How to assign volume control for 4 layers to my 4 knobs on my MIDI Controller?

Question

JD Calderon Author

Level 1

8 points

How to assign volume control for 4 layers to my 4 knobs on my MIDI Controller?

I am very new to MIDI controls and MainStage.

Let me first explain my situation:

I'm trying to have 4 different sounds controlled with my 4 knobs on my MIDI controller.

The first knob I want to assign a Piano sound, the 2nd an Electric Piano, 3rd a Pad, and 4th a different synth sound.

The problem I'm having is that I can assign volume to my piano, but when trying to assign the 2nd, it starts controlling the 1st knob, as if they were synced together. Now going to the 3rd and 4th knob it is doing the same thing. Now when moving any of the knobs all the volumes are synced.

Is there a way to separate the 4 knobs to correspond to their respective sound?

I want to be able to pull up a full piano sound individually or layer the different sounds together.

I have a 49-key Monoprice Keyboard Controller.

Please Help

Posted on Oct 15, 2016 12:03 PM

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Answer 1

dmbono

Level 1

98 points

Oct 16, 2016 12:45 PM in response to JD Calderon

You probably need to assign the individual hardware knobs within MainStage.

Go to the Layout tab where you created them and click the Assign button. Then click the first knob on screen and move the corresponding hardware knob. Then repeat for each additional knob.

Then go back to Edit and assign your layers to each knob.

What do you think of the Monoprice board?

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Answer 2

JD Calderon Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 16, 2016 4:35 PM in response to dmbono

Thanks for the reply.

That is how I did it initially. I started with knob one, but when going to the 2nd knob they both started moving together. I thought maybe it was just in the layout screen. But when going in the edit screen all the knobs are synced.

When creating the layout I didn't assign anything but went straight to the edit screen and mapped the volume per channel strip.

The monoprice controller seems good so far, just the issue that I'm having when isolating sound. Not sure if the problem above is because of the hardware.

Im actually new to the world of MIDI and MainStage. The issue above has been giving me a headache.

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Answer 3

mpdive

Level 1

9 points

Oct 17, 2016 11:24 AM in response to JD Calderon

Like the previous poster said, in layout highlight controller one, hit assign and move the knob. Make sure knob one is not highlighted as you assign knob two and so on and so forth. In edit mode it is very easy when mapping to accidentally forget to "un-highlight" controller one when assigning controller two. I have done it many times and had both faders move and had to go back and make sure you are only assigning one knob controller.

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Answer 4

JD Calderon Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 25, 2016 6:37 PM in response to mpdive

Hey MPDive,

I finally figured it out reading the whole Midi-controller manual.

IT seems it was a hardware issue.

The knobs were syncing because each knobs default channel was channel 1.

Even though I would assign them individually for each channel, they would always go back to channel 1.

I had to manually assign each channel within the midi-controller.

After figuring it out, the Midi-controller is great for basic purposes.

Thanks everyone who contributed.

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