AKAI LPD8 MKII LED Control from MIDI feedback

Bome Products
1

Hi all,

I"m very new to MIDI and I"m trying to work out whether it"s possible to get MIDI feedback working from Rekordbox to an Akai LPD8 MKII so that the pad colours/states reflect software state (specifically Rekordbox stem states).

What I"m trying to achieve:

  • Use the LPD8 MKII pads to control Rekordbox stem functions (vocal/drums/instrumental stems etc.)

  • Have Rekordbox MIDI OUT feedback change the colours/states of the pads depending on whether the stem is active or inactive

  • Ideally have the pad colours controlled by Rekordbox/software state, not by the controller"s own internal toggle behaviour

What I"ve done so far:

  • Using Bome MIDI Translator Pro

  • Using LoopMIDI virtual ports

  • I can successfully map the pads in Rekordbox

  • I can see MIDI IN messages from the LPD8 MKII in Bome

Example messages from a pad press:

  • Press: 90 28 7F

  • Release: 80 28 00

From my basic understanding, I think this means:

  • Note 40

  • Channel 1

  • Velocity 127 on press

  • Velocity 0 on release

The main issue:
I cannot seem to get the LPD8 MKII LEDs to respond to external MIDI messages at all.

I"ve tried:

  • Sending Note On messages back to the controller via Bome

  • Matching the exact same note/channel/value the controller itself transmits

  • Trying different channels

  • Different velocities

  • Momentary vs Toggle modes

  • Full Level ON

  • Pressure messages OFF

But the pads always seem to behave according to the Akai configuration software only:

  • static idle colour

  • separate “pressed” colour

  • no visible response to external MIDI feedback

I can"t even get a very basic test working where:

  • pressing one pad triggers Bome to change the colour/state of another pad.

This makes me think either:

  1. the LPD8 MKII does not support standard MIDI note-based LED feedback the same way the original LPD8 apparently did

  2. it requires SysEx or some other protocol

  3. there is some “external LED control” mode I"m missing entirely

I found an older Bome project on this forum for the original LPD8 which was suggested to control LEDs successfully, but I suspect the MKII behaves differently.

At this point I"m mostly just trying to understand:

  • whether this is actually possible on the MKII

  • and if so, what kind of MIDI messages the MKII expects for LED colour/state control.

Any guidance would be hugely appreciated because I feel like I"m missing one key concept here.