Lower octaves

[vandamsel]

Greetings,

I have recent built seq v4 and I am very happy about it. So thank you guys all who have worked on it.

 

My question is that I am trying sequence elektron analog rytm from a drum track. Elektron appears to accept only -4 octave notes in order to sequence from single channel. A work around for this is creating 12 note channels or drum channels and sequence from there. But this defeats the purpose of the midibox drum track architecture and midibox doesnt seem to go below -2 octaves. 

How can I configure midibox to send -4 region? If I cant do this, then my plans for ultimately crazy drum breaks is doomed...

I am excited to hear your opinions on this and I hope I explained it well. 

 

 

[TK.]

Hi,

I'm glad that you like the device! :)

It's possible to configure the MIDI notes which are sent by the drum instruments: enter the MENU->Event page, select the drum instrument with encoder #11, and change the note with encoder #12.

E.g. the first instrument (BD) will output C-1 by default, which is in the 4th octave. Lower octaves are C-0, c-1 and c-2, whereas c-2 can't be played because it's note number 0 (interpreted as "no note" by MBSEQ)

 Best Regards, Thorsten.

[vandamsel]

Yes yes I did all of that but the lowest note was c-2. But I found out later on that analog rytm could be sequenced on single channel when you trigger notes around -2 region. So it worked out really fine, plus I made a whole bunch of CC tracks to modulate parameters via performance macros on elektron end. It's just crazy. Mind blown sir. Thank you for your answer. Next thing is to create lots of drum kits on the rytm and modulate furthermore. Bursting with ideas here... 

[TK.]

[SimonSays]

Is there any way of addressing this in the firmware, or hardware setup file?

I use both a Digitakt and Rytm and I can’t control the Bass Drum on the DT (maybe the Rytm as well... i don’t recall and it’s put away right now) as it’s on Midi note 0 (C-2). Annoying of Elektron to configure it that way but i’ve got no hope of changing the firmware on that so easier to ask here!

Or, has anyone else found a better workaround than substituting another sound (say, Cymbal) for the BD and accepting that the sample on key 1 can’t be triggered?

Edited April 18, 2020 by SimonSays

[latigid on]

Not 100% sure how the drum track architecture works, but as a hack could you configure your drum instruments (notes) one octave higher then transpose the whole track back down one octave? My guess is that the MIDIbox relies on that empty note data for something e.g. a placeholder. 

[lp1977]

@SimonSays I've run into this too. The lack of c-2 (note 0) is the only thing keeping me from fully sequencing my Elektron boxes with the v4+.

@latigid on This is a good idea that I hadn't thought of, setting the notes higher and then internally transposing the notes back down, but I just tried it and it also stops at c#-2. I have had success with a MidiGAL set up as an external transposer, but at that point it's more cables, more power, more settings. I wind up going back to syncing the v4+ with the Elektron sequencer, which certainly isn't bad. 

Since Elektron boxes also use MIDI notes chromatically, and each Elektron track can be set to a different MIDI channel, another workaround is to use a separate track on the SEQ with a different midi channel just for Elektron's track 1 (usually bass drum) and use C-1 (note 36) which is Elektron's center of the chromatic scale and plays the native sample pitch. Eats up a track on the SEQ and an additional MIDI channel but it works. By this logic, if you had enough available SEQ tracks and MIDI channels, you could sequence each Elektron track sound on a different MIDI channel. I just tried this on my Rytm and each SEQ track has a different channel playing note 36 (C-1) and they correspond to the tracks with the same channels set on the Rytm. You'd might need to turn Auto Channel to OFF so the Elektron's active track is not triggered. 

I stopped trying to figure out the SEQ settings after finding this post from 2018:

Edit: It looks like I haven't stopped trying to figure this out after all. Trying all this out today I just came to the realization i could do all of this on the same drum track on the same MIDI channel on the SEQ (ch 1 for example). I set BD to C-1 (note 36) and then the rest of the drum instruments to c#-2, d-2, etc (MIDI notes 1-11) and it worked fine. Auto Channel set to OFF on the Rytm made it so the Actively selected track wasn't triggered by incoming notes, and also on Rytm, I set Track 1 channel to MIDI ch 1. All the other Track channels are set to OFF. Works!

 

Last Edit: Here's a Preset file for Rytm set for MIDI Ch 10. Created and saved on v4+ hardware.

 

SEQ-Rytm.zip

Edited April 20, 2020 by lp1977