midi to c/v converting help?

i'm pretty clueless when it comes to controlled voltage sequencing and i really want to be able to sequence a korg mono/poly from my pc, though i would ideally like to get my hands on a hardware sequencer

ive just been looking at a Philip Rees Little MCV MIDI-CV Converter which apparently is pretty good for converting midi to both linear and logarithmic c/v controls

i understand that okd korg gear requires the linear style operation, though im not fully sure i understand what all this means in practice.

i'm gonna try and rig something up with the mono/poly and DB9 rack, hopefully i can use the pc to program the db9 which in turn will control the mono/poly ???

does anybody have experience / recommendations regarding

midi/cv convertors

affordable analogue sequencers:

the MFB step 64 sequencer

FR mobius (presumably very expensive and hard to find???)

roland mc-202

sequencing a korg mono/poly in general

roland/korg incompatibility etc

anything related to this topic greatly appreciated

ta

No direct experience, but the Novation Super Bass Station has a built in midi-cv and costs about as much as a standalone midi-cv. Plus, you get a synth.

Novation Bass Station Rack for MIDI/CV/DINSYNC conversion

FutureRetro Moebuis for hardware sequencer and also MIDI/CV/DINSYNC (if you can find one - I'm after one too, pretty rare)

you could also go for a Kenton Pro 4 MIDI-CV converter but they're also rare and quite expensive. The Pro-Solo is also good, but can only have 1 input and 1 output at a time (the Pro 4 can transmit multiple signals at once).

Roland gear transmits over DINSYNC at 24ppqn (pulse per quarter note) and Korg at 48ppqn. so if you sync up a Roland drum machine to a Korg synth direct via DINSYNC, the Korg will play at half speed and vice versa. But using a Kenton would sort that out as you can set the ppqn to 24, 48 or 96 I think...

yeah the db9 has midi/cv conversion. the day i got it i had it very crudely controlling the monopoly from a sequence in reaper.

i might be able to borrow a novation BS from a mate

i deally i want to somehow have the monopoly controlled from the pc at the same time as having the juno 6 arpegiator controlled by the tr 626 so both synths are hopefully synced to the pc midi clock

does this sound feasible??

yeah, perfectly - long as you have a MIDI soundcard and a MIDI/CV/DINSYNC converter (any of the ones I listed would be fine) then you should be able to hook it all up together no problem...

im not massively desperate to get the juno arp synced up but it sounds like fun as from what i gather you can control the length of the individual steps of the arpegio with the rimshot channel from the tr drum machines so im assuming that each rimshot will trigger the next step of the arp. so that could make for some interesting irregular arpegio fun times.

how much does a moebius go for these days, the only price i could find was surprisingly (to me) cheap (about 300) but that was from a 7 year old review (i think)

i really want to get my filthy hands on a sh202 now (buy it now £400)

this is BASICALLY a 101 combined with a mc4 style sequencer i believe

also, since mentioning an MC4, i would like to point out that this is not merely a post analord bandwagon thread lol.

i had a juno and a monopoly 10 years ago when i just plugged straight into a tascam and had no money or inclination to sequence / use in a pc setup etc cause i was even more of a pov and a massive druggy

back on topic... anybody used a dedicated midi/cv convertor. plugging straight into the korg via something like the little Rees MCV box and programming it straight from the computer sounds like a crazy fantasy. is this do-able???

the pound went to shit so you wont get a good deal on foreign stuff

400 quid is a bit much for a 202

300 quid is more reasonable

still a lot of cash tho

have u heard of roland csq 600? much cheaper £100 maybe

202 is cool but kind of awkward. you cant save the sequence. i was playing on mine for hours last night it was good fun if you can handle the difficult sequencer. it's a love it or hate it kind of machine. if you buy a 300 quid one on ebay and dont like it you could try £400ing it on ebay though... hehe

i can get you a roland mc 4a £200 + maybe £100 or more postage (from another country)

not sure if youd like it though

future retro mobius seems awesome, shame it's ebay ripoff only these days. ebay is shit

ive got 303 202 101 and a kenton pro solo so theres a nice mix of options there for doing tunes

i dunno what to recommend cos id hate telling you to spend 300 quid on something you end up hating hehe

better to try it out yourself in person first. goin to see your mate's novation would be a good idea, that machine is cheap & full of features, i wonder if it's good

http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/mc202.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CV/Gate

isnt that csq the kind of thing where you need a 1930s apple to run it (or something)

I've got a Kenton PRO-2000 and it's pretty slick. As far as the main CV and Gate outputs are concerned, the Solo seems to have all the same options. The fact that there is a built-in LFO might interest you, but I rarely use the ones in the 2000. The LFO can be sync'd to MIDI clock, so there's a plus. Probably my favorite feature is the linear portamento, which is critical for 303-style slides, which is obviously the height of synth programming. Also, the response is (just as Kenton claims) super-fast. And there's DIN Sync and Hz/V tracking, t'boot. If you can score a deal on a Pro-Solo MkII, I wouldn't hesitate. You gotta drop like $500 to top it.

