ARTURIA KEYLAB MK2 WITH BITWIG 3.1

Official support for: bitwig.com
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

hi

has anyone tried these 2 badboys together yet?

i just got the mk2 yesterday, managed to play around for 30 mins

theres no tutorials or anything on how to get the best out of the mk2 with bitwig. i managed the basics, stop start and play functions but surely they can do more together

Post

I'm using both in MCU mode and that works fine. Most buttons work and the faders will control track levels as expected.

But that's it. All the clip launching goodness that the Keylab can do with Live is not available for Bitwig and I think there is only so much that Bitwig can do about it on the computer side. Arturia will have to do some work here too.

Post

Benutzername wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 2:00 pm I'm using both in MCU mode and that works fine. Most buttons work and the faders will control track levels as expected.

But that's it. All the clip launching goodness that the Keylab can do with Live is not available for Bitwig and I think there is only so much that Bitwig can do about it on the computer side. Arturia will have to do some work here too.
ok now i'm gutted. when i saw on bitwigs website that 3.1 had better integration with the keylab mk2, without even doing my research i went and ordered the keylab, thinking it was gonna be some revolutionary shit but i was wrong :(

Post

Full stop, I stand corrected. It actually does work great now. :hyper:

I've just set the controller from "MCU" to "Bitwig by Bitwig 3.1" and now I can fire clips and scenes with the drum pads and edit parameters with the dials. Even the clip and track colors seem to work.

Edit: That's what I've found out so far:

The channel selection is done with the big knob. The upper 8 pads will control the clips in the currently selected track while the lower pads will fire scenes. I don't know yet if it is possible to scroll past the 8 slots or to stop a particular clip without stopping the arrangement.

The last button on the right toggles between mixer mode and parameter mode. In mixer mode you can use the dials for pan, the faders for volume and the buttons for channel selection. This is like the MCU mode. In parameter mode you can select banks of parameters with the buttons and then change the parameters with the dials. The currently selected parameters are shown in the status bar of Bitwig Studio. In this mode the faders don't seem to do anything.

The last fader is always the master fader. Mute, solo, record enable, transport etc work as expected.

I couldn't find a manual for this mode so it's a bit trial and error now. Does anybody know if the new functionality is documented somewhere in more detail?

Post

ah ok

This sounds much better.. cant wait to go home now and test it out

its a shame, theres no documentation on this

Post

Benutzername wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:53 pm I've just set the controller from "MCU" to "Bitwig by Bitwig 3.1" a
Hey, where did u set it? Bitwig controller settings or the controller itself somehow? Cause i don't see this anywhere. Thanks.

Post

Actually I didn't do anything special. I just tried it again and in the latest beta it is even simpler. That's how it worked for me:

1. Press Add controller
2. Select Arturia/Keylab 61 mkii
3. Set MIDI devices to the MIDI inputs and outputs of the Keylab (I'm currently on mac os so the names may differ to the windows or linux version)
4. Play
keylab.jpg
The device list also includes Keylab 25, 49, 49 mkii, 61, essential 49, essential 61, 88 and the Minilab. The only one that's missing is the 88 mkii but that device shouldn't be much different to the 49 and 61 key versions.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Post

Ok, cool, that's what i have. Still wish they would release new firmware with Bitwig map included and proper documentation.

Post

Benutzername wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:53 pm Full stop, I stand corrected. It actually does work great now. :hyper:

I couldn't find a manual for this mode so it's a bit trial and error now. Does anybody know if the new functionality is documented somewhere in more detail?
There's a pdf for the MkII here on Bitwigs' Github, assuming you don't have it in the beta /resources/doc/controllers/arturia/ folder already :

https://github.com/bitwig/bitwig-extens ... 20mkII.pdf

( only found this as I was after the doc for the Essential 49 version to see if I should upgrade to 3.1 from 2.4.3 )

Post

Great find. Thank you very much. That was exactly what I was looking for. :tu:

I found most things by trial and error but I completely missed the preset browsing mode. That's really useful.

Post

If you click the white circle with a ? in it under your controller's name in the controller's settings page, it should open up the same 'help' file.

Post

I've just tried it and you are right. In the first beta this button did nothing so I never bothered clicking it again.

Post

:) Main thing is it works.

With my Essential 49 the controller script crashes with an api error in the latest beta.

Post

Thanks for the info, Benutzername and MoodyB. I've had by Keylab for a couple months and have most of the main functions working, but the preset browsing will be huge for me. Can't wait to try it.

Post

I have just installed bet 4 and now the track control buttons do not work.

Any ideas anyone?

Post Reply

Return to “Bitwig”