Hi all!
Was trying to work it out myself but to no prevail.
I thought maybe someone here will be able to give me an advice.
So the thing is - I have Digitakt, Squarp Pyramid and Keystep. I want to run them in parallel for live dawless sequencing, but can’t work out a way to correctly connect them to do that.
In addition to them I have some service midi gear - kenton Merge 8 and Thru 25.
I hope I used the correct thread.
Cheers!
What are you looking to achieve, what other devices do you want to sequence?
What’s the squarp for?
Matrixbrute, Sub 37, Dominion X, DSI Tempest, TR-8, Strymon Big Sky. I want to make Pyramid the master clock and to be able to control and sequence any instrument from any surface at any time.
Since all sequencers have midi thru capabilities I thought it should be easy to set up. And at one point it almost worked, but when I tried to slave Keystep to other sequencers it all went in flames and now even Digitakt’s sample sequences won’t play.
For polymetric and polyphonic sequencing, for example. And for midi fx fun - without having to pay double the Digitakt’s cost on top for an Octatrak. Now I basically have myself an Octatrak with three sequences to control at any given time, but without a fader.
:edit:
And yeah… A bit of GAS was in the mix, too.
Have you tried sketching a control and routing layout with pencil and paper? I’m serious, this is the first thing I would do. Once you get a layout you like, methodically write down all your MIDI channels, sync/slave/master relationships, etc. Dry erase board would be even handier - if you want MIDI nerd bonus points! 
I did just that, but after it didn’t work as I wanted, I tried to improvise and messed everything up…
(hope typedrawing works here (nope, it doesn’t look like it)
So… Yeah… I think I have an understanding of how it should be, but for some reason, when set up this way, it just doesn’t work.
I feel your pain. Setting up this stuff can get very confusing. And I don’t have nearly as complex a setup as you do. I’ll suggest something else then, start by simplifying. Just get one thing working at a time, test thoroughly, then once your satisfied, add another, test it, add another, and so on. Keep those manuals handy. Every manufacturer has weird little hidden check-boxes buried in the 4rth menu screen down it seems.
I didn’t get this set up in one day, so I guess I did it in the way you suggested. When I added the Keystep it just stopped working.
Maybe I should try to rewire everything from the bottom again.
Ha. Makes sense. I guess I am just used to rewiring things constantly to try new setups.
I guess my suggestions are the MIDI equivalent of “have you tried rebooting your computer?”. Sorry if it’s too basic but I always like to start from scratch. Since I struggle with this stuff myself I’ll let somebody more knowledgeable step in now. Hope you get it running the way you want without too much additional frustration. I have a Keystep too and I think it was doing wonky things until I got the pin settings right on back of the unit. Also, not sure, but if you bought it used you might want to reset to factory defaults? Or open up the editor software that comes with it and make sure nothing funky is going on in there.
I am trying to make a “live” setup - I can record audio into DAW if need be, so I don’t really care about MIDI looping back to the DAW.
I have this commutation routing in mind, and I think I tried it already. The MIDI signal won’t get through the Keystep for some reason, even though it is in MIDI sync mode, so it should at least receive the clock but it doesn’t happen. The thru for it’s out port is also activated. I think I tried every sync option there is in Midi Control Center for the Keystep (24, 48, 1step and so on). I honestly have no idea where to look further.
And yes, there are two midi outs going further down the line (If it was just one “out” lead it would’ve been ideal) but since I have a midi merger I don’t really care anymore about that at this point…
I don’t have any of these units, but the following should work if you set up the units correctly. I assume that you are using MIDI only and that no computer is involved:
Pyramid Out A to Digitakt In
Digitakt Thru to Keystep In
Keystep Out to Merge-8 In
Digitakt Out to Merge-8 In
Pyramid Out B to Merge-8 In
Merge-8 Out to Thru-25 In
Thru-25 Outs to your other MIDI gear
Send MIDI clock from Pyramid MIDI Out A to Digitakt and Keystep.
Do not send MIDI clock from Digitakt or Keystep.
Set channels appropriately.
Even if you get this working, you have no option for using the Keystep as a sequencer or keyboard controller.
In @psypad’s proposed solution, the Keystep’s MIDI Out port is configured as MIDI Thru. I am assuming that this configuration prevents it from sequencing other gear. Keystep owners may know better.
Thinking about it - I have no idea why…
Maybe because I was trying to avoid using the merger for some reason…
Thank you all very much!
I will try out your suggestion(s?) and will report the results tomorrow!
If I were you I’d sell the Merge and Thru box, get one of these, they are cheap.
They have a built in preset called “Live Keyboards” that make this kind of set up dead easy to manage.
Pyramid M OUT > XT Port 1 IN
Pyramid M IN < XT Port 1 OUT
DT M OUT > XT Port 2 IN
DT M IN < XT Port 2 OUT
Keystep M OUT > XT Port 3 IN
Keystep M IN < XT Port 3 OUT
Matrix M OUT > XT Port 4 IN
Matrix M IN < XT Port 4 OUT
Sub M OUT > XT Port 5 IN
Sub M IN < XT Port 5 OUT
Tempest M OUT > XT Port 6 IN
Tempest M IN < XT Port 6 OUT
TR8 M OUT > XT Port 7 IN
TR8 M IN < XT Port 7 OUT
Dominion M OUT > XT Port 8 IN
Dominion M IN < XT Port 8 OUT
Set your channels accordingly on each device, use the “live keys” preset and you should be good to go.
This won’t work, I guess … why …
MIDI-Through is just repeating, what has been received at MIDI-In. It’s not adding the Midi created by this device. The Midi created by a device is sent to MIDI-Out only.
If you want to have each sequencer to talk to each instrument and optionally an other sequencer too, and this back and forth, and midi shall be sent across instruments and sequencers in both directions, you can’t use a “line-of-sending” and a “line-of-receiving” approach to get this done. You need to implement a “network”. As @JuanSOLO says, the best and most clean solution is to use a midi-patch-bay with memories keeping different sending/receiving situations ready to go.
A midi-patch-bay supports more than one midi-port, each port providing the usual 16 midi-channels. It helps to define who is talking to whom, who is listening to whom at what midi-channel, and to prevent unwanted midi-loops, which would cause midi-chaos.
