Another technical question, as I am struggling to figure this one out myself.
Hopefully it hasn’t been covered elsewhere.
I am a percussionist, using a Nord Drum 2 (with contact microphones on drums/wherever) and attempting to layer the synthesised sound with samples. The only way I’ve managed to get that to happen (as per the ‘note mapping’ in appendix C of the manual) is by sending MIDI notes from a ND2 channel to a corresponding Octatrack channel, and triggering the ‘sample trigs’ (notes 36-47):
I don’t just want to trigger the sample itself, triggered from the beginning each time, but rather to effectively have a sample playing (a loop, say) and have it be heard at whatever point it is at (in the loop) when I strike the trigger (like opening a ‘gate’). I had assumed that might be what the ‘track trigs’ would do … but those numbers don’t seem to do anything when I send them over. Perhaps I’m missing something. I have managed to get this effect by using a ‘thru’ track, but obviously that means having separate pre-prepared material (on an mp3 player), and triggering a burst of the track with a short amp release. Or, I could send the audio from a static/flex track out and back in to a thru track … but that seems pretty long-winded.
Hopefully that makes sense. Obviously I’m working around limitations here, as this gear wasn’t really made for percussive responsiveness. Seeing what you can do with something like Sunhouse’s ‘Sensory Percussion’ makes me wonder whether to jump ship (it’d be another world, though … a hard reset), especially given the lack of audio/midi interaction I’ve read about here, under-developed on the OT. (I imagine they’ve lost some ground to items like Squarp’s ‘Pyramid’ sequencer, too, just from those few missing pieces alone … I’m considering it, as I find the MIDI sequencer limited and irritating to use.) IF I could map velocity to the amplifier that would probably keep me happy a while! Alas …
You would like to unmute / mute tracks with a midi note ? You can’t send Control Changes with your drums?
With a midi processor such as Event Processor Plus you can map velocity to Cc Vol or Level, and you can map notes on (and notes of) to Mute Tracks, or a Vol / Level setting, toggle between 2 states…
Is that what you’d need ?
How long the Track would be played after the hit? Toggle?
Ideally the length of playback would be adjustable by the amp release (but can set that manually, maybe using the cross-fader to give an easily-accessible range - that doesn’t need to respond to velocity/dynamics). And ideally all of the LFO/effects would be running and audible on the track as it cycles. Would that work with ‘plays free’ tracks … I should look those up!
The Event Processor looks very useful, thanks! It looks like I could do a lot with it that you can do with other percussion-specific devices (mapping velocity to different MIDI CC changes, for example - on the Nord itself, as well as the OT). Have you had experience using it? Is it easy enough to set up and configure?
Yes, Ep+ is very useful with all midi devices. I mentionned it maybe too often !
I don’t think it is very difficult and I can help you.
Did you try with Master Track 8 ? Maybe you need it but you can trigger filters or lfos design on volume I think.
If you want to use your trick live, you can cue normal tracks and play “muted” tracks through track 8
I don’t suppose there are any devices that can configure MIDI like the ‘Event Processor’ that are stand-alone that you know of? Which have an interface, I mean, and wouldn’t require configuring anew each time (on a computer) for making changes of settings?
This looks ideal for a drums/percussion setup, but to be honest the interface looks unnecessarily unbearable to use! Then again, I’ve learned a good bit of the Octatrack, so it can’t be that difficult!
That would work, yes. That would save me using up inputs/outputs. My idea was to be feeding different sounds to different trigger pads, so it would use up a lot of tracks … which would be fine for live playing. I guess I was wondering/hoping there might be a way of doing it on just one track?
Just tried. On one Flex / Static track, if you send a midi note, the sample will be retrigged.
It works with a Neighbor with a filter :
Width 0
Depth 63
Dec as you like or you can use the Hold switch in the Fx1 setup to control the length with the amp page Hold setting.
Depends if you send only a note on.
Do you know if a note off is sent?
Don’t think so.
If I can assign velocity information on something like the ‘Event Processor’ (sent from the Nord) to the amp volume or even the track volume, then this would be the result I’m after. Then I could have audio playing in a static/flex track and hit/‘open’ the amp for a certain period (determined by the release length … the only question is how responsive that is to play, which is hard to know without trying it.
Ep+ is very responsive. For ex I send Program Changes before notes with it to change every sound on all notes on my Blofeld and there’s no significant lag.
The question is still, on one Ot’s track, how do you trigger the Amp, Lfo or Filter enveloppe without triggering the sample…
Hitting twice would be easier to mute / unmute with a Cc.
I’m quite interested in the possibilities of using the ‘Event Processor’ to map velocity to MIDI CC # changes and send that right back into the Nord Drum. It would certainly make for more ‘expressive’ (or just timbrally variable) playing possibilities, which is really what a lot of percussion is about.
I’m pretty certain the Nord itself is just note and velocity.
However … I am mostly using contact-microphones (not the Nord Pad), and have them triggering a channel. One of them is affixed to the hi-hat, which means that the ‘note’ will send for as long as the hi-hat is vibrating. (The same would work on a cymbal, and the ‘length’ can be adjusted using the trigger sensitivity settings.
I have been using MIDI inputs and outputs simultaneously, and they seem to be affecting one-another - sometimes they won’t work, if I resent the Nord it’ll be working, but seems unpredictable. I was sending MIDI CC ~ changes via the MIDI tracks, and simultaneously using the MIDI input to trigger audio (as described above). It seemed like triggering the audio tracks only worked/responded when the MIDI global channel was ON. On the Nord the ‘global’ setting affects transmitting and receiving information. There is also a ‘local control on/off’ setting, which may help, but it isn’t explained in the manual what that is! Also maybe the Octatrack’s own ‘internal/external/both’ MIDI configurations might need tweeking? IF this makes any sense, any advice or pointers?
Local off means you won’t trigger internal sounds.
Ot : Int
Edit : Sorry, not Both, in your case INT is enough if you don’t want to send notes and cc with Ot.
You have to check Cc in and Note in if you want to receive midi messages to control audio tracks.
Yes. Apparently you have 4 notes.
To Mute / Unmute you need 2 events. With the Hihat’s note off it’s ok but for the 3 left you can choose to stop them when you hit another pad, or hit the same pad, or both.
You can also trig Neighbors with a normal notes.
I don’t think you can trigger an envelope with a Cc.
Choices to make, depending on the results you want. It would be easy with a keyboard or a pad controller with notes off.
