Astrolab to Roland MC-50 sequence recording issues

Lab AstroLab
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#1

I connected my Astrolab-61 to an old Roland MC-50 sequencer with the old school MIDI cables (rather than USB), and set the Roland up to record. I turned off the clock sync on the Astrolab so that the Roland would not trigger the built in recorded sequence. I then tried to record a sequence on the Roland, but it seems like either:

· the Roland is only recording a few notes of what I am playing, or
· The Astrolab is not receiving all notes, even though they are recorded.

I realize I’m a bit unclear here. It looks more like the latter item is what is happening. When I scrub through the recorded notes on the Roland, it looks like all notes get recorded, but not all play. [The Roland clock is set to 96PPQN as far as I can tell.]

I’m assuming at this point that there must be other things between the two devices that need to be turned off in order to correctly recording sequences. Either that, or the MIDI in/out on the Astrolab is better through USB than the old school MIDI 5-pin cords.

Does anyone have experience in using older hardware-based sequencers, or can give me some advice? Thanks!

& Yes I have access to other sequencing programs. I just want my old Roland to work!

Addendum: I don’t have the same problem recording from my Prophet XL. The Roland records the Prophet with no issues whatsoever. I haven’t checked my Nord Stage 2 HA88, but it probably works too.

#2

I still use my AKAI MPC4000 as my main hardware MIDI sequencer (and sampler!). MIDI In/Out (5-pin) of AstroLab to MIDI Out/In of MPC.
I can record and playback MIDI tracks using AstroLab, and all the notes are recorded and played back.

My typical AstroLab MIDI setup for this configuration:

  • Settings , MIDI In/Out:
    • Secondary MIDI Channel: All
    • Keyboard Channel: 3 (or anything other than 1 and 2 that use for Part1 and Part2, so that the keyboard doesn’t play the parts internally, like a Local Off mode)
    • MIDI Out Filter: Keyboard Only
  • Preset MIDI settings (Shift+Split):
    • Part1 Input Channel: 1
    • Part2 Input Channel: 2
      (this must be saved for each user preset; Factory presets that default Part input channel to All will still play on any channel, whether from MIDI, USB or the keyboard)

This way, with user Multi presets, going through the MPC, selecting any track on Ch1 plays Part1 and any track on Ch2 plays Part2, and other channels do not play anything on AstroLab.

Note that I use the exact same setup when using Ableton Live as the DAW/Sequencer via USB/MIDI.

#3

I did try your settings, and unfortunately for me they did not work. I have the same issues. I can still record perfectly from my Prophet.

I can further illuminate the problems though. A few notes do record, but what I also have notices is that it seems the sustain pedal CC seems to be kicking on specific notes—or what may be happening is that the notes that sustain may not be getting note off signals. I have looked at the “microscope” view of the MIDI stream and don’t see any errant continuous controller information being recorded.

I’ll try again to make sure I’ve covered everything you’d told me. I might have missed something.

#4

Ah, I don’t know about the MC-50, but on the MPC, there’s an option to “convert sustain pedal to duration”, and when this is enabled, some notes get stuck when playing fast and using the sustain pedal a lot, which does not happen in normal mode ( “convert sustain pedal to duration”: OFF).