Electra one - programmable midi (CC, SysEx, NRPN) controller

it has worked out extremely well for me :wink:

the good thing about sysex/json is they are really easy for anyone to create.
this creates a low barrier of entry for community development.

but, lets not forget, hardware also fails.
Im more fearful of hardware failing and not being repairable as spares are not available anymore.

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You are not the average bear, my friend. :slight_smile:

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I’ve seen your comments on their forum! I notice you’re also using a Pyramid as the main hub - had any dramas with that? I’m also doing the same, with a LPP as my main note input - I believe you’ve got a Virus in that place. Any dramas?

Martin seems to be pretty cool- but I can’t believe how little attention there is around the web for it, and it seems he didn’t even send an email to the people on his list when they came back in stock (I signed up and never got one), so he’s taking it very conservatively.

nope, no ‘dramas’ with it.

i think the main consideration when you get it, is deciding exactly where to place it in your setup - as, like a sequencer you want it (preferably) to be able to talk to every instrument.

Electra One is a small company, so I suspect they need to be a bit conservative with how much stock they hold. I think the pandemic also has made the supply chain slower than it would normally be - which indeed combined means they sell out very quickly after they become available (pent up demand).

also, the product is still under development - so a slower rollout helps with support.
I suspect they are happy with the uptake , and it being a slow burner.

I’m pretty certain, if Martin sent one to Loopop, they would just be swamped with demand , that they’d not be able to handle.

anyway, for now… its nice being part of something that is not ‘mass’ marketed :slight_smile:

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Have you got it running bi-direction?

at times I have, at other times not

so far Ive mostly set it up for specific tracks, rather than set up such that its always doing the same thing in my setup.

this is partly because it was a recent firmware update that allowed me to connect to E1 to the mioXM, so in a more permanent position, connected to everything.

also, I like the E1 to be a central hub, where Im controlling specific things I want to interact with frequently…
so I (personally) see no reason for me replicate ALL the controls of the virus or octatrack on an E1 - when I can reach over and use them directly.

a typical use-case so far is.
I created a preset for something i was working on, it had
Octatrack track volumes.
a few controls for a different vsts running on my mac
a couple controls the virus

the reasoning was simple…
octatrack volume were for an overview, so I could see where they were.
vsts i didnt want to have to switch between vsts to alter controls, and then the daw to alter the send levels.
the virus, I had things like filter (cutoff) from multiple parts, which Id have to switch parts to be able to control.

also these were the only things i need to perform this.
(for sound design, id just go to the individual plugin/synth)

whats I really enjoyed was it brought all these instrument (real or virtual) onto one surface, so it felt like one big instrument.


I guess this is a long winded way of saying, I use the E1 to improve accessibiliy when playing.
in this context, whilst the bi-directional comms is great, its not really that important since im unlikely to go over to the instruments interface and change there.

however… one thing that did get a bit tedious, was if I came back to the same ‘track’ the next day, Id have to twiddle the knobs on the e1 to sync up. so i did end up making it bidirectional to handle this.

BUT, the latest firmware has a new ‘snapshot’ feature - this allows you to save the values on the E1, and quickly send these to the instruments - so this can be used as an alternative to bi-directional midi if you wish (or if the instrument is unable to send panel control values)

but for sure, the E1 is very flexible, and opens up a lot of possibilities,
so it takes a while to decide how you want to use it.
(or has for me at least :))

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Thanks very much for the info - really appreciate hearing how you’re using it. I’ll put an order in for one of these shortly.

big announcment today…
the Electra ONE is going to support Lua !

its early days, being released so ‘devs’ can start testing and feeding back,
but its a big step forward in what is going to be possible.

basically there are two forms of lua support:
a) preset extension - you can build preset that are more ‘dynamic’ or can do more elaborate processing
b) standalone - basically ‘takeover’ the E1 and write your own application on it.

bad news (if you dont have an E1) - the Electra One are sold out again :frowning:

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Hi,

anyone who may share the experience with digitakt and E1, specially with program/pattern changes ? My doubt is mostly about the digitakt sysex bidirectional capability.

Here is a topic where one forum member was using the Electra to send Program Change messages:

Program Change messages and SysEx messages are different things.

Can you rephrase your question?

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The final ideia is to know if E1 will assume the DT parameter change, every time a pattern change occurs in DT while playing it live.

It seems it will fit my needs. Thank you both for your fast reply.

At Superbooth last week, Electra One announced they have open sourced their firmware,
this brings many exciting possibilities to use the hardware in exciting new ways.

to celebrate this, Ive been working with them to create a demonstration of this,
by creating a completely custom firmware to interact with my Orac software.

here’s a demo of what I had running on the booth.

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Holy shit, I missed this. This is gonna be amazing

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Patiently waiting on the waiting list… :timer_clock:

This would be great for my Jupiter Xm which has some “hidden” sysex features. Also just to have instant control of some of the menu items.

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I just got an email from Electra one saying they are taking orders for those who got on the waiting list FYI.

They are offering those on the list 499€ For a couple of days and then the price will go up to 549€ for normal orders after November 10th and be open to the public.

I want to be on that waiting list :frowning:

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It was kind of hard to find. It’s pretty much a forum post where you tag someone and they add you.

Edit: Bump, because there’s only 1 day left.

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Ordered mine Saturday evening, about 4 hours after the announcement went out; got a shipping notification about an hour ago telling me it will be here (NL) tomorrow. Really looking forward to doing some Lua hackery on it!

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