Digitakt not sending bank select (patch works)

Hi - looking for some help

I have my new novation peak and have it setup to receive bank/patch changes - when sending patch select via DT - I can select the first 127 patches, but the ‘bank’ dial does not seem to work - i can’t select other banks on my peak

would be very grateful for some suggestions. Have searched this forum but nil issues reported

thanks

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Just to update the PEAK is receiving bank changes from ableton via USB.

Digitakt is on 1.04 OS

I spent a good chunk of time trying to set it up yesterday, and I can confirm that I can’t send Bank changes to my Mininova.
Ao matter which bank I selected, the Program Changes would just send on Bank A.
1.04 OS

thanks so much @redraceriot for checking this out for me! Seems like a confirmed bug

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Neither the DT manual (@eangman) nor the Peak manual are particularly helpful for this, but I suspect the following.

It could be that the DT sends its Bank Select message only as the Most Significant Byte (MSB) of the MIDI Bank Select message. So it only sends MIDI Control Change number 0.

I don’t know about the Peak but other Novation gear only responds to the Least Significant Byte (LSB) of the MIDI Bank Select message. So it only responds to MIDI CC number 32.

If this is the case, the DT suffers the same problem as the OT in only sending one half of the Bank Select message, despite there being space in the UI of both instruments to implement the full MIDI spec.

You could try sending MIDI CC 32 with different values from the DT to the Peak followed by a Program Change message to test whether Bank Select can be performed this way.

If true, this is not quite a bug, because Elektron designed the Bank Select feature to work this way, but rather a badly-implemented feature.

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See above; try sending MIDI CC 32 messages followed by a Program Change message to the MiniNova from the DT - this should cause the MiniNova to change Bank.

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Just tested it, but no luck.
I don’t have any other gear to hand that I could test this with, outside of a Circuit, and that’s likely to have exactly the same issue.
edit: A later post by @PeterHanes clarified the process, and it now works.

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I have the same issue, when trying change bank from DT, Tetra responds by changing program number :confused:
Does anyone sort it out, in any way? :slight_smile:

The MIDI Bank Select message was designed to be used together with a Program Change message to select a program that is not necessarily in the same bank as the current program. Bank Select is not designed to simply change the bank.

The Tetra (like many other DSI, Clavia, Waldorf, Novation etc synths) only needs MIDI CC number 32 for Bank Select to work, whereas the Octatrack and Digitakt (apparently, from this topic) only send half of the MIDI Bank Select message (MIDI CC number 0), and not the half that the Tetra needs.

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it works on the Blofeld… so maybe not a bug, but a different type of Bank select?

bank change works fine from DT to slaved A4, just to add to the topic.

(you have to manual bank change when switching rows a-d to e-h though)

Ooohhh I didnt know about it. Thanks Peter!! :slight_smile:
So CC#32 with digits 0-3 will change between four banks?

In theory, CC 32 with the appropriate value, followed immediately by a Program Change message, will select the chosen program in the chosen bank on the Tetra.

You cannot only “change bank”.

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Very usefull! Thanks! :slight_smile:

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I tried again using these exact steps, and it works!
It’s not as convenient as I had hoped, and it eats up one of your 8 cc’s, but it’s certainly better than nothing!
You seem to be pretty knowledgeable about how various synths respond to the Elektron way of sending program changes, have you got a list somewhere of synths that do or don’t respond well to it?
Not that I’m looking to buy a synth specifically to solve this issue, but it would be helpful to know for future purchases.

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I’m glad that the workaround works for you.

Sadly, I don’t have time to keep a list. Out of my gear, only a Mutable Instruments Shruthi-1 and (partially) some Korg gear respond to the CC 0 message that OT and DT send.

EDIT: add Alesis NanoSynth and Roland SE-02 to this short list.

In my experience, Alesis, Clavia, DSI, Emu, Moog, Novation, Roland, Waldorf, and Yamaha instruments require CC 32 for Bank Select.

You can look at the MIDI implementation chart for any instrument to see whether it uses CC 0, CC 32, or both, for Bank Select.

I encourage anyone who would like the OT or DT to have a different behaviour to write a support ticket to Elektron.

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That list of companies that don’t work with OT or DT looks pretty damning. They’re not exactly smalltime, boutique manufacturers!
I’ll submit a ticket, and hope anyone else that works with external synths on their OT or DT does the same.

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So I am having the same issue with the Deepmind 12. When you say send CC# 32 followed by a program change what does that actually look like on the Digitakt? Do I have a step where CC#32 is P locked so it switches the bank or is there mpre I need to do? For instance I want to switch patterns and when I do have the digitakt switch to a specific deepmind 12 bank/patch.

Could you briefly provide the steps for how I might achieve this? New to this level of midi stuff on hardware and would greatly appreciate some help!

I have neither the DT nor the DM12 so you may need someone else to give you a specific step-by-step, especially regarding the DM12.

You have a few options, which may or may not meet your needs:

The simplest way to have the DM12’s patch change when the DT changes pattern is to enable PROG CH SEND in the DT’s SETTINGS > MIDI CONFIG > SYNC menu and to send the PROG CH SEND CHANNEL number to match the MIDI channel number of the DM12. The new patch number on the DM12 will exactly match the new pattern number on the DT, which means that you would have to put the relevant DM12 patches in the right patch locations. This may not be ideal.

(I will update this post or write again with some other options when I have time later.)

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Thank you! Figured it out!

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