Q Light Controller+

Hi everyone, I am having a problem with using the akai APC mkII. I can assign the buttons to a function but some of them are triggering additional channels. Even if a button is not assign to a funktion the still do something. Is there a way to remove everything and make the buttons do only what they are supposed to do. Furthermore I can't get the buttons on the right side to light up. Even when I set them to the same settings as one of the 64 main buttons, they won't light up.
Thanks and regards
Gnatz

I had to laugh... It's funny that 99,99% of the posts complain that something does not work and that your setup does too much.
Do you use an input profile? Check for strange bindings.

You bind a scene to a button and configure this one to use an external control.
If you reuse this scene in two (or more) locations and call for it by pressing the external control, all other controls holding this scene will also be called. It might seem strange, but in some cases, it is darn handy.

Thanks for your reply, how can I check the bindings in my input profile? I tried to use a launchpad mini before and couldn't get the pads to work with QLC+ so I bought a APC mini.
Maybe there are some "leftovers" from this in the setting.

have a great day

Gnatz

and answering to your 2nd question (you better create another thread, because asking multiple questions in one post fights a bit with the structure of this forum we want to maintain)
To my current knowledge, buttons on the right side don't accept feedback signals... there are some posts about this. You have to search a bit.

Gnatz wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 9:50 am Thanks for your reply, how can I check the bindings in my input profile? I tried to use a launchpad mini before and couldn't get the pads to work with QLC+ so I bought a APC mini.
Maybe there are some "leftovers" from this in the setting.

have a great day

Gnatz

Do you use an input profile at all? Check in-output tab, the input universe, APC mini should be selected and then the selected input profile. https://docs.qlcplus.org/v4/input-output/input-profiles

Thanks again for your reply. I am using the apc mini MK2 profile. I can't find out which midi channel is in use so I don't know where this additional signal is comming from. Any Idea how I can get QLC to accept only signals from the APC mini that are assigned to a funktion?

Create a copy of the project file and open it with a text editor. It has like an .XML structure. Study it, and you'll notice how and where the external inputs are configured.

I can't find out which midi channel is in use ....

If you did use a seperate Universe for your MIDI plugin, you can use Simple Desk (and select the specific Universe your AKAI is in), to find out which channels are in use.


It is important to understand that QLC+ uses Plugins (components that allow QLC+ to perform input and output to physical devices or network protocols).
The MIDI Plugin translates incoming 7 bits values of specific MIDI messages (Control Change, Note On/Off, Note Aftertouch, Program Change and some specific messages) to "something" that QLC+ can use.
Check the table at the bottom of this page: https://docs.qlcplus.org/v4/plugins/midi

In order to make this work you need to use a separate Universe for the MIDI plugin.
This is to avoid interference with your other fixtures (and plugins).
If for instance you have a Fixture in Universe 1 with Master Level on Channel 49 and you (make the mistake to) set your AKAI also in Universe 1, it will interfere with Slider 1 on your AKAI.
In this example Slider 1 will not act as an External Control but instead take direct control of channel 49 (and if you also defined a slider in levelmode for this channel on your VC, you created a "two dogs fighting for one bone" situation that might even cause QLC+ to crash).


It is also important to understand that MIDI controllers like the AKAI APC and Novation Launchpad only have a USB connection.
They do not have a MIDI out connector and they do not have the possibility to set them up to only work on specific MIDI channels, instead they both claim full use of all available MIDI channels.
That makes it impossible to have them work together on the same MIDI interface (i.o.w. they both act as a separate MIDI interface).
This means that in QLC+ you will even need a seperate Universe for each MIDI plugin (so if you used the same universe for your Akai as you used before for your Launchpad: not a good idea).

The best thing you can do is to create a whole new Universe (one that has never been used before), set your AKAI for Input and Feedback and start again setting up your External Controls from scratch.
Furthermore make sure to unbox all Inputs, Outputs and Feedbacks for the Universes you do not want to use anymore.


It is also important to set your MIDI plugin to Omni Mode (The special "1-16" channel will tell QLC+ to receive or send data on any MIDI channel).
This is probably the reason why the buttons on the right side of your Launchpad did not work (they use a different MIDI channel for Feedback, as they only are single color while the other buttons are multi color).