i am new to midi sequencers, and the used pyramid i acquired three months ago has been the magic solution to the daw-less, vintage-gear setup i am pursuing for live performance.
i have been using an arturia keystep pro as the midi keyboard “in” for the pyramid, which i like because it allows for four “TRACKS” I can assign midi channel pathways that i can switch at the press of a button.
for example right now:
keystep track one sends MIDI ch 10 to SCI Drumtraks
keystep track two sends MIDI ch 5 to MKS-50
keystep track three sends MIDI ch 6 to SCI SixTrak,
keystep track four sends MIDI ch 1 to JX-3P
so I hit that track, and then hit the matching track on the pyramid, with the MIDI channel matching the instrument (A10, A5, A6, A1)
i also have a tetra and a vermona mkiii i have set to dial in midi channels 12-16.
(and a tr-606 for occasional use via CV).
after starting with letting the patterns/songs programmed on the external drum machines (Drumtraks, TR 606), as one long sequence, i have switched to programming the drum parts as individual sequences, using the keystep pro to pyramid to write the sci drumtraks parts.
but the feel of the keystep pro is proving inadequate for the parts I want to program.
is there an upgrade from the keystep pro in terms of the size and weight of the keys on the keyboard, but still offers that MIDI-switchability, that anyone could recommend?
While I can’t answer your question regarding a better master keyboard, I’d like to add that you can configure the Pyramid in such a way that you don’t need to switch channels on your keyboard. The Pyramid can pass through notes on whatever channel your KS Pro (or new keyboard) is set to and then route them to whatever the active track on Pyramid is set to. Maybe your setup is different and this doesn’t work for you. Maybe you need to be able to do this on the keyboard for performance reasons. I just wanted to point it out - might simplify your search for a new device.
okay - yes, i have noticed that i seem to be practicing overkill on the button-pushing front, so thank you for kindly clarifying. i am posting here in abject humility: i am a middle-aged man who’s been playing/recording music his entire life (i even seem to remember having a degree in music lying around my house somewhere) – but i never used MIDI once…until a few months ago, when my 15-year-old daft-punk-worshipping son correctly threatened to quit our project if i didn’t “behave like it was the 21st century or at least the late 20th century.”
By the way, I’m not sure if the Roland JX-3P or the SixTrak support Midi Local Off, but if they do and you like their keybeds, you could even use one of those as your master keyboard.
Thank you for that suggestion! i’ve just figured the SixTrak does have local on/off - but am finding it might be asking too much of its 40-year-old circuitry to act as a master keyboard while playing back its own pre-programmed parts…I’ve gotten it to work as a master keyboard thanks to your suggestion, but am getting a good amount of errors, which i have learned has to do more with machines made four decades apart attempting more sophisticated/demanding interactions…but it’s nice to the six-trak is somewhat capable.