Ext. keyboard won't trigger recording to tape

OP-1
#1

Hi everyone,


I’m using external keyboard via Ableton to play the OP-1 and have two questions:
- when holding rec button on OP-1 and play notes on the ext. keyboard, the tape won’t start recording. I have to simultaneously press rec+play to record which sometimes makes it difficult to start on point. Anything I can do to trigger recording automatically as it is when I’m using the OP-1 keyboard?

- the second issue I have is with Ableton and endless seq. While my ext. keyboard is connected via Ableton to the OP-1, the endless seq acts weird - when switched on and triggered by any key (either internal keyboard or external) the pattern doesn’t play only the sequenced notes, but goes up in circles until it reaches the highest possible octave. Any help here?

Thanks and greetz from Poland!




#2

About the 1st issue, I feel your pain. I thought I’d be able to use a mpd to trigger drums as well as Rec via iconnect on the op but no. So I had to go back to the op1 keyboard. Still on the look for a fix for this

#3

Thanks lefilou, good to know it’s not something I’m doing wrong.

#4
I use Bitwig as my DAW, so these instructions will work for anyone using Bitwig, however I’m sure you can do the same thing with another DAW.

In Bitwig open “Preferences”, navigate to the “Controllers” tab and select “Add controller manually”. Select the “Generic” category and “Keyboard + 8 Device Knobs (CC 20 - 27). For the MIDI input of that device select the “OP-1 Midi Device”. Now select “Add controller manually” again, and select the “Generic” category. This time though, select “MIDI Clock Transmitter”. For the MIDI output of that device select the “OP-1 Midi Device”.

Create a new MIDI track in Bitwig and add a “Hardware Instrument” to the track (It can be found under the “Routing” category). Set the MIDI out to “OP-1 Midi Device” and set the MIDI channel to “1”.

We’re all set up in the DAW, so now let’s set up the OP-1.

Open the Metronome menu and rotate the green encoder until you are in the “sync” setting. Now press “Shift + COM” and continue holding shift, rotate the blue encoder until you have set the midi channel to “1”.

Now arm the track in Bitwig and hit record, play your sequence and the MIDI will be recorded into your new track. Clean up the pattern if needed and now lets get it back into the OP-1.

Go into the “Tape” menu on the OP-1, hold “Record” and hit “Play” in Bitwig. Your pattern should now be getting recorded to the tape on your OP-1.

TL;DR
The OP-1 needs to receive the MIDI start command to trigger the recorder.