receiving anything.
I was a little bit confused trying MIDI Ox, but I used Pocket MIDI to send sysex messages to the controller and alternated between its 3 modes. VCV is not receiving anything in any of the modes.
When the APC is connected to Live, Pocket MIDI can’t receive or send messages to the controller, but when VCV was open, Pocket MIDI was the only program receiving MIDI.
Somehow it started working - I put the APC on the regular Ableton Live mode with Pocked MIDI. When I turned it off, opened Live and turned it on, it worked like normal. I closed Live, opened VCV and it was connected here too.
Lights on the controller sometimes work, sometimes not. I think it’s related to the mode it is on, I’ll test this later. Some buttons and most faders send the same signal through different channels, so I used multiple MIDI CAT’s to map them.
I think I got most of it to work. Only issue now is the some buttons on the controller doing the same they were doing in Live. So, some buttons affect knobs when I don’t want to, some buttons are momentary and others are latched and I can’t change that on PatchMaster.
Update: I’m trying different things and it’s working.
I tried to recreated the original problem and then solve it with Pocked MIDI, but it’s working so well that I can’t make it not connect to VCV. Next time it happens I will try to identify the quickest solution and post it here.
Meanwhile, I’m understading the differences between modes and how to connect the controller with multiple MIDI-CAT’s. I’ll have to use Switch modules to change the behaviour of buttons, but it’s a shame that I can’t just change them in the controller so the lights would be consistent with the behaviour I want.
Also about the lights, they work on Generic Mode, but there’s a specific function that some buttons have related to changing channels of knobs that may be just get in the way in most uses of the controller, so the Ableton Live Mode is probably more useful for me. Unfortunately, in that mode the LED’s on the buttons never turn on. Does anyone know if there’s a way to change that?
It would also be nice to change the knobs’ values on the controller when I change it inside VCV.
Once again I tried connecting the APC to the laptop and now it’s not working with any software. I have no idea how I corrected this yesterday and I’m having the same problem again.
Try it on another computer
On Windows, until the new MIDI 2 stack comes to Windows, only one program at a time can open a Midi device. So if you’re running Pocket MIDI or MIDI OX, no other software including Rack can open it.
I think I made it work, it had something to do with that. It would be nice to use a switch on some software to send MIDI alternately to Live or VCV. Not sure if Pocket MIDI, Midi OX or Chataigne, for example, can do that.
The way it is now if I can I can work with both softwares if I close Live before opening the VCV project and then open it again if I want to use it.
For Windows “virtual cable” software exists (e.g. LoopBe) that provide some limited MIDI routing options. If you have the Rack plugin in the DAW, then any MIDI routing comes via the DAW.
On windows, “VSTHOST” + “loopMIDI” freewares
Swiss army knife
VSTHOST is hard to use at the beginning…but very powerful
VSTHOST would detect the controller, and through loopMIDI I would send the MIDI messages from there to Live and/or VCV?
