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Midi channels

Hi, I think my fav video is creating something from nothing.. posted about a month ago.

Still learning midi. Do I need different machines for each patch running on the different app or can I set a channel on each arp to align with a different one in the same machine.

Hope that makes sense. I'm trying run two different presents on a cobalt 5s at same time but not easy.

Simon

7 comments

Comments (7)

rubycon55

Jul 07

Ok this is why the chief exec put a one in out policy down. Rebooted everything. Channels work against each other. Meaning 1 could be drum track. 2 bass. 3 pads/drone and 4 lead. Getting close to the vid. That's actually pretty cool.

Tempo is still locked at 300. Tried to make sure the sh4d isn't firing off.

Onto the next question.

rubycon55

Jul 07

Ok. Early morning after the football.

Dusted off my Roland sh4d. I really like this machine. V good for jamming nights and beginners like me.

I was keen to use with the midicake but they don't like playing together. For some reason tempo on the cake locks to 300 and it causes the cake to crash on a regular basis.

On the basis of sh4d being on the multitimbrial list and we now have a strict one in one out policy house rule putting the Blofeld off the table I connected up again. So I'm really sorry to come back with the next question. I can set each arp to its own channel using midi out button against the arp, ditto part 1-4 in the Roland. Isolated the cake from Roland transport in the global menu... But I still can't bring the tempo down or get them to play.

Sorry to bother again but any thoughts would really helpful.

Simon

Chris Brown

Jul 07

Replying to

Hi, the 300bpm issue is almost certain to be a MIDI Loop where both devices have MIDI Thru enabled. It will cause Midi clock messages from ARP to be forwarded back to ARP making it think it has a really high tempo.

If using the Roland as master clock and transport, set ARP to MIDI Control Mode = IN

There should be no problem running the 4 parts on the Roland from ARP. Just set MIDI Out Channel on each ARP track to match the MIDI Channels set up on the SH4D.

To bring the Tempo down on ARP, which is probably set to something very high, there are a couple of choices.

Set ARP to MIDI Control In and send a slow tempo from the SH4D.

Rotate ARP's Tempo knob counter clockwise until it comes back into range. This is not ideal and something I will try to in the next update!! (but ARP tries to support external tempo higher than 300 otherwise there are timing issues, unfortunately ARP saves this high tempo).

Or perform a Soft Reset on ARP which willreset all global setting (including tempo) but keep your Patches.

Sorry for the issue with the tempo. MIDI Loops can cause mayhem.

rubycon55

Jul 07

Replying to

Thankyou (again)!

You were right. Disabling the midi thru on both sides broke the loop and locked tempo.

No crashes. Able to control tempo from the Roland. Match the channels and parts against the arps. Stable and usable.

Brucie bonus. the arps now following the preset patterns on the Roland as you designed it to, actually enhancing the patterns really well.

Also the sliders on the Roland in the mix view control the volume of the arp parts freeing up the macros.

Really really good of you to come back so fast.

Thankyou!

Simon

Chris Brown

Jul 07

Replying to

Great Stuff! The routing can be tricky setting up and each synth is different. So glad you got it sorted! Have fun!

rubycon55

Jul 06

Thankyou!

Chris Brown

Jul 06

On ARP, each of the 4 arp tracks can have different MIDI Channels or share the same one. This is where the Follow function really shines.

For the receiving synth setup, it depends what you are trying to achieve.

If you want 4 different sounds you need either 4 different synths or a Multitimbral synth that has 4 or more parts. Multitimbral means that the different parts (sounds) can be assigned to different MIDI Channels.

Parts differ from voices, in that a single sound can be made up of multiple voices. A polyphonic synthesiser can play multiple notes concurrently (chords) because each note is played on a different voice and they are layered (it's the same sound but at different pitches).

I believe that the Cobalt 5s is a single part synth with 5 voices. So it can only play one sound at a time (one MIDI Channel) but it can play 5 notes simultaneously.

There's a list Multitimbral synths here: https://www.midicake.com/forum/general-discussion/a-list-of-multi-timbral-synthesizers

Probably the cheapest option (in hardware) is the Waldorf Blofeld. I think I did a video with 4 parts on the Blofeld a while back.

There's a section in the Appendix of ARP's manual about MIDI and MIDI Routing that you might find helpful too.

I hope this information helps. Let us know how you get on.