Arturia Keylab transport controls.

Cubase
1

So I got a new midi controller for Cubase 7.5, the Arturia Keylab 49. The Keylab has transport controls (play record loop etc) and claims on the box to work with Cubase. The Keylab comes with software to set it up, the transport controls are set to MMC and the appropriate controller, but Cubase won’t respond.

In Cubase I saw the stuff about Midi Device manager, adding a General Device, however the parameters given when adding a device don’t seem to include the transport controls.

is there somewhere I need to turn the MMC on for Cubase? or how can I verify what controllers the transport controls are set too in cubase?

I really liked the construction and feel of the Arturia, but I am not stoked about what a bitch it is to get something simple like this to work. Also the display on the unit is useless, you can’t seem to name presets (apparently there is a way to map presets for different vst instruments with the software but I haven’t gotten in to that yet), WHY are there not templates with it for the popular synths… just stupid… After having these problems I am seeing a lot of people bitching about the keylab & Cubase, so I am thinking about returning this & getting the Akai MPK249. Those were the two I was looking at & went with the Arturia because I liked the metal construction over the plastic of the akia. Any one else with any experience with the keylab or akai?

2

i think the part you are looking for is the project syncronisation under the transport menu. I dont have cubase open in front of me so i cant tell you what you need to input, but this is where i needed to adjust settings to ensure the transport functions worked on my AKAI MPK25 for cubase.

3

Hi, did return or fixed it? :slight_smile:
Im at editing an .XML for that Keyboard, usual final step before applying the “Fist of Fury” and see if the if the KEYLAB 49 can at least fly if not able to do what Arturia claim for the Transport. I would not let something like that drag my name if it would be Glen… but guess what? I’m not Glen.

I do have an AKAI MPK 225 and it work just fine in CUBASE 7.5 (nice tool) Same thing with the new M-audio Axiom air 61 (but for this one, I had to install the Win 7 Pro Drivers (64bit) instead of those offer for Win 8 Pro 64bit to make more stable. Work for me. M-audio is now avid and their deal is with ableton, not CUBASE like Yamaha does.
What work too is a 24" touch screen from SONY that I can control anything on the screen on the fly. l also use a Bamboo tab to replace the mouse (yes, the one invented by Xerox a million years ago) anyway.

I made it work but I can’t remember what I did… sorry. But at least there is hope.
1- Yes everything need to be updated: firmware, software, and my glass of wine…
2- I add the KEYLAB49 to CB7.5 via “Device setup…”
3- added a generic device, from which I selected the new controler.
4- I know at least I did check what CC I could be apply by clicking the Learn , then confirm on the lower section that in fact it was a Controller / Device / Transport / and the “test” [pad] 13 would gladly work, but not for [PLAY]. But it would recognize LOOP as Cycle selection.
5- then in “Transport” menu at the bottom there is a Project Synchronize Setup… in there I set :MC Master Active: then MMC Slave active: on top I use VST System link… and selected the KEY 49 midi IN every time (no out if all USB)

I Downloaded the MIDI control center from Arturia, (same tool to update the firmware) and I check what number was associated with different controler. 11 was for a “volume” one in Cubase and for the foot pedal plug in the KEYLAB 49.
went back to device manager, select one of the unassigned control from the list, (the one above the Transport series) and made one for the sustain pedal. Back in MIDI Control center and by selecting something else than expression pedal 11: Sustain 64, reversed the range full 127 to zero 1 I send the update to the keyboard. (pedal is a Roland set to variable ) plugged in Expression pedal in the KEYLAB. a must.

note: MIDI Control Center will NOT update the keyboard if cubase is running.
I spent endless time fixing something that we should NOT have to fight with… Yes that one is for you “Glen, I would like to have feedback”.

Best of Luck to you all.

Please if you found out exactly what made it work, please let me know. but I’m sure there is something there that fixed it…
More note: The [PLAY/Pause] button on The KEYLAB 49 need to be press with conviction… for some reason it need to be held a bit to work :confused: not the case with the other ones. (not the case in Arturia’s application)

That was my bitching part… I need to say that the builth of the KEYLAB 49 is just awesome. Way better than the Axiom 61 @ $500 clearly made for ableton. The level of tweaking of all the knob and slider is a 9/10. Sorry M-audio but Arturia provide a miles ahead quality for the price. and thanks for the 5000+ sound that came with it, and can be use in CUBASE 7.5 :slight_smile:
I will keep my MPK 225 for all my BASSE audio instrument, the PADS are really nice and can be colour changed . (yes, we say Colour).

