Kenton LD2 MIDI Thru for FM9

powerslave88

powerslave88

Inspired
Hey guys! Just jumped on the UK tour of Officer and a Gentleman and the previous chair holder was using a Kenton LD2 to gauge his underscore volumes (amazing idea!) he was using it with a Quad Cortex and had it connected via the midi thru of that unit - apparently just had to pop the cable in and it was all set.

The Kenton belongs to the company so it’s still there and the MD wants me to use it as it’s good for deps (I agree) - but I can’t get it to read my FM9? I’ve got MIDI thru set to on in settings and clicked the learn button on the Kenton but they just aren’t talking to each other 🤷‍♂️

Do I have to do anything else? First time using the MIDI thru function of the FM9 here

Cheers in advance!
 
powerslave88 said:
Hey guys! Just jumped on the UK tour of Officer and a Gentleman and the previous chair holder was using a Kenton LD2 to gauge his underscore volumes (amazing idea!) he was using it with a Quad Cortex and had it connected via the midi thru of that unit - apparently just had to pop the cable in and it was all set.

The Kenton belongs to the company so it’s still there and the MD wants me to use it as it’s good for deps (I agree) - but I can’t get it to read my FM9? I’ve got MIDI thru set to on in settings and clicked the learn button on the Kenton but they just aren’t talking to each other 🤷‍♂️

Do I have to do anything else? First time using the MIDI thru function of the FM9 here

Cheers in advance!
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Are both set to same midi channel?
 
GlennO said:
No, there’s nothing else to set. The midi channel doesn’t matter. Try bypassing the fm9 and connecting the cable directly to the ld2 as a test to make sure the ld2 is working.
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The LD2 definitely works 👌 I’ll try and take a video or a pic in a bit and see if that shows up something obvious I’m not doing (it’ll absolutely be user error 😂)
 
powerslave88 said:
The LD2 definitely works 👌 I’ll try and take a video or a pic in a bit and see if that shows up something obvious I’m not doing (it’ll absolutely be user error 😂)
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If it works in that test I suggested, then I'd suspect a hardware problem, for example a bad cable. There are no other settings to be adjusted.
 
GlennO said:
If it works in that test I suggested, then I'd suspect a hardware problem, for example a bad cable. There are no other settings to be adjusted.
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So when you say bypass the fm9 - where am I plugging the other end of the midi cable? Or do you mean connect the Kenton to the fm9 and have the preset bypassed except the volume pedal? Thanks for your patience!
 
I feel like I'm missing something.

What is the rest of the midi signal path?

The midi thru passes midi going to the FM9 midi in to the thru.

What's connected to midi in?
 
unix-guy said:
I feel like I'm missing something.

What is the rest of the midi signal path?

The midi thru passes midi going to the FM9 midi in to the thru.

What's connected to midi in?
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Nothings connected to midi in - according to the guy who used it before me with the quad cortex he just had the Kenton connected via midi out to read the volume control
 
powerslave88 said:
Nothings connected to midi in - according to the guy who used it before me with the quad cortex he just had the Kenton connected via midi out to read the volume control
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I was assuming you had a midi controller connected to the FM9 midi input. If you don't have anything connected to that, no it won't work :). Otherwise, there's nothing going through the FM9 to send to the "through" output. A Quad Cortex can send expression pedal midi to the output (not the through), but the FM9 isn't capable of that.
 
GlennO said:
I was assuming you had a midi controller connected to the FM9 midi input. If you don't have anything connected to that, no it won't work :). Otherwise, there's nothing going through the FM9 to send to the "through" output. A Quad Cortex can send expression pedal midi to the output (not the through), but the FM9 isn't capable of that.
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Ah I see! Shit 😂 Is there anything I can do/get as like a “converter” or something?
 
Or would you suggest getting a midi controller expression pedal, having that run into the midi in on the FM9, telling the volume block to use the midi in as what it reads instead of pedal 1 and then run midi out/thru of the fm9 to Kenton?
 
GlennO said:
He got the whole story. The problem is powerslave88 is using an FM9, not a QC. With an FM9, he'll need to use a midi expression pedal and connect that to the FM9 midi input.
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Does the QC merge midi out to midi thru? Or the other guy was using a midi controller /expression pedals with the QC?
 
unix-guy said:
Does the QC merge midi out to midi thru? Or the other guy was using a midi controller /expression pedals with the QC?
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There was no midi through involved on the QC. It has the (useful) feature of sending out midi events in response to expression pedal movement. When powerslave88 described the previous guitarist's setup above, there's no mention of midi through, so I'm not sure where the idea to use midi through came from.
 
GlennO said:
There was no midi through involved on the QC. It has the (useful) feature of sending out midi events in response to expression pedal movement. When powerslave88 described the previous guitarist's setup above, there's no mention of midi through, so I'm not sure where the idea to use midi through came from.
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It came from the OP:

he was using it with a Quad Cortex and had it connected via the midi thru of that unit
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If he was using the midi out then that makes total sense in that case... But of course won't work with Fractal.
 
@powerslave88 - one thing to note in all of this: the LD2 is only telling you the midi value of a controller.

It is only part of the story and not really telling you about the volume level.

Assuming you've setup a midi expression pedal to control volume, the level of your volume will be relevant to the configuration of the FM9, the preset overall volume, the front panel Level control, the way the expression pedal is set to control the volume (globally or via a Volume block), the modifier settings, etc.

If you get everything dialed in and don't change anything it will be a good reference point at best, in my opinion.

You may already know all of this, but I figured it's good to be aware.
 
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