So I use the M:S as a drum machine/sampler/noise machine for a music project, and I have a few live shows coming up. Thankfully they’re small, just myself and one other guy, but I’d still like to bring this out to bring some recorded sounds and patterns out.
What i’m looking for is, via MIDI (or any other methods that people know of), a way to pause/play and also to go forwards and backwards by a pattern. I know there’s a way to have patterns loop a certain amount of times before going to another pattern, but a big part of what we do together is jamming, so i’d like to just be able to swap patterns on the fly.
Does anyone know if this is possible, and if so, how to do it?
…as far as i know, the model series has a very heavy focus on hands full on control…
since it’s no “real” midi sequencer on it’s own in first place, it can only mirror it’s trig content alongside with it’s machines as midi out and besides one realtime midi standard note in, it only understands standard midi clock for external sync on it’s midi in…
no way to trigger/adress any patterns to notes or cc messages, i’m afraid…
would be a killer option, though, to be able to adress the lowest octaves of any keyboard to the 16 patterns of the bank that’s actually in use…not that hard to program with the already existing status…but if, there’s only a slim chance for that to happen, since there won’t be any further firmware updates for them…they are what the are…for anything beyond u’ll need one of their other products, which are all capable of fulfilling ur whish in one way or the other…
so, no further cc options or any sort of hands free remote protocols…not even a simple play next pattern external options of any kind for their lhandy low price segment…
u can minimize ur attention for live handling to a minimum, by going deep during programming with all kinds of conditional trig tricks, though…
reduced to max would then mean, sometimes press the fill option and sometimes activate a next pattern manually…and if u know which pattern should play more often in some kind of loose arrangement, u could lay it out that way upfront and start to think in one song per bank to keep things straight in live logistics…
Presumably you would like some MIDI “assistance” because your hands are too busy to operate the M:S itself. In which case the most likely solution would be a MIDI foot pedal.
Like all Elektron gear, the M:S has a good MIDI specification, which means that with a bit of thought and preparation you can do what you want.
The M:S responds to MIDI system real-time messages (Start, Stop) that can control its sequencer. It can also change its patterns in response to MIDI Program Change messages; here, a message number applies to a given pattern number (there is no specific MIDI message for “next pattern”) so the transmitting device has to be somewhat programmable in order to be able to do this.
You can also control aspects of the sounds and effects of the M:S using MIDI Control Change (CC) messages - a full list of these is given in the manual.
I don’t have an M:S but I do use a Source Audio Soleman pedal to control my Elektron gear. If you search on the forum for “MIDI (foot) pedal” you will find many other discussions of pedals that might fit your needs better than the Soleman.