Help needed to setup Prophet 6 as main keyboard

@joosep Thanks one more time. If you manage to test it, and if it works, you will deserve a tribute on the DSI forum :wink:

@megamarkd I tried to play with Pyramid midi in options, and P6 in local off, parameters send / receive as NRPN, hoping that even if the Pyramid is not supposed to manage NRPN, the midi flow would just go back to the P6 as it comes. At the beginning, it seems to work, and quickly I get bugs on the P6. I know that some other P6 users experienced the same thing. I did not inspect the midi flow coming out of the Pyramid in detail, but I suppose that something is going wrong.

On DSI forum, several users have asked for a “Keyboard only local control off” option, that would solve everything. Too bad that as one of the “fathers of midi”, DSI does not implement this just because this is not part of the original midi spec.

I’m grasping at straws here, but maybe this little box could be of help? anyone here ever used one before?
I haven’t delved into NRPN or sysex, so I’m more or less a midi noob. It seems a little intimidating, but if it can get the P6 to work as a master controller with local control off, and perhaps fully mapping of all the knobs to other synths (I’ve mapped the knobs to my blofeld using cc, and it really speeds up the programming of that wonderful synth!), that would be a game changer.

http://www.midisolutions.com/prodepp.htm

There is a MIDI monitor on the Pyramid in settings/info that is very handy for checking what’s coming out of it.

It’s one of my bugbears too. DSI and Roland, the creators of MIDI, have the worst MIDI implementation in the industry.

I’ve thought about getting a MIDI Processor Plus, but for some reason keep not buying it. Not sure how many rules it can use at once, but it’d be a seriously large number to remap the P6’s NRPN’s to CC’s.

@palm : the event processor plus has only one midi in and out, I think that two in and two out are needed for @joosep 's idea. I attach a schema, may be it can inspire someone.

@megamarkd : my plan was not to remap anything, but configure parameter send / receive to NRPN on the P6, and say to the processor something like “just send back the NRPN to the Prophet, and the notes to the Pyramid”.

But I don’t know anything about midi processors, I might be totally wrong.

Ooh, nice one. Should be achievable with an iConnectivity product.

Victory!

I did it (I think). I have a P12 module. The only notes I could send from my module were the Arp notes.
But yeah. All in all. I created a loop for the P12, feed all but the note data back to it (I think).
And Pyramid receives those arp notes and can send to other synths.

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This is the input channel remapping for my P12 (what iCM4+ gets from the synth). It operates on channel 3.
So I send Pitch Bend, Channel pressure, Poly Key Pressure, Note On/Off to channel 7.
This is an important part. It does not matter to what channel I send it, because Pyramid merges all MIDI IN.

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This is the port filtering output for Pyramid (what iCM4+ outputs to Pyramid). So I block everything on channel 3. So it does not receive ANYTHING on channel 3 (P12 channel).

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This is my personal Port routing for P12. It is connected to the USB hub on the 3rd slot. So it is sending data to slot 1 (Pyramid) and 3 (back to itself).

So here we are seeing a midi loop. P12 send everything back to itself, but note data is forwarded to channel 7 (the synth is not listening to this channel). And Pyramid receives the note data. Can output to any channel, when channel 3, then back to synth. And I block everything coming into Pyramid on channel 3, so it isnt listening on the other messages.

I can say that my loop works with program change messages and seems to work with CC and NRPN. But I cant be sure 100%, as my P12M in local off mode does not unlink the front panel from the knobs. And my ARP note data seems to flow as you wanted.

So I ask, if anyone here has a DSI synth and a iCM4+, please try this. :slight_smile:

@Boris
I also like to do diagrams.

Number 3. means channel 3 for me. And on top of the NOTE is written “random channel”, just my language…

Fantastic work, @joosep
Thanks a million for the help.
I will be out for a few days, and did not take time to buy an iConnectivity device yet, but I will try this as soon as possible.
Thanks again.

@Boris I hope someone with a “normal” DSI synth would test this before. :wink:

ok, I got this to work with my P6 and pyramid. joosip, thanks so much for the help. I never would have figured that out on my own. The iconfig software always makes my head spin. I have the iCA4+ and the amount of time I’ve spent staring blankly at the audio patchbay tab trying to understand the routing is embarrassing. Great devices, but the software leaves a lot to be desired.

the only thing I had to add to get it working with the keyboard version: remap the midi channel from the pyramid’s host port back to the P6 on its original channel. But it works well once it’s all set up. Thanks again everyone for the help with this! :kissing_heart:

@palm
Thats great news! Yeah every setup is a little different, so some adjustments need to be made.
Happy to have helped to solve this puzzle! :slight_smile:

@palm don’t worry about getting stumped by the software, it’s a royal pain in the bum to get your head around and would benefit from a little restructure of it’s gui.

iConnectivity are a great little company and listen to their users big time. I asked for more flexibility with Realtime filters (ability to filter only clock but leave transport) and the forum guy (Rodney) replies that he had been thinking exactly the same thing and would see if it could happen! Wow!!
Apparently they are working on making iConfig a little more user friendly also.

Working out MIDI networks is part of what I enjoy about electronic music pursuits, nice to meet others who enjoy it too (drawing diagrams is way fun!) :upside_down_face:

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Just ordered an iCM4+.
Thanks again guys.

Thank us when it all works out! :wink:

I received my iCM4+ yesterday and was able to make it work quickly as described in the discussion above.

I can check in the midi monitor of the Pyramid that it receive only notes even if I play with the panel, and my P6 still works fine when configured with parameters receive / transmit as NRPN.

So this time, I can officially say thank you :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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You are welcome mate. I’d like to thank @O_o again who was the one who put me onto iConnectivity back in the old forum. Somehow I’d missed the fact their boxes can run in stand-alone before Oliver corrected that. Now I’m hooked on them and am thinking about getting another MIO4.

Thats great news Boris!

This was a fun puzzle to solve! :wink:

I am looking to achieve something similar - getting midi data into the pyramid from all pieces of my setup on their separate midi channels using multitrack mode.

Should I be looking at iConnect devices as well? I don’t think merge is what I want because that would merge channels. i really want to rout 5+ midi streams/channels thru into pyramid midi in

“MIDI mergers” merge midi signals to one. It is important to understand that one midi signal carries a total of 16 channels. So if you want 5+ instruments, you can run them all on different channels and merge into one.
This is tho an entirely new topic. I would urge you to create a new topic, so things would be easier to search and find for later users :wink:

Hope this helps :wink:

Ha you are right! I will open a new thread as I continue to explore this issue. Initially, I was just thinking this topic might apply to my Yamaha cp4 which I use as a master controller while also using the three synth layers available. Same as Boris but didn’t run into any of the same challenges, though I might as I plan to run all my pieces to MIDI IN to capture fader/knob positions/automation.

Interesting and confusing topic. thanks for your reply