I’ve seen this issue posted by other users, but haven’t been able to find anyone who has answered with a solution.
I’m using Logic Pro with Polybrute Connect, although have seen the same issue reported by users of various DAWs…
So, I can successfully record and playback only some control data - e.g. pitch bend, aftertouch - from the Polybrute 12 into Logic. If I try to record ribbon data, for example. it doesn’t work, although frustratingly, if I monitor the event window when recording, I can see the ribbon data briefly flashing up and then instantly disappearing!
The only way that I can get any non-standard controls to record is by enabling “Polybrute VST” within Logic (against Arturia’s recommendation) and it will then record whichever expression is played as automation data. However, even with this method, when playing back, the modulation has no affect on the patch (despite the correct movements showing on the Polybrute Connect VST).
Does anyone have a solution to this? It seems inconceivable that this issue could be left unfixed, given that the expression capabilities are one of the main selling points of the synth.
Not new this issue. This is from the legacy forum in 2022:
I think the MIDI data management needs a little more attention.
For what I need the PB for would be the option to make the seq/arp NOT to start automatically when (in my case) it gets a “Start”, “Stop”, “Continue”, or “Song Position” data from the MPCX.
I use a filterbox to prohibit this data flow. Works fine, but…
Backdraw: I need to set the LFO almost always to “retrigger” as the LFO runs in “Mono”/“Poly” at its own start point, resulting in a shifted LFO start - somewhere. A very narrow minded setting of the seq/arp - I would call it.
And I need to be precise, as there is no quantizing help for Note On - legacy of the analogue synth world
In a nutshell: A MIDI filter setting to ignore “Start”/“Stop” for the sequencer and arp, but keep them in sync.
Same issue for me with Logic. I also use Personus Studio One, and morphee controller, morph button, ribbon are correctly recorded as well as correctly played back (and by the way, the poly aftertouch editor of Studio One is very efficient, vs quite unusable in Logic).
Nevertheless, I have another problem on both DAW: sustain pedal is not recognized when I link Polybrute connect to the synth. As soon as I disconnect Polybrute connect, the sustain pedal works ok.
Polybrute 12 is certainly a great synth, impressive, but those midi bugs are serious problems for such a great machine. I use the word “bug” intentionally since it is clearly written in the manual that all midi cc’s can be midi transmitted and received by the synth. Which was clearly false for many years…
I’m getting the same behaviour with the PB12 in Logic. If I set Enable Midi CC on Knobs to “On” on the Polybrute, the Midi CC from Ribbon and Murphy do get recorded correctly into Logic. However, when the midi clip plays back, the midi data seems to be ignored and the controllers don’t play back.
I tried both with Polybrute VST midi port enabled and disabled in logic.
If i do set “Enable Midi CC on Knobs” to “Off” on the Polybrute Midi CC#6 gets recorded using the ribbon.
In the Polybute Connect VST the Ribbon controller and morphé do move accordingly, when playing back the midi clip, but strangely the polybrute doesn’t seem to react!
Would be great, if this could be fixed! The controls on the polybrute are one if not the key feature, so there should be a way to record these correctly and have them playback.
We did dig into these issues a few months ago, but I can’t remember all the details of how the interactions worked between PolyBrute Connect, MIDI CCs, and recording the automation in a DAW (Ableton, for me).
When I messed with this recently, it surprised me by actually working the way I wanted it to. When I get some time later today, I’ll fire it up again and see if I can refresh my memory.
just checking in, if you had a chance to re-check, if the midi cc and automation work correctly in your daw?
I tried some more and so far, I am able to record all the midi cc data from ribbon and morphé into logic or Ableton. However when I play back the clips, the polybrute does not react / read the midi ccs (9, 89, 114, 115). Modwheel pitch and expression as well as aftertouch work fine however.
The polybrute app does react when I touch the ribbon or morph on the polybrute, and the virtual controller move accordingly. however same thing once the recorded clip is played back, the ribbon and morph controllers are ignored.
I can however select “ribbon” or “morphé” from the list of controls of the polybrute connect plugin in the automation in logic or Ableton. When I manually write some automation in there, the polybrute does playback the ribbon and the controller moves accordingly in the polybrute connect app.
So I have the impression, the there is some problem with the midi implementation in the polybrute. that the ribbon controller will send out cc#9, but doesn’t react to midi cc#9.
I just tried again, and I think I’m seeing the same thing as you. With no Polybrute Connect loaded, Ableton records the MIDI CC data envelopes for the controls, but the PolyBrute does not use them when playing the clip back.
When using Polybrute Connect, recording and playing works fine, but it records the data as PolyBrute Connect envelopes, not MIDI CC.
So that is interesting. You say that the ribbon and morphé controllers automation does indeed get recorded via the connect plugin into your daw?
You can edit the recorded automation and during playback, the polybrute does react accordingly?
For me in Logic it does not record these parameters along with the midi notes.
However when manually creating automation points for the ribbon for example, the polybrute does react accordingly during playback.
When „settings/midi/enablemidiccforencoders is enabled, the standart midi ccs do get recorded but the polybrute does not react to these during playback. Neither when the connect app is being used on the daws channel nor when just using a midi track and adressing the polybrutes midi port.
I also tried to sent midi cc 9 for the ribbon from another synth directly to the polybrute. the polybrute does not react either.
So to recap, there seems to be two modes:
midi cc for encoders off for use with the polybrute connect app (via the polybrute vst midi port). The ribbon movements do not get recorded into the daw but automation from the daw is being read by the polybrute during plackback.
midi cc for the encoders on, where the polybrute sents standart cc messages that record into the daw, but the polybrute does not react to these midi cc‘s.
So in both cases we have a one way communicatiln between the daw and the synth.
These play back properly. I’m not sure what the underlying functionality is that produces both envelopes at once, but I assume PolyBrute only responds correctly to the PolyBrute Connect envelopes, since when these are edited (or created from scratch), it responds as expected too.
EDIT: I also don’t see a way to manually generate a new PolyBrute Connect envelope that wasn’t already generated by recording automation. When I tweaked Master Cutoff, it generated an envelope for that, which I could then edit. But it doesn’t show a full list of all available controls to select and make your own for any PolyBrute control.
thanks for your investigation. That made it a lot clearer and now I think, I finally figured it out and got it working:
So it is like you said, the Polybrute only communicates the controller information between the polybrute connect app via arteries internal nprn messages. it ignores the midi cc messages for internal use. the midi cc messages can be generates from the polybrute controllers to control other vst plugins or hardware synths.
So in the polybrute under settings / midi / enable cc on knobs you ca turn off these midi cc messages if you just want to record and edit your polybrute midi.
In your daw (logic in my case) you record-enable the midi track which has the polybrute connect plugin inserted AND you also have to record enable automation! So put the track either in write / touch or latch mode in order to record the polybrutes performance controllers.
In logic when I enable show track automation, I can select the polybrute connect vst plugin and it gives me a full list of all parameters to choose from, so I can manually creat automation lanes and make creat automation data which does get played back correctly by the polybrute!
So what I missed and got me confused is that when just recording your midi data, the controllers do no get recorded, these only get recorded when track automation is enabled.
That seems to be the trick!
In logic you can then chose wether to copy the automation from the track to the midi clip, to move it along the midi clip in our arrangement window.
In Ableton I checked briefly and also saw all the automation parameters available for the polybrute connect. You should be able to select and create from scratch automation data for the polybrute controllers.
I hope this cleared things up your others who had the same issue as well!
Let me know, if you got it working now.
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