Midi footswitch for transport control

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

Hi there,
I am wanting to get a footswitch that can play, stop, next pattern, last pattern for my Digitakt. This will be so our drummer can handle all of the percussion elements.
Having read some forum posts, I am still unsure as to whether the Digitakt can receive transport commands via an external midi controller. I gather that it used to, but this was bundled into the clock command data in some update.

Can anyone enlighten me? Will I be able to find a footswitch or external controller that can do this?
Will I have to burden our vocalist with the heavy load of pressing ā€˜playā€™ at the drummerā€™s count-in?
Thanks

#2

The DT can do so. What you read is that the setting to activate the capability is combined with the setting to receive MIDI clock messages.

The DT will respond to any device that sends MIDI start, stop and continue messages.

1 Like
#3

Thanks for your reply.
I couldnā€™t see in the manual how to program these control messages, are they a standard number or something?
Thanks

#4

Start, Continue, and Stop are special MIDI messages and are part of a set called ā€œSystem Realtimeā€ messages. They are not numbered like Control Change messages.

The manual is poor in this respect, but the relevant section is 15.3.1 on page 60.

If you activate CLOCK RECEIVE in the SETTINGS > MIDI CONFIG > SYNC menu, then the DT will respond to these commands.

I expect that several pedals will send these messages. One that has been discussed on the forum is the Source Audio Soleman, but you should carefully check the specifications of any pedal before buying.

2 Likes
#5

Hi, this discussion is so close to what I was looking for so, I thought to not open a new thread.
I only need to change patterns with a midi foot controller and to send play and stop messages to the Digitakt. Iā€™m not asking for nothing else. The question is: Is there something cheaper than the Soleman to do that? If I activate Clock Receive, then the Midi foot controller has to send bpm to get everything in syncā€¦Am I wrong?
Do you think one of this could be enough for my purposes?
https://rolls.com/product/MP128 I could find one of this in the used market at a very low budgetā€¦
or
https://www.thomann.de/it/harley_benton_mp_100_midi_foot_controller.htm Iā€™m not sure this is able to send midi stop and play messagesā€¦
Of course any other ideas is more than welcome.
Thanks a lot

#6

Looks like the Rolls will do the job. Program Change and S/S so yeah, canā€™t see why it wouldnā€™t

#7

Yes it looks likeā€¦ but if I got it right, I have to disable midi clock send from the DT and I donā€™t think those foot controller could send clock bpmā€¦ so Iā€™ll lose the sync with other gearsā€¦
Am I missing something?