Cowbell never shuts down with external MIDI trigger

Elektron Gear Analog Rytm
#1

Hello,

I sequence my AR mk1 with an MPC for live purposes. The other day I noticed when I triggered the cowbell through MIDI IN, the Cowbell never shuts down, like there is no MIDI NOTE OFF.
My drums frequently use the synth decay to its maximum and the volume envelope with Decay set to 0 and Hold Time set to Auto so that I can precisely gate my drums. With this problem the whole point of Gating the drums vanishes.
This problem occured overnight without any change in my setup, and occurs through the MIDI IN port or MIDI USB (without Overbridge), not via triggering manually the pads on the AR or Overbridge.

If I’m not being super clear, here’s a short video to show you my problem (showing all other functioning instrument first and faulty cowbell is seen at 0:22):

Here’s a list of things that weren’t successful so far:

  • Restart the AR (several times)
  • Using other gear than the MPC1000 on the MIDI DIN5 Input. USB MIDI (without Overbridge) has the same issue
  • Using another kit or creating a new one
  • Go inside the MIDI config and try disabling anything other than note in
  • Try plugging only the DIN5 and not the USB (I know I shouldn’t have both but didn’t have any issue prior to that)
  • Try coyping the project I was on, and loading it.
  • Upgraded to the latest AR mk1 OS, 1.50A

Here’s some hints maybe:

  • This bug really only occurs with cowbell, I tried creating a kit with only gated drums, and all the other 11 work just fine, just like in the video
  • The note B -2 is really the one creating the problem, if I trigger the cowbell on the C -2 to E 2 interval (for Chromatic purposes) on the cowbell MIDI channel (12 by default), the problem doesn’t occur.
  • Sending an All Notes Off MIDI message makes it stop
  • Triggering the Cowbell via Overbridge (not standard USB Midi) doesn’t give me this problem
  • By creating an entire new project, the problem disappears, but I really don’t want to move all my existing kits manually (without speaking about the sample hassle)

It sounds like an exotic bug, but we never know, if anyone has a clue, please tell me!

Cheers

#2

Hi.
To sum up, with extermal midi Note 11 (B-2), it’s like there’s no Note off, and it works in Chromatic mode?
So I guess for the moment using corresponding chromatic note is a workaround? Don’t you like long cowbells? :tongue:

I can test later. Maybe someone will try before me. Enjoy this meanwhile.

3 Likes
#3

to disprove if it was sound related, which it doesn’t seem to be - you could create a long decay sound using e.g. the noise machine then see if it manifested an issue on other tracks - it may relate to a conflict on an auto channel assignment or some midi issue related to the way the setup is connected by possibly DIN or USB - possibly try a sustaining/looped sample even with a ground/disabled machine and copy that sound to all tracks on an empty kit

try swap the sounds on Tr11 and T12 etc etc to see if the issue is only evident on that sound, but may be happening on the others

keep the setup simple initially and ensure check if the Auto channel is changed from default

are you targeting all the tracks explicitly on their Track channel, perhaps that one is teh only one where there’s some duplication

a few things to try perhaps, keeping it simple/methodical will likely reveal the source

#4

I was thinking the same thing. This would be a good thing according to this video lol.

#5

Hmmmm … B-2 (aka MIDI Note value 11) is the last one of the special MIDI notes (track triggering notes). Maybe that’s somehow related.

From the manual:

Of the 128 notes in the standard MIDI range, 0-11 corresponds to notes C0 through to B0, the leftmost octave (which is sometimes called C-2 - B-2 in certain applications) will trigger the Sound of track 1 through to track 12, respectively (provided they are set to their default channels 1-12). These note values map to each of the twelve tracks, regardless of which track is active.

Normal note behaviour starts with MIDI note value 12.

#6

Thanks for your answers guys!

@avantronica :
I just did try that with noise with max decay and gate amplification like on the video on every of the 12 channels just like on the screenshot.

sweeo
sweeo1770Ă—831 69.7 KB

Just like before it does not stop for the Cowbell, but works perfectly for everything else.
The issue is linked to the Cowbell.
Obviously because it is shared with the Cymbal, when the cymbal triggers, the cowbell immediatly stops. Not related to the synth engine either as noise makes it bug as well.
All channels use their default MIDI channel (afaik and I saw on the settings) with no overlap, and the bug is also present by using the Auto channel (channel 14 for me)

@sezare56 : never enough cowbell! The workaround works and probably will be the (temporary, I hope) solution, I’ll only be forced to use channel 12 for every MPC track using the cowbell.

@tnussb : the gated behavior works well for every other instrument, or any instrument in chromatic mode, that’s this weird behavior which came from nowhere as everything was working fine before. I was hoping there might be a settings reset that maybe doesn’t apply patterns and kits.

#7

If you don’t use chromatic notes for other tracks, you can use only one channel.
Notes 0-10 for T1-11, and note 36 for T12.

#8

So I could test, sending notes from A4 keyboard. The T12 is correctly start/stopped with note 11. AR MKI, last OS.

But I noticed another strange behavior I’ll detail later.

#9

Ok, so I had some thinking because this disfunction seemed more and more strange to me.
And I tried on a different pattern, a blank one, charging the same kit I had in the beggining, and no more stuck Cowbell!
So the reason why this didn’t work still seems very obscure to me, but the pattern which was “faulty” was blank with nothing in it except the selected kit.
Once I switched from the faulty pattern to the new one (blank, as well) which worked, I cleared both patterns and went back to the faulty one. And the problem still occured!

So I don’t know what happens with my machine and this specifid pattern but I found a much more convenient solution to this than sticking to Channel n°12 and juggling with very different Note values.

A little shameful this wasn’t on one of my first tries (but at the same time it didn’t seem related to me).

Thanks again for those answers, they kept me thinking and made me try some other stuff!

1 Like
#10

Unfortunately I found another buggy thing :

If I hold Note 11, the cowbell last.
But if I release Note 10 while holding it, it makes the envelope filter fade out!
It means that Note 10 note off affects track 12!

Filter settings :
FRQ=0
ENV=MAX
DEC=MAX