Model:Cycles + RK-002 MIDIator Cable = Polyphony

Hello everyone,
perhaps this problem has already been addressed, but not in the hope for the M:C : the goal is to use “RK-002 MIDIator Cable” to obtain polyphony … using an external Midi controller (eg: Keystep)
I found who managed on digitakt, but almost always using Ableton … RK-002 should allow us to do it using the mod-firmware (https://www.retrokits.com/rk-002-mod-firmware) … but M:C is not a VolcaFM … so who knows?
Has anyone tried anything yet?
Salut!

I’ve just tried it out and it works precisely the same as it does for the Digitakt. I’d been meaning to try it out for a while but I find setting up the cable a bit of a drag having to go via my Clarett / Digitakt. Anyway I am happy I did it and I am going to leave it as is now as I’ve set it up to polymux through 6 channels. More than enough on the DT and perfect on the M:C

1 Like

Is there any chance you could elaborate how you set this up? I wasn’t able to get it to work, but I’m sure it was user error. It’s my first attempt at setting up the cable. I’d like to get polyphony from cycles. Thanks in advance.

Edit: Solved. Oberheim SEM Pro wouldn’t send the RK-002 data through, so I moved it behind the M:C in my chain. :+1:

Hi there, I am thinking of buying the cable for my Cycles, does the Digitakt firmware work with Cycles? Is it 6 tracks polyphony?
Cheers

Yes, it gives you six voices.

ok thats cool - so just to confirm, straight out of the box the RK-002 with the Digitakt firmware works on the Cycles (i am planning to use with Keystep)
I am asking cause the guys from Retrokits said they havent tried yet with Cycles and I wasnt sure if i should order or not

Hi, has anyone tried the MC just with the keystep and the RK002?
the MC can send midi power?
Thank you community :v:

1 Like

RK-002 works perfectly with MC, keystep 37 sends the midi power well. very interesting tool to create complex pads.

1 Like

Indeed.

Hey, can anyone give me a little help on how to set this up? I’ve watched a few videos meant for the Digitakt, and I don’t seem to be MIDI literate enough to know what isn’t working on the cycles/samples.

In this video he’s using a keystep which is what I want to do, but he has the keystep and the digitakt hooked up together via a MIDI USB hub and then he has the rk002 looping the MIDI in and out of the digitakt.

https://youtu.be/8fQXK7J1txc

I don’t have a midi usb hub yet (on the way) - is there any other way of setting this up?

Meanwhile in several other videos I see people using the Digitakt standalone without a keyboard playing polyphony on the trigs

for example:
https://youtu.be/-bAwlu0hGkY

is that possible with a Model Cycles or Samples?

If so, it’s not working for me so I must be doing something wrong…

Thanks!


EDIT - GOT IT TO WORK
not sure what I was doing wrong, but i just tried the RK002 setup again, and for some reason this time it works. Follow the instructions in the videos, modifed to the Cycles/Samples menu, and cable setup is just keyboard out to Cycles in like Doug said. Tried with Keystep and Qunexus keyboards, and got 6 voice polyphony plus mod and pitch bend works.

1 Like

Set your MIDI channel to 9 on the Keystep. Make sure your channels are just 1-6 on the Model: Cycles. I’m not sure how you do program changes on a Keystep, but you need to be on program 6 or lower. (That’s just the number of voices it will cycle through before dropping notes.) You don’t need a MIDI hub.

I’m pretty sure you’ll crash the Models if you try to do a MIDI loopback, so you’ll need a controller, like a Keystep.

thanks! a very basic question: how do i set up the cables without the midi hub? what’s going in and out of where?

all the videos have the rk002 going in and out of the elektron, but obviously that doesn’t work if you have a controller as you’d need a 3rd midi port on the elektron!

It’s just MIDI out from the controller to MIDI in on the Cycles. Make sure you’ve got the red end connected to the Cycles though. From there just make sure your controller is on channel 9

why channel 9? nothing happens when it’s on channel 9 - what’s in the settings that would make the cycles respond to channel 9?

Channel 10 is the AUTO channel, and if I put the keystep to channel 10 it just plays the currently active track monophonically

Also I don’t see how to set the keystep to cycle through a set amount of voices (program 6 or lower)

That’s how the cable works. Channel 9 is polymux. There are other settings like Euclidian mode is if I remember correctly on channel 11.

1 Like

OK, i got it to work! not sure what I did, i just did the cable setup process again - more or less followed the process in the videos, but adapted to the Cycles, and like you said, the cable setup is just out from the keyboard to the Cycles. I tried it with a Keystep and a QuNexus, and the pitch bend and mod wheels work too, pretty cool (except I can’t control the pitch bend amount in the Keystep).

keyboard channel is set to 1 btw, not 9

polymux set to 5 extra channels

2 Likes

Hi ! I’d be curious to learn how you people have used the RK002 in your workflow with the Cycles or Samples, in the long run ?

Is it easy to enable / disable its additional features so that it doesn’t get in the way ?

Also, is it possible to use it for BOTH of them at the same time – as I already have both Model: ? (for instance , keyboard spliiting : first half = 6 channels of the Cycles ; second half = 6 channels of the Samples ?)

I guess it must be quite tedious to use when you need to make changes on a given chords progression ? I would love to learn about your use cases :slight_smile:

My minimalistic setup : KS 37, M:S, M:C (and a digital piano)
cheers

As far as I know, there’s no way to split the keys since it just cycles through the channels. But yeah, you can just set it to like 4 channels so you’re playing 1 to 4 and have 5 and 6 doing something else.

Personally, I mostly used it to play things on the Cycles and sample it as opposed to playing along with a sequence.

I’ve also used it as a kind of makeshift piano roll since the Digitakt basically records monophonic sequences with offset notes for the chords. If you record on a couple MIDI tracks you can keep the feel of what you played.

1 Like

If you are a lucky Norns(monome) owner, I wrote a script that solves this problem and iterates over the midi channels.

1 Like

That could only be possible using a DAW but i see no use case for that unless you are a very good piano player with 12 fingers