@Ozone: Mathias from Faderfox told me that all Gen.4 devices will be fully programmable, also with separate Midi channels.
here´s a review of the PC4, and although they mostly talk about ableton,
further down there´s a
nice Foto PC4 & machinedrum. they match in size perfectly!
http://www.ableton-live-expert.com/articles/faderfox-pc4-review-knob-rich-control-environment/
Yeah, looking forward to hear experiences on using Octatrack and the UC4! It looks like a very good match.
I received my Faderfox UC4. It’s a cool device, very well built and easy to set up with Ableton. Programming the UC4 for use with hardware is very complicated and poorly documented. It also lacks a good software editor, although you can save and share your settings with a sysex editor. If you’ve got one too and got it to work with Octatrack and/or Rytm, please share your sysex files!
No offense to all the effort put into these devices, many of which look very well-designed, but I don’t feel like anything on the market works well with what I want out of the Octatrack. Maybe Lemur, but the MIDI/USB latency with iOS and Android seems to be generally awful.
I may have mentioned this before but I feel like what’s really needed is an “intelligent” controller that can change its behavior based on incoming MIDI messages, has different modes for working, etc. I started working on this a little bit but I got burnt out on it. Someone else here started to do something similar, I think with a Push - there was a CDM post about it in the last month or so.
Okay I got it to work. It’s actually not that hard, once you know how. The sliders and knobs work. Working on the control buttons. I used it plugged directly into the machine with midi din. Tested it with my Analog Rytm and Analog Keys and it works fine. I’m getting my Octatrack this week. Will post if that works too.
@ reluct:
please report your experience with UC4 and OT once you know. I have an OT and am about to buy the UC4.
I think the UC4 has Midi Learn, should be easy to set up, no?
good luck
andajazz
So what do people think of the
Akai Professional MPK49
for the Octatrack as a Full Keyboard, Pads, Faders. Encoders ETC…
Its on sale new at Guitar Center right now for 180$
mpk49… have one… have a love/hate relationship with it. The feel of the keys is a bit different, but works fine for me. I tried a few other controllers at the time when I was shopping and this was the best one I tried at the time.
The illuminated pitchbend and mod wheel are cool looking and great ergonomically.
Do not buy it expecting the pads to be useful. I should repeat that last for emphasis.
Not a big fan of the patch selection: twist a knob then push it down. Kind of asking for accidental patch changes when you push down.
I actually tried the homebrew adhesive cork under the pads. Totally didn’t work for me, pulled it back out. The faders and knobs are decent. The switches can only be used for on/off, so don’t expect to send a specific value other than on or off (0/127 or 0/1 I forget now).
With the OT, it should be servicable. I transpose the kb so that playing samples chromatically works. Haven’t mapped the other controls too much yet, but I should.
I have had it for a few years and it has held up well. Not built like a tank, but decent enough.
For $180 if you like the feel, I’d say go for it.
Hello all,
Not sure I mentioned it here, but my good old UC-33 works like a charm to control my Octatrack, it’s so easy to program, and helps a lot.
@pads: the Akai stock pads definitely need a MPCstuff.com thick fat pads upgrade or 3-4 layers of tape mod, unless you just use the pads for program changes and do all the musical stuff on the keyboard.
That’s actually my plan for the pads. When I took the thing apart, I was shocked to realize that the ribbon connection for the pad assembly seemed to only be resting in the socket, not actually connected into it in some way. After that, I have no plans to open the thing and mess with that again. I can make do without the pads being functional as musical drum pads.
The keys and decent and the pitchbend and modwheel are really good. And those are much more important for me.
But that is part of the reason why I caution against expecting much from the pads.
On a side note, I did assign OT active track up, down to two of the pads and that worked pretty well.
I wanted to like the mpk, the sliders and encoders feel good, but as a piano player I could not get along with the special akai keyboard feel.
novation impulse and m-audio axiom feel much better for me.
i picked up a machinewerk controller for half price off ebay and intend to hook it up to a machine soon ,
ive only looked into the controller software and the immediate “issue” was only 1 setup , you don’t seem to be able to store different configurations. perhaps i need to dig deeper.
though it did seem to have midi channel per slider / pot .
overall it feels nice but theres a lack of reviews / users / community for it , the internet only seems to have their website and a few vids from people asked to promote it.
would love to be able to assign random noise value to a slider , so as it moves its a random value between X & Y
also be able to add a small lfo to a controller , with the contoller being the mid point of the lfo.
im not sure anyone has done those ideas yet , perhaps they arent required too …
Faderfox UC4 and Octatrack works! The faders are all mapped to the tracks and I also mapped the transport controls. Even the crossfader works. You don’t need a computer to program it, or connect it to your Octatrack. I’m new to the octatrack, so I’m not sure yet what I should map to the other knobs. So far I can highly recommend it.
Good to know!
So, which controllers work with OT and allow midi feedback?
My idea is a setup like this:
MIDI Controller Out --> OT --> synth1 --> synth2 --> … --> MIDI Controller In
And I want that the MIDI controller shows the right values.
Hey Elektron Lovers,
I got a couple questions…
Quote:
Originally Posted by steki AKA official Oktakontrol representative
[i]hey guys,
of course, you can use a cheap standard plastic based midi controller, but you have to programm it to work perfect(power on and start without re-programming) and it is probably not that good for the road 
[/i]
whats behind the Oktakontrol “no reprogramming-thing”?
If I would use an UC 33, UC4 or Bitstream 3X : how do I get rid of thr reprogramming of every power on session?
Could I use just one Midicontroller for remoting 2 Machines at the same time (OT&MnM)?
thanks
ron
PS: Does anybody know if the UC-33 provide kind of layer to provide “a 2nd pair of the 33 knobs and 8 faders” ar the “same” time ?
Has anybody used one of these guys? Seems like a good fit with the 8 faders, but my OT is in the mail, so what do I know?
I’m going to get back into building my custom controller this long weekend. Every other thread I read and every jam session I have I get ideas for it. Can’t take the wait anymore! Gotta build it!