Match Ableton Clip Color to reflect as LED state on MIDI Pads for Akai APC40 MK2
A lot of use on the forum are asking for this feature. We want the Akai APC40 MK2 PADS to light up based on the clip color of the Ableton clip that gets loaded on that PAD.
why did you choose to only go with 3 states for LED feed back? what are you going to implement so that we have LED color matching to clip color on Ableton?
we bought and purchased CSS with the idea that MIDI Mapping would go by a lot faster with your tool you created, so far it’s been more of a hassle trying to get your program to work appropriately mainly because the APC40 has 3 modes like MCBeats has mentioned on multiple forum posts and responses.
MCBeats has even provided the solution to set the modes (giving us a template ready for you to update on your program so that it’s easier on the users to choose between modes (mode 0, 1, and 2).
Hi Glenn,
First many thanks for your help as always it’s extremely useful !
-Your solution does work vvery well, both regarding the continuous refresh and the blinking of the selected clip.
-In the meantime, I made some progress of identifying the source of the orange lights and have partly ‘solve’ it (but your script is still useful as you will see !). The orange lights come from the CSS parameters when creating the session box in the area “Clip state LED feedback”; if I let the parameter on “None” (why orange I have no clue; my guess is that 127 on this device is dark orange and maybe it automatically put 127?).
Basically the orange light where were any clip slots were present ; as for the mysterious orange light where no clip were present on another column, it was on areas where a track was armed and thus a clip could be recorded (so corresponding to something in the Clip state LED Feedback section I guess).
Anyway, I can now make all orange light disappear by selecting the value “0” (which correspond to turn off LED) instead of “None” for all parameters in “Clip state LED feedback”.That being said, while I remove the orange light, then I have a variation of the same issue as before: any click outside the box or on any parameter will make all clip disappear (as orange is now equal to turn off).
But now I am wondering: isn’t it a bug of CSS? because basically, it’s as if clicking outside triggered some kind of behavior relating to the “Clip state LED feedback” section. Your script is a workaround as it continuously refreshes and override it but I wonder if it’s maybe possible to remove this behavior in the first place now we know its source – as if clicking anywhere send the instruction “refresh Clip state LED feedback” but if you put ‘None’ you still get something (orange light which I think is 127) ; and turning off using 0 is not like doing nothing (as clicking will make all clips disappear etc). If it’s the case, a solution would be to extinguish this unwanted behavior in the first place – this would also cost much less resources as no continuous update would be needed
As for your script I have a question: is there a resource where I can have some pointers about what the codes are for clip status (clip being deactivated, clip playing next…) ? So I can later add customization building on the work you already did. Basically reconstructing a functioning clip state led feedback area…!
Anyway again thank you for your help I think we now have at least roughly enough for a functioning template.
Cheers
-I’m 100 sure the orange light have nothing to do with your script. I have script where they appear and your script is not present.
-I’m 99% sure it’s the Session Box mapping created by CSS, as I can change their color to other stuff by changing parameters in the “Clip state LED feedback” by replacing None by other colors
-I’m 99% sure the orange I observe is indeed 127. It’s “dark orange” according to the table here : https://forums.pangolin.com/threads/apc40-mkii-lowering-button-brightness-beyond.29169/ (which I found more faithful than the other coloured table)I sent the 127 code using BOME and it looked the same (unfortunately I can’t have both Ableton and BOME at the same time, so I never had both color side by side, its possible but requires too much configuration for a quick test).
I’ll ask in another post if it’s a CSS bug !
Sign up
User registration is currently not allowed.
On my AKAI MIDIMIX, which does not support RGB, the buttons light up orange with value 127, so it might be the standard color for AKAI products. I once found an RGB chart for the APC40 MK2 and 127 is a dark brown. https://forum.bome.com/t/new-akai-pro-apc-mini-mk2-initial-led-mapping-summary/4752/13 Scroll down to post 13 from username “joemfry”.
If you want to see all the possible colors on a pad, you could make a Reaction (in a throwaway script) that listens to a knob being turned and that sends the value of that knob to a pad (+ maybe also logs the value in CSS so you can read which value corresponds to that color).
Have you tried out my Reactions on a separate, otherwise empty, script? If there’s still interference from the the orange color then we’ll know for certain it’s not caused by anything else in your script.