I’m fairly new here, so forgive me if this is a dumb question.
I already own a rytm, and a keystep.
Thinking of adding a digitone and analog four.
I’d like to linkt them, be able to control the digitone and analog four with the midi keyboard (arturia keystep).
What do I need to do this?
How to route the midi? I guess the rytm as brain makes most sense? since digitone and A4 all have own sequencers, a start/stop coming from the rytm to the other devices should work right?
Lastly, what do you recommend for the audio? would you use a hardware mixer, and if so, which one do you recommend?
I am not sure if the Keystep routes incoming midi to the out, but I think, it might be a problem to integrate the Keystep there without any midi merger.
Audio wise you can go without a mixer, as all three devices come with audio IN ports. You could go from Digitone out to A4 in and from A4 out to Rytm IN and then from Rytm OUT to your speakers.
all of the above but i would probably go the other way around in terms of audio routing: AR->DN->A4, this way you don’t have to worry much about the input on the AR and can use the FX you have on the A4, unless you want to opt for the compressor on the AR; depends how you like it
Maybe someone here will chime in with a way to make midi work without a merger. But just to add: if you plan to have a setup with multiple pieces of gear and using midi controllers, a merger will often prove useful, so not the worst investment. There’s more smart/flexible midi hub options but I’ve never jumped into that wormhole. I really like my Kenton Midi Merger, super steady, simple and just always works.
Regarding routing the audio, there’s different pros and cons to the end in chain. Rytm has a compressor though, which you might want end in chain.
Haha thank you, probably good advice to learn one of them first.
regarding the midi;
if I want to control 2 devices with 1 midi keyboard, we are talking about midi out of the keystep to 2 devices. Wouldn’t i need a midi splitter/thru box instead of a merge then?
You could for example use A4 as brain/first box. So that would receive the Keystep. Then midi out from A4 to Rytm. And use the midi-thru from the A4 (which is a copy of the keystep midi) and merge that with the midi-out or midi-thru from the Rytm, towards the DN.
But in case you’re not really experienced, I really would just go for one box first! It’s not just a question of more/less difficult, you also really develop a more deep and genuine relationship with a box if you dive deep one at a time. And either the DN or A4 will give you multiple instrument tracks anyway!
I ended buying a Blokad MidiHub. it’s a tiny bit more expensive than a simple midi merger or midi thru box, but you can completely configure what information from the 4 inputs will got to the 4 outputs. That way it’s totally awesome to also integrate a controller (knobs/faders) into the setup etc. I don’t want to miss it, even if my small little setup I have currently (Octatrack, Rytm, Virus TI2 and a Electra One (Midi Controller) as well as a Launchpad Pro (Midi Keyboard)
You don’t need any additional hardware to connect these instruments in the way you want for MIDI.
Connections:
AR MIDI Out to KS MIDI In
KS MIDI Out to DN MIDI In
DN MIDI Out to AF MIDI In
AR settings:
The AR should transmit MIDI clock, transport, and (if desired) Program Change messages.
KS settings:
The KS should be set to pass through MIDI messages from its In to its Out port.
The KS should be set to transmit on the DN’s Auto Channel.
DN settings:
The DN’s MIDI tracks should have channel numbers set to correspond to the AF’s tracks.
Selecting one of the synth or MIDI tracks will route the KS’s MIDI output to the respective track on the DN or AF.
You would have to be careful with other MIDI and channel settings, but this is easily possible.
While you could daisy chain the audio from one device to the next, you may well prefer to use a hardware mixer at some point. You would need to think about whether you want to use the individual audio outputs from the AR and AF and potentially connections for individual effects. Budget and size are considerable factors in your decision.
Asking out of self-interest, but still relevant enough for the thread: would you say the Blokas is easy enough to route these ins-and-outs? Or is it sketching-block-diagrams and running-software-editors every time you change the setup?
You need to connect the MidiHub to a computer and use the editor to make changes to the presets, but you can switch between the presets (8) without.
I think you can do some preferences/parameters via MIDI CC but I have not looked into that.
The software editor and its UI is super easy. I have a quite complex routing and filtering (I only have 16 channels on the midi Controller but have more channels to send CC values to) but it was self explaining, first version until it was useable took maybe 10 minutes. That is 10 minutes understanding the tool and the blocks, I wrote down up front, what I wanted to to, that took some more time
writing, compiling and uploading a custom firmware for a Rk002 cable, that did a very basic version of that, took way way more time .)
on top of my basic useable, the MidiHub can be also a very creative tool, with midi fX, arpeggiator, poly to mono tools (chord split into several mono commands) note to chord converter (to play chords from monophonic sequencers) etc. But I have not touched that at all yet. I think loops did a great video about that.
As long as you don’t really need one, don’t buy it. More complexity in your setup does not help, and when you don‘t know the requirements for your mixer, you will probably buy one that is wrong for you in a few weeks.
It really depends on what you want and what you need.
There are very cheap 19“ 8-track stereo mixers out that that cannot do more then plain mixing. There are bis analog consoles (4-16 Mono Channels in the affordable range) with subgroups and send/returns, a few digital ones that are affordable.
There are thrings like the Bluebox from 1010music.
lots of people are using DJ mixers.
A lot of people use their interface as mixer. some are working standalone even when the computer is off.
It all really depends on what you want from the mixer!
I own a 16to4to2 desk with faders, a small one with 6 channels, an audiointerface with 18 ins and 16 outs that can act as a mixer even without a computer attached but at the end, I am using a combination for daisy chaining and the 2 inputs of my Octatrack…
