I have a midi keyboard connected to my Analog Four mkII via the midi in. I then run a midi cable from the midi out on my A4 to the midi in on my Analog Rytm mkII. This way, I can play my A4 from my midi keyboard and do program changes of the AR via my A4.
However, I would like to also be able to play my AR via the midi keyboard, something that I haven’t figured out how to do with the equipment I have. I could do this if I use the midi through rather than the midi out of my A4, but by doing so, I can no longer send program changes from the A4 to the AR. Is this possible with the equipment I’ve got, or will I have to go out and buy extra equipment (for example a device combining the through and out port before sending it to the in port of the AR)?
you could use the cv channel of a4 to send midi notes to the ar autochannel
set a4 cv channel to 5 for example and ar autochannel to the same channel: you should be able to play the ar from your midi keyboard via the a4 cv track
(there might be a bug in the current firmware of a4 which lets you only play ar from a4 internal mini keyboard)
edit: for testing keep in mind, that ar only responses to the lower octaves
Thanks for the answer! It got me somewhere, but not full circle. As you suspected, I could only play the AR from the A4 internal keyboard. However, to reasons unknown to me, I was suddenly also able to play the AR from both track 1 and track 2, although midi out were disabled for these tracks. I have no idea what’s going on and everything is just extremely confusing.
Are you generating these program changes on your Digitakt, or does it receive them from MIDI IN? In the manual of the Digitakt, the function of MIDI THRU is described as: “Forwards data from MIDI IN.”
I really have to double check this when I get home, but I could swear no internally generated midi messages were sent via the MIDI THRU port.
I have misread your post. Your connections are ok. You just need to be on the same Auto Channel. In MIDI SETTINGS > CHANNELS, Program Change Out of the A4 must be on Auto Channel and Program Change In of the AR on Auto Channel.
The only way to make this work is an external MIDI merger box which takes the MIDI out and MIDI thru from the A4 and combines them into a single MIDI out (as you already guessed).
even before the recent sequencer midi out update you could send midi notes from a4 keyboard (playing) to external devices. so i guess, your midi channel numbers of a4 and ar match somehow and so you could play them even with midi out functionality turned of…
btw, which midi controller keyboard are you using? does it have midi in out thru?
keystep for example has a midi merge function in its software settings…
this would lead to new options, but of course a midi merger box is also a possible solution… i have this one:
it is midi powered, so no extra power supply needed
edit: also possibly confusing: on the lowest octave you can play all tracks of ar via midi (regardless which midi channel)
I solved the mystery of why other tracks than the CV track could play the AR. It was because Output channel in settings was set to auto rather than trk. So that’s that. Now I can play the AR from the A4 using the internal keyboard. Still, it feels a bit strange that you can’t control it from an external midi keyboard. Is this a bug, or simply just a design decision from Elektron?
It’s a pretty crappy keyboard that only sports a single MIDI OUT port, so that feels like a non-starter. Unless Elektron plans on supporting the function I want, I guess I’ll have to invest in one of those MIDI mergers.
It should be possible to control AR thru A4 with the Multi Map :
EXT.TRIG allows MIDI control of external equipment for a chosen keyboard key or range. CHANNEL sets which specific MIDI channel on which the MIDI note messages are to be sent, or AUTO.
@Speldosa Are you sure you set it up correctly?
I just tried, it worked for me with external midi set to perf channel and these Multi Map settings (Function EXT TRIG).
It could solve the midi track lack of soft thru (you can’t monitor a track external midi out machine with external midi in).
I tried to record notes on A4’s track 1 with external midi while monitoring with Multi Map, setting Perf Channel with the same channel as Auto Channel. No luck, not possible to use both. I also tried Perf Channel set as track 1.
Maybe a possibility, didn’t try further.
