MASCHINE MIKRO 2 - Won't record midi into Inst Trk in PT 12

[SteveD99]

All free time for the last week and a half has been devoted to trying to figure this out. A Sweetwater tech even logged into my system yesterday morning (their support is awesome) and was unable to fix it.

Problem: I have Maschine Mikro running as a plug-in on an instrument track in Pro Tools. Hitting pads on the Mikro produces the sound just fine. But no midi data will record into the track. Looking at the Edit view, I can see a keyboard trigger of that same sound appear on the screen as midi notes, but I simply can't get anything to record from the pads.

The Maschine controller is in midi mode, as far as I can determine. (Holding Shift and F1 toggles between all pads lit and no response from striking them, to just the pads lit I am using in the song and full response to hitting the pads. I'm assuming that's midi mode.) The PT instrument track MIDI IN is set to "All". I have tried all the other available options for MIDI IN with no luck. Midi out has been tried set to None, Maschine and New Instrument 1. I'm not sending midi from PT, so that setting probably doesn't even matter.

Under setup/preferences/midi, I have "default thru instrument" set to "first selected MIDI track". I learned about that earlier today from this forum, so a lot of my experimenting has been done with that setting in the default position.

It seems all the obvious, a some not so obvious, approaches have been tried. Anyone have any experience with this problem? It sure would be nice to get back to making music!


__________________________________
Windows 8.1
Pro Tools 12.0
Sweetwater Creation Station 200 v4
Quatro Interface
Maschine Mikro2 v 2.4.0

[Ben Jenssen]

Have you tried using a midi track?

[SteveD99]

Yes. But there does not appear to be any midi data being sent in the mode I'm in. If I tap a key on the keyboard, I get a meter response, but I tap a pad on the maschine controller and no response. Doesn't make sense.

After posting yesterday, I did some experimenting with the modes. I have been triggering drums with the keyboard and have had good communication between the keyboard, pro tools and the maschine. As a result, I assumed it must be in midi mode. This is also the default mode when opening it as a plug-in in Pro Tools.

The manual says to go to midi mode you have to hold Shift and hit F1/MIDI. So I did that. That toggles maschine between 2 modes. In the new mode, all the buttons and pads on maschine are dim lit. I strike the pads and there is no sound, but wonder of wonders, I finally got a response on the meter. I put it into record mode and watched as recorded events appeared on the edit view screen.

So now I have midi being transmitted, but without sound, and a controller that appears to be dead as a sample triggering device. I put it into this mode then opened Pro Tools and Maschine reverted back to the other, previously used mode.

I guess I will have to open the maschine controller editor and waste more hours trying to figure out which, if any, "template" will ultimately work for the simple sending of midi trigger data. What a sad situation. Can you imagine, with all it's amazing bells and whistles, this thing won't operate as a simple midi drum pad without devoting hours and hours to study and experimentation?

Sorry for the negative attitude. But I'm really frustrated .

[Ben Jenssen]

I misunderstood. I thought you had a hardware midi controller.
You're trying to record the midi output of the plugin, right?
Can't really help you with that, sorry.

[latweek]

DAW integration is a major pain point for Maschine users. Perhaps they can assist here.

[SteveD99]

Yes, it is hardware plus Maschine software. Strange system. I can have drum playback without the Maschine being turned on. But to change sounds it has to be on. So it seems to run as both software and a hardware interface. Probably why it's so difficult to do basic things.

[SteveD99]

Thanks for the tip. Seems like the last resort is picking up a dedicated pad controller which is sad because the pads on the Maschine are so nice. Akai MPD226 looks good.

[Marsdy]

Go to the Setup menu in PT, MIDI>MIDI Input Devices> turn Maschine Virtual Input on. (It defaults to off.)

You then need to set the Maschine hardware to MIDI controller mode otherwise it won't transmit notes.

[VHelper]

FOUND ANSWER. Was going crazy trying to record midi from Maschine pads into PT and noticed in midi mode (SHIFT + F1) that top row only of pads WERE sounding and sending MIDI to PT.

Tried transposing root key of group down and octave and it all worked! Could play pads and PT would record the midi, then play it back. See pic

[tmark]

Hello I have been dealing with this issue for months, I reached out to Native Instruments twice and they could not help me. I have FINALLY figured out how to make it work every-time in ProTools. Its a combination of things that need to be done. Here are the steps:

Step One: Follow the steps in this video up to the 2:03 timestamp-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ature=emb_logo

Step Two: In ProTools navigate to the Setup Drop Down:

MIDI > MIDI Input Devices > Make sure that the Maschine Mikro MK3 is enabled.

Step Three: Grouping

In MIDI mode, each pad corresponds to a note, the note has to be in range in order for them to work.
To change the range hold the group button on the left side. The top 6 pads will glow, notice they have letters A-H on them.
Select Group C (all the pads work in group C, you can tap through the remaining letters to see if which notes work in them.)

Note: In order for this to work correctly your Start Note in the Mashine 2 plugin has to be set to C1 just like it is in the video from step 1.

Step Four: Record Enable your instrument track in protools. & Enjoy