Changing Kits via Overbridge

Hey everyone,

This may be a stupid question and I haven’t been able to find anything on the forums addressing this yet, but is it possible to change kits via Overbridge in the same way that you would change sounds?

I use kits as presets most of the time and I find it strange that changing kits is really the only functionality with my A4 that I need to turn to the hardware for from Overbridge.

Also, is it possible to automate the changing of kits or sounds via Overbridge? It’d be nice to be able to swap sounds or kits via automation as a song progresses.

Thanks!

1 Like

Did you find an answer to this question? I’m wondering too.

1 Like

I never did unfortunately. I don’t think it’s directly possible.

You can, however, change patterns by sending midi notes to overbridge on channel 16. So if those were blank patterns with a different kit each, you might be able to do so using that.

I am interested in this…no solution yet?

Hi guys,

I hope you see this. You can’t change kits via Overbridge but you can change patterns and patterns are linked to different kits. Which means that you can change the patterns using Overbridge in your DAW and if differents use different kits then the kits will also change automatically when the pattern changes.

For me, this works perfectly because I change patterns from Ableton and my patetrns are already programmed on the A4 with their kits, all works well.

What you can’t do is have a pattern running and change the kit on that pattern using Overbridge or Midi as far as I know. If anyone else knows otherwise, please post it.

To do the pattern change from Overbridge as I decribed above, please see the new Overbridge manual page 30/44:
"
8.2 PATTERN CHANGE
You can send MIDI notes to the plugin on MIDI channel 16 to request pattern changes on the Elektron device.
Like SONG POSITION sync, this works in a best effort manner. The sequencer will change to the new
pattern after the current pattern has played through to the end.
MIDI note 0 = Pattern 1
MIDI note 1 = Pattern 2
MIDI note 2 = Pattern 3

MIDI note 15 = Pattern 16"

This only worked for me when I followed the manual and sent midi notes to channel 16. Even though my A4 is set to receive midi on auto channel 9. It wasn’t seeing the changes on channel 9 but worked when I set it to channel 16, so this must be the routing of Overbridge which makes sense because I read this in the Overbridge manual.

I hope this is helpful. Happy jamming :v:

1 Like

Hi,

It’s a good trick, changing the pattern should change the kit. However I encounter inconsistent changes of kits on AR mkii…

Sometimes OB allows it, correctly changind the kit associated with a pattern when the pattern is changed (on the device, but it should also work with this midi trick).

But often OB get stuck on a kit and despite changing the pattern, it doesn’t change the kit, and it doesn’t even change the sounds of a pad, wrongly displaying the sound for the previous kit it seems stuck with…

Another bug in OB or just my set-up…? The thing is that sometimes everything is working, and then this bug appears… Maybe something to do with Totall Recall (although this bug happens on the standalone OB version as well…)

Alex

Create a midi track:

  • Midi from: all ins + all channels
  • Midi to: The Elektron device (not OB) + program change channel you set up
  • Monitor: auto

Create a midi a clip:

  • Under progrm change: Add the patter you want to use, for example: A1 is 1, B1 is 17 and so on.
  • Play midi clip and it should start playing the pattern

To consider: Depending on your settings, device will wait until the pattern ends to change to next one so calculate where to put the midi clip in the arrangement. For example, your pattern has 32 steps, add the midi clip 32 steps ahead in the arrangement, it will trigger the change, go 32 steps then change to next one.

Works for me like a charm.
Hope this helps

Hey, can you help me get this to work without Overbridge please? It’s possible, right? I’m on an A4MK2, I tried to send notes on channel 16 to change the patterns like ZiZO’s post above, but it doesn’t work without OB.

So I am trying your programme change way instead (A4 is running in sync and receiving notes via USB without OB no problem). Per your instructions, on the A4 I’ve set “PROG CH OUT CH” to 16, I’ve made a MIDI clip with the output sent to the A4 (not OB) and set its little prog change box to “Pgm 4” but went I play/trigger it the A4 does nothing.

Any idea what I’m missing? Do I have to set any values in the MIDI envelopes section, in “MIDI Ctrl” or anything?