Arturia keystep for tonverk

Elektron Gear Tonverk
1

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to pair a KeyStep MK2 with my Tonverk via MIDI DIN, and I have a few questions before pulling the trigger.

My use case: I don’t want to use the KeyStep’s sequencer at all — I want to use it purely as a keyboard controller to replace/complement the Tonverk’s onboard keys, and record everything into the Tonverk’s sequencer via live recording.

Two things I need to confirm:

  1. Velocity— I’ve read in the bug thread that velocity from an external MIDI keyboard isn’t being recorded correctly (all trigs land at 100). Is this still the case on OS 1.3.3? Or has it been quietly fixed?

  2. Aftertouch— The whole point of getting the KeyStep MK2 over the original is the aftertouch. Does the Tonverk actually receive and record aftertouch from an external controller during live recording? Can it be parameter locked or used as a modulation source from an incoming external keyboard?

Basically: can I use the KeyStep MK2 as an expressive controller (velocity + aftertouch) and have that expression meaningfully captured by the Tonverk sequencer?

Thanks in advance!

2

Link ? Probably a user error. Velocity values are shown in Step Edit.

Elektrons don’t record modulations like aftertouch, pitchbend, modwheel… and no parameter locks for that.

(Octatrack can record modulations in midi tracks).

3

Just a little tip.

I record midi into the Tonverk from my Bass Station II and at the beginning everything was really quiet or I had to hit very hard the keys on the BSII. And than I discovered the velocity curves in the Tonverk menu. And changing the velocity curve for this specific track made it playing and responding to the fingers very nicely. :wink:

Maybe that can explain some behaviour.

3 Likes
4

1 - skill issue. Yes velocity is received. You can however turn velocity mapping off, adjust the velocity curve, and do all sorts of things depending on the machine you are using.
2- yes you can map aftertouch to multiple parameters per track and play it with your controller. Not for recording though, instead just record the parameters modulation by hand for those pieces of you want them committed to a pattern. Or play them in live with aftertouch if you are actually recording live to daw or a recording device. Think of modulation as a live performance tool, not for pattern recording.

5

You can record velocity and set up to four parameters for velocity mod that can then be recorded. Watch out for the volume to velocity curve in the amp section, the default one sucks hard imo.

You have up to four parameters each for aftertouch, breath controller, mod wheel and pitch wheel. These can’t be recorded into the sequencer unfortunately. But you can map them to MIDI controllers.

6

You must have some magical firmware then. Tonverk doesn’t have velocity mod yet.

1 Like
7

Oh my bad, I just assumed it was there since they talked about velocity macros at launch already and velocity is a staple among these on other machines. Bummer!