Digitakt & Blofeld (multi mode) MIDI

t · 2018-02-11T18:14:37.831Z

avantronica:

Elektron really need to sort this out - it’s different across devices

Ideally the user could select the referencing system so there’s 0-127 or 1-128

Elektron should show values from 1 to 128, just as every manufacturer should according to the MIDI specifications.

zfigz · 2018-02-11T18:17:50.467Z

t:

Elektron should show values from 1 to 128, just as every manufacturer should according to the MIDI specifications.

aye, but at least i found a workaround for ob6 bank changes.

anyone know if there’s something similar for the blofeld? changing multis is great, but would be nice to change banks too.

t · 2018-02-11T18:22:58.078Z

Changing banks can be done with a workaround on some devices, but not on others (also see Digitakt not sending bank select (patch works)).

It would indeed be nice If Elektron were to find a way to give us the option of making it work with all synths.

avantronica · 2018-02-11T18:54:39.178Z

zfigz:

but would be nice to change banks too.

CC0 with a value 0-7 followed by a Program Change works for my Blofeld os1.23 (even though the docs I’ve seen states that CC0 MSB Bank Select is not supported, but these may not reflect the changes including those allowing Multi Select using CC0 value 127 (0x7F) ) - nonetheless it works, as does CC32 with a value 0-7 followed by a program change - it’s nice to see Waldorf being pragmatic

zfigz · 2018-02-11T18:59:10.552Z

i’ll try that, thanks.

does the DT have CC0 as an option tho, or is that the bank change parameter under SRC?

avantronica · 2018-02-11T19:01:33.060Z

I believe that may be the hardwired value, this thread discusses this (I don’t know the DT menues)

zfigz · 2018-02-11T19:03:48.190Z

aye, i’ll check it out. thanks for the heads up.

ehg · 2018-02-11T19:04:45.268Z

It’s the latter: the Bank Select value on the SRC page sends CC0

avantronica · 2018-02-11T20:15:25.764Z

Some cut’n’paste text i’ve found from the waldorf site from back in the day wrt Blofeld… copied here for posterity, echoes what was said above but has caveat about functionality subject to change … fwiw

Some notes on how to change programs in V1.15:

Bank MSB (CC#0) and Bank LSB (CC#32) are currently interchangeable, 
this may change in the future.

Banks 0-7 correspond to banks A-H in the Blofeld (global channel in 
sound mode, multi part channel otherwise).  You can switch up to 16 
programs back-to-back without problems (in other words, set up a full 
multi).  Some controller surfaces might send more program changes in a 
shorter time than the Blofeld needs to fetch the new program from 
memory, so you should slow down a bit as you approach the final 
destination (or rate limit the controller data if that is possible).

Bank 127 is for switching between multi programs on the global channel 
(although it currently works on all channels).  After switching to a 
new multi you need to leave some time before you can switch the 
programs in that multi (about 30 MIDI bytes over USB) so that Blofeld 
can finish loading the multi before it gets new program changes.

silentrunning · 2018-07-21T12:58:41.199Z

Apologies for the tangent, but I’m trying to control the filters’ cut-off and resonance. I’m able to change presets no problem, but this I’m a little confused. I believe the CC numbers are 69 and 70. But nothing is happening. All works fine on my Minitaur. Any ideas?

PeterHanes · 2018-07-21T13:30:12.531Z

silentrunning:

I’m trying to control the filters’ cut-off and resonance. I’m able to change presets no problem, but this I’m a little confused. I believe the CC numbers are 69 and 70. But nothing is happening. All works fine on my Minitaur. Any ideas?

On the Blofeld:

have you set the “Ctrl Receive” setting to “Off” in the Global Menu?
have you set the “Edits” setting to “ignore” for the Part (in Multi mode) that you are trying to control?

silentrunning · 2018-07-21T14:47:14.793Z

Thanks, Peter.

Yep, it was Ctrl Receive.
Set it to ON and Bingo!

Thank you!!

silentrunning · 2018-07-28T15:58:51.743Z

ehg:

sending a number of different MIDI tracks from the Digitakt to sequence different Blofeld voices

Unable to do this. What’s the procedure? Thanks, D.

PeterHanes · 2018-07-28T16:09:41.548Z

silentrunning:

sending a number of different MIDI tracks from the Digitakt to sequence different Blofeld voices

Unable to do this. What’s the procedure?

Use the Blofeld in multi mode and assign patches and different MIDI channel numbers to more than one Part.

On the DT, set its MIDI sequencer tracks to send on MIDI channels that correspond to the numbers you set in the Blofeld.

If any of this isn’t working, let us know what you have done so far and we can further break down the details.

silentrunning · 2018-07-28T16:19:19.447Z

Thanks, Peter.

I’ll try this

silentrunning · 2018-07-28T20:59:53.046Z

Thanks, Peter.

Finally, getting the hang of the Multi-track mode.
Taking a bit of time to get my head round it, but pretty powerful, this Blofeld

Sebas · 2018-07-30T19:23:55.992Z

hello, how you cant save multimode in the blofeld???, i shutdown the blofeld and i lost all patches selected…

p0k · 2018-08-01T12:54:58.875Z

To save you have to hit Shift + Utility twice (second one is to confirm the save). If you even switch patches and then go back you will lose all changes, so be sure to save often. Blofeld and Digitakt are a great combo!

synkronized · 2018-08-02T17:23:54.230Z

The weird 1-128 range almost drove me nuts, I’ve never seen that on another MIDI device. Otherwise it works.
Problem with the blofeld is that program changes are not instantaneous, so I had to find a different way of “switching” programs.
One thing you can do is use the blofeld’s 16-channel multitimbral mode and just select different MIDI channels instead of programs. This has the advantage of not cutting your sound off when otherwise switching programs. It also has the advantage that the first note played after program change is not cut off.
I found this much easier to do than worrying about putting the PC message at the best-possible position in the pattern.

hazrichter · 2024-02-07T00:11:15.839Z

I finally got my blofeld+DT setup to a place where I’m not frustrated using it in multi mode so I thought I would share my setup. (still don’t think I would use multi mode in a live situation)
When I was trying to change the Multi patch itself (M001,M002…etc.), it was inconsistent for me, despite following all the tips in this thread.
So I decided to have the first Multi (M001) setup with Channels 12, 13, 14, for Parts 1-3 (don’t really want to use more than 3). Now I exclusively use that first multi, then change the patches within it from the DT. This works well enough for me, but it might not work for everyone if you change the multi settings often.

Play Sound (single patch mode): CH: 11, BANK: 1-8, SBNK: off, PROG: 1-128
Play Multi (MIDI A-C): CH 12-14, BANK: 1-8, SBNK: off, PROG: 1-128
*BANK and SBANK are interchangeable in both instances as long as the other is off.

Most importantly, I found that the blofeld will ignore repeat program change messages, even after being turned off. So if you switch the patch manually on the blofeld, when you run the sequencer again it won’t switch back. This caused confusion when troubleshooting, and my workaround is to either quickly toggle the PROG knob up and down 1 unit, or to p.lock a program change to an init patch on the blofeld that has all oscillators turned off. (and put a 1st cond. on it). This last solution allows me to doodle around changing patches with the sequencer off, but when I press play it always switches back, which is nice. Idk if that’s common knowledge on synths or not but it’s something I found.

A couple other notes I found about multi mode:
-Effect 2 on Part 1 is a global effect for all multi parts.
-Effect 1 is available for Parts 1-4, Parts 5-16 ignore their Effect 1.