Rytm not receiving 'Midi thru' notes

Elektron Gear Analog Rytm
#1

I recently had the idea of creating the ultimate drum rack in Ableton that would send to both my A4 and AR. I’ve got the A4 first in chain, Midi thru from the A4 going into the AR. The problem is I’m not receiving Midi notes on the AR from the daw. It’s receiving midi clock and transport, I have all the channels set up accordingly (midi 1 to 6 going to the A4, mdi track 1 on AR receiving Midi 7 etc, I’ve checked ‘receive midi notes’ on AR etc but still no joy.

I even did a quick test taking the cable from the A4 midi thru port and into a different synth and it receives the notes no problem. Anyone else have this issue or know what may be the problem with the Rytm?

Thanks.

#3

possibly the restricted range of notes or one of the many settings, like receive notes or USB+Din for Incoming Midi- try connecting only the AR to be sure it doesn’t relate to thru issues

I mistakenly wrote

This

MIDI sent over USB (presuming that’s what you are doing) is not connected to DIN by design - those are two separate MIDI busses

So USB In is Not echoed at DIN Thru

Only Din In is echoed at Din Thru

and then read the second paragraph you wrote

2 Likes
#4

Thanks for responding. There’s no usb involved, I’ve got a Midi cable going from my interface into the A4 and A4 to AR. This should be set to ‘Midi’ as opposed to ‘USB/Din’ right?

I’ll look into what you said about the note range when I get home, I’m pretty sure I tested it with a midi piano roll as well though.

1 Like
#5

MIDI / Port Config / Receive Notes [ ✓ ]

MIDI / Port Config / Output To [ MIDI+USB or MIDI ]

MIDI / Port Config / Thru Port Func [ MIDI ] (for A4, although is clearly working)

The non-chromatic range for all track is via any single midi channel over the lowest MIDI note range for notes 0-11 this could be annotated C-2 or -1 or 0 possibly depending on DAW/HW

For Chromatic playback - you need to find the 4 octave range and target each individual track separately on its own Track Channel, should be 12>60 iirc, centred on 36 which is the equivalent on non-chromatic hits (if the default NOTe value of 0 is set for a track in the TRIG page)

1 Like
Transpose sent MIDI note values
#6

I’m not sure I quite understand the bottom part of your post but I have checked all the settings are correct, I’ve also tried playing every note on a piano roll and sending to each of the AR midi tracks with no results. Any other steps you reckon I can take?

#7

MIDI / Port Config / Input From (MIDI or USB+MIDI) ?

Maybe a channel clash with Auto that breaks the normal workings

Try direct first

Do you have the TRG syn/smp toggles enabled to trigger playback

2 Likes
#8

@avantronica already posted good suggestions but:

On the Analog Rytm:

In the GLOBAL > MIDI CONFIG > PORT CONFIG menu:

  • set INPUT FROM to “MIDI”
  • activate RECEIVE NOTES

In the GLOBAL > MIDI CONFIG > CHANNELS menu:

  • set the MIDI channel for whichever track you want to trigger to the correct value (you chose 7)

You need to set up Ableton to send a MIDI note on channel 7 with good velocity and length.
You obviously need to ensure that the Rytm track is not muted, track level is not set to 0, sample slot is on and/or synth machine is not disabled, and that you are monitoring the Rytm’s output properly.

3 Likes
#9

Thanks, I should have maybe went into more detail about the checks I had done but these are all the things I first checked. The ‘mutes’ on the machines don’t actually matter when receiving external midi notes. I also connected the Midi thru to another synth which works fine. I also tried sending notes direct from the interface to the Rytm and that works fine.

#10

I’ll check regarding Auto, what would I be looking for? That auto isn’t set to the same channel on both machines?

#11

I am not too familiar with pitfalls when chaining, I’d tend to use a dedicated MIDI thru - that’s just a simpler way to do things - however, I don’t see why the DIN thru function wouldn’t work, especially as you demonstrate it does and also that the AR is set right when not chained

It would probably help if you listed channels and settings to see if anyone else spots an issue

why not see what happens when you reorder the analog chain, see if that helps pinpoint the origin of the issue

1 Like
#12

Yea might be worth having a look at that. To be honest, I don’t really understand the difference between the ‘Midi’ option and the 'Din 24 (and whatever the other number is) option, I always thought a standard Midi cable was known as a Din cable, so I maybe need to read up on the manual about that. I assume ‘Midi’ is the correct choice here because if I try one of the ‘Din’ options I stop receiving the clock too.

#13

DIN is the physical format, there are many DIN formats, midi used a 5pin 180deg format

DIN-Sync or Din24 or Din48 are standards you do not want to be using - that’s not MIDI, it’s a similar plug/socket but different wiring and fully analog

MIDI is analogue signals conveying digital info

Only use MIDI for the Out and Thru ports, not DIN sync - that’s for hooking up to pre-midi(mostly) gear

I didn’t flag that earlier as I assumed that was obvious, and you had success with other gear

2 Likes
#14
1 Like
#15

Was just about to suggest ensuring Thru was not set as dinsync - always a bridesmaid… :joy:

2 Likes
#16

I kind of gave up in the end but somethings making me wonder if the odd behaviour is something to do with my machine.

Today I realised that I could just send the midi direct by usb and this works fine if I load a midi clip and send it to the Rytm. However it’s still not recognising data coming from a ‘Drum rack’ in Ableton. As a comparison the A4 receives the drum rack data fine, all the midi settings are the same there (aside from the channel configuration obviously), I even used the same Midi cable that was going into the A4 into the AR instead and nothing is being received from the Drum rack.

So normal Midi clips> Rytm = ok. Drum rack> Rytm = not working.
I’m wondering if this is because Drum Racks use Midi thru as well and this is why it’s got the same problem, indicating that the issue is just the inability to receive Midi thru notes and perhaps a hardware issue?

#17

If you are using this terminology it might not be a leap to suggest that your drum rack midi range is just in the wrong range of notes

To receive a series of notes on one channel (any) then the rack would need to send on the lowest midi notes. The C reference will vary system to system but it has to be midi notes 0-11

For other chromatic use or addressing tracks individually there is a 49 note range to target per each track midi channel

So there’s a 50% chance your drum rack could land on the wrong midi notes. Do a test using a piano roll to locate the working range

Ps there are no midi thru notes. Anything arriving at the 5pin Midi in will repeat at the Thru port (if set to midi)

#18

I know, I was just using jargon at that point, inability to receive midi notes via midi thru is what I meant to say, I already checked the whole range of notes on the drum rack but it’s not that unfortunately. Thanks though.

1 Like