Lately ive got a DSI evolver which im really enjoying.
Ive been trying to find a way how i could connect my Evolver to the PC to use the Evolver Sound Editor on the PC and sequence it with Octatrack at the same time.
I bought an M-Audio MidiSport UNO to connect the Evolver with the PC and use the Evolver Sound Editor…this works perfect. But on the other hand my Midi Ins/Outs on the Evolver are taken and so i cannot sequence it with the Octatrack.
use a MIDI merger box to combine the MIDI out from PC with the MIDI out from OT (than into MIDI in of Evolver).
use a second MIDI interface like the UNO and run the MIDI out from OT through the PC to the other MIDI interface’s MIDI out (requires some MIDI routing software, too)
IMHO using the MIDI merger box is more flexible, because it will work also when the PC is turn off.
The benefit from routing the MIDI through PC would be that you can use some software like MIDI Translator Pro to transform the MIDI coming from the OT in whatever way you can imagine.
With the UNO you already have. Just instead of going with from the UNO out directly into the Evolver you go into the mergebox where it gets combined with the MIDI from the OT.
The routing will look like this:
Evolver MIDI out -> UNO MIDI in (to PC)
OT MIDI out -> MergeBox in1
UNO MIDI out (from PC) -> MergeBox in2
You could also use Midi-OX on a PC which can merge ports, they also have a virtual midi cable which you may also need to use this method. It depends whether your midi ports are multi-client. I use it all the time for routing ins to outs and it’s very useful but it’s not as intuitive as it could be.
Another option is to use a DAW if you have the Evolver VST Editor, it’s generally easy enough to route ins to outs within the DAW as it has complete control of the ports. I use Bitwig to link all of my gear, using it as a Hub. I have an Octatrack, A4, DT, DN, Peak, Evolver and E-MU P2000 all linked to Bitwig. Bitwig is the Master clock but I do all midi Sequencing on the boxes and just route midi where I need to the other hardware. It takes some messing around to get it set up but once you have it as a template it’s done. My main goal was to be able to multi-track record everything to Stems and it works well. It gets rid of loads of Midi cables too.
It would be simple to do this with just the OT and the Evolver assuming you do have the VST version of the Editor. I never use it myself, I like working with the Matrix, the Editor never quite worked well for me.
Can highly recommend the Iconnectmidis (ICM4+) for this and they will also add a lot of future expandability and advanced customized routing/merging/filtering/splitting/remapping and more. Total midi Swiss army device. Plug your stuff into that and never need to replug cables, it’s all done in the box. Program on a computer but works standalone, save and recall presets, can’t recommend enough… Uber-flexible…
Costs a bit but I think it’s totally worth it especially if the setup will expand over time…
The Octatrack is just a Midi Input the same as any other Keyboard etc… if you can set a track to the Evolver output just select the Octatrack port as your midi input. The trickier side of all of this is the latency, but Bitwig makes it easy with the HW Device which is one of the main reasons I bought it initially. In terms of using 2 midi inputs to a single device (merge) you just use 2 tracks that point at the Evolver and assign different midi inputs to each.
So you think this will work?
