KMI K-Board Pro 4 as keys for Digitone and A4 MkII

Elektron Gear
#1

Hello! I’m looking for a little bit of guidance, please. Due to the spacial constraints of my studio, I’m unable to fit either an Analog Keys or Digitone Keys here. I feel like that’s a shame since I’m perhaps missing out on the fun and performative polyphonic aftertouch excellence of those instruments. I’ve never actually played any of the Elektrons which feature a keyboard.

I have Digitone and A4 MkII. I also have a KMI K-Board Pro 4 (MPE capable) key controller and an Osmose on the way. The K-Board Pro 4 is connected using USB and it’s routed to A4 and Digitone via Bitwig.

Would I need to get the keys version of those synths to be able to enjoy playing them including their complete expressive potential? If not, what am I missing?

I wonder whether per-note pitch control will ever be considered for them as well… but I’m guessing it would have to take an OS upgrade including MPE functionality to make that happen.

So, does anyone have experience working this way with Digitone or A4, especially with K-Board Pro 4? Please show us the way if so.

#2

I have a keyboardless Monomachine and the Analog Keys. Previously, I had a Mk1 A4. As far as I can tell Elektron has continued their strategy of not nerfing the keyboardless version. The MnM has options for setting up the joystick, which is only present in the keyboard SFX-6. Or you can send MIDI in from your favorite controller.

All of the manuals are available on the Elektron site, so you can compare the A4Mk2 with the AK. If you need me t confirm anything on the AK, just @ me or DM me.

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#3

Sure, part of the issue is that I don’t really know how the keys versions function. I’ll look into that more. Thanks!

I’ve gotten somewhere with it using MPE enabled hardware instrument devices in Bitwig sending MPE data from my K-board Pro 4 to the A4. Unfortunately it seemed rather impractical working with it in the way that I found, copying track sounds across all tracks to achieve 4 voice MPE synth status. It sounded beautiful and I made all of one single basic preset… but that’s mainly because it was tedious and glitchy.

By glitchy - I mean that I had to pay very careful attention not to hold down more than a certain number of fingers at once or else I would end up with silence in some key presses… so it was like the rotation of something wasn’t lining up properly. I really don’t know why that was happening. I’ve even attempted limiting the number of MPE voices for my MIDI controller and it still occurred.

I am assuming that sort of method (duplicating voices across tracks) is not required with Analog Keys in order to play a preset with polyphonic aftertouch. Please let me know if I’m mistaken on that.

I really need to pin down where the disconnect is so that I can hopefully make this function somehow. I wouldn’t mind investing in a MIDI processor to modify the functionality of K-Board Pro 4 if that means it will work.

#4

That is exactly how the AK works. It’s just an A4 with a keyboard bolted on, a slightly enhanced UI (the changes are small, but the payoff is large) and some model-specific master keyboard functionality.

The AK is still at it’s heart a stack of four monosynths, a CV sequencer and a multi-FX unit, all sequenced with x0x plocks.

When I’ve played it as a polysynth, I copied one voice to the other four and enabled poly mode. This allows you to tweak the patches in novel ways.

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#5

So interesting! Okay, then I suppose the primary matter of concern at this point is how to overcome the glitches behind my current implementation. Also, whether I can get some additional mileage out of the additional (Y) axis of expression the K-Board Pro 4 offers, and per note pitch bend.

Maybe the glitch/silence is because the 5th note is going to the CV track rather than wrapping back around to the 1st voice or a released voice etc.

Also… I couldn’t get this to work at all for Digitone and I tried quite a lot. Has anyone gotten that working and would you please care to share the steps?

Thanks so much! Either way, these are all amazing instruments, but I would love to play them this way as well.

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#6

And there are some interesting voice stealing modes to explore when you do that

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#7

Hard to see how things are set up on your system. You understand how MPE works right ? It just uses another MIDI channel to keep each key-press in its own channel. It can end up using all 16 channels. If your synth isn’t listening to that channel you’ll get silence. Is that what is happening ?

I don’t know if that helps you.

You need to observe what is happening with the MIDI data in detail, to understand why you get silences, and understand what you need to do instead.

Typically if you transmit in MPE, you need something set up to MPE to receive that data, otherwise there will be confusion.

( I was just watching the MIDI from a Hydrasynth to look at the MIDI messages sent to compare what it does in poly-aftertouch mode vs MPE mode. )

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#8

Check out this thread too :

There is another thread “Linnstrument + A4”, but that seems less useful.

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#9

Thanks @Jukka and all, I’ll give those threads a closer read in case I may have overlooked something there. Or as you mentioned, I will use a MIDI monitor to check the output of K-Board Pro 4 and try to configure it accordingly.

Regarding my configuration:
the KMI K-Board Pro 4 is in MPE mode and limited to 4 channels. It’s plugged into a USB hub leading to my laptop running Bitwig 4. There is a Bitwig Hardware Instrument device on an instrument track which allows K-Board Pro 4 (added using the KMI control script) to communicate with any of my Elektrons which are all connected by the same USB hub. All Elektrons are in USB MIDI mode.

The Hardware Instrument device has a button for MPE. If I have that toggled off and I point the output to A4 and start playing K-Board Pro 4, I get extreme glitchy madness. Then if I toggle MPE on, it actually becomes usable. I have to access the A4’s track 1 voice by setting its MIDI channel to 2. The channels must ascend from there… and works well with the exception that voice stealing (for lack of better word, perhaps) isn’t working as expected. For instance - though K-Board Pro 4 is set to a 4 channel maximum - I still get it triggering a CV track. I’m not sure if anything in Bitwig can address that problem. No MIDI Grid, (yet?). I just assumed there is maybe something I’m missing to the equation.

Since Ableton 11 has a MPE support; I’m guessing that a Max for Live patch could somehow work around this. I had fully switched from Live to Bitwig years ago and still have a Live license, but going down that road is ultimately not going to solve my problem, but I can use it for diagnostics. I think it just serves as an example of how the “issue” could stem from the way the host software handles things.

Maybe a Max patch sending data from K-Board Pro 4 to Bitwig?

As for Digitone, I get complete glitchy madness no matter what I have attempted.

#10

I would consider to sell the K-Board and grab a used AK for the experience.

it’s really not just the A4 with a keyboard, the whole interface is the experience, sitting down with only the AK is really unique

it’s one of a kind

#11

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:eyes:

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#12

Which i believe means you are using 5 channels. One channel, usually channel 1 ( marked 0 inside the message ) is used for global data. That is part of the MPE spec.

You need to look at what the MIDI messages are exactly to see what specifically is happening.

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#13

as iam also awaiting a K Board Pro 4 iam interested.

  • have you checked your Voice settings in A4? I would guess it’s best on “reassign” in other modes like rotate for instance there’s some soft clipping sometimes. that may be your Voice problem.

  • as long as the A4 wouldn’t act with the MPE standard I would think about the following settings to grasp the expressions:

A4 set to individual channels per track, X,Y,Z Axis of the KBoard mapped to pitch, Aftertouch and Breathcontroller (same as the AK joystick)

that should already work out because the MK2 Units and their respective Presets are already mapped and tweaked with slight modulation.

and in comparison to the AK you should be rewarded with moving Display settings. filter sweep etc on the (Ax-seees)

plural

the hardware of the KBoard should also send pitch per note on every individual channel to the A4, it may be set to Mono per track and not Poly but I’ll try. :100:

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#14

Please reply back after all and let us know how it works out, because I still wasn’t having much luck with it myself. What you’re saying definitely makes me want to try again though!

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#15

feel free to try, just copped one yesterday but still waiting :white_check_mark: