I am having problems getting Digitakt (DT) to do MIDI Thru notes.
I have an OT at the centre, with a DT for drums and a Roland TB03 for bass; both coming into the OT as Thru machines. I want to MIDI clock the DT only, but send MIDI notes to the TB03. This works fine if I go (MIDI) via the TB03 first, then from the TB03 to the DT. DT gets clocked, TB plays OT’s MIDI notes. But try as I might I can’t get the DT to pass notes to the TB03. Or I sort of can … I can hear the OT’s MIDI notes being played by the TB03 (via the DT) but they seem very low and clipped, as if the DT had changed the pitch.
I started on MIDI channel 1 and then thought perhaps I needed to use MIDI channel 9 (because tracks 0-8 on DT are non- MIDI I think) but this doesn’t help.
I am using OS 1.5 on the DT, have all the MIDI clocking options selected and also have the “Receive Notes” option under MIDI / Port Config selected.
Please help, I need to figure out DT MIDI Thru as I want to chain a Digitone, Syntakt etc and have them all come in a single OT Thru machine (audio wise)
MIDI THRU is just a copy of what’s appearing in the MIDI IN so in theory settings in the DT won’t affect the signal, unless you’ve changed the DT THRU port functionality in the settings so check this first:
From the manual:
THRU PORT FUNCTIONALITY selects what type of signal the MIDI THRU port will send. The settings are the same as for OUT PORT FUNCTIONALITY.
INPUT FROM selects the source Digitakt will receive MIDI data from.
• DISABLED will make Digitakt disregard any incoming MIDI data.
• MIDI will make Digitakt listen only to MIDI data sent to the MIDI IN port.
• USB will make Digitakt listen only to MIDI data sent to the USB port.
• MIDI+USB will make Digitakt listen to MIDI data sent to both the MIDI IN and USB ports.
If set correctly further ideas to solve - as not externally sequencing DT try turning all of the MIDI channels in DT to off rather than assigned to a channel. Does this help?
Alternatively the OT by default uses 1-8 for its internal audio tracks so if you haven’t changed this - you definitely want to sequence the TB on any channel between 9-16 (if sequencing the TB from OT which seems like you are).
Another idea to try is to monitor the TB audio directly rather than via an OT audio THRU track to rule that out as a problem (if you haven’t done already)
If it’s the OT THRU causing the problem perhaps - you’ve not got a trig on the track/the envelope is set too short.
Alternatively if the TB plays fine connected to the MIDI OUT of OT but not the THRU of DT which itself is connected to the OT MIDI OUT (the signal should be exactly the same here if THRU port is set correctly as above) - perhaps the DT THRU port is faulty.
If so; a MIDI thru box would solve this - and it’ll keep multiple boxes synced tighter rather that going in and out of every box in the chain just to distribute clock - and will make set up easier.