So, I have an AKAI MPK mini mk3 midi keyboard sitting on the shelf, but always had trouble connecting it to Ardour.
In the Ardour installation /opt/Ardour-8.6.0/share/midi_maps I found AKAI_MPKmini.map, which I think is for version mk1. So I took this as a starting point, made some mods - and I got it loaded in Ardour.
Put it in $HOME/.config/ardour8/midi_maps (create that directory if it does not exist.)
I used the preset MPC on the AKAI (there are 8 configurations for various DAWS)
You can easily modify it for your needs.
It is well documented in then Ardour manual
Same page also describes how to load the map
Here it is, copy and paste it into a a file called “AKAI_MPK_mini_mk3.map”
Don’t forget to adapt it to your needs.
(can anybody tell me how to attach a small file to a posting;
I don’t want to go the route via external cloud storage, which might not be permanent.)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ArdourMIDIBindings version="1.0.0" name="AKAI MPK mini mk3">
<!-- MMC MIDI Mapping for Akai MPK mini mk3 -->
<!-- 2024-08-23 Peter Zenk (peter.zenk@gmail.com) -->
<!-- copied and modified from-->
<!-- MMC MIDI Mapping for Akai MPKmini -->
<!-- 2015-01-23 Robert Schneider (robert.schneider@aramar.de) -->
<!-- TODO: Describe mode of Akai .... -->
<!-- Press the "PROG CHANGE" button to switch pads into PGM mode -->
<DeviceInfo bank-size="8" motorised="no"/>
<!-- Knobs mapped to Ardour Faders -->
<Binding channel="1" ctl="70" uri="/bus/gain master"/>
<Binding channel="1" ctl="71" uri="/bus/panwidth master"/>
<Binding channel="1" ctl="72" uri="/route/gain B1"/>
<Binding channel="1" ctl="73" uri="/route/gain B2"/>
<Binding channel="1" ctl="74" uri="/route/gain B3"/>
<Binding channel="1" ctl="75" uri="/route/gain B4"/>
<Binding channel="1" ctl="76" uri="/route/gain B5"/>
<Binding channel="1" ctl="77" uri="/route/gain B6"/>
<!-- Assign pgm change 0 - 16 to the PAD 1 to PAD 8 with two banks -->
<!-- Bank A-->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="0" action="Transport/ToggleRollForgetCapture"/> <!-- stop and forget REC -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="1" function="transport-roll"/> <!-- PLAY -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="2" function="transport-stop"/> <!-- STOP -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="3" function="toggle-rec-enable"/> <!-- REC -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="4" action="Transport/Rewind"/> <!-- REWD -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="5" action="Common/jump-backward-to-mark"/> <!-- BACK -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="6" action="Common/jump-forward-to-mark"/> <!-- NEXT -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="7" action="Transport/Forward"/> <!-- FFWD -->
<!-- Bank B-->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="8" action="Editor/remove-last-capture"/> <!-- Remove last capture -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="9" action="Common/jump-backward-to-mark"/> <!-- -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="10" action="Common/jump-backward-to-mark"/> <!-- -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="11" function="prev-bank"/> <!-- Previous bank -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="12" action="Editor/remove-last-capture"/> <!-- Remove last capture -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="13" action="Editor/playhead-to-edit"/> <!-- -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="14" action="Common/jump-forward-to-mark"/> <!-- -->
<Binding channel="10" pgm="15" function="next-bank"/> <!-- Next bank -->
</ArdourMIDIBindings>
