long time lurker, first time poster. I have this idea stuck in my head for quite some time now and I’m gonna have some free time next month to try it, so I was wondering if you guys could confirm if it should work and give me some feedback.
The idea is to build a small custom MIDI-Controller with an Arduino to control the modwheel value for the 4 Digitone tracks with four wheels or potis simultaneously. Each of the potis/wheels would correspond to each modwheel for Track 1-4. It would be great to have hands on control of multiple parameters of all 4 Tracks while playing live without having to menu dive.
I am slaving the DN to my OT, so I have two ideas:
MIDI-Controller -> OT MIDI in
I would have the Octatrack pass the MIDI through to the Digitone. I think this should work if I map four of the OT MIDI channels to the corresponding DN channels right?
MIDI-Controller -> DN USB in
Theoretically the DN should be able to handle MIDI from USB, although this might be harder to implement…
Right now I’m leaning towards option 1 as I think it’s gonna be easier to just build an MIDI controller which outputs MIDI, while with option 2 I would have to use an raspberry or something similar as an MIDI->USB bridge.
He controls multiple DN Modwheels with a single knob, so I guess it should be possible to have multiple knobs control different Modwheels - but as I said I would have to implement a MIDI bridge.
Have any of you guys tried something similar? What are your thoughts on this? Would love to hear your opinions or tips!
Great to know, thanks! Did you connect your controller to the DN MIDI in or USB in? The one thing I’m worried about is that I won’t be able to send the MIDI through the OT to the DN.
I’ve looked into the EC4 but it’s kind of an overkill for my needs to be honest…
that means:
midi modwheel arduine cardbord one knob -> digitone in -> digitone out -> ot
but if you use through, midi would be forwarded.
you could do:
midi cardboard -> ot in -> ot through -> digitone, if you want to sequence on the dn.
I’ve used a Midi-Merger to connect both the OT and the controller to the Digitone. Everything works nicely and its really fun to have hands on control on the four tracks.
Interesting. So, you’re looking at either a rechargeable battery pack for just that or maybe a phone-charger style usb wall plug. Those seem like ok options.
I ask because I’m working on a portable performance setup and there’s an accumulation of ‘just-one-more’ usb-ish power concerns. Was just wondering if you had done anything more clever to draw power for the sweet simple device.
Anyway. It’s rad - the Elektron machines really open up when one starts customizing the user interface through MIDI; no matter how many buttons, knobs, tiny-screens and 11-finger key combos they put in, each user will have some path that would be better served by a handful of dedicated controls.
Thanks, glad you like it! There might be another way to power the controller since MIDI has a power connection as well and I’m pretty sure it is 5V, which is the same voltage the arduino needs. However I don’t know how much current an arduino draws and how much a standard MIDI port provides. I was to lazy to figure it out since I wanted the USB-Port either way to reconfigure the arduino if needed.
Maybe someone with a better understanding of the electronics involved could chime in? Would certainly be nice to draw power from the MIDI port!
