Novation SL-MK3 Extension

GP Extensions
42

You mentioned that you found the “Re-initialize Extension” menu item. I haven’t gotten this working entirely correctly yet, and I’m not sure why.

As it stands now, if I disconnect my MK3 and re-connect I have to wait 5 seconds or so for windows to properly re-recognize it. I then click the “Re-initialize extension” item and all of the keyboard LEDs will re-sync and work properly, but the screens are still all black. I can then click “Re-initialize extension” a second time and the screens come back.

This is one of those things I figured I’d fix someday, but since I’ve never had my MK3 disconnect while playing I’ve just never gotten around to it. I’ll take a look at it again and see if I can figure out why it’s doing what it’s doing and perhaps fix it.

I assume you saw the explanation for them on the second to last page of the documentation for the extension.

I’m attaching a copy of the current version of the extension (for Mac) and a simple Gigfile that illustrates how I used the zone lights.

This copy of the extension is newer than the one that is in the Releases link on GitHub because it’s built on the current source. I’m not sure if anything I tweaked over the past year has helped with the disconnect issue, but you might as well try the latest one. I’m not using a Mac, so you may need to edit the midi port names in the widgets on that global rackspace panel for your system.

If you scroll down to the bottom panel on the Piano rackspace you’ll see the zone widgets that control the key LEDs on the MK3. If you go into edit mode and look at the blue and dark orangish rectangles you’ll see that they’re linked to MIDI in blocks in the wiring view called “Secondary 61” and “Secondary 61 + 1 Oct”. You can label them however you want, but in my setup those are linked to the MIDI input from my SL-MK3 in the Rig Manager.

For each zone there is one Midi In block in the wiring view (one called Secondary 61, the other with the +1 Oct). On the panel there are two widgets attached to each of those. The one on the left is connected to the “Min note” parameter of the midi in block, the one on the right is connected to the “Max note” parameter. The widget on the left (colored blue in my example) controls the color of the zone LEDs using the Fill Color of the widget.

Hopefully that makes sense, or seeing the example makes it clear.

SL-MK3 Extension 0.96.zip (929.4 KB)

43

Thanks for your quick response,

As I return back to my studio will be looking extensively into the extension and the example you sent to me.

I’ll also try in on a windows computer to see if it functions differently.

If it works this way on Mac that would be great for me. I usually leave on my computer for months. The m series behave like a cell phone and I find my self not turning it off. So when I unplug it after a days work or unplug it to go to a gig then the program gig performer is left running and I simply reconnect the keyboards etc to the computer without needing to restart gig performer.

So if I can follow these steps and get it working that would work for me as I don’t mind a couple extra mouse clicks.

Yes I saw the. Instruction but couldn’t understand it as I didn’t know where to place the information so to be able to reverse engineer the illustration will be awesome.

With this extension I feel like I have a new keyboard and it looks awesome with all the colors and texts on the screen….

Thanks and Ill update again once I get to try the new file

Regards

44

Good day,

I have both good and not so good news.

Good first,

I tried the lights and have a much better understanding of how to command the key zone lights using your extension.

Not so good news,

I tried all sorts of combination and experiments but to no avail. Unless I do a complete restart of gig performer I cannot get the keyboard back online.

The buttons are capable of changing the parameters in gig performer but it is not reflected on the screen which stays blank.

The only way I can get this to sort of work is by opening up an instance of gig performer and loading the same gig file as an “Instance”

in this way I have two of the same files open and the keyboard lights up and responds or reflect the positions of the instance.

In this case the main gig file just mimics the movement of the instance.

its not ideal and i would nt trust using it live but its the only way to get it to somewhat work without a complete restart of gig performer..

Finally quick question…

How do you get the customized sentences at initial start up and shut down of gig performer to appear on the keyboard screen?

Thanks again for any help possible..
Regards

45

I just uploaded a new release to the GitHub page (Releases · WidnerM/GP-SL-MK3) that should address disconnect problems.

