Hi, I thought I would post this up just in case it helps others. So I thought I would take all the stuff off my desk and give it a good dust and maybe clear out some of the equipment I wasn’t using.
After doing that I put back the following and started to connect it all up.
Digitakt II
Octatrack mk2
Machinedrum mk2
Ableton Move
Apple M1 Mac mini
External Monitor
Focusrite Audio Interface
So I connected them all up the same way with all the Elektron boxes and the Move going through the Digitakt II. Then I went into Ableton and opened my normal template that has an Overbridge Audiounit in one track and 16 other audio tracks from the Digitakt II.
And it didn’t WORK.
Overbridge in Ableton didn’t see the Digitakt II. The Overbridge engine would just hang on “measuring” and eventually fail with a latency error. I was really frustrated as this had always worked in the past for at least the last 4 months. So I started to try and figure out why.
- Reinstall Overbridge … DIDN’T WORK
- Reset Digitakt 2 … DIDN’T WORK
- Replace Digitakt 2 with Digitone II. This worked as expected.
- Plug Digitakt 2 into M1 MacPro laptop. This did work. And Overbridge reported idle and worked in Ableton.
- Move Digitakt II back to Mac mini but unplug all but the USB. This did work and Overbridge found the Digitakt II and it all worked in Ableton.
- Plugged in a MIDI cable in the Digitakt II and the audio stopped. In fact I didn’t even have to plug it in. As soon as the cable made contact with the MIDI port audio through Overbridge died. I’d unplug the MIDI cable and the audio in the Overbridge plugin would start working.
- This was exactly the same for the audio cables I plugged into the audio in on the Digitakt. As soon as they made contact the audio in Overbridge would die.
By now I was getting really really frustrated.
But then I wondered about power. My desk power situation is not ideal but has never been a problem before.
Under my desk I have 2 x 10 socket extension one with 10 sockets and the other with 12. With the 12 plugging into the 10 and the 10 going into the mains.
I unplugged everything except the Mac, Monitor, Speakers and Digitakt II. Then I tested this little set up and it worked. I plugged the MIDI and audio cable in and it still worked.
To make a very long and frustrating story short, as soon as I moved the power for the Mac Mini into the other extension that the Digitakt II wasn’t in it all worked.
Hope this might help others that have been having problems with Overbridge. This was never a problem on the mk1 versions. So maybe the increased power demands of the Digitakt II make it more sensitive to power setup. It might even affect other more powerful Elektron devices like the Rytm etc.