I know this has been discussed in a few threads but I can’t seem to find the definitive answer.
The Overbridge manual states (Page 34 section 8.2) you can send MIDI notes to the Overbridge plugin on channel 16. MIDI note 0 (aka C-2) fires Pattern 1, 1 (C#-2) Pattern 2, etc.
This works and is perfect for using the DAW to fire your patterns “on the ones”…but it also plays the sample in the corresponding slot. (MIDI 0 plays Slot 1, 1 plays Slot 2, etc.).
Is this a bug or by design? (I feel like it can’t be by design, because who would want to hear a random sound out of nowhere in their song…but then again I sometimes run into features that are “there but that’s not really how they want you to use it” so I’m asking anyway).
I know the Digitakt is primarily a performance machine but it is a good production drum machine too, you know! I mean why else would they even have Overbridge!?
I thought maybe I could use “SONG POSITION” (section 8.1/Page 34) as a workaround, but Overbridge doesn’t support it as a sync option on the Digitakt (and Digitone).
I don’t get it. All routes to integrating your patterns into the DAW blocked.
I think that what you’re referring to is a behavior described in the manual where by playing notes c0-g0 from an external midi controller you trigger the tracks in numeric order. It’s the only time where the active track does not respond chromatically to receiving midi notes.
This is so that the tracks can be individually triggered as one shots from a pad controller or similar.
So, what is it that you’re trying to do (with limited success), send overbridge these same notes to trigger PC?
Is this an OG Digitakt we’re talking about? Maybe try turning off receive notes in the digitakt menu?
Not sure how that will work, but it sounds like you just need to trigger PCs and not notes so I would assume OB is the only one which needs to receive notes in this case, so maybe if you turn off receive notes it will just receive the desired midi pc commands instead.
Definitely sounds like OB is passing those notes along to the hardware in addition to triggering the desired behavior.
Anyway I went into Settings > MIDI Config > Port Config > Receive Notes and turned that off…no effect (seems that OB ignores that setting). Still fires wayward sounds.
I think I’d probably send a message to Elektron support. Maybe there’s a way to sidestep the issue. From my perspective it definitely sounds like a conflict of interest in terms of functionality.
I talked to someone the other day who was having a completely unrelated issue where they couldn’t get the live piano roll to send notes via the overbridge plugin to the correct track on digitone II. It kept sending the note data to (and triggering) track 1.
We found a weird workaround via some old posts which showed a way to set up live to send note data through overbridge to the intended track channel only, and I guess it worked for them.
I don’t think that this is directly related to the issue which you’re facing, because as I mentioned previously the receipt of those specific note values you are required to use to trigger PC seems to be the problem as those same notes are designed to trigger the track pads, but maybe you can find a way via having live send those notes on channel 16 and only on midi channel 16 which would perhaps sidestep the issue? I guess it will depend on whether or not those particular low notes are sent on some kind of omni channel basis, you might need to monitor the midi coming out of the OB plugin to know exactly how it’s communicating this to the DT.
I think it’s also worth considering whether or not there’s a way to use either the inbuilt midi filtering options in live, or some kind of external app, to completely filter out note data specifically. If it sends notes but they don’t pass the filter, then it should have no impact on the hardware side and note data should be distinctly different than pattern change data, it just happens to be note data which the plugin is apparently configured to respond to.
I don’t know, it might take a bit of messing around to try and implement a working solution, but you could give it a try so that you aren’t just up against a wall with this. Unfortunately, I’m not going to have the same resources as an elektron support representative so I’m not sure how much more I can suggest but if you wanted to take a look, here’s a post describing the setup in live for what I’m talking about:
I read through it, tried a few of the concepts…none work and I realized it’s because Overbridge is (mostly) overriding a lot of the hardware MIDI settings.
Both your earlier post and this other one gave me an idea though. Section 8.4 (page 25 on the Digitakt II manual) as you showed before reads (salient part highlighted):
CHANNELS > PROG CHG IN CH: 10 (or any number you want, or AUTO)
(let’s assume channel 10 going forward)
If you then create a MIDI Track in Live and set its destination to the Digitakt’s MIDI In (not the plugin’s MIDI In), and set its destination channel to 10:
I think everyone (except me until now) already knows this but you have to send the program change well before the current pattern ends. It’ll queue it up and fire it directly on-the-one when the current one ends, which for me is exactly what I want.
As long as it got you somewhere then I’m glad for that and hopefully going forward from here this method you’ve implemented will work well enough to get you by without having to talk to support again
Yes, as far as I know, all elektron devices queue a pattern change at the end of the current pattern so you would need to plan in advance, or maybe you could microtime the PC to just before the loop point and see how that works for you.
Honestly you did most of the work here. If whatever I provided got you thinking in another direction which in turn helped you to actually get where you wanted to go with this, then to me that’s awesome. I’m always happy to see someone get some shit working the way that they had originally intended.
Have a nice Saturday and hope you can make some music now!
