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MIDIdocs: Novation Launchpad BLM (discussion thread)


borfo
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First post here. Hope I've got the correct thread.

Have an issue with connecting two launchpad minis, using Virtual BLM on Windows 10. I'd appreciate any ideas on how to fix this, thanks!

My setup:

I've succesfully built a MidiBox Seq V4, with Wilba's FP (bought from Julians shop) and am now trying to get my two Novation LaunchPad Mini's to work in the BLM mode.

My goal is to use Borfo's pyBLM and a standalone Raspberry Pi (running headless on Ubuntu).

However, I wanted to try connecting the two Launchpads via usb to the Virtual BLM on my Windows 10 PC, to validate the concept, before I move to the Raspberry Pi solution.

I can connect the two Launchpads to Windowws and the are getting recognized (I can see both of them in the Device Manager). I have installed the latest Virtual BLM (JUCE) on my Windows PC. I'm following the instructions from thispage, when setting up the launchpads:

Novation LaunchPad BLM

My SEQ is set to: MIDI | Misc. | BLM Scalar Port | USB3

On the Virtual BLM, I select 16x8+X mode, external controller is set to 'Novation Launchpad' and the MIDI IN / MIDI OUT is also set to SEQ V4, USB3.

For the 4 x MIDI IN / MIDI OUT dropboxes, I select my two launchpads as the first two entries. The actual list shows two identical names for the launchpads, but I think that's because of a limit in the characters used. Nonetheless, I select the uppermost 'launchpad' entry in the drop down list, for the first IN/OUT pair and the last 'launchpad' entry in the dropdown box for the second IN/OUT pair. I also rotate the first entry by 270 degrees and the second i set to 0 deg.

The issue:
When I start the SEQ V4 ('play' button), the first 8 clock events shows the 8 red vertical column, advancing from left to right on my leftmost Launchpad (270 deg rotation)

When the last 8 steps (9 to 16) occurs, instead of repeating the pattern on the rightmost Launchpad, a horizontal red bar is shown, advancing from the bottom of Launcpad 1 (leftmost) to the top.

This is clearly wrong and to me it indicates that the Virtual BLM thinks that the first Launcpad is used both for the in/out pair 1 and the in/out pair 2, but with different rotations.

I've tried numerous different combinations in the IN/OUT setup dialog. I've tried to swap the Launchpads and their cables, but its always the first Launchpad that is being lit up and can control the Virtual BLM. The second Launcpad does nothing.

Has anyone seen this before?

I've tried googling for ways that I could maybe change the device names in Windows, but no luck. I'm thinking that maybe the Virtual BLM only sees part of the "real" Windows Device names and therefore cannot address the second launchpad?

Any ideas?

I could off course just skip all this on move on to the Ubuntu/Raspberry PI/pyBLM solution, hoping that it's a Windows 10 problem only.

Edited by Zensac
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You could try the python BLM implementation - if you do, let me know if it works for you: 

edit:  Oops - didn't notice that you were already aware of the python BLM thing.  because the virtual BLM and pyBLM use totally different codebases, I thought the issue you're having under the virtual BLM software with conflicting device names might not occur with pyBLM.  Might be worth giving pyBLM a shot now rather than trying to work out the issue in virtual BLM if you're planning on using pyBLM anyway. 

 

...pyBLM should work in windows too, I think, provided the dependencies will install.

Edited by borfo
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Thanks, Borfo!

I went ahead and gave the Raspberry Pi 3 b+ with your pyBLM script a go. This is my first time actually installing a linux system (I'm using linux on a daily basis though).

If I remember correctly, you have not verified the pyBLM on a Raspberry Pi, correct?

Anyway, I'm unable to start the pyBLM script from a bash terminal. I am pretty sure its something very simple, so I'd appreciate some help, thanks.

Here's what I did:

- I followed the instructions on projects.raspberry.org for installing the 'Noobs' raspian OS on my Raspberry Pi 3. No issues here. Using an 8 GB SD card.

- I then installed the following from a bash terminal (commands shown as I typed them):

sudo apt-get install build-essential

sudo apt-get install python-dev

sudo apt-get install python3-pip

sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev

sudo apt-get install libjack-jackd2-dev

before I could finally install:

sudo pip install mido

sudo pip install python-rtmidi

Next step (I think) is then to try and start the pyBLM script (downloaded and unpacked):

cd pyBLM-master/

python3 pyBLM.py

But when I do this, I get the following error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "pyBLM.py", line 3, in <module>

    import.logging, mido, re, time, sys

ImportError: No module named "mido"

What am I missing here? I did succesfully install both the 'mido' and python-rtmidi packages, so why is the mido module not recognized?

THanks,

 

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Hi - I think I've tested it on a raspberry pi...  It should work anyway.

 

...Are you sure you're installing Mido into Python3, not just into Python 2?  Try "pip3 install mido" and rt-midi...  If that doesn't work you You might also try installing as your user rather than sudoing it.  You could also try installing python3-mido and rt-midi from your package installer (if they're there) instead of through pip.

 

Edited by borfo
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