Digitone + USB KB

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#1

Hi.

If one only has a USB keyboard, is there any way to connect it to a Digitone (don’t have one yet)?
If no, what small kb can you recommend (battery powered, 25k, velocity)?
The only one I’ve found is the Arturia KeyStep.

Thanks.

#3

100% recommend the Arturia Keystep. Connect to Digitone using normal Midi cables and use a small USB battery (phone charging type) to power it. I use the one below which powers the Keystep via the USB socket and the Digitone via the 12 volt barrel socket at the same time. Fully portable! :fire::fire::fire:

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#4

Yeah, they’re not USB hosts. The only way to get a USB MIDI device to work with them is to use an external USB to DIN MIDI host.

I’m still confused at why modern, expensive electronic music devices don’t include USB host ports for this purpose. I’d pay whatever the small additional cost would be in order to have that connectivity.

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#5

This is such a great idea especially since many midi controllers are being produced without din midi ports.

2 Likes
#6

About $20 will get you… https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/
Teensy USB Development Board is an off the shelf prototyping microcontroller board that uses an ARM chip. It can support many types of USB input/output including MIDI.
Teensy MIDI Library https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_MIDI.html

#7

Thanks OverUnity, I hadn’t seen a 12v + 5v battery pack before. I was planning on using a QuickCharge pack that outputs 3.6 V to 20 V, but not at the same time and I need to usb a usb dongle to fool it in to the desired voltage. I’ve already got 2 USB keyboards, so I really didn’t want another kb, and the Arturia is a little large vs my Roli Seaboard Block (tiny + built-in battery).
Still on the fence w/ the Digitone… it’s quite expensive and I have a lot of soft sythns, mobility was a prime consideration, and I think the OP-1 is very overpriced and old.

#8

Not everyone has the capacity or knowledge to develop their own USB-MIDI host though. I’ve been teaching myself programming over the past year and a half, and I’m still not quite at the point where I can figure it out by myself yet.