Mandala Drum Forums

Hi all,

Just received my Mandala pad less than a week ago and it's awesome. Set up was pretty simple and was able to play the drum right away through my MacBook Pro. I'm running the Mandala through my MacBook Pro, triggering MainStage 2.

Some questions I have so far:
1. Initial turning on of the VB3 program and the software doesn't always recognize the pad. I plug in the pad and the computer recognizes the connection through the computer midi setup. I turn on the program and the software doesn't recognize the pad. I close the VB3 software, unplug the pad and plug it back in and open the program again and it works. Not sure why it isn't recognizing the pad on the 1st try.

2. After playing the Mandala for awhile I took a break for about 5 minutes. Came back to the kit to play and the VB3 wasn't recognizing the pad. Had to restart the program for it to recognize the pad again. Haven't used this live yet, but hope this doesn't happen live. Anyone had this happen?

3. Custom Samples - I created a new kit on the VB3 and loaded samples (.wav files) and once I closed the VB3 and turned it on again, the kit preset was saved, but the samples don't show up in the sample library. I have to load the samples every time I start the program. I'm really hoping I'm doing something wrong and I don't need to reload the samples every time I start the program.

4. Just curious as to why there was a change from the midi channel selection for each zone from the 2.0 to the mk2.9... If anyone knows.

I'm new to the Mandala pad and software so I'm sure there's a chance of some user error so any help any of you could provide would be greatly appreciated! Again, love the Mandala and it adds so much to my setup!

Your questions 1 & 2 sound like there is something going on that might be conflicting with your Mandala. What else do you have plugged into your computer? Or maybe it's some utility that you have running or something else behind the scenes like that which knocks out the connection to the Pad.

Question 3 is taken care of by the VB 3.01 update that you should download and install from the Mandala website.

4. I was told the v2 Mandala with all its options for reassigning MIDI channels and # of zones, etc. was too much of an open architecture that lead many users to accidentally program their pad into a corner, and there was then a lot of confusion.

mandrake717 wrote:Your questions 1 & 2 sound like there is something going on that might be conflicting with your Mandala. What else do you have plugged into your computer? Or maybe it's some utility that you have running or something else behind the scenes like that which knocks out the connection to the Pad.

Question 3 is taken care of by the VB 3.01 update that you should download and install from the Mandala website.

4. I was told the v2 Mandala with all its options for reassigning MIDI channels and # of zones, etc. was too much of an open architecture that lead many users to accidentally program their pad into a corner, and there was then a lot of confusion.

Thanks mandrake717 for the reply! Very helpful. I downloaded the update and that worked.

To answer your question about 1&2 - My setup consists of the Mandala pad running to the USB port (right side of laptop) of my MacBook Pro. I use the VB3 as a standalone application, although will probably use it to trigger samples from my computer as well. I also run MainStage 2 which I control with Roland V-Drums. I run a MIDI to USB cable from the Roland module (MIDI OUT/Thru) to USB on laptop (left side). I send the audio out through the firewire port (right side) to an M-Audio interface. I haven't had the issue happen again, but I'm still a little concerned it could happen in a live situation. I'm guessing I should send all USB connections through a USB hub?

Regarding question 4 - That's a bummer about not being able to assign the MIDI channels for each zone because I've been searching and searching for a trigger capable of doing this. The Roland TD-10 module I'm using can only send out on 1 channel at a time for all pads. My intention was to be able to use the Mandala pad to trigger different 'tracks/patches' simultaneously from MainStage. I've tried setting this up in MainStage with MIDI layering but haven't had complete success.

Thanks again for your help!

Multiple Mandalas would do it! Each one can be set to a different channel.

But why can't it be done with a single Mandala? You can set key ranges manually or use the learn function in the Layer Editor, right?

mplayer1 wrote:Multiple Mandalas would do it! Each one can be set to a different channel.

But why can't it be done with a single Mandala? You can set key ranges manually or use the learn function in the Layer Editor, right?

I would definitely purchase another Mandala in a second, but don't have the money at the moment. I've tried using the layer editor in MainStage but no matter what I do, I still get floating midi notes. I have the floating notes set to 0. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong in MS but just haven't been able to get it to split completely.