Hello everyone. . .

I have just purchased an M-Audio Trigger finger to use with Reason 3. I have an Evolution MK-449C keyboard already so I (wrongly) assumed that like my keyboard the trigger finger would "Just Work" when you plug it in (being class compliant and every thing.

Unfortunately the trigger finger pads don't make my Redrum (in Reason) make any noise. My Powerbook recieves the volume and slider MIDI info but does not respond to the pads being hit.

Does any one know how to make this work??

I would guess that the pads aren't assigned to the right octave of the keyboard to trigger ReDrum. With your keyboard you have the octaves covered but with the TriggaFinger you will probably have to assign the pads to the correct notes to trigger ReDrum.

try changing the presets on thr trigger finger, if you dont see them listed they are in the Enigma program that ships with the trigger finger, here's from a review thats out there

"Next I tried Reason, the default is designed to control Redrum (naturally) but it’s setup a bit different from what is expected. It basically splits the 16 pads in half with each side mirrored, sounds kinda complicated, but try to follow mentally if you can. The left half triggers samples 1-8 as does the right half, however the left half also triggers send effect 1 on whatever pads you hit and based on the velocity and how long you hold the note, keeps that level up. The right half controls 1-8 as well, but without the effect send. This was the confusing part for a couple of people, I personally don’t’ understand why on a 16 pad controller you can’t access 2 of the 10 channels (9 and 10), but the simple work around is to simply load preset #16 which is the unassigned one designed for you to experiment with and it’ll function just like a regular keyboard controller would."

gist of it is switch to preset #16, should work fine

thanks for your help guys. I had tried using the enigma software but it is utter pony.

I managed to resolve the issue by downloading the latest update for Reason.

Now the trigger finger works (almost) perfectly. I would recommend it to anyone!

Cheers,

Arola

OK, I think I got a little excited while writing the last post so Im back to ask for some more advice because it doesn't work as good as I thought:

Does anyone know of a standard one-size-fits-all setting for Reason so that I can flip back and forth between different instruments and have a logical lay-out for each one. IE: All the redrum sounds 1-10 are triggered by pads 1-10 on the trigger finger... (is that too much to ask?)

Any help would be great as my bastard Trigger Finger came with a quick start guide (1 page) and a user manual (PC only, I use Mac).

Thanks a bunch. . . this forum is ace and everyone on here has helped me loads!

AM

Trigger finger is simple peace of crap-as it does not work same way as any midi keyboard.It seems to me like some idiot at m audio needed to get promoted so he finished project before it was finished.Manual is rubbish-it does not covers anything and support on the page is terrible.This is not plug and play device.This is just marketing stupidity.
I think to buy someething else like akai or somethin.Trigger finger is bullshit.

hi yeseter, thanks for the positive response! It's always good to offer some constructive critisism and not just dig someone out!

As it turns out, the trigger finger is pretty good once you get to grips with it. It may be more difficult to program than a regular keyboard but this is due to the versatility of the device. It is quite a complicated beast so obviously isn't going to be plug and play...

Hey, I use trigger finger and eason 3.0 and have the exact same problem.

Here is a step that is necessary to make any loaded presets work: once you have uploaded from enigma to TF you must immediately press Save & Exit button followed by a preset button (P1-16) to correspond to your preset.

Once I did this, I successfully managed to get reason to recognize midi signals, but the preset I am using (which is supplied by the accurately described 'enigma' software) only activates the s2 (send 2) note dials and does actually activate the sound! What the fuck are they trying to pull? Anyway, so now I am looking for a preset that actually signals the notes, I have merely told you what I have found in order to activate the settings.

I must say that the unit was released with no helpful documentation, anywhere, except from intelligent users online and I must say fuck M-Audio. Their customer support is closed during regular business hours as I have found also...
I apologize but I have a tendency to rant on this subject, if anyone knows how to get the TF to activate ReDrum noises, please help!!!!!

Here is an update, I made a remarkable discovery 5 minutes after posting above on how to make your trigger finger work with reason 3.0 on a mac. This is for anyone's benefit experiencing similar trouble as us. Here it is:

1. Go to reason prefs
2. make sure your control surface is properly identified under "control surfaces and keyboards" - this case it is the trigger finger. You want it to have a green check mark.
3. Next, go to "advanced midi" section of prefs.
4. Assign USB Trigger Finger to any of the Buses labeled Bus A through D.
5. open a new reason file, and you should notice that it opens with a green/grey device in the rack called "MIDI IN DEVICE". Here you select the appropriate bus, I used bus A and it should read USB Trigger Finger when selected.
6. If you have properly mapped out your keys, which you assign to the TF from Enigma (which I explained in my last post) then using a pad/fader/knob on the TF will activate a red light on one of the channels on the MIDI IN DEVICE in the rack. For some arbitrary reason mine is channel 10.
7. Next, you pick the channel that is in use and select a reason device to recieve the midi commands, i.e. ReDrum, Dr. Rex or whatever.

That is it, now I am looking at how to record events from the TF, it's being a little stubborn... we'll see how that goes. Anyway, hope I could help somebody out, good luck!

Channe l10 not really arbitrary. The TF ships with its global channerl set to 10. To get it to work with Reason 'out the box' so to speak, all you have to do is change the global channel on the presets (via enigma is easiest) or set reason to channel 10. Using the MIDI busses is an option also as you are using them, but ou can get TF working like a regular keyboard just by changing the global channel to the standard '1'. Also, the MIDI implementation charts in the Reason manual gives you all you need to customize TF CC's and note values for the pads. The TF manual needs some work because a lot of importantt info is written in a misleading and confusing way. Some info is just outright wrong (ie viewing global slifer settings using Peek--doesn't work. HAd to select the 'Select' button and even then you only see the knob parameter values assigned and not the global values.