before buying an AR i would like to clear if its possible to trigger the analog rytm sounds and samples with a roland handsonic hpd 15 via MIDI (using different midi notes, all on one channel)
i want to use the rubber pads on the handsonic as substitutes for those on the AR. the hand sonic has 15 pads and can therefore send 15 MIDI notes. so i wonder how many AR-sounds can be triggered simultaneously. can you only adress the 12 sounds of a kit or is it also possible to use all 128 kits of a project at the same time? or even all sounds from the library?
i know the AR has 8 voices and cannot play 12 sounds at once (openHH and closedHH at the same time for example). but thats not what i am asking for.
sorry for the newbie question here. i hope its understandable…
any help would be appreciated.
Ok good I was just about to post a question similar in vein. So in addition to the OP’s questions, I’d like to ask some myself.
So I think for a lot of people who already have ARs, the pads leave a lot to be desired. For performance and scene modes they are a lot of fun. But for live recording accents and variation, they are horrendous. Some people claim they get better over time, but I myself am just not seeing it.
So my first question is if anyone has successfully hooked up an external MIDI controller? AkaiGhost I am looking your way considering you had said you were planning to hook up your MPC1000. How has this gone for anybody who has? Has there been any improvement in “finger drumming”?
In addition to the OP’s Handsonic (which is nice, btw) what about something like a Roland SPD or Nord Pad? Would these successfully integrate with this AR? Or even a cheapo Alesis Drum Pad? Since I’d use these for MIDI only, is there a range in MIDI sensitivity over the options of available drum pads?
If no one has done this, would someone be willing to try? I myself would but I don’t have access to these devices…
The A4, Monomachine, and Machinedrum all have ‘Multi Map’ modes that let you map a patch to a note on the keyboard, though you are still limited to the number of voices that any of those instruments can play simultaneously.
For example: the A4 has 4 voices and you can multi map 128 patches across the MIDI keyboard range. You can only play up to 4 of those voices simultaneously before you start cutting off or ‘voice stealing’ starts happening, but you still have access to all 128 of those patches from the keyboard.
FWIW you only need a single MIDI Channel to play all the sounds. Only thing you have to do is to use notes in the range of 0-11
Unsure how complex material gets recorded to the internal AR sequencer as I record everything into my MPC. Have been succesfully “dumping” simpler drum sequences into the ARs internal seq tho (ie. making a pattern on the MPC and triggering realtime rec on the fly in the AR to capture the end result)
I have to confess that the pads on the AR are no match to my MPC’s pads But for editing sounds and triggering scenes/perfs they are okay.
thanks a lot for the concrete answer (which of course throws up some new questions):
when sending midi notes from external pads to the AR, i could use the same sound fot three different pads, but use three different pitch values. will the AR playback the sound at different tone pitches?
is the A4 a reasonable AR “substitute” for playing drums?
as far as i can see the A4 has no sample playback - is this right?
But for editing sounds and triggering scenes/perfs they are okay.