Changing MIDI channel with the hardware

[MartinH76]

Hi -

I must be missing something obvious, because I can't for the life of me get the MIDI channel to change by holding down the Chan button and hitting a pad.  No matter which pad I choose, it doesn't change the channel the Beatstep is sending on.  In Ableton Live, if I set up a few channels with different MIDI inputs to check if they receive the data, only the channel receiving on channel 1 works no matter which pad I select whilst holding the Chan button down on the Beatstep.

I thought it was possibly a Mavericks thing, so I tried testing with AniMg on my iPad by changing the input channel from 1 to 2 in AniMg, and then changing the output on the Beatstep from 1 to 2, but like Live, it also doesn't receive any data after the change from channel 1.  The Beatstep only seems to ever send data on Channel 1.  I can successfully get the sequencer to send on a separate channel, but I want to be able to cycle through the MIDI channels in CTRL mode to record to different channels in Live.  Any ideas?

[teceem]

Sounds like there's something wrong with your beatstep. Pressing chan & hitting a pad changes the global channel for me, every time. Did you install the latest firmware?

[MartinH76]

Yeah, and I just re-downloaded and reinstalled it before making that post, in case that was the problem.  Bummer if I've got a faulty one; guess I'll be taking it back tomorrow and hoping there are some more in stock so I don't have to wait for another delivery, unless anyone else replies with a fix.

[turbo_kev]

I just tried changing the midi channel  and it DONT work for me

I load up any of the v3 collection synths in stand alone mode
and the only way the beatstep controls the synth is if the midi channel is set to All
if I change it to any other number 1-16  then hit the CHAN button and select the same channel it don't work

I also have the latest firmwear installed

[MartinH76]

Thanks turbo_kev - it's handy to know I'm not the only one.  I'm going to pop into Soundware (local music tech store where I bought the Beatstep) tonight to see if their display model behaves the same as mine.  I'll update this thread after I've found out more.

In the meantime can anyone else confirm they have the same problem?  To test, set up a few MIDI channels in your DAW with a dedicated MIDI channel input to each one, then see if your Beatstep changes the channel it sends to as you go through the Chan + pads to change the global MIDI channel. 

Just to recap what is happening here, the SEQ mode is able to send to a separate channel to CTRL mode when I change it in the MIDI Control Centre, but changing the global MIDI channel for CTRL mode by using the hardware is not working at all.  It doesn't even seem to change when I set the global MIDI in the Control Centre - it always outputs data to MIDI channel 1.

[Terrym]

Hi, i have been testing beatstep for a few months now and this is a known issue .i have reported this to arturia. they said they fixed this in an earlier firmware but its not working for me.
i will send ben an email

regards

terrym

[MartinH76]

Thanks for the confirmation terrym.  Hope they can get an update out before May - I was hoping to use this for a couple of gigs I have, but can't with this MIDI problem.

[Terrym]

Hi ok i spoken to ben and to get beatstep to play on a different channel go to midi control centre and in the performance data sequencer channel set this to global then in the global channel set to what midi channel you need and then save and check the mcc to make sure its not changed .
just tested this and it works ok .
sorry for the confusion  as I've been too busy testing spark2 to work this one out .

regards

terry

[MartinH76]

No probs - I've not got it with me at the moment but I'll test that out tonight.  I'm pretty sure I've already tried it with those settings and it didn't make any difference to me being able to change MIDI channel with the Chan button + pads, but I could be wrong.  I spent so long trying different things and checking different settings this might be the one configurations I didn't try!

Fingers crossed! 

[MartinH76]

terrym - I've just reread your post and that doesn't address the same issue I'm having.  According to all the promo videos I've seen, you should be able to change the MIDI channel via the hardware using the Chan button + pads 1-16.  The tip you've provided is how to set the channel in the MCC.  I want/need to be able to change the channel via the hardware, on the fly, while playing or recording.

I popped into Soundware on my way home tonight and their display model, which is straight out of the box, has exactly the same problem.  We updated the firmware while I was there and tried changing the settings in the MCC Performance Data to Global as terry suggested, but everything still only sends on channel 1.

As I mentioned earlier, changing the Sequencer Mode MIDI channel works fine in the MCC, but the CTRL Mode MIDI channel can't be changed on the hardware with the Chan button and pads, even though all the promo videos I've seen suggest this should be possible.

[Terrym]

Hi , i will try to explain what to do to get beatstep to be able to change channels using beatstep only you need to open mcc and changed sequencer to global and then all pad where the channel number is to global and the control knobs as well if you wish to control that synth ,then press sync and save name your template then save to a memory .remember all memories are different .this means you can set it up to a  synth that you want to control. turn off mcc making sure you have synced up first.
then you should be able to changed to what channel you want in beatstep.

hope this is clear ,get back to me if you need more help.

terrym

[MartinH76]

That's sorted it!  Wonderful, thank you so much for that explanation!  I'd assumed that changing the MIDI channel in the hardware would reset all the pads/channels to the selected channel, regardless of what the MCC had them set to.  It makes sense having to set each individual pad to Global, now that I know that's what you need to do.  It's not made very clear though.  I'm also a bit surprised that it doesn't come pre-programmed like that, rather than having everything set to MIDI channel 1 out of the box.

Now for some fun!  Thanks again terrym!   

[Terrym]

Hi, it does come out of the box with a few of the memories set to all global but the reason its not on all is so you can control say 3 different synths at the same time .you could have the sequencer playing  the minv and the cv gate playing min brute and the pads to trigger ableton live parts and the knobs for another synths controls . on top of that you can set it to sync with your daw or spark in standalone.

regards

terry

[teceem]

That's sorted it!  Wonderful, thank you so much for that explanation!  I'd assumed that changing the MIDI channel in the hardware would reset all the pads/channels to the selected channel, regardless of what the MCC had them set to.  It makes sense having to set each individual pad to Global, now that I know that's what you need to do.  It's not made very clear though.  I'm also a bit surprised that it doesn't come pre-programmed like that, rather than having everything set to MIDI channel 1 out of the box.

Now for some fun!  Thanks again terrym!   

He's a better mind reader than me. 

[MartinH76]

Yeah, that makes sense terrym.  I honestly thought mine was broken though!  At least now I know how to get the channel switches working I can figure out how much of it I want to be globally switchable, and how much I want to be set to a certain channel.

Thanks again!