With this version the extension should automatically re-connect and re-initialize the MK3 when disconnected and reconnected. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

I don’t currently have a way to change the “welcome” and “exit” text. I’ll have to think a little more about what’s possible/practical.

The current messages are hard coded into the extension at compile time. You could certainly change them in the source code and re-compile just for your own use.

The main challenge for the “welcome” text is that it is only displayed while Gig Performer is loading the gigfile. As soon as the gig is finished loading it goes away. I could look for custom text in a widget with a specific name (something like “sl_welcometext”) but I suspect it wouldn’t get picked up until the Gig was finished loading, at which point it would get cleared away for the normal display.

I can put in a provision to read the “exit” message from a text widget named “sl_exittext”. Formatting it might be a bit of a hassle for the user, though, because it is broken up across all the display areas.

46

Good day,

Let me say thanks at first. There’s a short version and after I’ll attach the slightly longer version which you don’t necessarily have to read.

Short:

It works perfect.

Long:

I had to play a gig this morning with the old version of the extension. It worked flawlessly, but I had in the back of my mind that I cannot allow it to shut down. Or at least I hope it would not shut down because I would have to reboot, gig performer in the middle of the gig.

But all went well, as there was no issue at all. Upon arriving back home, I saw your latest message that a new extension was posted.

I was very excited about this and the first chance I got tested it on the board. I was totally blown away. I was impressed even before because of the speed gig performer and the MK communicated but after the update to see the speed the keyboard reconnect immediately after a disconnection or a shut down Was super amazing. And that is even though I tried it all sort of ways.

I disconnected the keyboard, waited until gig performer informed me that it was disconnected, and then re connected which it worked right away.

I also tried another way where I turned off the keyboard and unplugged the midi USB cable. Again as a reconnected it, it worked right away with no issues.. This again made me quite impressed at the speed with which it reconnected and also the speed at which it works when it is connected.

In regard to the text at startup it is not a huge deal, but would’ve been sweet to be able to manipulate what we want the keyboard to say to us when we boot it up. I was thinking it could be something neutral. For example welcome to gig performer.

At the end when shutting down that can be personalized and that would be fine. But this is totally a small thing and not necessary at all because the most important part is being able to reconnect and that is working super good.

And so I must say thanks again. The speed at which you have put in effort to correcting and repairing the extension is simply amazing.

I honestly feel like I have received a brand new keyboard and I’m trying to wrap my head around all that I can do with the lights and the pads and the buttons and the faders and the banks.
I first saw the extension in one of the blogs and thought to myself “I have a MK keyboard” but at that time I had it parked, and was using another controller. I didn’t know what I was missing out on.

So on that note, I must say a big thank you again. I see this type of work as share genius. I have no clue on how to begin something of this nature. I’m still trying to wrap my head around GP script, etc..
Thankful for guys like yourself and the developers of gig performers who have the type of IQ to do this type of work and creation as it makes a big difference in the work that we’re able to carry out as musicians.

Regards.

1 Like
47

Hi,

I’m new to gig performer and am looking at different approaches to integrating it in my live setup. I’ve been playing around with this extension and it seems amazing! All the visual feedback would be very welcome since I’m planning to have my Mac side stage, out of sight.

It would be connected via the DIN ports but it seems the ‘In Control’ mode only works via USB. I think this is a limitation on the SL itself but could a workaround somehow be possible?

Kind regards, Jop

48

The extension requires going through the ‘In Control’ mode, and that is only accessible through the USB connection.

Have you looked into extended USB cables if you need the Mac out of sight?

49

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response!

USB extenders: I use those sometimes during sound check for the Fractal Axe FX editor, which is fine. But for the bigger stages I run a 20m cable loom and I wouldn’t trust that long of a usb connection to carry my audio. So I guess the only solution is to have the laptop on stage or to use the SL differently and think of a different way to have my labels etc.

