Hey guys!
Just got a Digitakt. LOVE THE THING.
For my live performances I find that I want my volume controls always on hand.
Has anyone found a small midi controller that can connect directly to a digitakt (DIN / no computer) and has traditional potentiometers? (none of those infinite turning knobs a la beatstep pro)
there are plenty of awesome units like the launchkey mini but they all seem to be USB midi 
Kenton makes a USB Host-to-DIN MIDI box (translates USB controllers to DIN MIDI). There are virtually NO compact DIN MIDI controllers outside of Arturia.
If I am wrong, and you find one PLEASE share.
Sweet find! I was not aware of that box!
At that price point I would probably be better off building my own MIDI controller over a weekend than paying for a controller + box though…
Ya! I bought it to integrate my Sonuus Wahoo into my pedalboard, but have messed around with other configs and its dope. Perfect Circuit was having a sale on it two weeks ago.
Faderfox UC4. Expensive, but it’s compact, rugged, has 8 faders and proper midi ports (well, via an included breakout cable). Dimensions are perfect for elektrons.
Edit: also I have a Kenton USB host box I’d be willing to part with if someone UK-based wants it. It’s been sad in my drawer for a while now.
There is this USB host to Midi box for 45 Euro: http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/usb-midi-converter
However it only supports one USB device connected. Might be perfectly enough for one midi controller, but you might wanna add more later.
There is also this for 65 Euro, which supports 8 devices via a USB hub: http://compasflamenco.com/usb-host-midi-p-6.html
Connect a Launchcontrol XL https://novationmusic.de/launch/launch-control-xl
And you will be happy 
It supports different pages of midi cc parameters, color coded knobs, etc…
Or wait for this custom box: New FADERFOX MIDI controller system for ELEKTRON devices (12-track-design for ANALOG RYTM) It’s more tailored for rytm but should be editable for Digitakt too.
i’m looking for something too.
the discontinued LD2 looks like a nice format (with midi din), but i’m not sure the encoder cc values can be customized…
edit: “…Programmable are CC/note numbers in groups of 16 ascending numbers independently…”
NI Kore 1 and 2 controllers work really well as custom midi controllers, with midi din out.
You can assign both CC values and also a customised name to each knob, so as they display both a name and value when tweaking.
Really handy and dirt cheap now second hand
for the diy inclined this project could be modified for midi as it’s teensy based:
Don’t forget the BomeBox for USB Host-to-DIN MIDI translation. Smaller than the Kenton and I believe you can even power it using a USB battery pack and it’ll power smaller attached USB MIDI controllers.
Yupp. the bomebox can also do all kinds of MIDI processing magic. Killer box
I use the kenton + control XL combo to control octatrack and it is super easy to understand. the editor is easy to use and you can have 10 pages of setups.
The 4th generation Faderfox devices all have MIDI DIN (they come supplied cables that convert their 3.5mm midi jack to DIN). Super reliable and compact devices, work great with my Octatrack, especially as they have a really easy midi learn functionality. (haven’t set it up with the DT yet to see if that also sends midi out on controls)
for faders (and other stuff, hence the price) http://www.faderfox.de/uc4.html
for just lots of knobs http://www.faderfox.de/pc4.html
Does the DT have MIDI over USB? If so a custom TouchOSC template on an Ipad with the camera connection kit does the job on my other gear.
Another +1 for FaderFox. I have a UC44 (UC4’s big brother) and it works great with the Digitakt.
A RaspberryPi makes a fine USB MIDI host. While no DIN connectors, just plug your small controller and the DT via MIDI.
I’ve done exactly this with the DT and a Korg nanoKontrol. Needs some Linux scripting if you want to make it automatically run on boot, but not hard.
how can you make use of the nanokontrol on the DT?
As you can only set it to a specific or the autochannel, how do you setup mutes and solo for the different tracks?
I did not get my head around this…
There’s an editor available for the nano2 that lets you assign channel and cc’s for the faders and buttons… I imagine you would have the DT audio tracks on different midi channels and each mute/solo/fader on nano mapped for the right cc’s but each on different channels corresponding to the DT tracks…
I must have overlooked that I can assign seperate midi channels…
will take a look into the software …
thx for your reply
look at the top of each fader, you can set up MIDI channels there.
for the Octa, I use NanoKontrol v2 + USB/MIDI Host… although I’ve been tempted to go for the Faderfox more than once. I love that you can configure everything from the hardware, and that you can have several templates for different setups.
I recently got a Launchcontrol XL for cheap, although I’m using it for an iPad setup, more drone/noise oriented…
the good thing is, I can have 8 user templates, lots of knobs at hand, LED colors configurable for the knobs (only 4 colors, but still super helpful for live use)
the only bad thing is, if you use it standalone (ie. Octatrack) you don’t get any LED feedback on the buttons (usually reserved for AUDIO/MIDI track mutes) they just stay unlit.
that’s kind of a no-go for me… too confusing - NanoKontrol does have button led toggling, although of course if you change a mute from the octa, it won`t refresh… but still, seems like the best option for the money…
Yeah, I had forgotten, that there were channel settings
I set it up in a few minutes and now it’s working fine…
I use a iconnect midi 4+ that allows multiple controllers to be connected and routed to the OT and DT and so on…
200bucks for that purpose seemed to be ok for me…