SOLVED: Flickering Tempo Button

supersg559 · 2023-01-04T20:08:27.609Z

In case anyone else has this problem: I recently had an issue where the tempo button would flicker arrhythmically, as if the DN was having a heart attack. During such an episode the UI would also become non-responsive or extremely laggy. I’m not 100% sure what is going on, but it may have to do with sending too many MIDI messages to the unit. In order to solve the problem I needed to review my MIDI settings and configurations in my DAW and ensure that I wasn’t spamming messages to all channels, and to ensure that filtering was enabled.

Atom7 · 2025-01-29T20:19:01.957Z

Filtering ?

shigginpit · 2025-01-29T23:21:58.430Z

I believe that in the preferences under midi, a lot of daws give you some kind of filtering options for things like cc, midi channels and notes where it can be set to selectively ignore various incoming data.

I can’t speak to which items to filter out regarding this specific issue, but I would assume it’s most likely that if you’re only receiving and sending midi on a set midi channel, filter out the other channels. If you’re only sending and receiving certain CC’s, filter out any other cc’s, stuff like that.

Like I said, unfortunately I can’t be specific but if you’re dealing with this issue it might be relevant. I don’t know a lot about ableton, but I’m pretty sure the settings tab has a midi section so look in there for a filtering option.

Atom7 · 2025-01-29T23:23:23.401Z

Tempo starts to go nuts when send more than a few CCs to the DN via Ableton (Gatekeeper sending the CCs)

It’s sent over via the appropriate channel , not sure how else to resolve it

shigginpit · 2025-01-29T23:25:16.866Z

If you have MIDI+USB enabled under the port settings on the digitone, change it to just USB and see what happens.

MIDI+USB limits the volume of data which can be transferred and so they recommend that you disable the split output if you’re going to slam it.

Atom7 · 2025-01-29T23:48:13.749Z

Thanks will try that , although not using usb and is also set to midi in the config.

shigginpit · 2025-01-30T00:06:21.144Z

Ok I misunderstood that you were using USB mid with Ableton. Well to my understanding USB midi can transmit significantly more data than DIN midi due to a larger bandwidth so, if possible, try and integrate USB midi. I don’t know how your setup is currently working, but you might get more out of USB midi from Ableton even if you keep DIN midi enabled for other purposes. It’s worth a try.

Atom7 · 2025-01-30T13:53:16.835Z

Wouldn’t say 3 or 4 CCs is slamming it , but will give usb a try later , although I feel this is gunna be the same deal.

shigginpit · 2025-01-30T14:24:33.086Z

Fair enough but the internet seems to feel differently so I’m just passing along the information, in practice you may be absolutely correct.

Via “the internet”:

“A USB connection has much higher bandwidth than a DIN-MIDI connection, which means that instead of each cable having just one physical port with 16 channels, a single USB cable can support 16 virtual MIDI ports each with 16 channels, for a total of 256 MIDI channels down one cable!”

So, to whatever degree it actually helps may be dependent on the device and maybe digitone won’t be happy either way, but I think you’re correct 3 or 4 isn’t much and people have done that successfully between hardware devices so I don’t see why Ableton should be any different. Unless Ableton is sending more than we realize and in which case a midi monitor might tell you what data you want to filter out, if you want to go that route.

Atom7 · 2025-01-30T15:53:41.769Z

Without a doubt what you say is correct , but I’m baffled how it should effect the Digitones tempo is all

shigginpit · 2025-01-30T19:59:03.243Z

It really will all come down to digitone and whether or not it can make use of the bigger conduit. I’m assuming that just like if you sent a high volume of water down a pipe that’s too narrow to maintain a constant flow (so let’s say chunks of data vs a steady stream of bits) then that pipe might back up from time to time because the pressure on the sending end is greater than the amount of relief that the conduit provides in passing it through.

Unless, of course, this is a bug which I’m not saying that it isn’t, but if it’s not a bug then maybe it’s the impact of receiving more data than the machine is capable of processing at once in those bursts which is causing it to glitch out. Obviously there must be some impact of receiving too much data in bursts otherwise they wouldn’t limit the amount of MIDI data that can pass through when you choose the midi+usb option, that’s at least how it’s stated in the manual is that the amount of data is limited.

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So while it doesn’t outright say “multiple CC’s equal large chunks of data” maybe that’s what they mean. Because I don’t know, I don’t want to discredit it, and despite the fact that you may be correct and it will do nothing to help, to me it’s better to just try it. The fact that they’ve stated “MIDI data will limit the USB speed” already might imply that the machine is capable of doing more on a USB connection than it is on a DIN connection.

My thoughts are the same as yours, I’m skeptical, but I’m just a little more optimistic about the outcome. But for what it’s worth, I think that theoretically, a more constant stream of data could be achieved if the conduit for flowing data is a little wider and on the side of the machine, that’s bandwidth. Rather than receiving and trying to process the data in bursts, it will be able to process that same volume of data in a more linear manner. That’s my entire line of thinking so whether it makes a difference or not is really up to the Digitone itself.

I think that using a midi monitor to see what is actually leaving the computer to go to digitone is not a bad idea though, you may find that there is more happening than what appears on the surface, or you may find that DN is a POS and can’t handle 3 simultaneous CCs over DIN or USB. I don’t know the answer but I’m less baffled by why it might help.

Atom7 · 2025-01-30T21:22:08.016Z

Appreciate your info , yet to try usb so will report back when next get the chance.

cema · 2025-01-30T22:39:16.112Z

Same heart attack syndrome here with MIDI loopback - no DAW, no USB in the setup.
The interesting part: only occurred when I stopped the pattern. I had to unplug the MIDI cable to interrupt the loopback and wait about 30 seconds until the attack is over. Only certain patterns are dangerous. Of course heavy CC traffic but it is just the 4 Digitone MIDI tracks,
To be honest, most devices can not handle heavy MIDI traffic, lagging, freezing is usual. Such experience with Machinedrum, Yamaha RX came into my mind.