I have a MnM MIDI out > MD. The farthest I’ve gone is syncing up their clocks and transport so when I press play on the MnM the MD also plays. Neat! But I know it can get a lot more complex than this and I’d like to get into that world a little more.
So for instance, why might I want to use a MIDI machine on the MnM? What’s the purpose of that? I would be able to use its arp on the MD, right? Which seems neat. But what else could I do? What sorts of things do you guys like to do? Or are MIDI machines more for using other boxes that aren’t Elektrons so that you get all the benefit of P locks, LFOs, etc. that aren’t on other boxes?
Next, is this possible: Let’s say I have a synth (with its audio out) that’s also acting as a MIDI keyboard for my MnM. Is it possible to have just chords/pad (let’s say all notes above C3) play on that synth, but my left hand (all notes below C3) send data to the MnM, which then plays? If so, how would I go about setting this up?
Lastly, I’m looking in my MD SPS-1 Mk1 manual for the MIDI stuff and I just don’t even understand what it’s telling me. So for instance, under CTRL-CHANGE MAPPINGS it says “MIDI base channel +0:” what does that even mean? Then for CTRL it says, 08 and 09…Then it says 0a and 0b. I thought MIDI was 0-127? How do I get “0a”? There are similar things like 1a, etc.
I’ll try and play around with this in the meantime!
Basically, yes. The MM’s MIDI sequencer sends MIDI Note messages and MIDI Control Change messages to other MIDI gear (synths, samplers etc) that can’t sequence themselves.
That depends on the synthesizer. Which one do you have?
Programmers (as opposed to humans) often find it convenient to count in the hexadecimal system rather than in the decimal system. For now, just ignore the column labelled ‘hex’ in the tables and read only the ‘dec’ (decimal values).
To ensure that MIDI messages get from the sequencer to the desired synth, most messages are assigned to channels. The MD can be set up to respond to MIDI on four different channels. The channel numbers are assigned successively upwards from the Base Channel value in the MD’s Global settings.
As an example, if you send to the MD a MIDI Control Change message 24 on the MIDI channel number one higher than the Base Channel value, it will control the AM Depth of the sound on MD’s track 5.
It’s a Korg MS2000, but I wouldn’t be using that. I’ve lightly considered swapping it out for a different polysynth (leading toward a Behringer Deepmind) and have flirted with the idea of using the MnM as a dedicated bass synth. I’m really just wondering if such a thing would be possible.
I have no clue what you’re saying in this last bit lol. Why would I need to send a MIDI CC to a channel number one higher than base channel value to get that affect? And also, if base channel is 1-4…Isn’t that multiple channels?
So I’ve got the six MIDI machines going on my MnM and Track 1 starts on MIDI channel 10. I wasn’t getting any sound out of the MD so I went to the base channels and changed it to 7-10 (because I didn’t see a way to change individual channels for each piece of the kit? Also I don’t know how to get off channel 10 on the MnM)…Now for some reason the trigs I put down are triggering the CB, which I would assume to be channel 8 because it’s the 8th machine on the MD…
Now I just put trigs down on track 2 of the MnM, which it says is MIDI Ch 11, but it’s also triggering the CB?
Ah okay it’s because of the pitch of the trig I laid down. That makes sense. But what still doesn’t make sense is that the MD can only span four channels but the MnM has six tracks…
The MD’s sixteen tracks only respond to the four MIDI channels counting upwards from the Base Channel value, so each MIDI channel controls 4 of the MD’s tracks.
The channel numbers for the MM’s MIDI sequencer tracks are set in the MIDI SEQ SETTINGS area in the GLOBAL settings menu.
The MD and MM are just different instruments. Both have sequencers so you don’t necessarily have to have one sequencing the other.
Gotcha. Thanks for the help! I think I’m wrapping my head around this a little more now that I’ve dove in. It does seem redundant to have the MnM sequence the MD when both have powerful, capable sequencers. Other than the arp which is fun. I am interested in sending some of these MIDI LFOs to the MD