Standalone GA5 Midi Contoller Issue

I am using an Akai MPK Mini MK3 controller and having problems with triggering in GA Standalone (works fine when using GA5 as a plugin in Cubase 9.5 though).

The problem is, in standalone GA5, I cannot get the controller to trigger individual notes (instrument mode). As you probably know, the main set of individual drum hits are usually assigned to notes C1 through D#2. The patterns are assigned to C-1 through B0.

The Akai has a custom MIDI map editor, so I created a custom map in the Akai editor and did some testing. It has 8 pads which you can assign to two banks and switch between. Here are the tests I have done:

  • MPK Bank A setup Pads 1 through 8 as G#0 through D#1 (MIDI notes 20 through 27)

  • The result is this triggers GA notes G#-1 through D#0 (which are patterns in GA)

  • MPK Bank B setup Pads 1 through 8 as E1 through B1 (MIDI notes 28 through 35)

  • The result is this triggers GA notes E0 through B0 (which are also patterns in GA)

So the first problem is the MPK is mapping notes to one octave lower on GA for some reason (again this only happens in standalone GA).

Going on that result, I tried to setup MPK to produce individual drum hits (which are assigned to C1 through D#2 in GA):

  • MPK Bank A setup Pads 1 through 8 as C2 through G2 (MIDI notes 36 through 43)
  • The result is no triggering in GA at all. I can see that GA is getting MIDI activity, but it produces no sound.

Is there some reason on the GA side of this that ‘instrument mode’ cannot work in standalone GA? It’s almost like the controller can’t trigger any notes assigned to GA pads in ‘instrument mode’. So I don’t know if this is a problem with GA or the controller. I have reached out to Akai tech support, but no answer yet.

Can anyone advise on how, or if, this can work correctly in GA standalone?

1 Like

Please check your MIDI Input Port(s) and Channel Filter settings in GA Standalone Plug-in Preferences!
best regards
Gerrit