This is one of the few things that didn’t make it onto the mk1 devices from the latest firmware, I imagine due to some technical limitation. Does anyone have any kind of definitive info on why / what the dependency was (please, no wild speculation)? I couldn’t help but notice that the mk1 devices won’t be getting this extremely useful capability.
In any case, I think it’s great that Elektron pushed out new updates for both versions of the machine.
I don’t think a reason was given so you would only get speculative answers but it’s almost certain to be due to hardware limitations. It could be the USB spec. Not sure if they both use 2.0 or not.
Yeah, I figured. I just hoped that someone like Ess (who I know isn’t around anymore) or someone close to the team might have some idea. I think the mk1 is definitely USB2.
The manuals say that the mk1 devices are ‘full speed’ usb 2.0, not ‘high speed’, meaning they have much lower bandwidth. Might still be possible but it’s prob a safe bet to assume class compliant won’t happen
Good call garf, this was the kind of clue I was looking for. That’s probably the limiting factor and why it’s limited to just class compliant MIDI. Thank you!
A strong hint from someone who would know, from a previous topic on the same subject:
Great, I searched and didn’t find this thread. Thanks - mods can feel free to delete this one.
It has nothing to do with the lower bandwidth, because Overbridge 2.0 also works and Elektron’s class compliant USB audio supports much less channels than Overbridge.
The plain and simple reason is that the A4 MK1 and the AK use a different USB chipset, which would have required them to develop an own implementation of that feature.
Weighting in the facts that these machines are out of production for quite some time now and that the required implementation is tricky (time consuming to develop + maintain separately) they decided not to go for it.
So in essence it’s not a technical limitation, but a trade off made due to the required additional effort.
(I call it trade off, because they still invest time and energy to keep the MK1 units updated, but of course not at all costs).
Can someone help me to understand what class compliant audio adds vs. just audio over usb?
Recently acquired an A4 MKI (still very noob) and was surprised to find I’m able to record the audio tracks, inputs, and master separately over usb into daw using overbridge engine? thought this was part of the class compliant usb feature reserved for MKII’s? Is class compliance just the ability to do this without having overbridge running? If so, what is the benefit of removing overbridge from the equation? Sorry if this is dense, still have much to learn.
Yes.
No. Overbridge compatibility was designed into the AF MkI from the start.
Yes, mostly, although I believe that the multi tracking capabilities are more extensive if you use Overbridge.
It means you can connect the Analog Four MkII to devices that don’t run Overbridge, such as phones and tablets.
It’s worth downloading the latest version of the AF MkI manual and reading everything that mentions “class compliant” there.
It adds the ability to communicate with the device using the standard USB audio class driver of your computer’s OS (so you don’t need to install a special driver, but it will work out-of-the-box).
Does this mean I could send the separate tracks from A4 MKII to the Xone:96 via USB? If so is that configurable in the A4 itself? For example, send A4 tracks 1 and 2 to channel 1 on the Xone96?
No. USB connections need a “host” for devices to talk to, meaning a computer (or tablet, or phone etc). You can’t connect the A4 directly to the xone96 because there’s no host involved. You can connect them both to a computer and route audio from one to the other, but you need the computer involved.
Gotcha, thanks! I’m thinking of picking up a Xone96 and I guess I’d have it connected to my laptop anyway. So then I would just use OB to bring the A4 in, and feed it to the mixer via Ableton. Although latency could be an issue. Might be better to just use the A4 analog outs via the patchbay to the X96.