First post in good faith, if I Bitch a bit I also found part of a solution not really easy to find.

Ciao,

F.

4

Message sent to Support. more to follow.

Hi again, (BTW thanks to Lindsay Warner for the HALion 5 fix!)

Did my homework for this new one but can’t find a solution.
When configuring a Sustain pedal in CUBASE, 2 thing happen:
(In this case a Roland DP-10 Damper Pedal)

1- The value/action is Inverted for the Sustain, first full pressed will activate the “Deactivate All Mute State” leaving it at ON state, unless I press it again to hear the sound.

2- It seems that the signal by default is reversed to what it should be. in this case CC64 is maintaining the sustain by default until we press the pedal…

The web suggest a custom “MIDI Chanel - Input Transformer:” with a
---------------|Module 1| ------------------ (on)
MIDI Controller/ Equal/ Controller 1 /and

Value 2/ Mirror/ 64

It unfortunately do not resolve the dual function set. :confused:

Please help me! :slight_smile:

V.

5

If I remember it right the Roland pedals are reversed from any other pedals. Meaning they have a connection between tip and sleeve, when pressed the connection gets cut. Other pedals have no connection until pressed. Some Roland pedals have a switch to reverse the behavior.

6

Hi,

that works for Keylab 49 - 88 :


Open in Cubase Transport > Project Synchronization Setup > Machine Control Input section
Click “MMC Slave Active”
In MIDI TimeCode Source Section and select your Keylab Keyboard
MMC input : ALL MIDI Input
MMC Device ID : 127

Thats all

CU

Ruedi

1 Like
7

Thank you Ruedi.

But do you have an idea how to activate the loop button in the keylab transport control?
And the play/pause button does only play, no pause.

Regards, Mike

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under Cubase 11, under MMC Input, I had to select specifically my Keylab 88 in order for it to work. (selecting All MIDI Input didn’t work). But FINALLY after 2 years since I purchased my Keylab 88, and no working keylab transport before (started with Cubase 10) I discovered your fix, yay!! Thanks!

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Didnt really work with keylab 25. Cant find any mapping on net for keylab 25 with cubase 11.

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I can’t get the Transport controls to work in Cubase 12 with My Keylab 88. Help please

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I just had the same question myself. I am, by the way, specifically referring to the Keylab 88 and not the Keylab 88 Mk II.

The answer for me was to:

  1. Turn on MMC Slave Active under Transport → Project Synchronization Setup → Machine Control.
  2. Select the Keylab 88 as the MMC Input on the same screen.

And that’s it. I am using Cubase Pro 10.5, but the online v12 Operation Manual indicates the same settings exist in the same place (see Synchronization → Project Synchronization Setup Dialog → Machine Control Page).

I hope this helps you get it working!

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I’ve also got the first same Keylab 88 but those settings do nothing for me. Can’t get it to work. The Controller works perfectly in Ableton

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So, I upgraded to Cubase Pro 12 to see if I could help further and found that the settings I supplied don’t work if you have configured the KeyLab as a MIDI Remote Controller.

You can see for yourself if you Disable Controller Script for your KeyLab in Studio → Midi Remote Manager. As soon as you do this the transport buttons (except Loop/Cycle, which is a different story) will start working.

[EDIT] Ah, yes - now I see this post (Midi remote control doesn't capturing MMC?) explains what I was observing: MMC is not supported (yet), and the transport buttons (with the exception of Loop/Cycle) are mapped by default as being MMC controls. There’s an ugly hack that works which is to use Arturia’s MIDI Control Center to map the transport buttons to send (for example) controller messages (I used #110-114) and now you can add them to your Midi Controller map in Cubase.

Unfortunately, I cannot make the LEDs work the way I would like. So far the best I can do is map the buttons (in Arturia’s MIDI Control Center) as Gate triggers and then specify Toggle = On in the Cubase map (although I actually set Toggle = Off for REW and FFWD). This allows them to function correctly, but the LEDs don’t show the actual state of the transport in Cubase - they light only for the time that you push them. I’m a bit disappointed with that, but at least I can control the transport.

