despite the improvement in the new firmware concerning the mono recording, there are still a few issues that affect the mono mode.
IN SEQ MODE
while just playing, holding the notes with HOLD will just send new note on events, and will send note off for each only when toggle HOLD button off. this means that any synth will produce more notes despite the mono setting.
IN ARP MODE
1) mono mode doesn't steal notes (no note off event is sent pressing a second note)
Scenario: in arp mode, transport stopped or running, I press MUTE and HOLD in order to have a mono or poly drone (nice feature!). I play more notes, expecting to behave according to the mono-poly mode ( as in SEQ mode, it doesn't):
2) unHOLDING notes should send note off for each notes pressed, but instead it sends note off ONLY for the last key(s) pressed at once. this is interesting because if I press more notes at once, the correct off messages will be sent for each of those, while any previously pressed notes are "forgotten" by the machine. In case of only one last pressed note, evidently only one note off is sent.
3) unMUTING, logically it should launch the arp, (but it doesn't) or at least send note off events and release the drones before launching the arp. (checked in the midi console) note LEDs are off so one would think nothing is still on, but instead all notes are still up on the synth.
in all those cases mono synths once again will be playing previous notes pressed until it's pressed again in a normal state (any state that sends note off event) and therefore unstucking the note.
4) Another notable consequence is that these troubles affect also CV settings, which are less evident but nonetheless impactful. Lots of times, by modulating synths with CV I found both PITCH and VELO/MOD stuck on previous values.
on a funny side I never enjoyed using a ALL NOTES OFF command so much on a sequencer.
BUT
in order to use this command, I have to stop the transport, making it useless on live situations.
I understand that in the sending machine no notes are really still on, because it's just on/off commands and no actual toggles, but logically there's no way for any receiving device to guess what needs to be set off in any of the cases depicted here.
Hope that this compendium can help the devs at ARTURIA. it's really a good product, make it foolproof and you'll see it on stages more.
thanks.
E.
