Do you like your drum machines with spaghetti or fruity colored pads? 
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I bought some extra from Amazon too, clip’s size is the same as the ones that come with the Pulsar but the insulation isn’t that tight so it can easily slip off.
You can get 100 19 inch alligator leads for $15 on Amazon.
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Anyone know what’s going on here? When I go to clear midi learn on the pulsar by pushing all 4 channel midi learn buttons simultaneously, sometimes it works. Other times the unit goes awol - all channels are activated continuously and permanently and the midi light goes red. I have to shut the unit off to reset. Anyone know what is going on?
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Any chance there is some sequencer or something going to it when you do this?
Maybe try repeatedly with the midi cable unplugged?
Definitely try with MIDI unplugged, it has to be that.
Just an octatrack midi channel, but it exhibits this when the octatrack isn’t running. It just goes awol. I’m sure it is something with midi but trying to figure out what’s causing because obviously need midi plugged to midi learn. I do have the octatrack passing clock to an a4, digitone, analog heat and ob6 before it gets it the pulsar so it could be something in the chain but scratching my head as to what as there’s not much that could be configured incorrectly in the pulsar.
I am having same problem. Worked fine when I used mono output of pulsar to octatrack and midi but when I use six outputs of pulsar to mixer then octatrack, the midi learn makes every module go into permanent drone. No sequence going at all. Is it because of where the out is on modules? The lights just show modules always on
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Check your LFOs
I think what you’re experiencing might be something to do with this @Decumulate (pg 5 of the manual PULSAR-manual-ENG.pdf - Google Drive)
You can control the synthesis module trigger with a continuous controller instead of
by pressing a key. This will give you many unusual features, such as drawing the attack
and signal decline in a DAW. To do this, use the LRN button of the desired module and
assign a continuous controller to the module you need.
It’s possible that if a MIDI LFO was running on Octatrack, hitting MIDI learn for the sound generators could pick up the CC the LFO was modulating rather than reset the assignment, and that would explain the latching of the sound generators. I believe the MIDI track LFOs on Octatrack can continue to run even with the sequencer stopped with certain settings (well, 80% sure, should probably check the manual to be sure).
The other thing that sometimes results in this ‘latching of the generators’ that I’ve experienced is if Pulsar is getting an external clock and the sync stops at just the right (wrong?) moment - it’s like the envelopes are synced to the clock somehow, though I haven’t quite worked out in what way. I remember one of Vlad K’s videos going over this as intended behaviour for when the clock is set extremely slow as a performance tool, but I can’t quite remember which (probably this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf8k0iVt9yQ&ab_channel=VladKreimer). This is probably not what’s going on for you though, just the closest behaviour I’ve experienced to what you describe.
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So I think I have a problem with my unit.
Bought it second hand few weeks ago.
Basically when I switch between delay and reverb I sometimes don’t hear one or the other (depending where I am coming from). I think there is a problem with the toggle switch, because if I gently press it downward when I’m switching I feel it is working. Sometimes the problem disappears for a session, then next session I struggle to make it work. Is anybody else experiencing something like this?
Other questions:
-From the thread it seems like some people are able to synch the looper start with the MIDI clock incoming (for ex. when pressing play from the OT). I am not able to do this, I have to sync it manually with restart;
-How the hell am I suppose to use the sequential switches? Reading the manual I can’t wrap my head around how they work.
Overall it’s a joyful experience exploring the instrument. This machine is FUN.
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sorry to say I don’t know what is going on with the delay/reverb and i definitely have that midi issue BUT
For the switches - try patching the clock generator 16 to the switch in, and the switch out to the trig in of the hats module. then take the CV (bottom right pins) out to the cv in of the switch. now when you press the cv pads it opens up the switch and you should hear the hats being triggered. can kind of work like a pseudo fill. obv can be used with any kinda modulation either at the input or cv input of the switch.
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Oh thanks! Now I have to experiment. But then isn’t that like a normal VCA behaviour? I tried to google sequential switch and thought it worked differently!
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Yeah it’s similar but (from my own experience) it opens up only when the cv is high, so it really wants gates and not cv. i just like the cv pads for the immediacy in this example.
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I love using the CV pads at the bottom right to control say, filter cutoff for the bass module with touch rather than the knobs. Even more tactile. I’m sure there are many other uses.
