Sample transfer woes... [resolved]

Elektron Gear Analog Rytm
1

I feel rather rude that my first ever post on this rather fine forum (I’ve been browsing for a while) is a cry for help, but so it sometimes goes. I promise to stick around and contribute!

So, I’ve very recently become the owner of my very first Elektron machine, the Analog Rytm. I absolutely love the thing, or thought I did until I delved into the dark world of C6 and SDS. I cannot successfully load samples on to the thing at all. Any help would be hugely appreciated.

Here’s the low down:

  • Win 7 64bit, C6 1.5, all samples pre-converted to 16/48/mono
  • Both ‘input from’ and ‘output to’ set to USB only on the AR

With neither SDS handshake or extended SDS checked in C6:

  • C6 shows the progress bar as if it’s sending the file, every time
  • The file always shows as a progress bar in the samples page with a numerical filename (due to extended SDS being disabled)
  • Sometimes the bar just vanishes when it completes
  • Sometimes the transfer appears to complete successfully, but on playback the sample is usually truncated and sort of stutters at the end
  • The above two facts hold consistent per sample, e.g. the same ones always fail/vanish

With extended SDS enabled and SDS handshake not, exactly the same as above happens except I see the filename on the AR instead of a number. The same samples still fail, and the same ones still stutter in the same way.

With SDS handshake turned on, a big fat nothing. The ‘send’ button in C6 changes to ‘stop send’ but the progress bar doesn’t move, and the sent number of samples doesn’t increase.

So I’m surmising I’ve semi-successfully established a MIDI connection from the PC to the AR, but not the other way - the sample transfer doesn’t start because it hasn’t successfully shaken hands, right?

I’ve left turbo mode alone because the samples are pretty small, I’m only attempting transfer one at a time, and let’s not run before I can walk. However I’ve just tried it in the interests of science and am unable to turn it on either in C6 or in the AR global settings. Does this point to the lack of a proper bidirectional MIDI connection?

Anyone able to shed any light? I’m a pretty technical person with MIDI, machines, computers etc (e.g. I have, in the past, successfully programmed a 202, and am familiar with this sort of audio transfer via an Alesis DM Pro), but at the minute this has me stumped. If I wasn’t already bald I’d be tearing my hair out.

Oh - and apologies for the essay, I’m quite a detail-conscious type…

2

In lay terms, you have to use the menu system in the Rytm to accept an incoming transfer of samples into a given directory within the machine itself.

This might help

1 Like
3

Thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately that isn’t the issue - I am familiar with how to browse the samples on the +drive, create new directories, set one of those as my incoming directory and so on.

Then when I am viewing that directory on the Rytm during file transfer I can see the progress bar of the incoming sample, as if it’s successfully transferring - then it either looks as if it has worked (the sample is in the directory and I can load it to the project) but the sample plays back truncated /corrupted, or the progress bar just vanishes and the file doesn’t appear in the directory at all.

I did read another thread on here specifying a particular order for powering the computer and the machine on and plugging in the USB cable, which applied to Windows 7, but am no longer able to find it!

Edit: I’ve just seen that there is what appears to be an embedded video in your post, but for some reason (probably due to the fact I’m on my phone) am unable to play it back or even view the title, it’s just a black rectangle. Does it consist of instructions relating to the text in your post?

4

Somewhat unsurprisingly, it turns out that the problem is that I’m an idiot…

My theories about only having the MIDI connection established in one direction were correct - because I hadn’t clicked to select the AR in the ‘MIDI In’ section of the C6 configuration window. I think the brain fade was caused by there only being one option to select, as I’d selected the AR from the two choices in the ‘MIDI Out’ bit.

Samples now dumping with filenames and SDS handshake etc.

I shall now (slightly red of face!) turn the computer off and go back to making music just on hardware.

5

Hey man, I’ve had some problems too. I really like the AR but I imho the sample transfer method using C6 was a mistake. It’s never consistent and the transfer times are too long. I don’t know why they didn’t program the OS to make the AR +Drive show up as a hard drive on your computer. Would have made things so much easier and faster.

Hopefully Overbridge will provide that type of interface where we can quickly copy samples to the AR +Drive, but who knows. Elektron are so tight lipped about everything, we won’t know until they are ready to tell us.

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I’m not really that fussed now I’ve got it working, to be honest. Sure it’d be easier if it mounted as a USB disk, but now I’ve figured out where I was going wrong it isn’t too much of a hassle for what I’m doing.

I’d rather it worked like my MPC and could sample directly, but I knew before purchase it wouldn’t so there’s little point whining about that - it has so many positives that I’ve accepted that I have to sample into the computer and then upload it, rather than just dropping a needle on a record and playing it straight into the machine.

As for Overbridge I literally could not care less! For me the whole point of machines is to remove computers from my music entirely - apart from the sampling process, which since the +drive is pretty large shouldn’t have to happen all that often, the only computer involvement for me will be the recording of the stereo 2 track mixdown. And even that will be a further stage removed when I get round to fixing my 1/4" mastering recorder.

Your mileage may of course vary, but I’d rather Elektron devoted their time to making hardware, enough other companies make software…

7

i expected the worst before i received my machine…
but i have never had a problem importing samples. i do export them out of recycle at 16/48… i wonder if that is peoples issue? or using midi as opposed to USB…
it takes a lil longer than drag and drop…but not by much.
honestly
i’m also on a brand new spanking mac…that could be it too
i almost want to post a video of it the way people act like its so slow

8

i expected the worst before i received my machine…
but i have never had a problem importing samples. i do export them out of recycle at 16/48… i wonder if that is peoples issue? or using midi as opposed to USB…
it takes a lil longer than drag and drop…but not by much.
honestly
i’m also on a brand new spanking mac…that could be it too
i almost want to post a video of it the way people act like its so slow[/quote]
I downsample to 44/16 and convert stereo samples to mono before I add them to C6-ensuring they are the smallest files. Sure, a simple snare or kick with a quick decay (15-20 KB) transfers in a second or two, but try transferring a sample of about 130 KB and tell me it still transfers at copy and paste speed. Not even close dude.

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Yeah, I won’t be using Overbridge to track my music either. Hopefully the software will be more than just a tracking option.

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why 44/16?

the rytm needs 48/16… you are causing the machine to convert the samples.

i’m going to shoot a video. i can transfer a 4 bar sample in like 15 secs or less

  • i just did a 385kb sample in 20 secs. which aint four bars but two…but its fast enough
11

Yea, it is painfully slow.

I just transferred about 300 mb of samples. It wouldn’t be a problem if you could just set it up when you go to sleep to transfer 100mb of samples over… but it just doesn’t work, so yes it is painfully slow. Hopefully they will get it so the computer sees it as a drive to transfer - not really sure why they would use this transfer method. Astounding for a $1500 machine to be backasswards for sample transfer. But./… loving my new Rytm anyway!

12

first post here… hello!

i managed to upload the new firmware to my new rytm all good but c6 just isn’t working or responding (no errors in console either…) when trying to send samples from my mac to it…could the OS X 10.10 update have fucked it?
in c6 i can see the rytm all good i can add the samples to the list and look at the info for them (bit rate, channels etc), i have attempted trashing the plist for it & have attempted reconverting the samples to 16/48…what now?

13

OSX 10.10 is working here. I just downloaded some 44.1 files to see how it reacted. It was fine and quick.

14

operator error here…my bad, forgot to select the rytm in the config derp…