I’ve read a bit about using the MD to control CV, so I loaded up an IMP machine last night and tried to control me PAIA Fatman and nothing happened. Maybe I’m missing something, but has anyone had any luck controlling CV gear via the MD?
I think of the GND-IM machine as a means of generating gate/trigger signals rather than CV signals.
Here are some brief examples of user experience:
http://www.elektron-users.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=28&func=view&id=218079&catid=9
Gotcha. I didn’t realize they were different. I’ll have to read more about it and check out those links.
I’m interested in picking up a Make Noise 0 Coast when it comes out and want to be able to control some of it with gate stuff.
The 0-Coast has Midi to CV and Midi to Gate built in. I don’t know yet if it comes with DIN Midi adapter cables. But if it has that, you’ll probably get more use out of the Machinedrum’s midi output for controlling it.
The GND-Impulse machine just sends a pulse - a tiny little ‘tick’. Doesn’t sound very good audibly but can be used at least as a trigger with analog gear. This can often be used to advance analog sequencers or initiating an envelope. And it can be used with other drum machines to trigger sounds that might otherwise be triggered by drum pads (I think you can trigger the Nord Drum this way - many of those electronic drum pads that you hit with sticks just send a little pulse trigger to the drum module). You may be able to use the volume/level and width control of the impulse to generate some sort of richer control signal or gate, but it’s very rudimentary.
You’re not going to get much more control than that. If you want to send notes or send more manageable control values from the Machinedrum, it’s probably better to do it through Midi-to-CV converter.
But! The impulse machine can be really cool. I’ve used it with the Dirty Electronics Mute Synth II to trigger its sequencer; then I routed the MS2 into the Machinedrum on another track and used that track to apply envelopes and filters in time with the triggers I was sending.
1 Like
Reportedly, it does come with a suitable adaptor.
I saw an 0-Coast in person this weekend at CtrlMod. The guy had his beta unit. It’s so dope. It does have the MIDI DIN cable adaptor thing. I hope it comes out soon so I can get one!
1 Like
So am I to understand that I could use the MIDI to trigger notes, but the IMP to CV to trigger other aspects of the unit?
I actually almost started a thread about the CV outs on the MD last week, as I finally got around to hooking it up to an old Yamaha RM-50 unit. I think this might be one of my favorite ways to program drums now. I quickly discovered that laying down ghost notes on the MD’s sequencer and using LFOs to control trigger sensitivity gives you some super realistic drum patterns-closest thing I’ve found to playing with a real drummer.
That said, I’ve not had any luck using the Main/A & B trigger outputs. Is there some sort of a trick to using these? If they are set to main, I can get the trigger on B to work, but nothing from output A at all. It’s not a total loss, as it allows me to still use 4 triggers and then have the main outputs of the MD, but it would be nice to sort it out should I want the triggers.
What exactly were you trying to do?
Just send triggers out from A and B to trigger inputs 1 and 2 on the RM50. It was no trouble to configure the rest of the trigger outputs from the global menu.
As I’m thinking about it more, I may have been using TRS cables, not TS. Of course, I used TRS cables on the other trigger outputs without issue, but maybe the mains operate a bit differently?
For this application, I wouldn’t use ‘Main’ as a routing option because panning and effects (and any drum sounds not sent to other individual outputs) would potentially be introduced to the signal path. Using A and B individual outputs should be fine for triggering external gear.
I tried using A and B as well as Main, but had no luck with either really, other than setting it to Main would allow me to at least trigger B (actually, B may have worked as well now that I’m thinking about it, will have to doublecheck)…but no matter what, A/Main wouldn’t send a trigger out regardless of destination.
If you’re asking about the Make Noise 0-coast, then you can use the 0-coast’s built-in MIDI-CV convertor to:
- convert MIDI note messages (pitch and note length) to CV and gate
- convert some MIDI CC messages to CV
You could likely also use the MD’s GND-IM machines from an individual output to independently gate some patch points on the 0-coast.
It might be theoretically possible to use a GND-SIN machine and individual audio output on the MD to control the CV input patch points on the 0-coast, but you would likely be better off using a MIDI-CV convertor instead.
Update: here is a video from @darenager with an MD controlling his Korg MS-10:
Check the text description on the video for technical details.
Ya. My plan was to use the internal CV stuff, but I also thought it’d be cool to use the MD for more modulation. I’ll look into a converter, as well.