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Midi arpeggiator help!


Davidv92

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Hello! I hope you are doing great.

 

I am pairing my Casio xwp1 with an Octatrack and it is a super combo, however, I have been having a specific issue with the xwp1 arpeggiator.

 

I have my xwp1 as slave and the Octatrack as master. They are both time synced and I can play it from the Octatrack, but I cannot get to play the xwp1's arpeggiator. Do you know how can that be done? I really love the arpeggiator and cannot seem to make it work.

 

I would like to press an Octatrack key and be able to listen to the arpeggiator in the xwp1 but it just plays the plain synth, hex or pcm sound without the arp even if it is turned on in the xwp1

 

Help please! I can make  the Octatrack it work with other synths that way but I dont know what is going on with this one.

 

Thank you very much!

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, Brad Saucier said:

When in slave mode, the XW needs to receive a MIDI clock signal from the master device before any sequences or arpeggios will play.  Having said that, you still have to play the XW keys to trigger the arpeggiator.   It can not be driven via MIDI.

 

Thank you very much for your answer. That is a shame! I thought I could start the arp in the WXP1 from the Octatrack the same way I start the step sequencer if I gave it the Midi Clock. Something like:

 

I hit play on the Octatrack (Master, sends midi clock)  --->  XWP1 Arp starts (slave receives midi clock).

 

I guess I will have to adapt and find a way, the thing is that even though they are clock synced, when you play the chord on the XWP1 that is going to be arpeggiated and at the same time you hit play on the Octatrack, they are a little bit out of sync. A different thing happens when you just hit play on one device and the other one receives the order to start at the same time without touching it, as happens with the WXP1 step sequencer.

 

Is it possible to create a phrase sequence in the XWP1 playing the arpeggio and then start the phrase sequence from the Master Device, in this case, the Octatrack? Could it be a workaround?

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As Brad says above. The XW's arpeggiator is triggered by pressing keys, that then tells the arpeggiator what notes to use for the selected arpeggio pattern. You would need to send key press information into the XW via MIDI for it to play an arpeggio.

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13 hours ago, Brad Saucier said:

When in slave mode, the XW needs to receive a MIDI clock signal from the master device before any sequences or arpeggios will play.  Having said that, you still have to play the XW keys to trigger the arpeggiator.   It can not be driven via MIDI.

 

Got it, thanks. I guess I am sending that midi info because I can play the WXP1 from the Octatrack "keyboard". But even though I can play it from the Octatrack, when I turn the arp on on the XWP1 it doesn't sound. I am pretty sure ther emust be something in the XWP1 that you need to activate or something, because I can do it with other synths. It is not the Octatrack.

 

I hope what I am explaining makes sense :)

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10 minutes ago, Chas said:

As Brad says above. The XW's arpeggiator is triggered by pressing keys, that then tells the arpeggiator what notes to use for the selected arpeggio pattern. You would need to send key press information into the XW via MIDI for it to play an arpeggio.

I just wanted to add that I am able to control the keyboard, assignable knobs,  pitch bend and modulation wheels, dsp fx and everything else from the Octatrack. I just cannot seem to be able to activate the arp when I play the key from the Octa insead of playing it fro the XWP1

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3 hours ago, Davidv92 said:

I just wanted to add that I am able to control the keyboard, assignable knobs,  pitch bend and modulation wheels, dsp fx and everything else from the Octatrack. I just cannot seem to be able to activate the arp when I play the key from the Octa insead of playing it fro the XWP1

 

Is there any way you can check that the Octatrack is sending midi key press data? Even with the XW's arpeggiator not engaged, does the Octatrack play the XW's tones? Also ensure that the Octatrack, if it is sending key press data, that it is actually sending the correct range of keys over. Many of the XW's performances split the keyboard so that the arpeggiator only works within a certain range of keys. 

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26 minutes ago, Chas said:

 

Is there any way you can check that the Octatrack is sending midi key press data? Even with the XW's arpeggiator not engaged, does the Octatrack play the XW's tones? Also ensure that the Octatrack, if it is sending key press data, that it is actually sending the correct range of keys over. Many of the XW's performances split the keyboard so that the arpeggiator only works within a certain range of keys. 

Indeed, I checked it with several zone parameters in the performance mode, as well as with all the tones and octaves. The Octa plays all the tones from its "keyboard" as if I was playing from the XWP1. I double checked, so the Octa is sending all the midi info it can send + clock and channels from both devices are correct. 

 

Weird stuff! Out of many machines I think the XWP1 is the one giving me the most trouble regarding its architecture, but I believe it is very powerful, so I want to take advantage of it all.

 

I have been just programming the Octa midi arp and it works that way, but the XWP1 arp is great too and I wanted to use it.

 

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@Davidv92

 

Couple of things I could add:

 

If you have another MIDI keyboard, try using that with the G1 just to rule out the possibility that it's a unique Octatrack issue.

 

The other thing that crossed my mind is that I *think* that the XW's arpeggiator has its own MIDI settings. Check in the arpeggiator sub menus, because you might need to set it to use external MIDI in there. I can't remember for sure but it's worth checking.

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On 1/15/2021 at 12:07 PM, Chas said:

@Davidv92

 

Couple of things I could add:

 

If you have another MIDI keyboard, try using that with the G1 just to rule out the possibility that it's a unique Octatrack issue.

 

The other thing that crossed my mind is that I *think* that the XW's arpeggiator has its own MIDI settings. Check in the arpeggiator sub menus, because you might need to set it to use external MIDI in there. I can't remember for sure but it's worth checking.

Thanks Chas, I already tried with an Electribe and the same thing happens. It is an XWP1 issue, the Arp doesn't have its own midi settings, the only midi related setting for the arp is the arp nrpn and I did not see any option to activate external midi within the arpeggiator sub menu

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