Please familiarise yourself with the forum, including policy on feature requests, rules & guidelines

Help with setting up other equipment with the Deluge (Grandmother, Micromonsta and Keystep)

0
Tricep3Tricep3 United KingdomPosts: 20

Hi everyone,

I've just ordered a Deluge and I'm super excited for it to arrive! In the mean time, I wanted to understand how I can incorporate it into my setup and what additional kit I need buy to make it work.

So I want to use the Deluge as my main groovebox; particularly as a drum machine, sequencer, sampler and master effects box.

Then connected to the deluge I would like 2 things with the functionality as follows:

  1. Connect a Moog Grandmother such that:

a) I can use the Deluge to midi or CV control the Grandmother on a note wise basis (effectively using the sequencer on the Deluge to play the oscillators on the Grandmother).

b) I can use the Grandmother keyboard to send MIDI notes to the Deluge (basically so I can use the Grandmother keyboard to create a live recorded sequence that is stored in the deluge that includes velocity information too).

c) I can apply the Deluge's effects to the Grandmother track.

d) I can re-sample the audio from the Grandmother to use as samples in the Deluge.

The Grandmother has a MIDI usb, DIN MIDI in, thru and out.

  1. Connect an Audiothingies Micromonsta (which is a digital wavetable synthesizer) and an Arturia Keystep to control it through the Deluge in a similar way that I described above such that the Deluge will send MIDI notes to the Micromonsta to play according to the Deluge sequencer, and the Keystep will act as a MIDI controller for the Micromonsta through the Deluge. I would also like to apply the Deluge's effects to and re-sample the Micromonsta audio output into the Deluge if that's possible too.

The Micromonsta and Keystep both have MIDI usb, DIN MIDI in, and out.

I'd like to know if this is all possible, how I could go about setting it up and what kit/wires I would need to buy to make it happen. At the moment I have zero leads/wires to connect anything and I have no MIDI or audio interfaces.

Ultimately I want to have an audio output left and right that I can either plug headphones into or a sound system.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Cheers

Comments

  • 1
    amiga909amiga909 Central EuropePosts: 1,078

    a) yes, both midi and cv work
    b -d) yes

  • 0
    Tricep3Tricep3 United KingdomPosts: 20
    edited March 2019

    Hi amiga909,

    Thanks for clarifying that this set up would work on with the Deluge.

    Are you able to describe exactly how to plug everything in for this set up?

    My guess would be:

    Keystep midi out (setup as a Midi thru) --> Moog GM Midi in

    Moog GM Midi thru --> Deluge midi in

    Deluge midi out (setup as a Midi thru) --> Micromonsta midi in

    Micromonsta midi out (setup as a Midi thru) --> Keystep midi in

    Effectively this would create a midi chain.

    Then the Keystep setup to send midi on channel 1.

    The Moog Grandmother setup to send midi on channel 2.

    The deluge setup to with 2 midi tracks to receive midi data from channel 1 and 2 respectively and send midi data on channels 3 and 2 respectively.

    The Micromonsta setup to receive midi data from channel 3.

    The Moog Grandmother setup to receive midi data from channel 2.

    Can you confirm if this would work?

    I'm still unsure how to route the audio output from the Moog Grandmother and the Micromonsta into the Deluge for resampling and using the Deluge's onboard effects on these external synths.

    Any ideas on this?

    Cheers

    Post edited by Tricep3 on
  • 0
    PagodaPagoda United StatesPosts: 2

    Did you ever get this running? I just got a Deluge and have been oh so happy with it in that its the first piece of kit that has clicked with my beginner synth brain.... I have been wondering what I could do with the Deluge and a Matriarch??? with a dash of H9 Max....
    Thanks

  • 0
    Tricep3Tricep3 United KingdomPosts: 20

    Hey Pagoda,

    Yeah I got it running using a Raspberry pi as a midi host. I put a description of how to set this up in a comment on Stephen's post here:

    http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/comment/8827#Comment_8827

    I now have my Deluge, Grandmother, Novation LaunchControl XL, Korg Nanokontrol and Microfreak all plugged into the Raspberry pi so they can all talk to each other over midi usb.

    I use the deluge to sequence the grandmother or to be the master clock so I can play the grandmother arpeggiator in sync with the track I'm playing on the Deluge. I also midi learn the grandmother keyboard to synths on the deluge so I can take advantage of the velocity sensitive keys on the grandmother that the deluge lacks.

    If you can't be arsed with setting up the raspberry pi you could buy a midi host like a Kenton or something similar.

    As for you H9 max, I'm assuming you want to use it to apply FX to your Matriarch, so just put it in the downstream audio line from your Matriarch and then run it into the line in of your Deluge. I don't know much about the H9 but if it's midi controlable you could plug it into the raspberry pi and also control it from the deluge. This can be particular good since you can automate midi cc in the deluge.

    Hope that helps.

  • 0
    MajorMajor United KingdomBeta Tester Posts: 3
    edited May 2020

    Hey Tricep3

    Are you still using a Raspberry pi as a midi host ok? One thing I was wondering, if you create a cc message by turning a filter knob on an external device does the cc message reach the deluge so you can record its automation movement?

    What I'm after doing is linking all my devices up to the deluge so that if i twist a knob on an external device such as a td3, the deluge records that movement. I know you can 'learn' stuff from a midi controller further down the chain and bind it to a cc msg but I'd prefer not to.

    I was going to try and set all this up via Din, but after seeing your Pi hub idea i thought it was pretty clean and clever!

    Anyway if anyone knows how to feed cc back to deluge as above from multiple devices please let me know.

    Thx

    Post edited by Major on
  • 0
    Tricep3Tricep3 United KingdomPosts: 20

    Hi Major,

    Yep I'm still using my Raspberry Pi as a midi host. I'm hoping to switch to just using a powered usb hub when firmware 3.1 comes out with midi hosting via USB hub capabilities.

    I just did a little test for you based on what you asked. The answer is yes, the deluge records the CC automation coming in via the external synth.

    The test I did was:

    1. Set up a midi track on the deluge to midi channel 4 and had my microfreak outputting on midi channel 4.

    2. While a bar of midi notes was playing back (and the record button pressed) I rotated the filter on the microfreak and the automation was saved into the deluge.

    To delete the automation you need to set the gold knob to the correct CC number that corresponds to the automation CC (press and hold gold knob and turn menu black knob). Then hold shift and press the gold knob to delete the automation.

    Hope that helps

  • 0
    xsterxster San FranciscoPosts: 22

    FWIW, I tried the Deluge on 3.1 with multiple external devices. Worked pretty well! The only weirdness I encountered is if you connect to a device (that sends and receives on the same channel) via both USB and MIDI, it could get into a weird infinite cycle. But that's an easy fix.

  • 0
    Tricep3Tricep3 United KingdomPosts: 20

    Hi xster,

    Did you use the deluge as a midi host for all your external devices? Did you use a usb hub to connect them? If so, how many devices did you manage to connect?

    Cheers

Sign In or Register to comment.