Arturia Minilab - Mapping Relative Knobs

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anoryx
Sun Aug 26, 2018 5:21 am

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Arturia Minilab - Mapping Relative Knobs

Hey, forum folk. It took me a hot minute to figure out how to get the knobs working the way I want on my Arturia Minilab, and I wanted to share my findings with you in the hopes it saves someone else time looking for answers.

Step one is following the directions set out in leongpg's post on the Arturia Beatstep. Using MIDI-OX and LoopBe1 to translate the Minilab's MIDI controls was the key to making this work for me. Paraphrasing:
  1. Use Arturia MIDI Control Center to configure knobs as:
    • Option: Relative #1
    • Channel: Global
    • CC Number: Sixteen knobs, from 102 to 117
  2. In MIDI-OX, Options > MIDI Devices. Select Arturia Minilab as the MIDI Input. Select LoopBe Internal MIDI as MIDI Output.
  3. In MIDI-OX, Options > Data Mapping, Insert the following translations:
    1. Input Matches:
      • Channel: Any
      • Event Type: Ctrl
      • Min Ctrl #: 102
      • Max Ctrl #: 117
      • Min Amount: 31
      • Max Amount: 63

      Set Output to:
      • Channel: Match Input
      • Event Type: Ctrl
      • Min Ctrl #: 96
      • Max Ctrl #: 96
      • Min Amount: -1
      • Max Amount: -1
      • Use input value 1 (Pull): Checked
    2. Input Matches:
      • Channel: Any
      • Event Type: Ctrl
      • Min Ctrl #: 102
      • Max Ctrl #: 117
      • Min Amount: 65
      • Max Amount: 97

      Set Output to:
      • Channel: Match Input
      • Event Type: Ctrl
      • Min Ctrl #: 97
      • Max Ctrl #: 97
      • Min Amount: -1
      • Max Amount: -1
      • Use input value 1 (Pull): Checked
    3. Input Matches:
      • Channel: Any
      • Event Type: Ctrl
      • Min Ctrl #: 102
      • Max Ctrl #: 117
      • Min Amount: 64
      • Max Amount: 64

      Set Output to:
      • Channel: Match Input
      • Event Type: Discard
      N.B.: This last translation is specific to the Arturia Minilab, I guess. I noticed in the MIDI-OX Monitor that every knob turn generated two MIDI messages: the relative knob increment/decrement that we've already remapped, and an additional 'B0 40 xx' (where xx = the MIDI CC of the knob being turned), which FL Studio treats as a 'set knob to Absolute 50%'. Rather defeats the purpose of relative knob controls if we're also setting to absolute 50%. So we need to discard this extra signal. YMMV?
  4. Make sure to check Turn Map On (after OK) in the MIDI-OX Translation Map, then click OK.
  5. In FL Studio, Options > MIDI Settings: Enable the LoopBe Internal MIDI as the input controller with type (generic controller).
And that's all it takes* for the Minilab to use relative knob controls. You should be able to link your knobs to your FL Studio plugins, VSTs, whatever now using the usual methods.

* Step two: The Minilab knobs normally modify the software controls much faster than I prefer. I can take any parameter from 0% to 100% in about half a knob turn. I find it a lot easier to get the control I want by changing the controller input formula in FL Studio:
  • Ctrl-J to start Multi-Link to Controllers
  • Tweak all the software controls I want to link to the Minilab
  • Tweak the first hardware knob I want to link
  • In the Remote Control Settings dialog, change the Mapping formula to Input*0.5 (or 0.25 or however slow you want to go)
  • Repeat the previous two steps for all the knobs you're linking
For FL instruments, you can probably just right-click any parameter you want to link to the Minilab, select Link to Controller, change the Mapping Formula there, and then tweak the Minilab knob you want to link.

I like this better than absolute mode because the hardware and software don't get out of sync (e.g. if the knob is set to Absolute 20% and I change the linked VST control to 60% in software, turning the hardware knob clockwise doesn't snap the value down to 21%).

Maybe all that was obvious to some of y'all, but I'm a noob who doesn't know anything about MIDI encodings and it was all new to me. Hope that helps.




beasts
Sun May 16, 2021 9:49 pm

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Re: Arturia Minilab - Mapping Relative Knobs

I should have come across this before I purchas...

beasts
Sun May 16, 2021 9:52 pm

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Re: Arturia Minilab - Mapping Relative Knobs

FieryLungs wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 10:06 pm Wh...


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