Studiologic MP-117 & MainStage 2

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Studiologic MP-117 & MainStage 2

Hi all,

some background - I am in a band that just finished recording a new demo, it is awesome & has heaps of awesome ideas in it - unfortunately, we would need several new members to produce those ideas live. So, i purchased a Studiologic MP-117 MIDI Foot Controller so that I could control MainStage 2 & produce these ideas from sounds & trigger tracks with my foot, while playing my instrument.

Sounds good on paper, but I am having trouble assigning this foot controller to mainstage & in fact, it won't even play a note when i plug it in.

I have followed several different instructions in the Mainstage manual about assigning & mapping controllers & nothing is working - I don't know if I am doing something wrong, or I need drivers for the controller (of which i don't know where to get, they are not on Studiologic's website & the company that produces studiologic, Fatar)

If anyone has anything to help or tips to perform that would get this working, I would be super grateful & could maybe send out a song or three for your trouble.

MainStage, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Mar 9, 2013 11:38 PM

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Answer 1

CCTM

Level 6

13,153 points

Mar 10, 2013 12:35 AM in response to monson464

Hi

First thing to do is check your MIDI connections: how have you cabled up the MP-117 to your Mac?

monson464 wrote:

Sounds good on paper, but I am having trouble assigning this foot controller to mainstage & in fact, it won't even play a note when i plug it in.

The MP117 is effectively a MIDI keyboard, and should work. Open an empty Keyboard Starter template and try there. Does it work? Any sign of MIDI activity in MS's display?

If NO, go to Audio MIDI Setup (in the Utilities folder) and check the MIDI pane of that application:

You should see your MIDI interface, and you should see blue triangles flash and hear a beep when "Test Setup" is on when using any connected MIDI device.

CCT

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Answer 2

monson464 Author

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Mar 11, 2013 2:25 PM in response to CCTM

i am using a MIDI-to-USB cable - it has a usb on one end & 2 MIDI connectors on the other end - 1 marked 'IN', the other marked 'OUT'. - i figure that it is the MIDI OUT that i want to use.....right?

i've tried several different times to open a blank keyboard template. My thought pattern also followed that it is effectively a MIDI Keyboard and should work.

I keep getting this little box. so that must mean that MainStage recognizes that something is plugged in, so thats good.

User uploaded file

i do what it says. but still nothing happens. im kind of confused as to what 'onscreen control' i want to assign. i want a keyboard, so i choose that and click the assign button - but nothing happens.

Im trying the Test Setup thing - i never hear a beep or see any triangles flash when i click on that button though.

the manual for the MP-117 says that...

"after a few seconds of turning it on, the instrument is ready to send the desired MIDI data and the keyboard will be sending on MIDI channel 1."

...that means it should be working right?

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Answer 3

CCTM

Level 6

13,153 points

Mar 11, 2013 2:29 PM in response to monson464

Hi

monson464 wrote:

i am using a MIDI-to-USB cable - it has a usb on one end & 2 MIDI connectors on the other end - 1 marked 'IN', the other marked 'OUT'. - i figure that it is the MIDI OUT that i want to use.....right?

snip

Im trying the Test Setup thing - i never hear a beep or see any triangles flash when i click on that button though.

snip

...that means it should be working right?

Not necessarily...

Step 1 In Audio MIDI Setup, does your MIDI -USB device show up in the MIDI window?

If yes, them activate test the setup and play your MIDI keyboard... blue triangle on the Interface icon and beeps through sytem audio?

If NO, try swapping the MIDI cables round... some are labelled the "less obvious" way.

If that does not help..

CCT

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Answer 4

monson464 Author

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Mar 11, 2013 2:49 PM in response to CCTM

it shows up as this.

when i try to swap the MIDI cable, it shows that the "Device is offline".

so test setup.

yeah, the blue triangle & the beep don't show up.

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Answer 5

monson464 Author

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Mar 11, 2013 3:24 PM in response to monson464

i think that the Audio MIDI Setup is only recognizing the USB-MIDI cable & isn't recognizing the MP-117 at all.

the MP-117 manual says that i have to "assign values to commands sequentially upon initial setup" - does that mean i have to setup the pedalboard first so that my computer recognizes it?

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Answer 6

CCTM

Level 6

13,153 points

Mar 12, 2013 2:39 AM in response to monson464

Hi

One step at a time:

First: Your USB MIDI Interface was showing up in Audio MIDI Setup (Blue) not ofline? This is good. Reconnect things so that it does show up online as in the picture you posted.

Second: Audio MIDI Setup will NOT automatically recognise any keyboards etc that you connect to the USB MIDI Interface. Usually this does not matter, but there could be some peculiarities so...

Third: With the USB Interface showing up as "Online", Enable Test Setup in AMS and play your MIDI Keyboard. You should see the Blue Triangle on the Interface in AMS flash, and you should hear a beep through the System audio:

Fourth: If you do not get a beep/blue triangle (with the USB Interface Online, try swapping the MIDI Cables to the Keyboard round (sometimes they are labelled 'oddly' such that Out goes to the Out socket rather than the convention). Test again.

Fifth: You (just) might need to manually make an external 'Device' to represent your MIDI Keyboard, and cable it up to the MIDI Interface device:

Repeat Test 3 (and 4)

Post your results

CCT

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Answer 7

monson464 Author

Level 1

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Mar 13, 2013 3:52 PM in response to CCTM

Wow, thank you for your help CCT, You dont know how much i appreciate your time & effort into this project. I'll give you a link to download our demo once we get it mixed a bit, its the least i could do.

back to the problem at hand.

1. The USB-to-MIDI cable shows up as 'online' no matter what way i plug it into the Pedalboard. Also, there are 3 lights on the little black box on the cable (where it splits into MIDI) the red light is continously on. when i first plug in the pedalboard, the yellow light flashes occassionaly but then the red light stays on after that. i dont know if that has anything to do with anything...

2. okay... 🙂

3 & 4. Tested both ways (the MIDI OUT plugged into it & the MIDI IN plugged into it) & nothing happened in AMS.

5. well...im not sure how im supposed to cable it up like you did. (as i do not have a 'pcr') but here is a picture. as you can see, i have the test button on and as i was taking the picture, i was playing the pedalboard & nothing was happening.

So, for kicks & giggles, i tried an old Alesis QS7.1 synth I had lying around. tried steps 1-5 again. with nothing.

(i renamed the "new external device" labels so that my OCD would be satisfied. on both the MP-117 & the Alesis. so it looks like they are recognized. but they are not.)

do you think it is the $5 generic cable that my drummer got from amazon? The MPK Mini, shown faded out, is a Mini MIDI Controller & when plugged in, worked without all this tinkering around & i didn't have to test anything. As did the M-Audio Venom. (i was using different cables with each of them - The MPK Mini had a usb-to-mini.usb & the venom used a usb-to-firewire connector)

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