There are many Pyramid features you can control from an external controller. I have no idea of the capabilities of the Novation hardware might be, though.
Simple Note Events or CC messages can Mute/Unmute Tracks. This can also be significant compared to using SEQ for Mute/Unmute states since using SEQ for this applies to all 64 Tracks - using an external controller your can Mute/Unmute Tracks without affecting others. This becomes significant if you are able to pgm a single button to send multiple MIDI Events. Example: Pressing This Button here [_] will Mute/Unmute Tracks 1A, 2A, 3A, and 7B. This way you can have one button for “All Drum Tracks”, rather than having to remember for this song which individual Tracks belong to ‘drum’.
Note: Using Patterns nerfs this whole scheme since Patterns are not addressable via MIDI.
Also:
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Master FX: You can program a Fader (I think you can do Fader pages with the Novation stuff) to send a MIDI CC and Assign this to parameters like Global Swing, Scale, Quantiser Grid, Mute Probability, etc. Being able to modulate Quantiser Grid in realtime is extremely fun. If you have everything Quantised to 1/16 or 1/32, set a button for when pressed will change the Grid to 1/12 and when released returns to the original value. Great fun! Also Mute Probability is amazing! You can Mute Notes in your Tracks. By assigning an External MIDI Controller to a CC to change Mute Probability you give those muted notes a chance to voice. Of course, you can do this with the Encoders & Pad, but there’s only 5 Encoders and one pad.
(For myself, after a ‘song’ is created on the Pyramid, I only press the [Play] button - everything else is controlled via external controllers) -
Individual FX Parameters: All your MIDI Fx are controllable via External CC, including turning them On/Off (Enable) or varying the parameters, such as increasing Chance or MIDI Delay or MIDI LFO, etc. A fun one is to affect the MIDI Eq, which affects the Velocity of outputted Note Events.
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Chance 0% Scheme: If you do the Chance 0% hack, you can set up grids of Relatched and Freelatched Tracks. This is my own personal soapbox, so i won’t go into it anymore. Sorry. heh heh (Basically it allows you to Unmute/Start Relatch Tracks but have them not send Note Events until you Disable a Chance Effect that is set to 0%. It helps synchronise Tracks when uneven looping screws up Free Mode, but Relatch Mode forces things to be audible)
Please Note: I have no idea of the flexibility of the Novation hardware. I control my Pyramid with a Prophet12, an Impact Lx49 (studio only), and a button box (the latter of which is mostly for LED feedback) in a complex (for me, at least) and convoluted organisation that makes musical sense to me so that I don’t have to think while playing/performing.
I’m not good at thinking.
That being said, there is much power to be gained by using an Event Processor to allow you to send multiple messages with single button presses, while enabling LED feedback on your control devices.
The Pyramid is amazingly flexible with control.
Also Note: I documented MIDI CC values to send to elicit desired values in MIDI Fx. If you decide to try this stuff out, you can score the documentation from this thread. Controlling Pyramid FX via MIDI CC: A Reference Guide - #24 by CreepyPants