Hi all,
After years of creating linear songs on different devices, I decided a few month ago to force myself to create a live set, based on very minimal and small setup, which is Digitakt and MC101.
DT plays most of the sounds, and controls the MC, which plays the bass, some synths, and some stereo samples and loops, sometimes scattered & fx’d .
As I’m having a lot of fun with that, I just wanted to add some spice and instant fun, so I yesterday I added my old 2008 buddy, the KP3, for filters, loops, flanger, and other stuff.
Sadly, the screen started to not answer correctly to my finger. Tried to fix it by disassemble, clean, and reassemble, nothing changed.
So I thought “ok, kaoss pad really deserves its name now, but maybe DT would tame it with midi?”.
A few cables moves and midi config later, I started to find a way to make this work:
- one DT midi track sends midi cc and pc to KP3.
- 1 midi cc to turn on/off fx, and 2 midi cc to control KP3 X/Y axis
- 1 pc to select fx
- plocking “on/off” fxs
- plocking KP3 X/Y axis parameter
- plocking fx type
- and of course, DT audio out -> KP3 audio in
Each DT pattern can now have an fx pattern, turned on by activating corresponding midi track. Well, it can become 4 fx patterns in one DT pattern, as in my setup, I have 4 free DT midi tracks.
Turning fx on/off is achieved by sending midi cc to “hold” KP3 function. This way I can turn off easily fx directly on KP3 by pressing “hold” button.
I can also turn fx on/off and play with X/Y axis live easily, with the 3 corresponding midi cc DT encoders.
All this gives way more control than simply playing randomly with KP3 pad (despite requiring more preparation).
My first moments playing with looper and some filters were great, and brought me many ideas.
Now I have to check if I can send DT midi clock to KP3. If not, I can set bpm manually, but well, that would be great if all is perfectly automatically synced.
Also have to check if it’s possible to trigger KP3 sampling this way, if yes, that would become madness.
One last little annoying thing: as MC101 doesn’t have midi thru as far as I know, I have to use a kenton box to send midi simultaneously to MC & KP3. No big deal, but needs more plugs and cables.
Now, I would like to know:
- did some of you have try this kind of setup?
- did it worked for you?
- do you have some tips and ideas?
- What about midi clock sync? I heard bad things about how KP3 manages this.
There are maybe better alternatives to KP3, if so, I’ll be happy to know 
But actually I find it great and will explore this path further.
Thanks for reading, would be happy to know about your experiences/feelings about this setup
Peace