Beatstep + iPad: help!

[depuratumba]

hi everyone! I just got a beatstep and went from excited to dissapointed in a little while... not the Beatstep's fault I presume, but this is my scenario:

first, what I need: I'm beta-testing an iPad app wich has 3 sound engines - each with identical controls (2xOSC, Amp envelope, filter, fx, etc.).
my idea was to map (some of those) parameters to different templates, so I could be able to use template 1 (MIDI CH1) to control SYNTH 1, template 2 (MIDI CH2) to control SYNTH 2,  and so on.
considering I have 16 templates, I also wanted to control some other apps too.

So... I configured a few encoders from template 1 to ch 1, and a few from template 2 to ch 2.
The problem is, if I keep the encoder modes to "absolute" the encoders still jump (and they share a value, from 1 to 127, regardless of the template/MIDI CH).

the relative modes doesn't seem to work, as they go 0-127 (in 1 step) or 63-65, or 0-1.... I thought they were meant for something else - to do increments and decrements thru the whole 0-127 range...

so, I'm wondering... is this something that should be adressed from the developer's side? are ther any solutions?

I hope you can help me out

thanks!

[Koshdukai]

Relative mode must be supported by the receiving MIDI target, in this case, by the iPad instrument app. If it doesn't understand the MIDI Relative Inc/Dec protocol(s) then there's no workaround from the controller side.

Absolute is usually used because that's the standard way to send/receive CC values, problem is, as you found out, as is the nature of blind sending absolute values, that causes parameter value jumps on the receiving end. That's really not Beatstep's (or any other MIDI controller) fault... that's how MIDI works, if relative mode isn't supported on both ends.

Some synths allow alternative modes to deal with the parameter value "jumping" issue, either by allowing a "pick-up" where it'll ignore any incoming values until they reach the current parameter value, only following them after that. This avoids parameter jumping but is sometimes annoying to some users where it looks like the control isn't working at first, because nothing's happening on the synth... unless trying the extremes to allow it to "pick-up" the values being sent.
Another mode is to do a progressive relative "jump" towards the current value and the one being sent until they match. After that, it'll work on a 1:1 relation.

Other controllers allow synths/DAWs to send them all the current CC values, "syncing" the instrument global state to the controller state. But like the relative mode, this needs both, the instrument/DAW and the controller to support that.

[depuratumba]

Relative mode must be supported by the receiving MIDI target, in this case, by the iPad instrument app. If it doesn't understand the MIDI Relative Inc/Dec protocol(s) then there's no workaround from the controller side.

Absolute is usually used because that's the standard way to send/receive CC values, problem is, as you found out, as is the nature of blind sending absolute values, that causes parameter value jumps on the receiving end. That's really not Beatstep's (or any other MIDI controller) fault... that's how MIDI works, if relative mode isn't supported on both ends.

Some synths allow alternative modes to deal with the parameter value "jumping" issue, either by allowing a "pick-up" where it'll ignore any incoming values until they reach the current parameter value, only following them after that. This avoids parameter jumping but is sometimes annoying to some users where it looks like the control isn't working at first, because nothing's happening on the synth... unless trying the extremes to allow it to "pick-up" the values being sent.
Another mode is to do a progressive relative "jump" towards the current value and the one being sent until they match. After that, it'll work on a 1:1 relation.

Other controllers allow synths/DAWs to send them all the current CC values, "syncing" the instrument global state to the controller state. But like the relative mode, this needs both, the instrument/DAW and the controller to support that.

very informative, thank you... as I suspected, I won't be able to use it as I intended
I'll try to push for these feature to be implemented...