Micromonsta

Good to see ya here, @elektrosamplist — what news of the Micromonsta 2? Frequently miss my MM1 :heart:

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I just found your response in my junk mail.
Thank you for your answer!

That did it!

I’m a fan of this synth, sounds lovely and rich especially for a digital synth… a lot leave me cold. Wish I had more time to create patches with it. :slight_smile:
My gripe at the minute is that when sequencing from the DT, I get a high pitched squeal or bleep every time I switch patterns, as it fumbles to switch patches (or even select the same as before). Is this a problem with the Micromonsta, or could it be a known issue with the DT or MIDI sequencing in general? (hope I’m not opening a can of worms here)

Sounds odd. Have you tried sending program changes to the MM from another sequencer or your daw?
Is your DT connected directly to the Micromonsta?
Any hiccups when you send midi cc from DT?

Program changes work fine from OT for me.

Thanks for the suggestion - I’ll try with my DAW tomorrow and see.

The DT is connected directly by midi cable aye. There’s no issue with midi cc messages, but program changes from the DT didn’t work reliably at all, just using the usual method of setting a bank / program number. My solution was this:

Seems some synths only respond to the bank/program selection reliably if you change them first, rather than leave them as a default in the SRC menu. So the trick is to put a trigless trig (FUNC + TRIG) on the first step, and p-lock this to a different bank and program in the SRC menu (doesn’t matter which, there will be no sound as it’s trigless). THEN p-lock the first trig you use to the bank and program needed.

This switching could definitely be part of the problem, but it’s also literally the only way I’ve found to force the Micromonsta to play a particular patch. Believe me I’ve tried! (though obviously welcome better solutions).

I may also try copying the patches I use to bank 1 and just bypassing all that nonsense, but just seems odd that bank/patch select is so inconsistent. As in… it will choose a different patch each time, seemingly at random. Troubleshooting it may have been a nightmare.

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Each time you send a program change, MM will load the patch and initializes some buffers.
If you have sound still playing while doing this, it might produce a click.

Do you have latest firmware installed?

I never had a complaint about MIDI Bank/PC not working (well, except the usual user error or misunderstanding).
Can someone please hook up a software MIDI monitor to a DT and post the resulting MIDI messages sent by DT when sending a Bank/Program change? Without that, I can’t help that much…
Or maybe someone with both an Octatrack and DT can check if sent messages are different?

MM2 progress is slow these days because I am losing my time trying to find solutions to ship stuff safely without having to charge twice the price we use to charge before for shipping…

But I’m happy with the (slow) progress so far.

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As far as it’s possible to be on a pre order list, i’m on!
:slight_smile:

Pre-order: it’s way too soon, no pic, no sound, no spec yet.
I am usually not a fan of pre-orders, I don’t like collecting money without shipping stuff, makes me nervous, but maybe this time we may have to do it, I am not sure yet, I’ll have to think at it.

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As long as it still has MPE im happy!

looking forward to hearing what the issue turned out to be.

That ‘buffering’ could well be the issue. Problem is, I have to send a PC change message from the DT on each pattern change or it simply won’t choose the correct patch. If I just select the same patch for the pattern, it doesn’t seem to recognise it and simply switches to a random bank/patch (genuinely different results each time which makes diagnosing the issue difficult) until a PC message forces a change. Super strange. I do have the latest firmware.

Not sure how to software MIDI monitor but hopefully someone can help.

You having the same issue?

no just very interested in getting a micromonsta

If your DAW doesn’t have midi monitoring, you can use a plugin like this one.
Just put it on a midi track and route DT’s midi input into that track.

Thanks for the tip, this could be really useful for diagnosing things :slight_smile:

So when switching patterns (from a pattern that sends no MIDI messages, to one that does), I get:
Program Change: 1
Controller: 120 | Value: 0 | Channel: 1
Program Change: 20
Program Change: 44
…followed by the note on/off messages. I usually get a high-pitched squeak when the patch kicks in. Important: I am selecting prog 21 of bank 2 first, before switching to prog 45 of bank 2. If I don’t do this and simply rely on the DT’s source page to select bank etc, there are no PC messages transmitted at all, and the wrong patch is selected (sometimes a default init patch, sometimes prog 30 of bank 2, for unknown reasons)

Then when switching to another pattern:
Program Change: 2
Note On: D#5 | Velocity: 117 | Channel: 1
Note Off: C#5 | Velocity: 64 | Channel: 1
Note Off: D#5 | Velocity: 64 | Channel: 1
Program Change: 20
Controller: 32 | Value: 2 | Channel: 1
Controller: 32 | Value: 2 | Channel: 1
Controller: 32 | Value: 2 | Channel: 1
Program Change: 44
(the MIDI notes should be appearing after the PC messages, not sure why the PC messages are in-between. Again I get the squeak as it scrambles to switch patches)

I’m selecting bank 2, prog 45 (patch 173) so I’m not sure how the above matches up exactly, but assuming this is because 0 is also counted?

I don’t get why you have to send 3 program changes.
If you send them on the same step, yeah I understand why you are having issues.
When you switch to your another pattern this means:
load pgm2
play those 3 notes
load pgm 20 (and cut those 3 notes)
change bank to bank2 (3 times, why???)
load program 44 in bank2

Start without any bank changes, on programs 1-128.
Does that work without doing any special tricks.
I don’t have DT, can’t be much more help but by seing what it outputs, I understand the issue, but MM is doing what DT is asking for… Are you sending those messages from different DT tracks?

I get what you’re saying, and it would explain the issue but I’m normally only sending 2 program changes - I’m sending 1 on the first step of the sequence (PC 20) and then PC44 on the second step. Not sure what PC1 or PC2 are doing there as I’m not telling the DT to send either of those.

I may need to fix some of the bank changes on one of the patterns, but the problem is across all patterns. The reason for the 3 change bank messages is I’m running a pattern that extends across 3 midi tracks (with conditional trigs) - but the only reason I did this was to attempt a workaround as the normal way simply doesn’t work.

Unfortunately I’ve tried many times the ‘normal’ way and as the above confirms, this results in no PC messages being sent at all, meaning the patch doesn’t get selected at all. It only seems to respond if you ‘force’ PC changes, which is frustrating.

So it seems like it is either a DT issue or misconfiguration.

What I would suggest is use 2 tracks:
In the lower one, setup a trigless trig with your bank and program change
In the upper one, enter your notes as usual

If DT does the same as OT, it should send the lower track message first, and then notes on the upper track.
I guess that trigless trig can be setup to be sent only once to avoid any sound issue when the pattern loops.

Again, just a guess as I do not have DT.
Doing a google search with digitakt and program change outputs a lot of results, looks like you’re not alone…