Live 10 Max for Live APC40 Device Control Not Working
In Live 9, my Akai APC40 MK II would recognize the controls of a custom Max for Live Device. Now when I load a custom device, the Device Control section of the APC has no dials that are lit up. Also, turning dials has no effect on the highlighted device.
To replicate the issue with an APC in Live 10:
1. Add a new Max Instrument to a blank track.
2. Click the edit button to modify the device.
3. Delete the default objects.
4. Create a new [live.dial] Max object.
5. Save and close the device.
In Live 9, these steps would create a device in which the dial that was created would map to the first dial on the APC40 in the "Device Control" section of the APC's knobs.
Older Max for Live devices like Chamberverb also have this problem. The controls don't automatically map to the APC. Newer devices like Convolution Reverb Pro don't have this problem and the device controls map to the APC knobs automatically.
Is there a setting for a Max for Live device itself or individual objects like each dial that needs to be set so that hardware controllers recognize it when the devices become active/selected in Live?
I haven't fully dug into the new M4L stuff in Live 10/Max 8, but there is a live.banks object now to handle how devices map to control surface. They could've changed how live.dials/sliders etc. behave by default. Its not that the APC can't map to custom devices, those devices just need to be set up properly, it seems.
Evan, thank you very much for bringing this to my attention. This is just the kind of thing I am trying to find out about. Unfortunately, I won't be able to test for a few days, but will I will test this out and report back in case anyone else stumbles upon this post.
Following up, the live.banks object is the solution I was looking for. It was created for Push per the help doc, but it also works with my APC40. Following up on the the steps above, here is what I did:
6. Reopen the device in the Max editor.
7. Create a new [live.banks] Max object.
8. Toggle out of Edit mode (Command+E on Mac)
9. Double click with the mouse on the [live.banks] object to open the Parameter Banks editor window
10. For each control to be mapped, find a slot in the bank and dial number of your choice
11. Close the Parameter Banks window
12. Save the device and go back to Live
Now at this point, you are not quite done yet. It appears that the bank parameter controls are only loaded/mapped to the controller (the APC for me, presumably a Push, too) when the device is newly inserted on a track or the track is loaded when a Live Set loads. That is, saving and closing the device in the Max editor does not load the control mappings to the APC. So to finish confirming that the live.banks object works:
13. Delete the device from the track
14. Add the device back to the track
15. Turn the dials on the controller to see that they are mapped
Thank you, again, Evan.