CV to MIDI for Machinedrum

Elektron Gear Machinedrum
#1

I see a few things about going the other way (MIDI to CV) but I’m interested in getting many CV Gates and modulation from eurorack and banana systems (I have a Banana-Eurorack converter box already). I basically want to use the Machinedrum’s synthesis engines but with the more chaotic rhythms found in patching some of the weird pulse generators I’ve acquired.

This one looks interesting - Befaco VCMC as it has 8 gate and 8 modulation inputs plus attenuation. Does anyone have experience with this or similar - specifically with Machinedrum and similar things (ie, Volca Drum), using the gate inputs to trigger specific MIDI notes and modulation to target various Midi CCs? Are there other ones I should look at? On a quick search, this seems to give me what I want. I have a programmable MIDI box I could put between this and Machinedrum and/or Monomachine if I need to do additional translations of values.

Basically, I’ve started lusting after the Czochralski Cells drum machine, but having recently bough a Plumbutter and standalone ‘Rollzer’ gate box plus some other similar Eurorack modules, I want to see if I can get these kinds of pseudo-rhythms and sounds with the Machinedrum but freeing it from the rigidity of typical clocks and tempos.

3 Likes
#2

Expert Sleepers CVM-8 is another option:

#3

The Expert Sleepers Factotum FH-2 can do CV to MIDI for two channels on the main module and can be greatly expanded with expanders. It is about the best MIDI-to-CV module you can find. When I had one, it was before the CV-to-MIDI expanders existed but the two inputs on the main module worked wonderfully when I tested them. It is also a USB Host and Client. So you can plug USB MIDI controllers directly into it without needing a separate host device. It also works with the newest Launchpads and offers some integration there. I replaced mine with an Intellijel 1U MIDI adapter only to save space but I dearly miss it as it just does a ton of stuff really, really well.

#4

Now I’ve got GAS like a leaky propane tank, with my credit card as a lighter.

#5

The Befaco CV Thing is the VCMC without the midi controller part, it works well as a CV to octatrack converter for me and can be built with bananas if that’s your style…

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#6

Thanks for the Expert Sleepers recommendations. I didn’t know about those. Looking into it, I think the Befaco ones seem to target what I need. Especially as I could put either of them in a small case like a Pod20 to bridge the two worlds.

Reading into the docs on all of these - the sliders on the VCMC might also make it the ‘small MonoMachine macro controller’ MIDI control surface I’ve idly been wanting for many years!

Though the smaller, simpler, and cheaper “CV Thing” might really be all I really need as I’m primarily interested in gate/pulse triggering. Additional CV inputs might be nice but there are so many LFOs in the old Elektron boxes already… Hm.

#7

I’ve got both the CVM-8 and the Midi Thing. Both are great; the only significant difference is that CVM-8 has more options but is less straightforward to configure (it needs to be configured though a computer whereas Midi Thing & VCMC are directly configured through the front panel).