Does the Play support MIDI thru beyond notes?

[tprotopgr]

I use play to sequence the digitone voices and I wanted to control the digitone’s parameters with a midi controller.
I hooked a midi controller to my play’s midi in and I figured that play could not forward the midi cc changes to my digitone (I even switch midi cc channels in order to figure out if that was a channel problem, but it wasn’t). Did I do something wrong, or the play does not forward midi messages?

[icaria36]

Hi @tprotopgr, welcome to Backstage. I have moved your comment to its own topic, so we can better help figuring out whether this problem is a matter of finding the right configuration or is connected to a feature missing on the Play.

[icaria36]

@tprotopgr Have you upgraded to Polyend Play: 1.3 Firmware Update? It sounds a bit like MIDI CC sent via USB to Ableton, a bug that was fixed.

[tprotopgr]

I have the latest version, yes. But the bug seems irrelevant, maybe I didn’t explain the problem very well…

I have a Midi Controller’s midi out going to PLAY midi in.
Play midi out goes to DigitoNe midi in.

PLAY provides clock and midi notes to DN
MC should be controlling DN’s parameters (say, track level, reverb amount etc) but it does not because (as far as I could check) PLAY does not forward its incoming midi messages to the machines is hooked on (something like a midi through).

[icaria36]

Ah, ok, sorry, I think now I understand. Your question is whether Play has MIDI thru beyond notes. It’s a good question, and I realized that in all my MIDI setup combinations I hadn’t tested this.

I’m testing with a MIDI keyboard and a DAW. While the notes pass through, I’m not seeing the CC data reflected in the DAW. This would be consistent with the manual:

its Smart Soft-thru mechanism redirects notes from input to any selected output and channel.

“Smart Soft-thru” is not the same as MIDI thru, I guess. I suggest you wait to see whether others can confirm this or have other ideas. If the Play doesn’t have MIDI thru, maybe you can ask for it? See Writing a good feature request.

[Arek]

Hi @tprotopgr @icaria36 - let me clarify it - at this stage until Play does not have MIDI thru.

[tprotopgr]

Should we file a feature request or is it already on the Todo list?

[mahen]

HI ! Yep, am interested as well !
I have a super minimalistic setup (Play - Blofeld - KS37) but I couldn’t find a perfect way to set those up.

• KS37 → Play → Blofeld : CCs from the KS are not forwarded so I cannot for instance pitchbend / modwheel from the keyboard (to play in realtime while the sequencer is running). Cannot select the MIDI channel from the keyboard either (it’s an issue since the blofeld is multitimbral)

• Play → KS37 → Blofeld : program changes from the Play are not passed by the KS37 this time so I cannot sequence multiple midi parts (maybe there is something to tweak on the Arturia Control Center, haven’t installed it yet as it’s not supported by Linux but I’ll probably try from a virtual machine)

Cheers & thanks to the team

[Sandroid]

Hey. I searched the forum, since i thought there was already a request for MIDI Thru for the Play. And i did find this:

Enable MIDI Thru

Enable MIDI Thru on Polyend Play. What is the problem? MIDI thru is not a current capability on the Play. There are ways to pass through MIDI notes, but not other MIDI information such as clock. What do you want to achieve? Transmit MIDI information like clock through the Play to other devices connected to it. For instance, use a DAW as a clock source, but use Play as the sequencer to control an external device, while passing clock information as well. This would enable tempo-synced effects…

[icaria36]

@mahen would a MIDI splitter cable (Y cable) solve your problem? You would have the Play sending the MIDI data to both devices through this splitter cable and you could use different MIDI channels to keep the data separate for each device.

[Sandroid]

Or a MIDI Solutions or Kenton MIDI Thru Box could be another pretty low cost solution.

[tprotopgr]

I really would like to use play as the main brain of my setup, but all these nuances and workarounds are making difficult to do so. I bought play with the hope to use it as the main brain of a portable setup, now such details make me rethink its place on my setup. It’s frustrating for such details, which are seemingly minute, to need to invest extra money and space.

Please don’t get me wrong, I love play and it helped me finish many tracks, I’m not attacking anyone. All I’m saying is that it would be a shame to have to spend extra money for a thing a sequencer could easily do.

[mahen]

Hi ! Yep that would be a proper work-around indeed. I’d rather wait for an actual MIDI-through feature though

[icaria36]

@mahen

I’d rather wait for an actual MIDI-through feature

@Sandroid had already linked to this declined wish obove, see Enable MIDI Thru.