So I just bought another A800 as they are an excellent controller in my eyes (controls on left). I’m having an issue where I don’t think GP is differentiating them correctly. No matter what order I plug them in, the first one plugged in will become “Upper Tier” (I use an upper tier/lower tier) alias system. I have been using the first A800 as a permanent upper, and changing the lower between 3 alternate controllers (Kronos, Keylab and a Studiologic VMK). That’s worked like a charm. My plan was to add the second A800 as a 4th option for a lower tier. But no matter what I do, the first A800 that get’s plugged in get’s identified as Upper and the second one won’t respond to anything even though a second iteration of the A800 appears in the rig manager (it says A-800 Pro Port 3 -1). Tried all three ports on both controllers. Tried changing up plug in order, tried plugging in 1 at a time. Always a situation where first one plugged becomes Upper - Port 2. Am I missing something?
Yes you’re missing that you have to teach the rig manager which one is which, which only takes about 5 seconds)
That’s almost the whole purpose of the rig manager
So I’m struggling with that as it appears GP is picking up the first one plugged in as Upper, no matter which one is plugged in. I cannot get the second to respond to anything and it doesn’t seem to “light up” the port in the rig manager (which is the normal way to determine which controller is sending data right?)
Can you please plug them both in and show us a screen shot of the global midi monitor after playing a few notes on both of them?
Thanks for the help. Here is a vid:
Hopefully it’s clear enough to get the gist.
When you click the button with the 3 dots on the left side you can unassign a midi device and learn a new or different.
Did you try that?
Yeah, I’ve done every combination I can think of. Unplugging and plugging controllers in in different orders. Removing assignments, reassigning, etc. It seems that the first controller I connect becomes the A800 and it seems to “take over” both devices (Port 2 and Port 2-1).
The second A800 plugged in is just ignored from what I can tell. I have tried plugging them both in independently and they both work when solo plugged.
How looks your MIDI port options window?
That was it! So when I first plugged in the new A800 I did so by itself. The OS MIDI Studio gave it the same name. Once I created a unique name, it solved the issue. Thanks so much.
Okay, zombie thread here on the same subject. So I had all my problems solved, I had an “old” A-800 and a “new” A-800. I used different combinations of each along with a Studiologic as “lower tier”, A Kronos “Lower Tier” or the “new” A-800 as “lower tier”. Rig manager had a rig for each and it was great. The studiologic for home, the A800 when I wanted a “light” rig and the Kronos when I was on important gigs as the Kronos could be backup. I was stoked.
So last night I take both the A800’s out for a rehearsal. Worked as intended. But today I move my setup back the the home studio and plug in the StudioLogic and the “old” A800. I change the rig in rig manager, apply the changes and now my “old” A800 is being identified as the “new” one in GP and thus none of my knob/slider/button assignments are assigned. The weird thing is that I never “save” any changes to the rigs as I had it as I wanted. But for some reason GP is suddenly confused as to what I’ve plugged in. Any ideas? Remember I had the problem above where I just had to make a second/unique name and that’s where “new” came in. But now the old A800 thinks it’s the “new” one. Gah.
Update: I moved the usb connectors around and in and out a few times and it appears that maybe GP is looking towards specific usb ports for identifying keyboards. Am I nut’s on that? It would explain what I just had happen as after plugging and unplugging trying different locations in my hub, eventually GP saw the “old” A800 as “old”.
I think I used to have this issue with my two keyboards. If I did something a little off my regular process when I turned in my keyboards sometimes the keyboards “swapped,” in the Rig Manager
In my case I realized that when the keyboards were swapped all I had to do was turn off the keyboards and restart them in a certain order.(Actually, I may just need to just turn off the keyboard that it wants as the 2nd keyboard and turn it back on again).
Yes exactly for this situations the rig manager was originally developed.
Just identify your physical device and map it in rig manager.
In the rackspaces then you use the MIDI control Aliases.
Just a small number of steps in the beginning and you are the winner.
I have a similar situation - two identical Nord keyboards connected to my laptop via a USB hub. Depending on the order I turn on gear or ports they are connected to in my USB hub, keyboard and controller assignments may switch around.
Solution: In rig manager, give your keyboards an alias name like TOP or BOTTOM that describes the location of the keyboards in your rig. I used to used NORD1 and NORD2 but it was always became confusing. TOP and BOTTOM refer to the tiers on my keyboard stand. I also have an alias for SIDE (extra keyboard) and PADS (drum machine controller) Since the keyboards are identical, it doesn’t matter where they go when assembling your rig at a show or rehearsal. As soon as I fire up GP, I go into Rig Manager and re-learn the keyboards. Save or Apply the rig updates and I’m ready to go. This modular approach in naming keyboard components also helps if you go somewhere and don’t have your keyboard / controllers.
The reason I do not do it this way (update the Rig Manager) is my default method usually works. If I put the keyboards in the correct order in my USB Hub and start them up before opening GP, they are always assigned properly.
So, if I do not something quite right (put in them in the USB in a different order or forget to start up a keyboard before), I do not want to change the settings in the Rig Manager because it is set “correctly”. If I follow my protocol, it is always right.
So, I prefer not to change the Rig Manager. Instead I just turn a keyboard (or, at worst, both keyboards) off and then on in the proper order.
But, whatever works is good.
Just an FYI: I have named both my A800’s (A-800 and A-800 New) as an earlier solution. But like I said, in some cases, if I plug in only the Old one, it will sometimes identify as “new” based on where and when I plug it in. So apparently position can influence GP’s interpretation of which A-800 is connected. Also the only reason I care is that I have markers on just one of them and I only use knobs/sliders/buttons on the top tier.
I think in my case the position in the USB Hub does control if both keyboards were turned on when GP is started.
I think if the keyboards are turned on after GP is started, the order in which the keyboards were turned on may control.
So, as long as you are comfortable with what’s happening and what you need to do, it should be a no stress situation if you are using the Rig Manager.
Well, for what it’s worth, I use up to three A800s, depending on the band and it was a real PITA to get them right…that’s why we invented rig manager and it has been a life saver at shows.