106 and it has midi and it's broken for the last 5 years but i still use it :laughing:

i seen a juno 6 for £70 last year abroad. i heard it has different filter to 106 but it looks similar

hehehe probably costs £200 or some shit on ebay now

kenton charge like 450 quid to add midi to the juno 6 - ha ha ha

  Quote

i deally i want to somehow have the monopoly controlled from the pc at the same time as having the juno 6 arpegiator controlled by the tr 626 so both synths are hopefully synced to the pc midi clock

should be able to control mono poly by novation. i think the mono poly is cv/gate not v/hz. look on vintage synth or just try the novation out see if it plays your synth in tune. read that wiki page for cvgate v/hz explanation

cant you try the arpeggiator now? whats stopping you

have you got a pc midi interface

children, is it just two cv gates and then a bunch of auxiliaries?

can you use the auxiliaries as cv gates???

i have a machine that needs three cv gate plugs, wondering if the kenton can run all three

csq 600 is like 4 sh101 sequencers in one box for about £100, pretty cool.

ludd youre thinking of roland cmu

one cmu is a cv gate sequencer that runs on an ancient apple

theres a ceephax fan music guy who bought one on here... wonder if he got it working. matrix synth or some american grandpa done a video creaming over an unopened one hehehe. theres a drum machine inside it thats like a 606 and some simple melody and bass synths. weird machine

another cmu is a 101/202 kind of mono synth in a box. looks wicked. never tried either cmus. some ebay guy tried hustling £300 for one early last year

My mate had a Phil Rees MIDI/CV like this one....

and it's still in the bottom of my 'tool shed' box cos it was a total piece of garbage and had a lag so bad it was almost unusable. He had two of these units and both were the same.

One of the best MIDI to CV converters to get that is on the Waldorf Pulse+ which although dont come up that often go for around £250. .

It also works for htz/v for Korg and also has an extra CV out which can have any of the mod sources from inside the Pulse (velocity, envelope, LFO, ect) outputting an extra control source. You can even have the Pulse on a separate MIDI channel than the CV converter so you can run you vintage alongside playing a different part.

Of the analogue sequencers you've mentioned the Mobius is one to go for although it is discontinued now another good alternative would be a 2nd hand Revolution and have it modded with an accent CV output however it is V/oct so it won't work with your Korg but is one of the most fluid analoge pattern sequencers around, it also has a sync24 output.

Have you checked the http://www.doepfer.de/home_e.htm stuff?

i was given a pulse, ive never had a power cable for it though.

  messiaen said:

i was given a pulse, ive never had a power cable for it though.

Standard 12V get it done!

Not the warmest sounding analogue but a hell of a synth and capable of some really crazy shit, I used to spend hours going though the random patch with a bit of delay.

The interface can be awkward but its a very underrated synth with a lot of balls, really makes you aware that you ain't playing with some VST.

chunky, it looks as though the Kenton PRO-Solo can only generate one gate in a straightforward manner. Check the manual: http://www.kentonuk.com/kmanualspdf/psolo2man.pdf

If you need a bunch of gates, then the 2000 would be the way to go (if you're thinking Kenton). You can set each of the AUX outputs to respond to just about any MIDI message, it's super flexible. The latest firmware even supports polyphonic conversion. I usually just use one channel of CV/Gate (it has two dedicated channels) and a couple of the Auxiliary outputs for velocity control and shit like that... Works a treat, as they say.

on the 2000, can you use the auxiliaries as cv or gate outputs?

  chunky said:

on the 2000, can you use the auxiliaries as cv or gate outputs?

Oh, yeah. They can put out triggers for drums and LFO sync, as well. Very handy.

i see a Kenton 2000 in my future

Just picked up a Doepfer Dark Link, really good no lag at all. Midi coming from a mpc 2500 - Dark link - SH-101. Haven't tried usb yet, but it does have a few bells and whistles I.e. Glide pot, midi learn function, extra cv for external control.

http://www.doepfer.de/Dark_Link_e.htm

A Mono/Poly, huh? According to page 3 of its manual, it's 1V/oct, not 1kHz/volt. This is excellent news: it's compatible with Moog, Roland, Doepfer, etc. Bear in mind it'll just be in unison mode, but the single set of inputs is a dead giveaway of that anyway. :)

Yeah, pretty much any MIDI to CV converter should be able to do what you're after. Hardware sequencer wise, it should work with pretty much all of them too, from the Roland MC-8 all the way to the Doepfer MAQ16/3. (It should even work with Stepper Acid, heh!)

So you can ignore what you've been told about some Korg (and Yamaha) gear using 1kHz/volt, as while it's true that some of their synths do that, this one uses the much more popular Moog standard of 1V/oct instead.

Well, it been 5 years. I'm sure he's got it sorted.

Anyone have any experience with these? Seems like the greatest number of outputs per penny.

What are you using for a sound card? I have been using Volta and Silent Way for MIDI-CV with a MOTU Traveler for a while and they both work great. There is a slight trade off in voltage scale, I think the Traveler can only output +/- 7V, but the convenience has been well worth it to me. The catch is you need to have a DC coupled interface.

Otherwise, I will also put in for the Kenton Pro-2000. I haven't used one myself but i know enough cats who have to feel comfortable recommending it.

  On 1/15/2014 at 9:52 PM, jsswhtny said:

What are you using for a sound card? I have been using Volta and Silent Way for MIDI-CV with a MOTU Traveler for a while and they both work great. There is a slight trade off in voltage scale, I think the Traveler can only output +/- 7V, but the convenience has been well worth it to me. The catch is you need to have a DC coupled interface.

i would definitely try the expert sleepers route first, since it is essentially a midi to cv converter but also lets you send out LFO cvs and things like that. Although i don't know if Volta is required, i've been doing things like sending out clock and note/pitch 1v/octave using my motu traveler soundcard just fine

Ah, yes, I didn't see how old the thread was. XD