Expander with 24 encoders

Hi,
I would love to see an expander with 24 encoders that could connect to the Electra One MK2, so that all on-screen functions have their own dedicated encoder—without switching between sets of 12.

Would something like this be technically possible?

Thanks,
Peter

2 Likes

We have added and later extended the Remote Knobs and Midi Control features. These allow users to use virtually any MIDI controller as the E1 expander. Unfortunately, we are not planning to produce our own expander at this moment. It may, of course, change in the future…

3 Likes

Hi Martin

I hope you’re well

Im new to your community and dont have a lots of coding experience..

I have a question about the remote knobs ..i have a Mackie C4 pro a 32 knob extension to Mackie hui setup, i am asking if it can be used with the Electra one ,if so could you or someone in the community point me in the right direction on how to integrate it ..

Regards

John

Let’s check.
Can you cc control each knob individually? Can you show the received setting on a scale from 0 to 127? Can each knob send out cc message with the same cc number as received?

Then you can use this controller as an extension to the E1. You could use the 6 knobs per row to control 4 rows on the E1 and then control the other 2 rows from the E1 itself.

Hi Newlgnis

Thank you for your reply

I did a test last night to see if i could do what you suggested ..it sees the controllers but not 0 to 127

It’s either 1 or 65 ..i think its an impossible task to integrate this unit with th E1 .. ill need a LUA programming god make it work , im wondering if anybody in the community has come across a Mackie C4 and got some script, i think it would be awesome to get it working.

Regards

John

It is likely operating in “relative mode" where it sends a pulse of values indicating the rotation direction, not the knob position.

Thank you Quelecta

Yes you’re right ,if i turn it CW its 1 or CCW its 65..

Check if you can pull it out of “relative” mode and into standard MIDI absolute mode. The “relative” mode was never a real MIDI standard, you know, rather a convention made by manufacturer (typically by softsynths and DAW manufacturer) to allow for control wihtout jumping from systems that cannot read the current value / sources that do not tell the actual value.

In the case of the E1 expansion, E1 can tell exactly with absolute value each of the 36 slots is on when it has a remote knob-system connected.
I’ve tried this with the Behringer BCR-2000 and that works, but for me it’s too mouch real estate, so I’m selling it.

1 Like

The current documentation for the Electra One Mk II remote knobs feature is shown below. It does say you can configure to use “Relative mode”. I don’t know if that means it is designed to work with the 1 or 65 values coming from your C4. Have you tried to configure it yet using “relative” type as described here .. there is a 1 in 100 shot it might just work ? Let us know what happens …

1 Like

I also read this somewhere in a Mackie guide : " You can also download the Mackie C4 Commander software from our website

www.mackie.com/products/c4commander ). The C4 Commander lets

the C4 work with other hardware and software,

providing more functionality for the C4. C4 Com-

mander comes with an extensive library of the

most commonly used MIDI synths and instru-

ments, and translates the controls on the C4 into

the correct MIDI commands to control the exter-

nal devices."

So I think you may make it work!

EDIT : if you can find the software somewhere on the internet…

1 Like

Thank you both for your advice

I think the project is way out of my reach to do ..i will have a look at Phommed suggestion tomorrow

@ newlgnis yes the commander software only works on Intel Macs and wasn’t updated or supported

Again thanks guys for your help it irks much appreciated

Regards

John

1 Like

Will try to write more later in the week

UPDATE: you’ll find the values here MackieC4_P3/wip/MackieC4/consts.py at 12e4ddeb43741ecc16adf86cca640a179d2d8111 · markusschloesser/MackieC4_P3 · GitHub

buttons and push encoder are midi note on

display is via sysex

Clockwise and CCW are via relative CC

all this is fixed and cannot be changed

2 Likes

@ Phommed hi mate ,I tried your suggestion with no Joy ..it also wont recognise the first knob because its value is 0 so every other knob is ascew 1=2 and so on..arggghhhhh!!!

@ Marcus ..WOW !!!thank you so much for that ,.I can see you put a lot of work into it ..as i said im not a coder and i have come to the conclusion that my programming skills are not up to the daunting task, maybe one day when i get me head around LUA, but until then If you ever get your c4 working within electra I would love to know..

Thank you all for your advice and input.

Regards

John