Can't get midi note to trigger delete key!

Hi, I’ve been testing multiple irig pads controllers to simulate apc40s, launchpads, etc for ableton. I’ve got 6 of them connected to a pluggable USB 3.0 10 port hub.

I used Control Surface Studio to create remote scripts for each one, which took up all 6 control script slots. There’s still some functionality I have yet to work out. I’ve been working on all this for over a year, with no prior knowledge of midi, but I did study the logic in coding in android apps so I have some idea of how that works (which isn’t quite relevant to the language used in Bome’s, but nevertheless…) Thats my experience. It’s been countless all-nighters and so much hair-pulling trial-and-error frustrations that I gave up for a while.

I bought BMTP to solve a couple roadblocks:

  1. figure out how to delete clips (I know, everyone says it can’t be done. I’ve done things by trail and error already that everyone said can’t be done so that’s not an answer).

So far I got a button on the irig to delete a clip slot by using a BMT virtual in and making a translator for that midi CC note to send out a delete key. This worked, but only if the clip was selected. I made sure that they were by clicking on it with the mouse before pressing the irig button.
I figure there is a workaround here and here is my logic:

a) Mouse Click
Use a toggle button (on another irig pad) and set up the translator to mouse click on an empty clip slot. (my logic is that if the top row of clips are never used and if the mouse is pointed at the leftmost column of the first row, there’s a good chance that if the tracks are scrolled horizontally, the pointer won’t hit anything other than to record an empty slot, which is a risk I’m willing to take, considering I don’t plan on scrolling the screen very often). It would even be better if there was a sequence of keyboard shortcuts that would scroll the screen to the top left before the mouse click!..

b) Create a Rule
Once the mouse has clicked on a clip slot, pressing one of the irig clip buttons selects that clip and allows the delete button to work. But each clip button (a grid of 4x4) needs to be converted to a delete button by making a Rule. This is where I am pretty lost. I know nothing about coding, but I have seen a rule used in Bome’s where you can press and hold a shift button down, and it causes the same buttons to send out a different outgoing action. That’s what I want, but with a toggle button so I don’t have to hold the button down.

I would think the logic would go something like:

  • When (midi note at full velocity) is toggled ON, when an irig button is pressed, all irig midi messages are converted to a delete keystroke

  • When Toggled OFF, go back to original settings

Does this make sense? and if so, how is this set up and how are the rules written out?

This brings me to my second problem…

  1. I wanted to combine more than one irig to a control surface script at a time (because I want to free up the only 6 slots I have for another controller or two that has knobs/faders), but the problem is that even though the irig pads are fully programmable (that’s why I chose them), the LED feedback is only sent out on specific CCs on a specific channel I think. (it’s been a while since I programmed those to work, and they were a real pain)

To work around this, I found that the only way I could get it to work with Control Surface Studio was to set the irig pads to the same CC messages that needed to be sent back from ableton for the LED feedback. I don’t think there is enough CCs to make any other irig not overlap, especially on the LED feedback.

My original idea was to set the first two controllers to BMT 1, the second two to BMT 2, and the the last two to BMT 3, which would only take up 3 of the 6 Control surface scripts in ableton, but now I’m thinking that might not work.

Is it possible for BMTP to recognize each irig independently, even if they use the same midi CCs, while still combining them to virtual ports? The way that Control Surface Studio works with ableton, I have to use the limited number of cc messages that are used for the LED feedback because Control Surface Studio only allows me to send the LED feedback to the same CC that was sent.

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Somewhere in that long dissertation I think there are 2 questions.

  1. Can I program all buttons to send a delete key?

Yes, just have an incoming message with Note On Any Note Any MIDI CH
Outgoing would be delete key.

  1. Can I turn on and off this functionality.

Yes, set it up in a preset which toggles on and off with one of your buttons.

  1. Can I have 3 Irigs connected to Ableton Live and have Live recognize the independently?

This will largely be dependent on how Ableton Live works with the MIDI remote scripts it is using.

Outside of Ableton Live, we can make it:

  1. Look like 6 different controllers all on the same MIDI Channel (each one would probably need it’s own Ableton MIDI remote script
  2. Look like 1 big controller and share the same MIDI port (each controller with different MIDI channels) and maybe using 1 Ableton MIDI remote script. Again script dependent.
  3. Have each MIDI controller send and receive on the same channels Ableton Live see them all on different MIDI channels coming through the same port.
  4. A combination thereof

Here is an example tutorial of toggling a preset on and off.

Here is a tutorial showing how to do advanced MIDI routing with presets and their associated translators.

For a new guy, these are a bit advanced but you are asking more advanced stuff. You might want to go through the MT Pro tutorial series from start to end (about 5 minutes each).

I hope this is enough to get you started.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

Awesome! Thanks for the quick response. I’m sure I’ll have more questions as I go but what you said makes sense. I’ll get started with the tutorials. The advanced MIDI routing is what concerns me the most. I’d like to have only 3 remote scripts so i have options for other controllers, so that cancels out the first option. I’m pretty sure because of the limitations of the irig controllers that option two won’t work because i have to keep them all on the same channel for the LED feedback to work with the remote scripts in making with Control Surface Studio. So I’m hoping option 3 is my saviour! I’ve got new found hope that it just might work. Thanks Steve