On the other hand, the Loop/Cycle (mapped by default to controller #55) does tend to work correctly since there is no interaction between it and other controls (unlike Start/Stop/Record, for example, which can each affect the others’ state). For this to work, you will need to map it as a Toggle trigger in Arturia’s MIDI Control Center and as Toggle = Off in Cubase (since the Keylab itself will be controlling whether the toggle is on or off, and so Cubase doesn’t need to interfere).

Note that you will run into issues, though, if you change the state of it by any means other than via the KeyLab, since there is no feedback of state to the KeyLab that would cause the light’s state to change if the Cycle control’s state was changed, for example, via the Cubase UI.

14

Hey,
Thanks SO MUCH for this info! I will get scripting asap!!!

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No problem - if you hit any roadblocks, let me know. I should mention that I ended up setting the Transport buttons (including Loop/cycle) to use controllers #52-57 since I discovered clashes with other defaults as I worked through mapping the remaining controllers.

I hesitate to post these in the general locations that I see popping up for people to add their templates since it is so dependent on the modified mapping, but the attached ZIP contains two files that will get you going if you want something to have an initial crack at it:

Mapped Transports.keylab88 - Arturia Midi Control Center template with remapped transport controls
Arturia_KeyLab 88.midiremote - The Cubase Midi Remote script

Mapped Transports.zip (7.9 KB)

It’s a WIP, but it should have the basics of what I talked about in the above post.

Best of luck!

P.S. A couple of things to note:

  1. You will notice two sets of encoders and faders. These are for banks 1 and 2.
  2. Ditto the repeated switches underneath those banks of encoders. These two rows are for the “short press” and “long press” feature supported by these buttons.
  3. There are a couple of additional buttons under the Param and Value encoders on the left. These are for the select (push) feature that these encoders support.
  4. You will see my fader banks only have 8 faders, not 9. This is entirely due to a custom reconfiguration involving a set of stairs and an excited dog on the day I brought home my KeyLab. You will probably want to add the ninth one yourself.

Everything else should be fairly obvious.

2 Likes
16

Hey,
Thanks for this AWESOME help! This is what one would expect from Arturia but they just shrugged their shoulders and said sort yourself out…

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You’re welcome, my friend - I’m glad that it appeared to help.

I see also now that oqion has been pointing you down the same path:

I should point out that I only called this approach an “ugly hack” above because I dislike that the LEDs don’t toggle on and off. I know that’s pretty minor, but that’s what’s ugly about it. Everything else seems to work just fine.

Well, except perhaps for this: BUG? VST Remote-Control Focus not respected in Cubase Pro 12

…and I’d like to be able to use an encoder to select patches and so on instead of having to map previous/next buttons. Consequently, I’ll probably be diving into the API instead of doing it through the new MIDI Remote editor to see if there’s a way to do that.

I read in the other thread that you’ve been frustrated by the MIDI Remote feature up until now. I upgraded mostly for that feature, so I’m glad to find that we’re able to generally achieve what we’re looking for, even if there are a couple of remaining irritations. I hope you are at least equally satisfied.

1 Like
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I still battle to get the LOOP button to work properly. It sometimes activate Cubase’s loop and sometimes not. Then the LED is out of sync with Cubase. There are way too many things to fiddle with - I think my signals are going in circles atm.

PS: I mapped the transport functions to the PADS and I must say, I actually like the feel of them better - it activates with just a quick finger slap :grinning:

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Hey, redskyroad -

I just spent a little time looking at the API and have great news - everything we’re looking for (including transport LEDs toggling in synchronization with the host transport regardless of the source of the transport command) is achievable in script.

It seems I could have (and probably should have) provided you the JSON representation of the MIDI Remote definition yesterday, but if you can until tomorrow I think you’ll be pleased with what I end up with (it’s too late right now for me to finish it up). I’ll provide the JavaScript with plenty of comments so that you can tweak it as much as you like, although you will be able to use it as-is if you prefer.

Watch this space… :slight_smile:

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I have NO idea about scripting… But it sounds promising