Will CC messages be passed through the DT?

Here’s my setup.
MIDI Keyboard set to CH 10 plugged into DT MIDI In
DT MIDI Out plugged into Circuit Mono Station MIDI In
Mono Thru plugged into Circuit MIDI In.
Circuit Synth 1 is on MIDI CH 1
Circuit Synth 2 is on MIDI CH 2
Circuit Mono Station is on MIDI CH 3
DT Auto CH is 10
DT MIDI A channel is set to CH 1
DT MIDI B channel is set to CH 2
DT MIDI C channel is set to CH 3.

If I select any of these MIDI tracks and play the MIDI keyboard, it works as expected. What’s not working is if I configure a knob or slider on the keyboard to send MIDI CC or NRPN messages, they don’t ever reach the Circuit. Maybe I’m not quite grasping how Auto Channel works or if CC messages get sent through the DT to the proper destination. I can plug the keyboard directly into the Circuit and the CC messages work fine. And if I configure on of the DT knobs to send CC messages on MIDI A it works too. Just not from keyboard through.

Am I causing issues with how the channels are set?
On the keyboard I have to specify a channel that the CC message is sent. Should this be channel 10 (for DT’s auto channel) or channel 1 (for Circuit’s synth channel)?

Which “MIDI keyboard”?

What have you set in the DT’s SETTINGS > MIDI CONFIG > PORT CONFIG menu?

The Auto channel method should be sufficient for what you are trying to do, as long as you make the MIDI track that you want to use the active track on the DT.

The “MIDI Keyboard” I’m referring to is my external MIDI keyboard (Edirol PCR-50)

I can’t remember what I have PORT CONFIG set at… (Not at DT now)

Auto seems to work for triggering notes (yeah I know I need to select the MIDI track first, that’s not a problem)

It doesn’t work like you expect and it’s a common feature request.

It should work like this:

  • Assign the controls for the midi track(on the amp page) to the midi cc’s you need to control the circuit.
  • Activate the controls on the filter page.
  • Now, according to the manual, you should be able to control the assigned midi cc’s by sending midi cc’s 70 through 77 to the digitakt.

If you need mod-wheel or pitch bend etc., activate them on the source page.
But these cannot be controlled externally, as far as I know.

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I’ve hooked the keyboard directly to the circuit for the time being (which is working).

So in theory I have it hooked up right?

Yes, that will work too.
The only difference being that you can’t live-record the sequences you play on the digitakt. But I guess the circuit can record by itself so it’s not really needed.

Indeed, however it would be nice to just keep things all hooked up together through the DT.

I think you have a couple options: one is what DreamXcape spelled out, which is having the DT control the “downstream” devices (Mono, Circuit) with MIDI tracks 9-16 and setting those tracks up to send the CCs that the devices are expecting, but receive the CCs that are spelled out in the DT manual’s MIDI implementation charts.

Option 2 is to use the DT’s MIDI THRU output, which will duplicate all MIDI messages from the DT’s MIDI IN port; the trick there, of course, is that then the DT’s MIDI OUT won’t be sending clock, PGs, or whatever. In my setup, I solved this by using a MIDI merger box (like this one) to merge the DT’s OUT and THRU ports to one, which allows my keyboard’s MIDI messages (going to DT’s MIDI IN) to propagate downstream, but also for me to control the DT directly. It’s a little funky, but it works.

Hope that helps!

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Thanks for the additional information.

I specifically need to use the controls from the keyboard because it allows me to limit the ranges that the CC’s are sending (plus I have faders and buttons doing stuff too).
Did think about using the THRU output but I didn’t know that would affect clock.

I think for the time being I’ll just keep the keyboard connected directly to the Circuit.

I guess I didn’t mean that it would affect the clock, just that in the normal case you would go from a single MIDI output to a single MIDI input, so you would have to choose between the DT’s OUT and THRU ports and DT doesn’t output clock on the THRU port.

I think either solution would work for you and @DreamXcape’s has the benefit of not requiring yet another device. :slight_smile:

A post was split to a new topic: MIDI setup, howto?

Any updates on this? I am struggling as well.

I would like Digitakt to pass all the external MIDI CCs through in the same way it does it with MIDI notes.

However it doesn’t even pass through those CC that are enabled on particular MIDI track. It seems that the MIDI CCs can be controlled only from Digitakt itself and not externally.

I only got it to work by using the Thru, not Out. With Out, it only works if you set the knobs to the CCs you want and then send the values from said knobs.

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Nice, things should work as expected with thru. I have the DT Out & Thru both run into my merger/router.

Pass thru is the wrong term for the problem presented here. The dt has no problem passing cc thru the midi thru port. It only filters pitch bend and mod wheel.

To “pass thru” cc in the manner this thread wants, through the out port, then one must set their controller to the midi cc needed to control the specific parameters on the dt midi track (cc70-cc77) then choose the midi cc to control from the dt.

For example encoder a would receive cc70 to control it but may output any cc the user sets it to.

Though some synths now combine midi out and thru as a sort of soft thru, it is not typical behavior for the midi out port to “pass thru” cc or other controls.

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