Grand Master Midi Encoder

[Spitfirelive]

Hi all

Anyone else noticed that you can't use an encoder to control the GM fader?

I'm trying to get an Akai APC key25 mk2 to work but so far it's not been easy.

All the encoder knobs are backwards for one.

Any guidance is very appreciated

Thanks

Ben

[MichelSliepenbeek]

First of all you need to find out what MIDi information you receive from your "encoders".
Might be that they actually are Rotary Knobs (instead of Encoders), which makes live a lot easier.

A Rotary Knob (which acts the same as a Slider) will usually give you a Control Change value between 0 and 127 (MIDI, which QLC will convert to a DMX value between 0 and 255).
An Encoder will come up with two different values, one for Up and one for Down (they usually use Midi Notes for that).
Unfortunately AKAI is not very supportive if you use their APC's for anything else than Ableton (so you will not find a Midi Mapping in the manual).
It might be that the Wizzard on the ïnputs/Outputs" tab already gives you enough information, otherwise you could use free software like MIDIVIEW to find out.



In the QLC manual you will find:

An encoder is an endless rotary control and can be treated only as a relative control. Basically the encoder can start at any position and when turned clockwise or counter-clockwise it will generate positive or negative offsets inside QLC+. When an Input Profile channel is set to the Encoder type, it is possible to specify a sensitivity value, which is nothing but the relative offset that will be added to or subtracted from the current QLC+ channel value.

For Sliders (or Rotary Knobs) it says:

There are two behaviours: Absolute and Relative.
Absolute is the default setting and basically tells QLC+ to use the slider values exactly as they are received from an external controller.
....................

So if your encoders are not encoders, but rotary knobs instead, you can use them in absolute mode and set them up as Extrnal Control for your Master Fader (Use the Toolbox Icon on Virtual Console and select the third Tab) and you can also set up The Slider Movement as Normal or Inverted.

If your encoders however are real encoders, you have no other way then to use them in Relative Mode.
This still can be done, but then you have to create a LoopBack channel to use as your external control (for let's say your Master Fader), two more LoopBack channels that have the UP and Down from your Encoder as External Input and will work on your "first LoopBack" channel.
Be aware that it takes some time to (find the proper values to) get the Sensitivity right and you also need a trick to make those relative channels stop again (when you stop turning the knob).