This evening, I booted up as usual, launched Live and BMT and found that of my 8 AKAI APC Mini’s,
APC1 was mapped as APC8 and vice versa. All other APC mapped correctly.
I looked at the aliases, and saw that a new device called APC8 had been created. All other APC’s are listed as APC1in, APC2in…etc… APC1out, APC2out…etc. There previously never was an APC8 device shown (without an in or out appended). Interestingly, APC8in and APC8out still were found as devices.
The only way to make the mappings work correctly is to change the aliases of APC1 and APC8 thusly:
APC1in
INPUT > APC8
APC1out
OUTPUT > APC8
APC8in
INPUT > APC1
APC8out
OUTPUT > APC1
I’d be ok with this, I guess, except that if I had been performing, I wouldn’t have been able even to start the set, because of these mapping issues. I’m nervous with the current situation, especially since I don’t understand what could have happened.
Can you figure out what might have happened, and if there’s some way to delete the phantom APC8 device from the list of devices and their aliases?
Thanks,
Gabriel
Update! Without doing anything… in fact, without even rebooting or relaunching Live and BMT, the mappings I had created yielded incorrect mapping of APC1 and APC8. The mappings were swapped even though the aliases I instituted (with 1 and 8 swapped) were still in place.
I changed the aliases to the original mappings and everything works as it should. However the phantom APC8 (with no in or out appended) is still there.
Strange, could you show me a device manager view of your MIDI ports similar to below? Do you have any Bome Network Virtual Ports, loopMIDI or loopBE ports that have similar device names? You could certainly delete a phantom port to make it go away. If you plug a device back in that needs a port, Windows should create a new one.
Usually Windows assigns physical port names based on the order they are plugged into a USB hub and then using Aliases you attach the the Windows port names. If you plug you devices in a different order, they may end up being assigned the wrong alias.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
Hi Steve,
As you know, I’ve had issues with mapping multiple APC8’s in the past, and now and again something related has popped up, but it’s been stable for a long time now. I’ve never had an APC show up without the ‘in’ or ‘out’ designation, but it did just happen.
I’ve attached a snapshot of the device manager, which shows nothing unusual. I’ve also attached a snapshot of the alias editor, showing the unusual device (APC8).
Your response got me to clean up one issue I had with mapping APC8. I had things mapped to:
APC8 out and APC8 in
as well as to
APC8out and APC8in
I’ve now gone into my BMT program and reassigned all APC8 out to APC8out, and done the same for the ins. I was then able to delete APC8 out and APC8 in which were different from all the other APC devices.
That could have been the root of the problem though it never produced an error before.
I notice that in the list you sent, the duplicate devices seem to have an indication that they’re different from one another. For example, you have APC-Mini mk2 and APC-MINI_MK2-VM1 (441). Is that because you’re on a Mac and I’m on Windows?
Gabriel
Oops… forgot to attach.
One more thought, I’ve taken to disconnecting the usb hub that connects to the APC’s when one or the other of the APC’s become unresponsive. That seems to fix it usually. maybe this could cause the APC8 with no ‘in’ or ‘out’ curiosity.
OK, so you have a number of aliases in MT Pro and they are assigned a similar name as the physical device…
It looks like you have aliases ‘APC8out’, ‘APC8in’ and ‘APC8’. Simply delete the alias ‘APC8’ for both in and out with MT Pro and you will be left with ‘APCout’ and ‘APCin’ which is likely what you want. Aliases do not get deleted unless you explicitly remove them. They are kept in your .bmts file. If later you open a project file that has the alias ‘APC8’ in it, then MT Pro will assume that you want to use that alias and add it again into your .bmts file.
I use a lot of aliases and others send me projects that have other that I have never made. I periodically need to purge unused aliases go to ‘View’ then ‘Settings’ then ‘Reset’ and then click Remove MIDI aliases.
This cleans them all up for you. The next time you open a project file it will re-prompt you for the alias assignments but it will only happen once. If you get a project file with a different alias name again, it will automatically add it back in.
As far as MK2. I recently purchased an APC MINIM Mk2 so it is not a typo It is a newer controller recently available from Akai Pro. It has RGB buttons instead of just a few colors, however the mapping many buttons and LED feedback is quite different.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
Right…I went through my project file and:
– deleted the references to APC MINI8 in and APC MINI8 out.
– and left APC MINI8in and APC MINI8out (no spaces between 8 and in etc) in place.
– I then deleted the mappings to those devices in the alias editor.
The mysterious APC8 (with no ‘in’ or ‘out’ never existed in my project file, so I just removed the device in the alias editor.
APC Mini and APC Mini2 through 8 (with their ‘in’ and ‘out’ still remain in the alias editor as they should.
All seems to be ok now.
I’ve been lusting for the Mk2, but since I use 8 of them, that won’t happen soon.
Thanks for the advice for how to get rid of unwanted aliases. At some point I’ll do that.
Gabriel
Yes, I think they are about 90 USD each so that would be 720 USD if you want 8. There is also some significant modifications you would need to set up in your project file.
LED feedback for main pads with different colors and on different MIDI channels
Side and right button mapping for both input and MIDI Feedback.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
