M-Audio Keyboard setup

[Jesse Johannesen]

Hello guys,
i'm starting to play with my new ndlr but i'm sure i'm light years behind a lot of you so i have a problem i'm sure someone can help me with.
I know i can control the change of key not only with the ndlr buttons but with a midi keyboard.
I have the ndlr connected via USB only as i work with softsynths only for the moment using Logic. I also have an M-Audio 88 keyboard connected as well via USB.
I can't wrap my head around the menu Keybd Cntl (and the Ndls Cntl) but i'd like to set it up so i can switch key on my keyboard controller as well.
Can someone help me ?
thanks a lot in advance

Marco

Hey Marco, glad to hear you're starting to step out into deeper waters with the NDLR. Let me see if I can shed some light on how those settings work for you.
with the M88 keyboard connected via usb, you will either need to have a DAW route that midi to the NDLR usb midi in, or you can connect it directly with a midi patch cable to one of the NDLR's MIDI DIN inputs. In the settings menu page 1/3 there are two settings we need to take note of: NDLR Ctrl and KB Transpose. take note of the channels assigned to these and take this opportunity to set them to a channel not used elsewhere in your setup if possible. Mine are set to 15 and 16 ALL, but if you know which port you'll be using you can set it to be specific, like USB1 channel 16 etc.

Next we need to adjust the setting for KB Ctrl just below the other two menu items. Set this to "Wht & Blk Keys - C"

Once we're all hooked up and know what channels we want to use, we can set the MIDI keyboard to send notes on one of those two channels. If we're set to send on the channel we chose for NDLR Ctrl then all the white keys can be used to select a chord degree (same as the white buttons surrounding the screen) starting with C = 1st chord degree. The black keys will select our chord types, so pressing a C and a c# will give us a C triad in the C Major Scale. Play around with that and see if you can get the hang of it.

Then let's switch to our other MIDI Channel, the one for Transpose. This one does something different. It takes the white keys you play into it and plays them out the output, on the same channel, but shifted into the scale that the NDLR is currently set to. If you play notes in the scale they come out the same, but if you play out of the scale the output notes will be in scale. All timing and other info will be the same, just the note played will be different.

Both of these can be used to control the NDLR live, but where it gets really sweet is when you use a sequencer to compose the changes. This makes some really complex scenarios possible, and is a blast to explore.

Let me know if that answers your questions, and if you have anything else I can help with please feel free to reach out.

Jesse