It’s pretty useless to have clock out and not have a Reset. It’s vital if you want your external sequencer to always play in sync and start at the correct note with the A4.
Yes you can obviously manually reset your sequencer, but its kind of a pain to do that perhaps 20 times in 2 minutes… Making music is a lot about stopping and playing back again, making tweaks etc.
A very odd thing to leave out i think.
Could you not use DIN Sync ?
Just out of curiousity, what would CV Start/stop be, exactly? I don’t understand what you mean. If you want to use one of the CV outs for a trig signal to reset a sequencer what stops you doing just that?
nor me
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but if you have a spare track (cv or FX or other) you can use value lin instead of clock to manually make clock which the track mute will silence
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but there’s no scope to have anything like that available via midi or sync24 - unless there’s a new standard
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so it begs the question, what was the question ?? and why is it odd or useless !
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to the best of my knowledge with a few CV sequencers there’s no resetting command - purely manual unless you use midi/sync24 or have a bespoke reset facility - double stop on Elektron will take you to the beginning, but you’ll also have to reset the CV device to the start as it has no way to follow
maybe he is referring to syncing his LFO’s rather that syncing start stop?
Meaning that currently when OP stops the A4 CV signal, it doesn’t reset his LFO’s on the modular gear and as a result his sounds are varied every time he restarts the clock?
Start/stop is a standard for CV sequencers, for very obvious reasons… It’s sometimes refered to as “reset” (on the Doepfer Dark Time, for example).
It’s a signal that is sent every time the sequencer either starts or stops. I have it on for example the Stepper Acid and on Dark Time, all CV sequencers that i’ve owned have had this function. Its extremely useful, couldnt live without that function to keep things in sync when you stop in the middle of the sequence etc.
I can’t do that with a trigger, a trigger is sent at a specific point in a sequence, not when i start or stop the sequencer (for example in the middle of a song).
right now i have to manually go to my Stepper Acid and use the controls to step to the first step of the sequencer if i want it to be in sync with the A4… its a real pain.
My setup looks like this:
Tempo is decided by Cubase
Beatstep Pro receives tempo from Cubase
Beatstep Pro sends this tempo to Modular
A4 Tempo is also controlled by Cubase
It works great apart from not having start/stop CV from A4.
Edit: Doh, it seems like the Beatstep Pro has start/stop out, though it needs a splitter (like on the A4) from the clock out… So its probably solved. Wouldnt mind this function on the A4 though, must be pretty simple to implement, and again, this is a standard (see, even the BSP had it…), very odd choice to leave it out.
My Pittsburgh Modular Sequencer has a CV reset input. In my case I would simply place a “1st” conditional trig to send a trigger or gate signal on the first step of my patterns to make sure it starts from the beginning of its sequence when I hit play.
I had a look at the Manual for Stepper Acid for that “Run/Stop” input, but what it does wasn’t spelled out. I assume it makes the sequencer run while there is a high signal, and then stop + reset when the signal goes low? Or the other way around perhaps?
If you need a high signal, could you, say, use a Gate signal triggered on every step with a length that overlaps into the next step? That way I would think the gate would stay high until you press stop. If you instead need a low signal when the A4 is playing to go high when you stop, you could for instance use a 5v value lin and an envelope with slow release that pulls it down every step.
but again, a trigger doesnt know if you stopped in the middle of the sequence, a trigger is always at a specific point. there’s a good reason why sequencers has reset or start/stop.
a constant gate signal constantly starts/stops the sequencer. i do think reset
is a simple trigger signal that is sent when the sequencer starts or stops, it makes the most sense.
the keyword here is that it doesnt care where you are in the sequence when its sends this trigger, its only specific point is when you start/stop, which could be at any time.
so you want a command (voltage pulse) to come from the CV channel of the A4 when the sequencer is stopped ?
This seems unlikely
If you want to send a start ‘command’ I don’t see what the issue is there
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if you want to consume a whole track for this purpose, then use the FX track, - then when you are stopped, press a key on that track to send the ‘stop’ to the reset input
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Or presumably if it’s standard for sequencers to have start/stop pulse out then it’ll be standard for the driven sequencer to have a reset button
Ahh, sorry for being slow. A pulse stops the sequencer, a subsequent restarts, right?
