Q Light Controller+

Can someone with an APC40 please verify if the new APC40.qxm is working?
I don't have the APC20 at home for much longer so I don't have a lot of testing time left.

Sorry Joep, I didn't had the possibility to test the new profile so far. I will try it as soon as I can!
Thank you for your help

Hello Joep, I've finally found the time to test the new init profile on my qlc & apc40, and I'm happy to say that everything works as expected!
Maybe it should be inserted in the next QLC+ release (together with the apc40 midi map profile).

Thank you for your help !

Great!

Thanks for testing.
I'll make a pull request for the new init message and the new profile so it's easy for Massimo to add it to an upcomming version.

Are you able to get led feedback on the knobs? I'm using the new APC40 MKII and I'm unable to get led feedback on the knobs. Everything else works just fine just nofeedback on the knobs. Any suggestion?

Hi, I hope someone can help me solving my problem. I've tried nearly all combinations (apc20 / apc40) with init script, without, note change, velocity, assigned to input / feedback... but the feedback doesn't work on the buttons.
I take my apc 20 and set it up without the init script (Play button LED is on)and I choose APC20 Profile the feedback works if I press the button in VC. If the button in VC is activated from the APC the button doesn't stay green. If I activate the init script all lights of the apc are switched off but now the feedback even doen't work if activated from VC and the LEDs stay off even in the moment I press the button.
I'm using V4.8.4 on Win7 any Ideas whats wrong?

When using the init script, do the buttons on the VC react to the button presses on the APC?

I don't know what excactly you mean so i describe the whole reaction:

If script is activated (works only for output, if only assigned to input nothing happens) and I turn off and on the midi feedback all lights on the apc go off (I guess this is the mode i should be). If I press now a button the LED stays off but I can see in VC that the midi message from the apc is sent and the button in VC is activated. If I press the button in VC the LED stays off, two.

If the init script isn't activated (LED on Button 1 is green by default) the LED flashes green if pushed but it doesn't stay green. If I press the assigned button in VC the LED goes on and stays green.

So -> With script no Midi Feedback; Without Script feedback only works if button is activated from VC and not if activated via MIDI

Hmm that's strange. The LEDs should indeed go out when the init message is used. I think I will have the opportunity to do some tests myself tomorrow with a Windows laptop and the APC20. One thing I was thinking about is the MIDI channel. Do you have it set to 1-16?

Yes it's set to 1-16. what looks strange to me, I've 3 Lines for MIDI Devices:
1. Line is APC with ID 1 but only with input checkbox
2. Line is Ms... With ID 1 for in and output
3. Lines is APC with ID2 and only feedback and output checkbox
Sorry for the text, I'm not @ home until tomorrow so no print screen available

The next thing, if I click refresh i get a Midi plugin error.

I tested it today and indeed it does not work on Windows.
I tested QLC+ 4.8.4 and 4.8.2.
On my machine I also see the APC20 as 2 separate devices.
On my Mac it is one device.
I will have to do some more testing to find out where the issue comes from.

I, too, am working on a Windoze machine and I am using an APC40. After the hoops I had to stumble through to get the machine to fully function, I find it increasingly more difficult to follow the threads detailing how to make things happen. Is the LED feedback functioning in 4.8.4 yet? If so, what options do I need to set?

I found something... If I Open my Show File, then Configure the MIDI plugin, as stated above (Both In and Out - Midi Ch 1-16, APC40 Ableton Mode 2) then SWITCH to Operate mode, then back to design mode, close QLC out, reopen the show file, reconfigure the MIDI Plugin to (Both In and Out - Midi Ch 1-16, NONE), the feedback works just as intended. This seems like a bunch of extra steps to make it work... and I can foresee many issues explaining this process to the LightOps. Is anyone else experiencing this same set of circumstances?

I certainly hope that I have not just done a ton of research and a bunch of trial and error for nothing... BUT... I may have a solution.

I found a (somewhat) elegant way to make this work. I located a Java application (find link below) that allows you to switch, manually, between the three APC40 Firmware Startup Modes. You will need to install Java 8 (find link below), which includes the Java Runtime Environment. Now, You can simply run the APC40-Mode Java application, choose "Alternate Ableton Live Mode", exit the program and then launch QLC+. This could take some getting used to, especially getting into the habit of doing this everytime the APC40 has been power-cycled, or you can automate this with a batch file.

