Syncing Digitakt with OP-Z and Keystep

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

Hey guys. New to the forum, new to elektron gear. Name’s Matt, from London, live in The Netherlands.

Anyho, recently bought a Digitakt, still working it out, it’s an awesome bit of kit. I’m trying to build a set up around it. I’ve also recently aquired an Arturia Keystep and an OP-Z.

My question is, is there a way I can use the Arturia Keystep to control the the OP-Z via the one of the Digitakt’s midi channels.

At the minute I’ve got the Digitakt and OP-Z syncing via a USB-B to USB-C cable and that works ok, but now I want to be able to play the OP-Z’s synths with the Keystep and record it straight into the Digitakt’s sequencer. Maybe this isn’t possible, I’m not sure.

As you can tell I’m crap with MIDI.

Any help is appreciated.

I’m also interested in what other peoples sucesses/failures with the Digitakt OP-Z collab, so share you knowledge! Or lack of haha!

#2

here could be help

#3

Thanks for the quick response man. I’ve seen that video before but never payed too much attention. Worked it out now though and it’s working perfectly. If anyone is having a similar issue and see’s this thread I’ll be happy to help you out.

1 Like
#4

I’m usually pretty quick to figure these things out, but I feel like I’m missing something here.

Which is the host? Who’s sending and who is receiving?

I suspect it’s because I’m using a USB a > c adapter to plug into the OPZ as the host, or it’s a channel issue because I’m sending notes to an 0-Coast through regular Midi Out.

I’d love to see what’s been working for you (since you offered!) :smile:

#5

Hey bro. I can’t quite remember but I’ll have a closer look tonight. I think I had the OP-Z connected to the Digitakt with a USB-C to USB-B cable. The Digitakt was sending the clock out to the OP-Z. Then I just set each midi track on the Digitakt to work on channels 1-8 to correspond with the OP-Z’s instrument channels. I then had the Digitakt connected to a midi thru hub and then to a Keystep which was controlling the OP-Z although I can’t completely remember how that bit was set up.

#6

It’s be awesome if you could describe it!

I’ve been having annoying random issues with my OP-Z’s midi - at the start it seemed that it just worked, as USB host or not, but the other day I tried connecting it to my Blofeld with USB, and just, nothing worked.

If you describe the OP-Z to DT connection that you have working, I can verify it against my setup and try again, cuz technically that’s the same topology as what I want with my Blofeld.

Also, what OS version are you running on your OP-Z? Did you update it already to the latest?

#7

See previous comment man. Don’t think I’ve updated the OP-Z yet.

#8

Hmpf I wonder if that’s what it is. I’ll do some more troubleshooting later today :slight_smile:

#9

Seems like you’d want the Keystep connected to the DT midi in and transmitting on the auto channel so it controls whichever track is selected on the digitakt. Then you’d connect the DT and OP-Z via usb (b to c type cable) - I think you have to turn them on in the right order to make OP-Z the usb host. The. You have the Digitakt send note, cc and clock over midi to the OP-Z and set up all the midi tracks on the DT to have the right midi channel to control each part on the OP-Z.

That way you can record what you play on the keystep into the midi tracks sequencer on the DT and the OP-Z will play to sound both while you’re recording and when playing back. You could add sequences on the OP-Z too or just sequence everything on the DT. Not sure if I would use the keystep as midi clock source. Probably not unless I was using the keysteps sequencer or arp