How to configure FATAR Studiologic VMK 188 Plus to work under FL Studio

Hi all,

today I want to tell you not about software development, but about music, yeah..
So, you bought MIDI keyboard - FATAR Studiologic VMK 188 Plus - and want to use it in FL Studio.

There are several steps to do so:

1. Configure keyboard in FL Studio.
2. Configure ASIO4ALL to minimize delays (optional).
3. Configure preset on MIDI keyboard to enable pedals and "Transport control".

Configure keyboard in FL Studio.

Picture 1 - Configuration of FL Studio to work with MIDI keyboard.

1. Open Options menu and check Enable MIDI remote control item.
2. Open Options menu and press MIDI settings item (or just press F10) so Settings tool window will be displayed with active MIDI tab.
3. Press Rescan MIDI devices button to make sure that keyboard detected and responsive.
4. Select device in the list and check that Enable is selected. So device has state Active.
5. Check that Controller type is (generic controller) (it is common type that will work with different keyboards but without some advanced features).
6. About other available options, please read help file for FL Studio, section System Settings - MIDI.

That's all, now you should be able to play on your keyboard. You can check small rounded box that normally has grey color, to see that signal from MIDI keyboard actually goes to FL Studio - box changes color to orange (see image below).

Picture 1a - FL Studio has signal from MIDI keyboard.

Configure ASIO4ALL to minimize delays (optional).

If you have your MIDI keyboard connected to PC via USB, you probably will notice a delay between you press some key and actual sound from PC.

It is because buffer of sound card driver is long, and driver waits when it will be full to push it into processing. This waiting is not infinite, partially filled buffer can be pushed into processing by timeout. But this timeout is not your friend, that is why you have a delay.
You can download and install ASIO4ALL driver and use it to manually set buffer length and minimize latencies.

After installation (usually I use default options during installation), you should tell FL Studio to use ASIO4ALL driver:

Picture 2 - Configure ASIO4ALL in FL Studio

1. Open Options menu and press Audio settings item so Settings tool window will be displayed with active Audio tab.
2. Select ASIO4ALL in combo box.
3. Press Show ASIO panel button, to open ASIO4ALL control panel.
4. Set preferred buffer size using slider (small buffer - sound can be "cutted" by buffer overflows; big buffer - good sound, but bigger delays).

Configure preset on MIDI keyboard to enable pedals and "Transport control"

To use Transport control feature and all 3 pedals, you should manually create preset on keyboard for FL Studio.

1. Using Data entry knob select free preset (for example preset #12) and press Enter button to confirm your selection.
2. Press Edit button, to enter edit-mode. In this mode light diode on Edit button should be turned on. On display you should see message: Press Or Move Any Controls.
3. Now slightly move P1 knob to enter Knobs Edit mode. In this mode you can use Page buttons to cycle through settings, and Data entry knob to change setting value. Then press Enter button to go back to edit mode. Use next configurations for knobs:
   

   MIDI channel:	1
   Polarity:	DN -> UP
   Value Min:	0
   Value Max:	127
   CTRL:	111 - 118

4. Now slightly move V1 slider to enter Slider Edit mode. Use next configurations for sliders:
   

   MIDI channel:	1
   Polarity:	DN -> UP
   Value Min:	0
   Value Max:	127
   CTRL:	102 - 110

5. For buttons you can use next configurations:
   

   MIDI channel:	1
   Key mode:	SWITCH (or PUSH, depends what you need)
   Key note:	127
   CTRL:	14, 15, 26 - 31

6. For Transport control buttons use next configurations:
   

   MIDI channel:	1
   Key mode:	PUSH
   Key note:	127
   CTRL:
   REW	24
   FF	25
   REC	23
   PLAY	22
   STOP	21

7. For pedals use next configurations:
   

   MIDI channel:	1
   Polarity:	UP -> DN
   Value min:	0
   Value max:	127
   CTRL:
   Pedal 1 (soft):	67
   Pedal 2 (sostenuto):	66
   Pedal 3 (sustain):	64

8. Now you can press Storage button, and answer Yes (by pressing Enter) on question "Store parameters".
9. Select preset # using Data entry knob, then press Page Down button to go to preset name. Again use Data entry to select character and Page buttons to jumb between charactes.
10. Finally press Storage button again, and answer Yes (by pressing Enter) on question "Are you sure?".

Cool you have your preset, now we should change Controller type setting in FL Studio -> Options menu -> MIDI Settings -> MIDI tab -> your device selected -> Controller type to Tascam US-428. It is small hack that should be done for FL Studio, to make it understand our CTRL codes configured in the preset (see picture below).

Picture 3 - Change controller type in FL Studio.