50

I was just thinking that I could maybe use a usb midi host device at the keyboard end, and then run din cables to the rack. Something like this: Miditech USB MIDI Host – Thomann Nederland

I may give that a try this week

51

The issue with the SL MK3 is that it presents multiple midi ports on the USB interface. The port that carries the note on/off and pedal information comes over a different midi port than what the InControl protocol uses.

There are USB to Ethernet adapters that might help. You’d just need to include an ethernet cable in your 20 meter spool. Then connect something like Monoprice USB Extender over Cat5e or Cat6 Connection, up to 150ft - Monoprice.com to each end of the ethernet cable. I’ve never tried one myself.

52

Ah I hadn’t thought of that. Thank you

53

Hi! I have another question, hope that’s okay.

First off, I’ve been having a lot of fun programming my template rackspace to have my SL behave the way I’d like it to. It’s so amazing that I can set it up in such a way that it’ll just follow what I do in gig performer, so I don’t have to mess with two editors.

I was just setting up the pad bank, I’ll use it to trigger samples in NI Battery 4. I’m using colours to remind me of the state of each sample slot: I’ll make it black if there’s no sample present, red when there is, and it lights up green when the pad has been pressed so I can quickly see which pad to hit when I want to stop it. This all works perfectly.

There’s one thing I can’t seem to figure out: sometimes I want to have the pad be a momentary action, for short samples when I don’t need start / stop. I can set the widget to momentary touch, but the physical pad colours will still have a latching action. Is there a way to have the pad on the SL follow the momentary widget?

I hope that’s clear, English is not my first language.

Thanks again,

Jop

54

The Momentary Touch property only effects how the widget behaves when clicked in GP. That setting doesn’t have any effect when controlling it through midi.

I can adjust the extension to make pads have that behavior. I’ll just have to figure out a good way to communicate that to the extension on a per-widget basis that’s not too cumbersome or confusing.

55

Wow, okay that would be amazing.

To have an extra widget would totally fine by me but it’s understandable you don’t want to complicate things too much. I can’t think of another way right now but I’ll think on it some more.

56

The option to set a pad to momentary contact mode is now in the extension (Release 0.9.7)

This must be done on an individual pad basis. The default behavior of all pads is toggle mode (e.g., touch to turn on, touch again to turn off).

To set a pad to “momentary” mode you need to edit or create a parameter widget for the given pad.

Suppose you want the third pad on the top row to be momentary, and the widget name for that pad is “sl_p_mute_2”. The associated parameter widget would be “sl_pp_mute_2”. The format for the caption of that widget is normally “[label]_[On text]_[Off text]”. An example might be “Piano mute_On_Off”.

By appending an “_m” to that caption (e.g., “Piano mute_On_Off_m”) that pad will be set to momentary contact mode. In momentary contact mode the widget will turn on when the pad is pressed and turn off when released.

2 Likes
57

You are amazing, thank you so much for implementing this!

I have tested this immediately and can confirm it works perfectly.

58

are there any demo videos showing this extension in action?

59

In case anyone is interested: I’ve been doing all my testing and programming over a 10m cat5 cable with a simple Aten usb/hdmi extender and this has worked flawlessly so far.

I’m going to upgrade to an Icron USB ranger since that’s supposed to be better for realtime applications like midi. But this proof of concept has given me enough faith in the idea.

1 Like
60

I just downloaded this extension and have been reading thru the materials. I installed extension, restarted GP and loaded up the demo gig file. I see in wiring view there are many plugins that i don’t have. Is this intentional?

I’ve never used in-control mode on the mk3 before, it appears to be all blank- is this also as expected?

61

It doesn’t matter if you have those plugins or not. The main purpose of the demo file is so that you can look at how widgets are set up and see how their settings translate to what you see on the SLMK3.

To make sure you are in In-Control mode you just have to hit the In-Control button on the keyboard.

If your screen is still blank then the extension is probably not finding your keyboard, or you have not enabled the required ports in GigPerformer.

To troubleshoot, open the log window and show us what that shows. Also show us what the Options->Midi Ports window looks like.