Can anyone recommend a good make and model of MIDI controller keyboard which works well with Ardour ‘out of the box’ i.e is supported well by a control surface protocol or MIDI binding map included in Ardour 8?
Ideally I’m looking for something which has:
I want to recommend a Novation Launchkey mk 4 (there are several different models).
However, it turns out that there are issues with current Linux kernels and these devices. I’ve been in touch with Novation about it … I don’t know if/when/how it will be resolved.
Ok, I wasn’t expecting the kernel to be a factor! Where do the variables end?!
Do you know if there are other manufacturers whose controllers are more likely to work well?
With Ubuntu 24.04 and Ardour 8.1 i have no problems ,
but I use only “simple” Midi Recording.
My real problems have been with my usb soundcard (CM106). Lost always connection eg.
Since fallback to internal Intel sound on my lenovo laptop i haven’t any problems.
I have been very happy with my Akai MPK Mini 3, it just works ™
Arturia and Novation both make decent gear supported by Ardour. I used to have Novation Impulse 61, I currently have an Arturia Minilab 3.
You can easily create a MIDI map yourself, we have a tutorial on that.
Did you need to create a MIDI map for the Arturia Minilab 3?
Yes, I’ve made one for my M-Audio Oxygen Pro 49 but have not been able to configure the transport controls unfortunately. I think I will either make do with it how it is or replace it with something that that Ardour is preconfigured to work with as I need to prioritise other things over tinkering now.
Yes, and now it’s available by default.
So the existing map, ardour/share/midi_maps/M-Audio_Oxygen49.map at master · Ardour/ardour · GitHub, doesn’t work for you?
No, unfortunately it doesn’t work with my ‘Pro’ model. I’ve also tried the one that user Francesco Graselli adapted for use with the Pro. I’m not sure what the issue is. There is at least one other user here who is struggling to get this working.
I can see in the MIDI Tracer that no MIDI at all is being sent by the loop, rewind, forward and record buttons. Stop and play do show in MIDI Tracer though; as “Stop” and “Start” respectively. After pressing Play, Tracer displays “Clock” several times per second. This does not actually play the session though: the playhead doesn’t move and there is no audio playback. Unlike the others, I cannot edit the message sent by these buttons on the controller.
I’ve tried tweaking all the parameters on the controller to get a response from the transport buttons and I got in touch with M-Audio a few weeks ago about it but didn’t get anywhere at the time.