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Claid I am not able to reproduce this behaviour. The only way to sync the looper is by manual pressing of restart button (trying to be in sync with clock). What am I doing wrong?
I have OT sending clock/transport to pulsar by midi out. I can drive the tempo from OT, but the clicks are not in sync with OT metronome, nor is the looper when I press start/stop.
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Do you have LRST patched to the 0.25 clock pin? I don’t use the loop recorders much so I can’t vouch for the tightness of the sync you get from this, but this is the ‘official’ Soma suggestion on making the recorders play nice with MIDI clock.
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Yes I have, the clock is in sync with the OT, meaning that the tempo si locked, the problem is the start of the sequence is not controllable from the OT. So for example if I use the dividers to trigger the voices I have to manually restart to have them in sync with the OT’s metronome.
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Ah, I see your issue, didn’t realise you were having trouble with the clock dividers as well: LRST should be sufficient to have the loop recorders synced to the dividers, but won’t help you if your dividers aren’t synced to your master clock. I’m not sure if there’s any direct way around using the Reset button (and that’s what the manual advises as well).
I also have a system involving Octa, Pulsar and MIDI, and accidentally solved the problem you have while I was solving something else it turns out. It’s extremely unlikely that this will be directly applicable to you, but I’ll explain it just in case it sparks some ideas for you.
I have a loop pedal which can only send analog clock pulses (starting when you press record), and can’t receive any sync signal. This means I need it to be master clock, and I need to get some start/stop messages out of nowhere for the rest of my system, which involves some modular, some normal hardware (Elektron boxes, etc) and Ableton. How I set this up was:
- Loop pedal clock goes to a Befaco VCMC Module to be converted into MIDI clock. This is distributed to Ableton, Pulsar and all the other MIDI gear.
- While Pulsar is set to receive MIDI clock, it will not generate pulses from the dividers until it actually gets some MIDI clock messages. So when I hit record on the looper, MIDI clock gets generated, goes to Pulsar, and the Pulsar clock dividers become active.
- The 16 clock divider pin gets patched into my modular. There I use a utility module (Maths will work, though it’s a shame to use a Maths channel for this) to slew it into a continuous signal.
- That signal goes to another input on Befaco VCMC to be converted into a MIDI start message. The conversion works by “gate goes high: send Start; gate goes low: send Stop”. This is distributed to everything like the MIDI clock.
- Not important for this discussion, but other stuff which needs analog clock/start/stop can be mult-ed from the original clock and the clock-divider-slewed-into-gate
So how does it work? Press record on the loop pedal -> clock goes to everyone -> Pulsar starts its clock dividers -> everything gets Start-messaged/signal-ed the moment the clock divider goes off. It’s slightly janky for a bar (MIDI clocks, amirite) but it comes together afterwards and is tight. Pulsar dividers (and I guess its loop recorders too, though I don’t really use them) are in sync because they’re the guys who said “Start” to everything else. If I stop the loop pedal, clock stops going everywhere, Pulsar stops its clock dividers, everything gets Stop-messaged/signal-ed.
The clock divider sync was an unintended consequence, so I hadn’t really thought too much about the difficulty of getting them synced to a MIDI sequencer. As far as i’m aware, the Pulsar MIDI implementation does not include anything to do with start/stop messages, which makes this awkward. You have a kinda similar situation to me - you need start/stop messages for a bit of gear that doesn’t understand them (in your case, the Pulsar, specifically the clock dividers). I think you’re probably gonna have to stick to hitting the reset button if you’re committed to Octa being master and/or you don’t have any modular stuff that you can hack this kind of functionality with. If neither of those things apply, you would be able to emulate my ‘patch’ if you have some modules with similar functionality. I also got the impression that where this thing Pulsar Buddy - clocking for odd meters and polyrhythms | e.k store was going would have enabled you to solve your problem once it had USB over MIDI (then you could go Octa -> Buddy -> Pulsar) but I’m not sure if the project is still active or if they’re available anymore.
tl;dr: maybe they should have made Pulsar respond to start/stop messages.
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Thank you for the detailed description. I think I ll stay committed to the manual restart at this point. But you gave me a lot of interesting informations and insights!
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