Controlling Sample Slot on Digitakt 2 via Midi

Elektron Gear Digitakt
1

Hey,

thinking about getting the Digitakt II. There is one important thing for me though before i pull the trigger.

I have gone throught the manual and it states that the Sample Slot can be controlled via NRPN which is fine for me. BUT does the Digitakt also receive high resolution midi via msb/lsb to adress all the 1000+ slots.

How about the overbridge plugin? Is the sample slot a remotable parameter that gets exposed to the Daw. If there are any Reason users with Dig 2 and Reason, could you post the remote info.text (its i the data menu when the plugin is selected)?

In Reason i have my Drummchine setup with a Launchpad, so i can select any or all of the Drum Channels and then hit a button and randomzie the samples of the selected track(s) which is a very fun and quick way to create sets and refine them (by step by step leaving out the channels i like from the randomization) and i dont wanna miss that out. Thats one of the reason i didnt get the Digi 1 because there were only 128 sample slots. But Digi 2 now has more than 1000, so i can stuff 100 bassdrums, hihats, clap percussions fx etc in there and create random sets quickly. But that sample slot parameter needs to be remotable with msb/lsb for that.

2

If i got this right it should be like this (still fighting wether to send LSB or MSB first):

The sample select parameter on the Digitakt 2 is listed as being controlled by NRPN LSB 3 and NRPN MSB 1

So that means sending (on channel 1 and if accept cc/nrpn is selected in Midi setup) cc 98 with value 3 followed by cc 99 with value 1 sets the sample select slot on channel 1 as destination.

Now since the sample select parameter goes way over the ususal 0-127 range i expect the Digitakt 2 to accept a pair of cc 38 and cc 6 (LSB/MSB) to adress all values.

For example (if the values dont scale):

sending cc 38 with a value of 127 and cc 6 with a value of 1 should make the sample select slot jump to 254.

If the values scale to the possible 16384 values then sending both cc38 and cc6 with a value of 127 should make the sample slot go to the last value (1016 right?)

TLDR:

sending:
cc 98 val 3
cc 99 val 1
cc 38 val 127
cc 6 val 1

should do something to the sample select parameter. But yeah, i cant test it.

3

I donā€™t know anything about your specific use case but with nrpn I think itā€™s going to follow the standard ordering convention of:

  1. Most significant byte
  2. Least significant byte
  3. Value of the relevant parameter

Usually 1 and 2 being sent as a pair to specify the parameter to be changed then immediately followed by the parameter value.

I have no idea how sample select by nrpn works with digitakt 2 but youā€™re correct that nrpn supports a much higher resolution.

4

yeah, the important part in regards to the sample select parameter is if Digitakt 2 also accepts a pair (cc38 and cc 6) at your point 3. to adress the whole parameter range. With only one cc only 0-127 values can be adressed. I mean it would make sense but i would like to double check before i pull the trigger.

5

Fair enough since your entire use of the machine hinges on it.

@garf might know the answer.

It looks like of the 20gb storage, digitakt 2 can only load 400mb of samples into the sample pool per project, are you already aware of that limitation? Iā€™m just looking for more info that might be relevant.

Itā€™s eight banks so probably still numerically enough sample slots but stereo samples can be big and if you max out at 400mb I can see long playing samples being an issue in your goal to have a lot of content.

6

I only need that feature for drums and percussions so the 500 drum samples i would want to have in the pool shouldnt amount to alot of mb.

7

Theoretically that should be no problem, but someone will still need to test and confirm.

8

Iā€™ve never dabbled with MSB/LSB before, just tried accessing the DT2 samples/banks using Ableton Live and the Max device ā€˜NRPN gen 2ā€™ - somethingā€™s not right.

Both values sent from the ā€˜NRPN gen 2ā€™ device are received at double the value. With MSB/LSB values at 0/0, Bank A and slot 0 are selected, all good, ā€“ but with any other number, the value is doubled so 1/1 selects bank C/slot 2ā€¦ MSB/LSB of 0/127 seems like it should select bank A/slot 127, but itā€™s actually B/126ā€¦

Probably be me doing something wrong, or a problem with Live, the max device, or the DT2, but if itā€™s the DT2 thatā€™s not reading the messages correctly, then I canā€™t really say your idea would work.

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9

Thanks for helping him out, unfortunately I donā€™t know anything about the max device and Iā€™m not sure if I can confirm the nrpn format as to how pairing the msb/lsb and values will impact the result.

Sounds like it responds to the command but is pointed somewhere other than expected. Iā€™m not sure what to make of that.

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10

I just checked some other controls (LFO1 speed, Euclidean pulse 1) and they work as expected, no value jumping, so I guess the SRC sample slot implementation is borked. Iā€™ll ping support and see what they say about it.

2 Likes
11

Control Changes for all parameters pleaseā€¦
Especially slots and banks, Euclidean parameters.

There are enough CCs for all parameters.

12

Puh, the one thing that is important to me seems to be bugged, that cant be true , can it?
I hope it is something in the interaction between Max For live/Ableton and Digitakt.

Is the sample slot parameter in the plugin exposed to the Daw and can be controlled from there (correctly)? That could be a workaround.

13

After some more fiddling with it, Itā€™s not the Max device nor Live at fault. Midi Monitor shows the correct data is sent, and when I set up Liveā€™s native CC Control device to send the data, the same bank/slot-skipping occurs. Iā€™ve sent the Ableton project over to Elektron support to test it themselves, see if they can confirm.

1 Like
14

Thx for your effort.

15

Just out of curiosity since its doubling. I had a similar issue back then when i sent some cc data to a machine over two midi inputs at the same time and this weirdly resulted in doubling of values. I am thinking of the Digitakt maybe receiving the Data on the USB and the Midi Interface or some Midi Loop occuring.

16

Itā€™s USB input only here, nothing connected to the MIDI in.

17

Ok, i went through the Midi Implementation chart again and while for the SRC Page the desired parameter is called ā€œsample-selectā€, under Misc at the end of the table there is a parameter called ā€œsample-slotā€ and thats actually the naming they use in the manual when referring to the 1016 project samples. AND that parameter has different NRPN numbers (MSB 1 LSB 8).

Also there is a sample bank parameter. And since both (slot and bank) also have a cc number maybe accessing all the samples via two ccs (slot and bank) is also possible instead of going NRPN and MSB/LSB for the value.

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18

Hahā€¦ why on earth is that in the Misc section? :grimacing:
Well, the good news is that the CCs for Bank and Slot work fine, no NRPN needed.

19

Trying to sequence Digitakt 2 externally. Itā€™s not working the way I expected. Sample swapping happens on the next trigger and not a on trigger that sends CC.
So I have step 1 with sample slot CC value 1 and step 2 with CC value 2. Step 1 will actually trigger the sample that was before it, and step 2 will trigger sample on slot 1, etcetera. Is this a bug?

20

Thatā€™s just the way it works, I think, first send the CCs that switch the bank/slot, let the DT2 make the change, then trigger the note.

I have an app that changes bank/slot, then plays the note, and experimentally, Iā€™ve added a 100ms delay between each midi message. If you reduce that significantly, unexpected things start happening at random, so I canā€™t pin down an exact time delay that you need.