That’s one main reason why I was asking here. Adjusting filter on my SH-01a with MIDI CC from ST was steppy as fuck when I tried that a while back, which soured me on controlling parameters via MIDI CC.
OT can send NRPN MSB and LSB, and AFAIK the Digitone can receive them. I don’t know the true resolution of the MSB and LSBs sent by OT and received by DN, but it should be many, many times greater than a value of 128 u get with CCs.
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@Azzarole Thanks for this thread, and to those who’ve posted useful replies and tips: I recently got a Digitone so it’s very timely and relevant for me, (the DN is the second Electron machine I now have, OT being the first). I’m still in discovery and sound design stage and so far only syncing it from the OT.
My aim at the mo is a live rig with an OT, DN and drum machine (Acidlab Drumatix) sequenced by the OT. As is, I have two OT midi tracks left for the DN, though could set 4 tracks to drum machine and 4 to DN on some OT parts.
No regrets whatsoever with the DN, but I didn’t register that its lfos can’t be routed to the the FX. So I figure I’ll route one OT midi channel to the DN FX track (e.g. NRPN’s for delay time modulation - sounds ace manually), and one to the global channel - essential for Program Change. Setting all DN parts to the same channel and using, say, fill triggers on the OT lfos to DN Vel, MW, Breath controller could get pretty radical.
Bit of a long thread of me thinking out loud, but will chime in again if I come up with some pleasing results.
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Glad it’s helping you, @Skypainter 
. Let us know how it’s going, your plan sounds cool. Love the sound of delay time changes and am often using that on Syntakt!
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So I’ve found out how to set up performance macros for my Digitone and Syntakt for pitch bend, mod wheel, breath controller and aftertouch. I’ve also found out how to use Digitone’s MIDI tracks to control those macros on Syntakt (DN sending MIDI out to ST). And I’ve found out how to control Digitone’s mod wheel and breath controller settings with a Faderfox UC4 by simply using MIDI CC 1 or 2).
Now there’s one last thing I can’t manage to do and I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong or if it’s not possible: I want to use my Faderfox to control the breath controller or mod wheel settings on a Digitone MIDI track. So that I can control the macros set up on the Syntakt. I can already change the ST macros with the DN MIDI track using DNs own encoders. But these DN MIDI tracks don’t respond to MIDI CC 1 or 2 being sent from Faderfox to DN when I’ve selected a DN MIDI track. It works fine for DN’s own internal audio tracks and the macros I’ve set up for them when I select an audio track. MIDI channel settings on DN/ST/Faderfox are correct and work for other values being sent.
The MIDI implementation chart for DN doesn’t list pitch bend/mod wheel/aftertouch/breath controller/velocity as a destination for MIDI tracks. Does that mean it’s not possible or am I doing something wrong?
something something DN doesn’t forward midi stuff, I remember this posted somewhere, will try to find it, but yeah it’s something to do with the DN
iirc the THRU port forwards the midi but OUT doesn’t
so here’s a feature request for this:
more info
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Thanks for that! I would be fine if DN out didn’t forward incoming breath controller, pitch bend etc. per se. But if there was a way to control the encoders for these in DN MIDI tracks with an external controller.
I mean Elektron already allows for these encoders of DN MIDI tracks to pretend they are a breath controller or a mod wheel. So maybe there’s a way the just respond to any kind of CC?
I haven’t tried it but maybe assigning the midi track CC values to AT/BC/MW and using the UC4 to control these instead of sending CC 1/2/3/4 etc. to the midi track?
the midi track CC values are open and you can set the destinations to anything (I think…)
I can’t test this as I only have DN and AR on the table, and AR has only Aftertouch mod which has no CC you can send, but I can see that you can assign any CC on the midi track values and you have MW/BC there and they all are controllable so you have at least two mods you can send to your Syntakt…
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You’re a hero, that did the trick! DN even tells you when selecting CC values that 1 is mod wheel and 2 is breath controller.
The only issue I’m having is that ST only responds when I set my Faderfox to send these values on DN auto channel. And as soon as I send notes from my keyboard on channel 13 (which is mapped to DN MIDI track 1), the faders on Faderfox don’t work anymore, even on auto channel. However, all of this might be due to my inexperience and some wrong setting somewhere. Edit: I guess this is because right now, my Faderfox goes into Keystep and that one will only send out incoming faderfox data on the same channel as my keystep. I will have to buy an adapter so I can feed keystep into Faderfox, which can merge.