1.) Download apc40-mode-win-linux-1.0-jfx.jar
https://github.com/sproshev/apc40-mode- ... x/releases

2.) Download and Install Java 8
https://java.com/en/download/

3.) Move 'apc40-mode-win-linux-1.0-jfx.jar' from your "Downloads" folder into the QLC+ Program Folder (assumed to be located at "C:\QLC+".

4.) Double-Click 'apc40-mode-win-linux-1.0-jfx.jar' to test that it is in fact working with the APC40. You should be able to easily change modes, and see the change as indicated by the green LED in the 'Track Selection' row of buttons. Then close out of the editor.

5.) Create a batch file, that will first open 'apc40-mode-win-linux-1.0-jfx.jar', allow you to switch to "Alternate Ableton Live Mode", then, one you exit the editor, the batch file will automatically launch QLC+.

To create the batch file,

Open Notepad and copy+paste the following text:


~~~~~~
@echo off

mode con: cols=100 lines=3

ECHO TO USE AKAI APC40 WITH QLC+, CLICK "ALTERNATE ABLETON LIVE MODE", THEN EXIT THE EDITOR.

start /wait javaw -jar C:\QLC+\apc40-mode-win-linux-1.0-jfx.jar

cd: "C:\QLC+"
start qlcplus.exe

exit
~~~~~~




6.) Save the file as "QLC+ Custom Startup.bat" inside of the "C:\QLC+" folder.
Change file type to 'All Files' before saving.

7.) Navigate to "C:\QLC+"

8.) Right-Click the Batch File you created, Go to 'Send to', Choose Desktop (create shortcut).

9.) If you want to make the Shortcut have the QLC+ icon, right click the Batch file shortcut and choose 'Properties', click the 'Change Icon' button. When the 'Change Icon' dialog prompts you that the file contains no icons, click "OK". The 'Change Icon' dialog appears. Click "Browse...", Again, navigate to "C:\QLC+", and then scroll down until you see qlcplus.exe. Double-click "qlcplus.exe". The icon for QLC+ appears. Click on the icon, then OK.

You will want to make sure that your AKAI APC40 is properly configured as a MIDI IN and MIDI FEEDBACK device within your universe.

I found that for this process to work, you must make sure that your MIDI Plugin does not send any INIT command. So, you will want to make sure that both Input and Output are set to "NONE".

--------------------------------------------------------
| >Outputs |
| MS GS wavtable synth - MIDI Ch 1 Init Message: None |
| Akai APC40 - MIDI Ch 1-16 Init Message: None |
| |
| >Inputs |
| Akai APC40 - MIDI Ch 1-16 Init Message: None |
--------------------------------------------------------

Congratulations. You now have a shortcut on your desktop that will launch the APC40 mode change Java Runtime file. You will then press "Alternate Ableton Live Mode" then Exit out of the Editor. The batch file will then start QLC+ and you are in business!

Hi Travon,

Thanks for investigating this.
Since you need the Java program to set the APC in the correct mode it seems the init functionality of QLC+ is not working correctly on Windows.
The problem with this is that I am almost unable to debug this since I don't have an APC device at home and don't have a Windows machine when I am working with the light show.

Do you know a good midi monitor program for Windows?
I did a quick search for it, but none of the programs seems to easily allow me to check which midi sysex messages are sended to the controller.
That would help me with the debugging process.

MIDIOX www.midiox.com

--

I think that in order to use a MIDI Monitor, you would need to have a USB MIDI Interface, and basically, route MIDI out to MIDI in with a cable to see the MIDI data that is being output from QLC+. Basically pretend that an actual APC40 were installed, use the MIDI interface for the I/O, and using the APC40 Input Profile...

Day two of my Batch Loader for QLC+ and the Java App for APC40. All is good in the world. Just need to remember HTP/LTP stuff in my VC now.

I created a virtual midi device with [Virtual MIDI](http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/virtualmidi.html) and named it APC40 so I could use it from the Java tool.
I checked the sysex output in midi-ox and compared it to the output from QLC+.
It is almost the same, only the version bytes are different.
See attached screenshot.
The first message is from QLC+ and the second one is from the Java tool.
Byte 9, 10 and 11 are different which should not matter.
I attached another screenshot with the settings I used in QLC+

Can you please try the following:
Change the apc40.qxm file from the miditemplates folder to have the 08 04 01 version and see if this works from QLC+

When this does not work, can you please also install the virtual midi driver and midi-ox and record the communication between QLC+ and the APC40?