Missing feature: playing the K37 without arping or sequencing

I answered the Arturia survey on K37 but the space to explain was scarce. Hence this post.

In my setup, K37 is the Master. It controls the Microfreak through midi, sends clock to Beatstep pro and Matrixbrute. The BST sends clock and midi (drumtrack) to Drumbrute (set to midi or clock). When I hit Play on K37 everything is in sync to K37 tempo-rate.

The problem: if I want to play a chord or notes on the K37 (controlling the Microfreak by midi), it will either be arped or sequenced.
As a workaround, I tried an empty sequence with Overdub but K37 does not send midi if the sequence is empty. :confused:

When in sequence mode you can have the sequence play one midi channel and jam along on the keyboard on either same or different channel.

See chapter “3.2.2. Keyboard Play” in manual :slight_smile:

Thank you for answering, jkspost!

It helps me formulate precisely what I would like: I’m really asking for the Play button to simply send clock while not sending Seq or Arp. I don’t know if it’s technically possible.

My problem is: I’m using K37 as master. I must hit Play on K37 (BST is in Clk mode).
K37 must be either in Arp or Seq mode. The Arp or the Seq is necessarily sent to whatever the instrument I want to control in Kbd Play mode. If you change channel nothing is sent (Seq and Kbd Play) to the target instrument whether it’s a plugin or an external synth. In other words you can’t separate the Arp or Seq channel from the Kbd Play channel.
Kbd Play mode allows you play over a Seq or Arp hence the Seq or Arp will be played.

I could also interchange K37 and BST with the latter (BST) as master. But I use the K37 more frequently than the BST. It is worth a try.

Making the BST master helps in my setup since BST can manage different channels independently.
I still thing for people with only K37 that it should be able to trigger clock without triggering Arp or Seq.

I presume Keystep Pro allows this possibility.

Yes I also have my K37 slaved, but to a Keystep Pro though.

At least I can press the play/pause on the K37 while the KSP/master clock runs and it’s possible to play the K37 without the arp/seq running - I just press play/pause again and it will be in sync with the KSP/master clock once again. Just avoid the stop button on the K37 if slaved, else it will sync off beat once play is pressed - unless your timing is really good :slight_smile:

This discussion has been fruitful to me, jkspost.

Now BST pro is the master and it’s better since I sometimes use Analog Lab standalone with different midi channels for Seq1 and Seq2. BST pro and Keystep pro are probably better Masters.

The Kstep Pro was not out when Arturia gave me a rebate for a dead Spark controller still under warranty.

But I still can’t get K37 to work the way you do. When I hit Play on BST pro, K37 starts playing Arp or Seq. It may be that the K37 is in Clock mode. And it has to be since the K37 sends Clock to other synths (MicroFreak, then to DrumBrute).

“I presume Keystep Pro allows this possibility.” - no it works the same way as the K37 and BST I believe - seq’s and arp will always run when play is lit up.

In my setup K37 will always start playing/sync to clock when I hit play on KSP. There is no way around - this as soon as the K37 receives midi clock it “starts”. (provided that the dip switches on the back is set to USB or Midi depending on how it is connected)

When set to arp mode and no keys are pressed then no midi channel data is sent. So if I just want to play the K37 keys freely I just hit the pause button and sort of “bypassing” the arp/seq mode that way.

If it is not already the case, I would suggest to make sure only one device is sending out the midi clock (I think your BST should work fine for that ) and all other devices are just slaved to this one device.
You might want to set Midi “out” to “through” on other devices in your midi signal chain if they are connected in serial.

One last note - If you set the K37 's dip switches on the back to “Sync In” mode you cannot use the “play/pause” button. It wil stay lit when syncing no matter what.

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Ok, I thought KSP worked like the BSTP.

If I get you right, you’re suggesting I daisy chain my synths through Midi instead of Clock.
It does work. Sync (time) is sent through midi. When I press Pause on K37, I can play on the keyboard without Arp/Seq. I don’t need to daisy chain all synths since clock can be sent to synths needing only clock. Midi concerns only BSTP, K37 and DRumBrute if I want to send the BSTP drum track to DrumBrute.

So, problem solved!

Thank you jkspost for your solution (midi daisy chain some synths instead of using clock).
I tried to edit the post title to add solved to no avail.