Used to own a digitakt which i sold a while i ago. I’ve got an A4 in the post, and was wondering about some functionality regarding control of external gear.
I realise after reseaching a bit that sending notes via midi from the sequencer is possible. Does it only send 1 midi note per track? ie. If i want to play my Peak’s 8 voices - how capable is it?
Also, is it possible to send CC’s via the sequencer, like i remember the Digitakt was capable of. (And if so, can it handle CC pairs, NRPN etc? - The peak is a little tricky. Ableton can’t even handle it properly it seems).
I think you will only be able to sequence external synths monophonically, and unfortunately there is no CC mapping pages/dedicated midi track like the digitakt. You can use the CV track to keep your other voices free, it will still send midi if configured in the track menu I believe.
I think you’d need an octa or a digitakt to do NRPN mapping unfortunately. Also, you can’t send the ARP notes to midi (just for avoidance of disappointment if you’ve not gotten that far).
Hope this helps, best of luck with the A4! It’s a fantastic machine.
I actually just bought the A4 for the sounds, i think it sounds amazing. But now i’m trying to figure out what it can and cannot do.
I use ableton most of the time, and will probably keep doing that instead of buying more boxes for hands on sequencing. I’m at the pc most of the time, so it’s fine. And thanks for clearing up.
How about the Rytm MkII - i love the sounds of that as well, but i’m unsure what it’s external capabilities are. More or less like the A4 MKII?
Digitakt might sequence controls better, but still only monophonic notes per track, as far as i remember. Do you remember what the digitones capabilities are - i remember that as being poly - but how is its control sequencing? Really just trying to get an overview of these machines, besides the sounds.
All of the A4’s tracks can send MIDI notes - max of 4 notes per step.
(you need to enable the SEND MIDI checkbox in the Note Setup menu)
But if you don’t want them to mess with the internal mono tracks, you can use the FX and CV tracks as MIDI seq tracks, so you actually could get those 8x Peak notes playing at once if you had the patience to split them over 2 tracks…
I’ve yet to try using the A4 for midi, cheers @garf for clearing up the midi poly. I thought it was a similar implementation as the model cycles, my bad!
The Digitakt can send poly, it’s got a dedicated note entry screen on it for this on the midi tracks, it looks like a keyboard :). You use the encoders to select the chord to play, I believe it sends up to four notes like the A4 can.
For the A4, I think you’d just need to hold down multiple notes on the mini keyboard whilst holding a trigger. The root (first note entered) should be lit up brighter than the additional chord notes.
I don’t own a digitone, but I think it handles up to 8 notes poly, but I don’t think it has CC mapping (someone with a tone can probably correct me on this).
Also don’t have an AR, but I think it also has a fairly simple midi implementation in comparison to the octatrack.
If you want a midi brain, I think the octa is king here, followed by the Digitakt.
If you are fairly new to the A4, I would really suggest taking it away from other equipment and playing with it alone. If you can master the sequencer, you’ll likely create magic that you’d find near impossible (or flat out unfun to do) on Ableton. Different patches per note, subtle variations in timbre or groove, conditional sequencing, direct pattern jump (play sequences like they’re an instrument), performance macros… World is your oyster! You can make a whole song with just this box on your lap, it’s quite amazing. (Hopefully this didn’t come across condescending, I just want you to have as much fun as I do haha).