It’s kind of mind blowing how powerful these “performance” functions are but few seem to use them or talk/know about.
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yep it’s all labeled there
indeed, I always been saying this about the rytm how I miss these things on DN too, but yeah the AT/BC/MW macros with something like a faderfox is pretty good solution for this.
btw, I think that using something like midihub can really help here, you’d be able to send the AT/BC/MW directly from the UC4 to both devices without the cluttering of midi tracks, but at least it works.
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Interesting. Do you mind sharing how that would work exactly? I’m sure it’s all documented somewhere on Elektronauts, but I find these MIDI topics a bit hard to read up on, as each use case is quite specific.
I also need to feed a Keystep 37 into DN and ST, which is why I was thinking about buying an additional mini MIDI cable so that I can send Keystep into Faderfox.
I’m eyeing this device for some time, it has 4 ins and 4 outs, it comes with a very flexible software so you can setup for example UC4 > INPUT1 that will output 5 tracks go to DN and another 11 to ST, and a keyboard > INPUT 2 you can route only to the internal tracks which is 4 DN and 12 ST, perfect.
that way you don’t have to setup the midi tracks for every pattern/project, and it’s really easy to modify with the software. you can download the editor btw take a look inside, it’s really good stuff, you can do a lot with it.
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Thanks for that! I might look into this if it doesn’t work out with Faderfox and DN MIDI tracks like I’ve planned to do. I would like to avoid another complex MIDI device that needs a laptop to set up. I’d prefer to be able to see what I’m actually routing to what by looking at a cable and a little display, even though it might be a bit more convoluted.
I already posted this somewhere earlier but the closest I got to replicating the A4 perf mode that I missed on the ST was with the Midihub.
Basically I move one fader on my Arturia Minilab and the Midihub takes that CC, turns it into CC1 and copies that CC across all 12 of the Syntakt’s tracks – poor man’s global perf achieved. Best thing is the values don’t jump back when changing between patterns (if the patterns share the same modwheel settings ofc).
Happy to send you the project if you’d like.
I like that idea a lot, I think it’s more of a CTRL-ALL which is also cool, but I prefer the mod macros on the DN and for the rytm I have the performance built in.
yeah the midihub can do a lot really, I can use one CC to do a CTRL-ALL and another to do macros, this is a very capable device it seems.
I don’t have the Syntakt, just was helping @Azzarole to figure out the mod macros thing, but I totally get the idea!
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Not sure wym, I send the modwheel ccs to the modwheel macro page)
misread that sorry, anyway I use the same thing with all the digis
I mean you can use single CC same as CTRL-ALL function, for example having the filter cutoff cc sent to all tracks, or fx sends, etc., but yeah you can do it for mod macros as well, pretty cool!
I think combined with EC4 which has insane amount of setups/groups you can really create deep modulation control even beyond the performance capabilities, because there’s a limit how many params you can lock to a performance, with midihub and a controller you can overcome that.
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I hear you, but would gently suggest you take a close look at the Midihub anyway. It really is crazy powerful, and the UI/UX on the computer is great. You have 8 different presets you can create and load onto the box…disconnect from your laptop, and it’s fully standalone. For driving and combining MW/BC/VEL/AT controls on the DN/ST it’s really wonderful.
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Does anyone know if there’s a way to use pitch bend on digis without the actual pitch bending? There’s a setting in setup that allows you to set pitch bend depth. But if I set that to zero, the macros for pitch bend settings are also disabled when pitch bend info is coming in. It would be really useful, as my Faderfox UC4 has a dedicated pitch bend mode for faders that can send 14bit data, but no other way of sending 14bit via faders (knobs can always be set to send 14 bit).
first thing that comes to mind without too much hassle is use non-running lfo set to Pitch All destination, you can set the PB depth to 0 but still receive the PB data to the mod, don’t know about UC4 but EC4 definitely can send 127 or high res for PB type
you can use the mod to set the depth of the lfo to control how much pitch you want to bend…
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