Hello there.
old thread. reasons
Forum software hinted that it might not be a good idea to resurrect an 8 month old thread which contained similar info - Perf pads controlling A4, so I’m posting a new one.
I have a Digitakt and an Analog Rytm Mark1. They are connected via MIDI with the AR as master (clock).
It would be interesting to be able to control parameters on the DT with the scenes and performance modes on the AR.
Reading the previous thread, it seems that it is possible when considering the AR and A4.
Setting used so far:
AR -
Pads and Pressure Destinations to both Internal + External,
Output To MIDI,
Param Output to NRPN (as suggested in the cited thread, also tried CC),
Out Port Function to MIDI
DT -
Input from to MIDI
Receive CC/ NRPN - 
I feel that there is a mismatch between the channel settings and I find the manuals somewhat confusing in this regard.
From the AR manual “PERF CHANNEL selects the MIDI channel the knobs will send MIDI data on when PERFORMANCE mode is active.”
“Knobs”?
Has anybody had experience using the performance mode to control external gear?
Any advice is very much appreciated.
AR FTW!
The active scene ‘output’ is of little value to you as it’s a single CC (92) or NRPN (both have same data) - the cc value for a given cc is what will change depending on active scene/off
The performance parameters are also hard wired to specific CCs (35thru47) or NRPN (the nrpn is only useful here if you’ve elected to use that for finer resolution on a device like A4 or DT and the receiving device is working with that - as far as the data it’s the same ) Crucially, the CC numbers assigned to the performance params are fixed - so if CC35 is mapped to something bad on the DT (or nothing) then you’re stuck
So it can be set as CC out (or NRPN equiv) on the AR and if you want the receiving device to understand you need to set it to receive NRPN if you need that, having a device like the A4 work with nrpn makes sense as so many values are addressable in a higher resolution range that way (probably like DT, don’t have one, but lots of DT params are clearly more than 7bit)
I suspect that on the AR the alignment between sent CC or NRPN(especially NRPN) and the destinations targeted on either A4 or DT will be basically random and not necessarily that musical
Easiest just to try it i guess
Thanks for answering.
So essentially, what I’m trying won’t work - to control e.g. CC 74 (Filt Freq on DT) with a performance pad.
That’s a pity.
Out comes the Launch Control!
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After a frustrating afternoon trying to get this to work, I realised that I have just fkt one of the patterns on my DT (I saved as I went, thinking things were okay) by testing changes I had made on the LCXL to affect the AR, but without checking the channel settings correctly - the result being that sounds have changed, volumes and eqs are different. The AR routed MIDI to the DT.
This is too complicated.
If the machines could sync to each other, clock and transport, via USB that would be so much easier, leaving the MIDI ins free to have individual controllers plugged in.
You may want to explore midi merge boxes or midi patchbays (or other solutions with usb hosts etc) or just disable the output of cc from the ar or disable the reception of cc at the DT
there’s no neat/cheap way to do the joint usb/din thing without spending and the Elektron stuff is fairly typical (if not actually superior) to most similar gear - you’ll struggle to work primarily with usb across multiple devices - plus keep in mind devices such as the OT have no USB midi so it may be better to go down the DIN route as it will always be workable using Thru, Thru-boxes, Merge-boxes or Patchbays etc depending on requirements
The axoloti development board offers a cheap path to usb/din hosting (and more besides including CC parameter mapping if you’re a bit nerdy/diy) but there are other (simpler and cheaper) ways to bridge usb/DIN midi
Tell me about it. I’ve been looking at merge boxes, but it’s just not worth the outlay given my use of the machines. It’s nice finding a way around things, but to be honest, I’ll just do my best to work with the boxes I have.
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