Hi all,
I hope this is the right place on this forum for this kind of question. If anyone can be arsed and can spare 5 mins, I’d love some ideas on how to connect the gear I have. Lots of possible combos and routing so I’m a bit overwhelmed and I’m sure someone with more experience than me could advise…
Gear:
DIGITONE (1)
Keystep Pro
Behringer Edge
Proteus 2000 sound module
Not sure what else to say, let me know if any more info would be useful.
Thanks so much
Audio
Is the Proteus mono? If so, I would use the Dual Mono Inputs of the DN to connect the Synths.
MIDI
I don’t know about the MIDI connections of the Proteus (In, Out, Thru?). If it has those DIN, then I would daisychain.
DN Out > Proteus In > Proteus Thru > Edge In
KSP Out > DN In
I would sequence everything from the DN.
what he said.
True that
Alternate suggestion - start with Digitone on its own for a while, see how far you can get, then start incorporating the others.
This is kind of a dumb answer to a question about connecting things but more on the concept of a setup, since you mentioned it can feel overwhelming to have too many possiblities. I think it’s often beneficial to focus and squeeze as much juice as you can out of one instrument, especially these Elektrons with so much to offer.
But yeah besides giving the DN lots of love, what the above guys said
I might try connecting them all with hot dogs.
But also what those nice people above said
…digitone is centerpiece…
first make sure, ur keystep can do a proper master key job for digitone…
so keysteps midi out goes into digitones midi in…
choose and fix a midi channel for their connection…now u can play ur digitone from an external keyboard…yeah…
then define a midichannel to adress the edge…so dt midi out talks to edges midi in…
last step, since proteus is ur rompler and not that microtiming relevant as the b edge, i’d daisychain it as last piece…define another few independant midi channels on ur digitone to adress some multitimbral/polyphonic action on ur emu rompler and send those through the edge to end up in proteus midi in…
to avoid confusion along the way…finish one mission after the other…
when it come to audio, if the digitone is all u got to host audio signals, give edge one digitone input side and pan all proteus vocings internally to one side and run the rompler in mono to end up with one of it’s outputs on the other digitone audio input…the proteus did not make that much use of truu stereo impressions anyways in first place…
so there u go…but to be honest…leave ur old emu rompler out of ur sonic equasion for now…digitone alone is already heavy sonic lifting and if the edge is adding some rhytmical edges to that, ur good to go for quite a while…
Proteus might be stereo though. But with the usual midi trio.
First I would decide, what you are planning to do with this setup.
There is more than one MIDI-source and this allows for different configurations.
You could connect Keystep->DT->Rest of the Gang (daisy-chain)
You could also use the Keystep as keyboard for one of your sound generators only …
It’s up to your use case … 
proteus is stereo and has TWO sets of MIDI channels (2 INS, 2 OUTS 2 THRUS, 2 x 16channels A/B)
Yes I want to sequence everything from the DN, using the KSP as the transport controller.
Yeah done that! Been with the DN for about two years now, it’s time to widen the sonic pallete!
Great answer thank you. Yes the DN is definitely in the driving seat. Good old Proteus provides some nice acoustic elements (flutes, strings, bells etc) but also has some great classic synth patches and basses, modelled on the old school. It’s not dead yet! ha.
But yeah - it makes sense to stick it at the end.
I’m happy to go mono on the proteus for now, but when i tried that I definitely missed the stereo field on the big symphonic patches I used. I’ll upgrade at a later date to a mixer to handle it all.
So you’re saying, MIDI: DB to Edge, thru to the Emu?
Even better - it’s stereo with TWO sets of Midi channels (32 channels)
I’d rather invest in a sooner than later. Proper gain-staging and immediate volume control and EQ for all sound sources makes a lot of difference, especially when playing live or recording. A mixer with an Alt bus (like a Mackie 802) gives you the option to choose what signals to run through DT’s FX with the press of a button.
I also think the Beatstep brings a lot to the table that can complement DT’s sequencer and Arp, so it makes sense to make the Beatstep the clock and transport source, then you can use all its features, anytime without any additional considerations.
You could get a very cheap mixer to combine the stereo rompler and the edge and route the mixer outs to the DN ins. That way your focus is on the DN. You can headphone monitor everything from it, use the DN effects etc. Eventually if you get bored of the DN Fx or don’t want to treat the Rompler and edge together you could upgrade to a better mixer and use it post everything.
Well that was a success! Thanks everyone.
KSP OUT into DN (send transport)
DN OUT to Edge (ch16) (send transport)
Edge THRU to proteus (taking DN MIDI)
I got a 9 track jam going in no time, with potential for a 10th track to play live.
4 tracks on the DN
1 track on Edge (bass drum hit)
4 tracks on the Proteus (piano, drum kit etc)
10th track on Proteus optional
All audio through DN (proteus L / Edge R)
Took me a while to set up, but all logical once I did. Every problem was just a setting I’d missed.
Don’t write off the Proteus. 128 note polyphony with some lovely patches to compliment the DN, not to mention a simple piano that sounds perfect through the DN signal path, FX etc
BONUS
DN recorded notes from the output of an arp performed on the KSP! Wasn’t expecting that.
This should keep me busy for a while…