I just tried a workaround with a linear value and two envelopes. What I did was:
Value 0
Trigs every step
Envelope 1:
slightly slower attack than env 2
Max sustain
short release
Depth Minimum
Envelope 2:
Minimum attack
Max Sustain
Longer release than Envelope 1
Depth maximum
I have no gear I can test this on, but looking at the LED on my Greyscale Synapse I get a short pulse when I hit Start, and another when I hit Stop again.
avantatronica: you shouldnt need to press buttons to stop and start sequencers other than hitting play in cubase… that’s the whole reason why this is a good feature to always have for sequencers…
reset button, sure, that would be fun to press for the 5 or so sequencers that i use, every time i stop and restart 
no… again, there’s a good reason for this feature to always be on the sequencer.
abhoth: thanks! i will test this workaround until i get a proper splitter cable to my beatstep pro 
shouldn’t applies to anything anyone thinks it ought to do which is obviously unworkable
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well, if it’s a good idea and there’s a compelling support case, lots of users etc, then I think you should send this idea to Elektron support … ask for a CV type which is called ‘Reset’ or similar and have the sequencer send a pulse at start / stop as you wish … unless there’s a viable nifty workaround along the lines of Abhoth’s or similar - maybe utilise a one shot square LFO with a phase shift that gets reset every step, so 0v is sent as the progress is interrupted, but will finally be high when the transport stops. to cater for the start case just use a TRC with 1st condition ?!
@shulgin, Unless I’ve misunderstood what you want to do, DIN Sync will do what you want.
DIN Sync provides 2 signals : a clock (normally 24ppqn, though the A4 also has other rates), and a Run/Stop signal. This latter one is a gate : 0V = stopped, 5V (typically) = running.
You could use a little break-out lead with a DIN plug on one end and a pair of mono 3.5mm plugs on the other end. (The one I use is short and has 3.5mm sockets, thus requiring a couple of patch leads, but it does the job.)
Connect both these signals to your Stepper Acid (the RUN/STOP and CLOCK inputs).
I believe the Stepper Acid can work with a 24ppqn clock rate.
I use a similar arrangement connecting a BeatStep Pro to a Pamela’s Workout, and Pamela’s starts and stops along with the BSP. I’d expect the same from A4.
BTW, I recommend using the DIN Sync clock rather than one of the CV outputs. Why waste a valuable CV output for such a simple task. It could be doing so much more than just a regular tick, tick, tick, tick, ad infinitum.
Lenny: thanks for the help, that sounds like a very good solution. I agree that the CV outs could be used for something better.
would one of those midi-3.5mm adapters that comes with BSP work? if i make it have two mono outs? Is a Dinsync cable different perhaps?
No, the adapters that come with the BSP won’t do it. The BSP presents it’s MIDI outs via a stereo 3.5mm socket, so its adapter leads are a stereo 3.5mm plug to a DIN socket. You need a DIN plug to two 3.5mm plugs (or sockets, though this would need a couple of standard patch leads).
These both look suitable :
http://www.schneidersladen.de/en/erm-modular-whip.html
http://www.schneidersladen.de/en/kenton-kabel-f-solo-din-2-x-3-5-mono.html
Though best to check with Schneiders first. Just tell them you want to connect Analog Four DIN Sync to Stepper Acid (clock and run/stop), and they should be able to confirm.
If you’re handy with a soldering iron, making up a lead would be cheaper.
I think expert sleepers had something similar too. Long wished that the DIN clock could be divided further for this very purpose of freeing up valuable cv tracks. Knocking out a pulse per trig would be ideal for korg stuff
Lenny: with “making it” i meant resoldering it… very easy to make a stereo out into two mono outs…
i also found a guy over at muffwiggler who sells these cables, so i might buy one if above would not work, again, i dont know how or if dinsync is soldered different than a midi-cable (which i guess the BSP cable is).
Midi uses the narrowest three central pins. Din sync uses all five so you need to hack a fully wired cable or solder your own at the plug. I think clock and reset are on the pins that Midi cables do not need. Darenager has made a din sync breakout which clock divides, search here, can’t recall if it punted out the reset voltage
clock divides, wow, cool… i’ll search for him. thanks.
So, i got a DinSync to 2x CV-out cable.
Clock out works. Though the A4 sends a constant clock out which imo is rather bad (maybe its just how Dinsync works though, no idea). The Beatstep Pro, for example, stops the clock if you aren’t playing anything, so if you stop the BSP the CV sequencers stops too - preferable in most situations i would think.
I guess DinSync sends Start/Stop and not “Reset”. Because this output of the cable is rather useless and it doesnt stop in sync at all, also you have to press “stop” on the A4 numerous times before the CV-sequencer responds to it.
So unfortunately it seems like DinSync is not a good choice for what i want to do.
I really hope Elektron listens and adds CV-Reset so that we can sync DAW, A4, and modular together without having to manually reset CV-sequencers to start in sync.