RE-303 Audio Out -> Digitone USB Audio Out -> Rytm USB Audio In?

Elektron Gear Analog Rytm
#1

I have a RE-301 that I’m sequencing from a Digitone via MIDI, with the output of the RE-303 back into the Digitone for some reverb and delay. The only downside I’ve found is that you can’t p-lock the reverb or delay.

So I thought if I hooked the Digitone up into the Rytm pre-FX, I could p-lock the Rytm reverb and delay sends. Win-win!

I thought this would be straight forward - hook these two up via a USB chord, flip a few settings, and bam… Acid on p-lock FX, as the Digitone is USB Audio class compliant, and that the Rytm can take input from USB Audio class compliant devices,

Sadly, no bueno. I’ve tried every combo of settings on both machines, but I cannot hear the Digitone audio out coming from the Rytm.

Anybody know what I’m doing wroing?

#2

Class-compliant USB only means that a driver is not required for audio/midi to work.

The device still has to be connected to a USB host (typically a computer or phone/tablet).

You can’t connect two USB source devices together directly like that. And in most cases, you can only use one class-compliant audio device at a time with a DAW (this is why Overbridge exists).

But you could probably make this work using the analog audio inputs and MIDI.

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#3

Oh, nuts. Thanks for the info.

Besides a computer, are there any type of devices that can take USB Audio from the Digitone and “convert” to something the Rytm can accept over USB Audio in?

I guess my last option would be Digitone Audio Out -> Mixer with USB Audio Out -> Rytm. From my understanding, this should work?

#4

actually that doesn’t sound right because you can monitor audio when it’s used as an interface. hold on let me look.

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#5

Thanks.

But I’m not sure that’s correct… The Rytm manual says that it does take Audio and Audio over USB, and you can assign it to a pad or the sampler or both.

So if something like a tascam USB mixer can take USB Audio In but then spit it back out, I think you’re onto something. Nice

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#6

E: This didn’t seem to be it. I’ll keep digging.

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#7

if you’re on mac you can create Aggregate Device from the Audio MIDI Setup, otherwise you’d need to use only one of them as audio interface and plug in the other with cables, you can’t use two audio interfaces simultaneously.

you can do that from the rytm’s fx track

btw, I’m not sure I’ve got this correctly, do you want to use the rytm’s reverb and delay for external audio?

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#8

Yeah, I want to be able to p-lock Rytm’s reverb and delay for the RE-303… but from reading the manual, the Rytm only applies reverb and delay to incoming USB audio whereas normal audio in just goes straight to out

#9

I know you can buy a usb host device as a standalone piece (I have one) but I think this has to involve a computer and overbridge. I see this thread where tchu mentions using the sidechain input routing capability of A4 or AR to do something similar?

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#10

*Overbridge, with OB you can route audio to pads and apply effects, I’m not even sure it’s possible with the standalone app but from the plugin…

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#11

Ah nice. Thanks for the link - I did search before I asked but couldn’t find anything. Your googlefu is :muscle:

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#12

No worries man, I know the struggle. I didn’t assume you had not searched, just sometimes things are not as easy to search as they should be (or could be, might be the better way to say it).

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#13

Nah, the manual says you can do it also with USB audio. And once you change the settings in the config, you can set audio routing to the pads with them too… so not just OB.

#14

ah right! I’ve never tried it that’s why I probably forgot it exists!

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#15

Is this what you were following from the manual?

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I think they aren’t clearly saying class compliant host device, but that’s what it should say. Given the situation, it seems a little difficult without a device that can accept 2 usb sources and also pass audio through the host. I was briefly looking and saw iconnectivity device that had the right ports and some of the correct features, but I don’t know if they all connect in the right way internally. I’ll bring it back up real quick.

Ok the iconnectivity device is midi host only, man you wouldn’t think it would be that uncommon in 2024 to want a usb audio host…

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#16

Yeah, that’s the page. But thinking about it I may not have disabled FX for track 1. Currently working now, so I’ll try again tonight. Thanks for pointing that out.

iconnectivity

Nice, I’ll have a look if my tests don’t work

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#17

LMK if it works, I think the iconnectivity is a flop bc looks like it’s host port is midi only according to another site (their own site info is misleading in this regard), but if I see something else that looks promising I’ll let you know.

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#18

Thanks for helping out :slight_smile:

If this works, I’ll be over the moon. I’ll definitely come back and tell you all how it goes.

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#19

The short answer is that you cannot think of USB audio the same way as analog audio interconnects. It’s made for computer connectivity.

I think your options are:

  1. Connect both devices to a computer running Overbridge.

  2. Connect all devices to a computer (or tablet/phone) via a 5+ channel audio interface (analog).

  3. Connect all devices to an audio mixer (analog).

  4. Daisy-chain audio through the analog inputs on the devices themselves.

It is only possible to do the USB audio routing you want when both devices are connected to a computer running Overbridge in a DAW.

Overbridge enables this kind of connectivity because it uses a custom driver instead of class-compliant audio.

It’s technically possible to use an aggregate device on a computer with class-compliant audio as well, so that a DAW sees the two boxes as a single interface; but that is far more trouble than it’s worth in my opinion (it’s a last-resort for devices that do not have Overbridge-like connectivity).

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With both the Digitone and Rytm having analog audio inputs/outputs, you should be able to connect all three devices together though.

RE-303 into Rytm, Rytm into Digitone.

That is by far the easiest option (though it’s not going to scale well beyond that).

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If you want more flexible audio routing/mixing, you would need an audio mixer with 5+ inputs (which mixes analog audio signals).

Or to use a class-compliant multi-channel audio interface connected to a device like an iPad - if you don’t want something as big as a mixer, but also don’t want to deal with a “computer” or traditional DAW.

The advantage of this setup (or even daisy-chaining as above, and then connecting the Rytm or Digitone via USB) is that you can now bring software instruments or effects into the mix.

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The one exception to how USB audio typically works is the Roland Aira MX-1 mixer.

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This mixer does have USB Host ports for multiple devices; but they are only compatible with Aira Link devices for bringing USB audio into the mixer, powering the device, and MIDI/Transport connectivity over a single cable.

You cannot connect regular class-compliant devices to these ports.

I do think there’s a market for a digital mixer that has its own class-compliant host ports on the back - or better yet, for Elektron to copy the MX-1 but have Overbridge-enabled host ports on the back.

But I don’t believe any kind of device like this currently exists - probably because it would be a massive undertaking to ensure the class-compliant audio works reliably with all devices, and the benefit over using a regular mixer is arguably going to be quite small.

#20

The short answer is that you cannot think of USB audio the same way as analog audio

I finally got to try exactly what it says in the manual as @shigginpit pointed out, but it doesn’t work :sob:

As I don’t want any computers involved, it looks like I’m sweet out of luck, because I’ve been looking at USB compliant audio interfaces and also mixers, but I don’t think any of them can do what I was planning.

Damn. I think we only real option is to sample the RE-303 into the rytm and p-lock effects as a sample. Man, that sucks :frowning:

Thanks everyone for your help!!

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