Midi setup help

Having trouble setting this up so wondering if anyone can help!

Keystep -> Digitone (Autochannel 1)
Digitone out -> SH-01A, TB-3, ESQ-1, SP-404
Digitone thru -> Analog Rytm (Autochannel 2)

Keystep is master keyboard, Digitone is master clock and sequencing my other synths, Rytm can also be played by the Keystep on a different autochannel.

This would work great, except that the clock/transport is not sent to the Rytm from the Digitone’s thru port. If I put the Rytm in the midi out chain, then I can no longer play it with the Keystep.

So basically I want to be able to play Digitone, Rytm and my other synths with the Keystep, while keeping Digitone as the master clock.

Anyone got any ideas on how to set this up?

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I’m afraid that this can’t be done. You could use the Keystep after the DN as a midi through and you could control everything but the DN.

I’m also doing a research for a similar setup and the above method was described in this forum a few days ago. I hope to be proven wrong, though.

That wouldn’t really work as I’m playing all the other synths thru the Digitone’s midi tracks.

Maybe connecting both Digitone’s out and thru to Rytm’s input with a midi merge box could work? But only if it’s possible to stop the Keystep sending clock in the Arturia software.

There must be a way using an old midi patchbay, but I can’t figure it out!

The MIDI-“thru” only routes through, what has been received at the MIDI-“in”. MIDI generated by the device - Digitone here - is not mixed to the “thru”. This is standard MIDI-spec.

MIDI clock and MIDI messages from the Digitone are only sent by the “MIDI-out” of the Digitone.

If Digitone has the same functionality like OT or Digitak, you have to use one of the MIDI-tracks of your unit, to achieve this, because this is, where the clock/transport is going to be sent. But you seem miss one more midi-track. Can you live with a “daisy-chain” of two devices?

I wish I could answer. I’m just a dumb audio guy, never really used midi until now :sunglasses:

Hopefully someone else will chime in.

No worries, thanks for the reply anyway!

If you want to sync the AR to the Digitone and play it with the keyboard too, it needs to merge the keyboard signal with the clock/transport messages of the Digitone.

The following could work:

  • midi splitter after keyboard and sending it a) to digitone, b) to midi merger
  • your setup … little extended … of course,
  • midi merger receiving one Digitone out, the midi from the splitter of the keyboard, sending this to the AR

Since MIDI-transport and clock are not bound to any midi-channel, the AR can listen to any Digitone midi-port, receiving the clock and transport, but listen to the keyboard-midi-channel to be played.

Hope this makes sense :wink:

Thanks, that makes my brain hurt but think I understand lol.

How about Digitone out and thru -> midi merger -> AR input?

Will try using one of Digitone’s midi tracks to control the AR, but not ideal as I’m using all 4 midi tracks already.

Thanks for the help!

Yes, this would serve the same purpose, but you are using a Digitone track.

If the Digitone works like my OT, then the incoming midi information of the keyboard would be routed to the midi-track of the Digitone AND the midi-channel of the keyboard would be overwritten by the midi-channel of the Digitone track.

If you use the splitter before, you could have the midi-channel of the keyboard preserved.

Or buy a 2nd keystep lol

Hmm you might be right, I was hoping that if I set the Keystep to midi channel 2 it wouldn’t trigger the Digitone and just pass it thru to the Rytm.

Was actually thinking about buying another one after watching this vid-

But still wouldn’t help with this setup :frowning:

And exactly this “pass it thru” won’t work. Sometimes we have to bite the bullet … and get more gear :wink: