Problem with MIDI program change transmit

Hello everyone,

I’m posting here because I’ve been encountering an issue with my Digitone II since I received it, and I haven’t been able to find a solution. It concerns the sending of Program Change MIDI signals to my other devices:

When I set up a MIDI track by selecting the appropriate MIDI channel number, as well as the “PROG” and “SBNK” numbers, the signal is correctly transmitted to my device. I can see it change banks or presets, which means the signal is passing through.
However, when I press “Play” and the configured trigger is played in the loop, no Program Change signal is sent. I’ve tried it with two different external synthesizers, and the issue is the same.

Does anyone know if this is a known bug, or if I’m doing something wrong?

Feel free to ask if you need further details. I can send a video or photo if needed.

Thanks a lot!! :slight_smile:

Welcome to Elektronauts @Hope!

What happens if you p-lock the PC?

2 Likes

Thanks a lot @Tchu !

I just tried it, and it works one time out of five.

Right after setting the global program change for the track (which, by the way, sends the signal 100% of the time), hitting play will make the trigger (with p-lock) properly send the program change. But when I switch patterns and then come back to this one, the program changes are no longer sent, or very rarely.

I thought that since the Digitone II sends MIDI signals to multiple devices, sending them simultaneously might be causing the issue, so I tried adding micro-timings to the signals to avoid overloading, but it doesn’t change anything about the problem.

It is not sent again if it was the last PC sent. You have to send a different one before sending this specific one again.

1 Like

Oh I get It !!!

Thanks a lot, that sloved the probem : I put a “fake” program change before the second, and I put it right after with microtiming

Thanks for your help :slight_smile:

1 Like

Cool. This is recurrent and not clearly stated in the Elektron manuals (unless it changed).
I always struggle to find the right words to explain it in English.
I wish there was an option to avoid that limitation, especially for PCs.

2 Likes

Even as a native English speaker I struggle to explain this, but duplicate midi control commands are not recognized without sending another different command in between to reset the channel’s communication status. At least that’s how I understand it.

1 Like

And in 2 words ? :content:

I usually say something like “same values of same midi events aren’t sent consecutively”…
Could we say something like “it only send changing values, not constant ones” ?
I’d like to find a clear and concise way to express it, but imo it is important to give an example to make it clearer.

The goal is to reduce midi data stream of course, seems valid for lfos sending CCs, not for single PC you may want to send systematically.

1 Like

I’ll try and think about it a bit. This has been an issue more than once lol.

1 Like

I also noticed sometimes it was hard for you to reduce your words stream ! :wink:
When a meme suffice…

2 Likes

:meh:

1 Like