I’m not sure if this is covered here somewhere and I couldn’t search for this specific topic for a long time… sorry if this is already discussed in a dedicated topic.
I see that a lot of Sub Phatty’s owners want to be able to use arpeggio with it. Well, so do I. I actually got to use the Sub Phatty with an amazing external device to provide arpeggio for it: iPad. Being more specific, the StepPolyArp app.
It’s super simple to connect… Sub Phatty > USB cable > CCK > iPad. It’s even simple to use… just open the app and play (using the Sub as a MIDI IN and OUT device). We just have one problem: since you’re not able to use it without problems.
Once you connect everything and start to play, you can notice a few glitches when you “press the chord” to feed the arpeggio. This could be fixed if you turn LOCAL CONTROL OFF.
If you turn LOCAL CONTROL OFF, you can play the arpeggios without any problem, but you can’t turn the knobs on the thing, wich is a very desirable thing.
My suggestion is actually really simple:
Give us the oportunity to turn KBD LOCAL CONTROL OFF and leave the KNOBS LOCAL CONTROL ON.
What do you guys think about it??
Amos, if you can give us some feedback on this, it would be great!
It sounds like StepPolyArp is only outputting its own arp and ignoring other midi it receives when local control is off. Maybe an app like MidiBridge would be a solution. I only just installed MidiBridge and don’t know all of its capabilities or limitations so I can’t really suggest anything specific. It just seems like it would be worth looking into as a possible solution to your problem since it has routing, filters and more.
@BaldEagle
The reason why it keeps having glitches is that the Sub is getting the external MIDI from StepPolyArp and triggering the internal notes at the same time… this isn’t something related to StepPolyArp in any way. I’m actually capable of using the app to control Sub’s parameters via MIDI and without glitches if I turn LOCAL CONTROL OFF. I really think that this is something really easy to implement on a firmware update in the future.
I am trying to use the SubPhatty with the arpeggiator on my Elektron Analog 4 by routing the MIDI note messages from the SubPhatty to the Analog 4 and then feeding back the arpeggiated notes from the Analog 4 through its CV outputs (the Analog 4 doesn’t transmit note messages on the midi output). So doing it this way I loose all control of the SubPhattys knob parameters.
It seems that LOCAL CONTROL OFF is primarily intended for using the SubPhatty with DAW where you would record and loopback all MIDI data transmitted from the SubPhatty.
I really would like to be able to use the SubPhatty with an external arpeggiator. So a KBD LOCAL CONTROL OFF mode would be very useful. Please implement this in a future update!
Nice to see that others here think like me on this…
It would be an excelent addition to the Sub to have this kind of LOCAL CONTROL FILTER. It’s not very fun not being able to use it’s knobs when local control is off.
The Little Phatty does have that menu that allows to set whether the USB (resp. DIN) MIDI IN should be merged into the USB and/or DIN MIDI OUT.
Doesn’t the Sub has this? Because allowing no incoming MIDI messages to be merged would be a smart solution…
EDIT: maybe the Tx/Rx MIDI channels on the Sub should be differnet, and of course they should match the other MIDI instrumen’s.
The Sub Phatty has it. From the Sub Phatty manual …
MIDI MERGE USB
To set the MIDI Merge parameters for the USB port, engage Shift mode and press BANK 1, BANK 4, PATCH 3, and PATCH 4. Pressing the low C key will turn off MIDI merging. Pressing C# will cause data received by the USB port to pass through to the MIDI OUT jack only. Pressing D will cause data received by the USB port jack to pass through to the USB port only. Pressing D# will cause data received by the USB port jack to pass through to both the MIDI OUT jack and the USB port.
MIDI MERGE DIN
The Sub Phatty can merge MIDI data it receives with the MIDI data it transmits. You can specify the path of the merged data so that data received at either the MIDI IN jack or the USB port is passed through to the MIDI OUT jack or the USB port. To set the MIDI Merge parameters for the MIDI IN jack, engage Shift mode and press BANK 1, BANK 4, PATCH 1, and PATCH 2. Pressing the low C key will turn off MIDI merging. Pressing C# will cause data received by the MIDI IN jack to pass through to the MIDI OUT jack only. Pressing D will cause data received by the MIDI IN jack to pass through to the USB port only. Pressing D# will cause data received by the MIDI IN jack to pass through to both the MIDI OUT jack and the USB port.
I can’t try that exact setup since I don’t have StepPolyArp and although having a function like local keyboard off would be a nice feature I don’t see it as a big issue. As long as the app can echo back all midi events then there is not really a problem right?
Sometimes I have midi out from the Sub Phatty going into an M3 to drive Karma which is the same general concept. The midi generated by M3/Karma is going back to the Sub Phatty and I can use the knobs with local control off. You just need a way to echo everything back to the Sub Phatty. With an iPad app I think something like MidiBridge would help when using an app that isn’t echoing all midi data.
StepPolyArp – a great app, by the way – sends MIDI back to the Sub Phatty just fine. The problem is, the Sub Phatty is also getting MIDI notes from its own keyboard (which we are using to trigger the arpeggiator). Local Control off stops this – the Sub Phatty will only play the notes from StepPolyArp – but then you lose the knobs.
There are workarounds: you could trigger the arpeggiator from a second keyboard that’s sending MIDI in to the app; or you could play the arpeggiator from the app’s keyboard instead of the Sub Phatty’s. But “local keys off and local knobs on” is just easier to play, because the keys and the knobs are right next to each other.
The Sub Phatty transmits knob data when local control is off. If you loose the knobs then StepPolyArp is not transmitting the midi data from the knobs back to the Sub Phatty. That is the problem. As I said, you need an app that will transmit all midi data back to the Sub Phatty.
At some point I will likely get StepPolyArp or some other equivalent. I do hear a lot of good things about it.
Ah, now I understand what you were suggesting earlier. Yeah, StepPolyArp isn’t echoing anything; it’s processing notes from MIDI in (here, the Sub Phatty keyboard) and then sending a fresh stream of MIDI notes, the arpeggio, to MIDI out (here, the Sub Phatty sound engine).
As you say: this sounds like a job for MidiBridge.
It is still an issue if you are using an external ARP that transmits CV as in my case (the Analog4). Maybe not the most common of workflows… But such an option (KBD LOCAL CONTROL OFF) would still be nice to have. It seems it would actually simplify the setup if you are using a MIDI ARP as well.
If I want to use an external ARP that listens to MIDI notes from my SubPhatty and generates the arpeggiated sequence as CV (connected back into the SubPhattys Pitch and Gate CV in). Then i first of all don’t want the SubPhattys keyboard to internally control the SubPhatty since i want the notes to be controlled by the external ARP. Currently i can set the SubPhatty to LOCAL CONTROL OFF. And this kind of works. But the drawback is that this turns off all local control including the knobs. So doing it this way i loose the ability to control the knob parameters of the SubPhatty.
A mode that only turns off the local keyboard control (and not the knobs) would solve this.
Since it may be some time (if ever) that we get separate local control keyboard/knob settings we need to look at other alternatives. There are ways to make all of this work with local control off if you add a midi manager into the setup.
You have midi going from the Sub Phatty into the Analog 4 and CV back to the Sub Phatty and that is working fine. Now send the Analog 4 Midi Thru into a midi manager. A dedicated hardware manager or an iPad with the appropriate app will do. Route the midi output from the midi manager device back to the Sub Phatty Midi In but use the midi manager to filter out note events. Now all the knobs can be used as if local on was set and the Sub Phatty will not be playing the original notes.
