Hi, I’m trying to control the Synth with a Digitakt 2 connecting both MIDI in/out of the 2 machines. My understanding is that to avoid MIDI feedback loop, I would need to disable “local mode” on the synth. But is that “local mode” buggy?
When “local mode” is off, incoming MIDI notes from jacks don’t trigger any synth, and USB midi modes seem to only trigger synth 1. I’ve made sure to change the Midi I/O from USB to Jack, and I’m using different channels 1,2,3 for each synth.
Is that a known issue?
Hey there @fredguile, welcome to backstage! Great to have you here 
I haven’t run into any issues with local mode, but it would really help if you could go a bit more into detail as to what you are trying to achieve. Some questions of interest;
- Is the Synth being clocked internally or externally?
- Do you have any Arps or Seq running?
Thanks!
This always gets me lol. When using synth as a midi controller, and trying out sounds on external synths I’m like WTF IS GOING ON… then i remember arp or seq is on lol.
The idea here is to use 3 midi tracks of the DT2 to record patterns for the Synth, I’m sure this is a setup many would want to achieve.
For the test I’m just using simple synths with no arp/seq and I’m disregarding the clock momentarily (internal). Also “wait for start” is off (because without clock I’ve noticed it would mute the Synth sound… until there is a clock).
The holy grail would be to connect them via a MIDI USB Host, but for now I’m testing with only 1 MIDI cable and the single MIDI TRS jack that come out of the box (bummer, where’s this second one).
I’ve got a MIDIPal that is super useful for tracking MIDI signals going into this single MIDI cable. The DT2 is sending notes on channels 1,2,3 and Synth is configured with MIDI jacks 1,2,3.
When local mode is ON, no problem receiving notes and hearing Synth’s 3 synths.
When local mode is OFF, Synth emits MIDI notes on the corresponding channels but when receiving MIDI notes, only the first synth on channel 1 is actually playing.
Yesterday I’ve tried the same experience but using USB MIDI (using my DAW as a USB host) and I’ve observed the same symptom: Synth doesn’t play synth 2 and 3 when receiving notes on their corresponding channels and Local Mode is OFF.
I’m firmware 1.0.1.
Just to make 100% sure. When you say no arp/seq. It means that Seq is set to OFF on all 3 synths correct, like this?
I’ve just tested this on the 1.0.1 firmware with the following setup.
- All 3 synths have Local
OFF
- All 3 synths have
Seq turned to OFF
- Each synth has it’s own MIDI channel (Jack #1, Jack #2, Jack #3)
- I send a different sequence to each channel from an external device (in my case the Tracker+)
- FYI: i have a midirouter in between the devices (Blokas MIDIHub to be precise, for logging MIDI Data)
And the Synth plays without issues (you can hear all 3 sequences playing in that little video snippet). Even if i switch between Local ON/OFF.
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Any chance you have a problematic scene you could share with us @fredguile ?
Hi all! You’re right, this setup does works as long as we do not enable any Sequence or Arp on a synth 
In this case MIDI notes are correctly sent (either USB or MIDI jacks, that seems to be the same).
Disabling Local seems to be useful for preventing a MIDI feedback loop when sequencing with a Digitakt where both MIDI in/out are connecting the 2 machines. When playing the Synth pads, sound isn’t triggered but a MIDI note is sent to the DT2, and (unless you mute the track) it is sent back to the Synth which receives the MIDI note and plays the sound. So you can play a melody using the Synth, record it right away using the DT2 and it will be played back.
That’s great, but how to Arp a sequence that’s sent by my external sequencer? I’ve noticed that when Local and Arp are ON, Synth isn’t sending all MIDI notes from the Arp but only the note that was played by the user. So, why not actually allowing that when Local is OFF ? The external sequencer would send MIDI notes that would be Arp’ed properly, that doesn’t sound too bad to me, WDYT? (Could be an option in the Settings…)
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I’m on the same boat as you: trying to use the Digitakt to sequence the Synth and stumbling upon a number of “weird” limitations (I just posted a draft wish asking for the ability to trigger chords from external MIDI).
I really hope they improve the MIDI features in a future update, just because this box has so much potential to be used as a great sound module but currently that’s near impossible.
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I’ll add to this thread since then I’ve received proper TRS midi adapters (I can now plug both MIDI in and out).
Leaving Local mode ON = that’s perhaps the best result, however it seems that MIDI notes are played twice (triggered by the synth pads AND by the same received MIDI note). I could disable emitting MIDI notes meanwhile on the Digitakt but that’s manual and annoying (you have to go change 2 system menus between recording and playing sesssions). If we could avoid doing that on the external sequencer that would be helpful.
Turning Local mode OFF = Synth pads are no longer triggering notes but they emit a MIDI note that flaws back to the Synth and plays the note. Great! Except that… you can no longer use Arp/Seq (wouldn’t trigger any sound, see above). Btw, there is a pretty nasty bug in 1548: in this mode, if you cycle from Arp or Seq back to No Seq, the Synth starts to play an arpeggio from the received MIDI notes which isn’t wanted.
Also, I’ll rejoin @luiscosta.music in the fact that if Synth pads aren’t physically pressed, the change of scale from the driving synth to the followers doesn’t happen (so it doesn’t happen when MIDI notes are received). Maybe there should be some research in how to make this work via some flags in the settings? For some use cases it makes sense (playing everything from the Synth), for others - example, playing the Synth while your driving Synth is sequenced externally - this could vastly be improved.
Polyend, can you please take this as feedback for improving the next firmware(s)? Also, could you please give more directions on how we could use the Synth with an external sequencer meanwhile?
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Just to let you know I’ve found a slightly better workaround for sequencing from the Digitakt with Local mode On on the Synth: instead of going to the DT’s system settings, just disable the MIDI channel on the track settings:
This way the Digitakt will still receive and record incoming notes on the channels you have set in the MIDI settings, but it will not transmit them anymore so it won’t cause a MIDI loop.
Still, the whole external sequencing process is quite cumbersome and definitely needs some improvements, I hope they will consider that in future updates.
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