Outbox 8 and modular, clocking incompatible

Elektron Gear Other Elektron Gear
1

I hope someone can help, but I think Output 8 can’t be used to clock modular.
I bought the Outbox 8 to sequence/clock my modular. I’m having three issues:

  1. The “clock” cv out from the digitakt II interface to the Output 8 is max 1/32 (that is only 8PPQN when modular likes 24 PPQN). OK, not the end of the world, BUT…
  2. My ALM Pamela’s Pro Workout (the most common clocking module) doesn’t recognise the clock signal even after I’ve changed Pam’s settings to 8PPQN to fit 1/32 (my Output 8 settings are: CV, Clock, 1/32, v-trig, 5v, 10ms). Nothing, Pam’s seeing nothing yet voltage is coming out.
  3. Their is no “Start/Stop” combo under clock. There is under “gate”, but it is reversed, where high voltage is off-stop and no voltage is on-start.
    I really hope I’m missing something. These will be serious issues for anyone using modular.
2

From what I can find in the manual Pam’s needs a RUN signal on its RUN input to start the internal clock, so the clock alone won’t do anything… that might be why she sees nothing even though voltage is coming out.

So I would use two outputs. Output A for the clock into CLK: CV Type Clock, 1/32, 5V, V-trig and a short pulse length like 2 to 5 ms. Then set Pam’s to 8 PPQN so the 1/32 fits.

Output B for RUN: CV Type Gate, mode Start-Stop, 5V, V-trig. That should give you +5V when playing and 0V when stopped, so I think making sure it’s V-trig will fix the reversed behavior you saw.

Also check that Clock Send and Transport Send are on in the Digitakt II under Settings > MIDI Config > Sync.

The manual has this in 3.3.3 (CV output configuration, page 10) and 5.2 (using your Elektron device to control a modular system, page 15) :slight_smile:

This is what I got from the manual at least so not tested by me. I have an Outbox 8 but I don’t own a Pamela’s Pro Workout, so I can’t try the exact setup.

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3

Hi, thank you for the prompt response. You were dead-on, the I had the start/stop set to s-trig, hence the reverse behaviour. I knew this, but somehow missed it. Thank you. All of the other issues, I’ve just discovered, were related to cheap 3.5 to 6.35 adapters.
And in case any other idiots like me can’t figure this out, 1/64t works with 24PPQN.
In short, a Digitakt II through an Outbox 8 can clock and start/stop a Pam’s Pro Workout.
Thank you again and many apologies!

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4

Im happy I could help and very glad it was fixed :smiley:

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