I pulled the trigger on a Melbourne Roto Control to pair with my Ableton Push and Electra One.
I’m excited to see how it integrated with E1. My goal would be to map Roto knobs and buttons to parameters in my E1 presets.
It sounds like this will be relatively straight forward with the new 4.0 firmware features, but I wanted to confirm I understand.
I believe I would connect the Roto to the E1 via Midi DIN. From there I can put the Roto control in midi mode and start learning/mapping controls.
What would I need to do on the E1 then? How do I map a parameter on the E1 screen to a specific CC#? Or, is it as simple as putting the Roto in learn mode and twisting the E1 knobs on select parameters to “send” it to the Roto control?
I’m still wrapping my head around the 4.0 features, so would really appreciate any input on how to achieve this or other novel ways of integrating these two awesome devices. Thanks!
@martin any chance you could help step me through this process or point me to the most relevant documentation?
as a very visual learner, i’m hoping one day you might do a video walkthrough of the new firmware? i struggle trying to piece it together with just the text. thank you
@martin hey martin - I finally got around to setting this all up and am running into one small problem. Wondered if you could help me diagnose.
I got the Electa One properly routed to my PCM 81 via a mioXL. The Electra is successfully sending signals to the PCM 81. WHen I twist a knob on the Electra, PCM 81 responds.
I then connected my Roto Control directly to Electra DIN MIDI 1. I created Remote Knobs for E1 and mapped the same CCs to Roto Control in Midi Mode. Here’s where the issue arises…
The Roto knobs are mapped to the right stuff – when I twist a Roto knob, the corresponding value on E1 changes. So everything seems to be connected, however the data is NOT being passed to the PCM 81. When I twist a knob directly on the E1, PCM values change. When I twist the the Roto control knob, the values on E1 screen change, but nothing is updated on PCM 81.
Is there a routing rule I need to make? I’ve tried a few different things but cant seem to have it pass through to the PCM 81.
If so, it’s likely that my code is blocking the pass-thru. To prevent MIDI loops and other weirdness, I check to see if the value change is coming from the E1 panel/encoders and if not, I don’t send anything.
Hey @oldgearguy! hope you’re doing well. Yes, this pertains to your awesome editor. Ah, mystery solved then!
Any way around this? It’s actually less critical now that I’ve sorted out a great “Performance” page for the PCM editor. I just find the Roto to be simpler in general than the Electra, so I’d built a multi-page mapping with Roto’s knobs and buttons. So, not critical, but would be cool if there’s an easy fix! Thanks for checking in here.
Short answer is that I could open up/allow external MIDI to influence what happens, but without some testing first, I have no idea if that would cause havoc with other configurations.
Mainly I’m concerned about overloading the PCM 80 with too much MIDI by sending duplicate/unnecessary commands.
BTW - what version of the PCM preset are you using? Others have some issues with recent versions, but they test fine here.
I’m currently using 1.13. I’ve had some pesky issues where it will lose sync with the PCM and the only fix seems to be to delete it from the slot, or cycle through powering on/off the E1 and PCM. Note I am not connected directly to PCM, I am routed through mioXL, so inherently less stable.
The weird thing in that state — when I press Sync, the PCM will show “Midi Dump Complete” but not the “transmitting bulk midi” message. And then it doesnt actually sync. I have 1.13 working now, maybe worth trying 1.14? The biggest issue is I think you lose your performance page when you delete the preset from the slot and then re-import it, so I’m hesitant to touch anything right now since it’s working.
that’s yet another oddity. The other poster with issues tried 1.13 (and 1.14) and couldn’t get it to show any MIDI transmission, so where you are is fine. lol
PCM 80 or 81? Any cards and/or expanded RAM (80 only)?
