DP24 as a MIDI control surface

[Wyshwood]

Having connected the DP24 as a surface control for FL studio, I discover some sliders get over-written at what appears to be the 16th assignment. Should I suppose this means the unit is limited to 16 assigns, matching 16 MIDI channels?
How can I overcome this perceived limitation and get multiple assignments per channel?

 

[Wyshwood]

No worries, chaps. I got a Nektar P1 to integrate with the DAW

 

[Sam Trenholme]

If anyone gets one of an older DP-24 or DP-32 with MIDI to work as a control surface, let us know. My impression is that they were never designed to be a control surface; they are standalone recorders.

 

[Wyshwood]

I have the older DP24. It works after a fashion via MIDI thru my audio controller. Trouble is it is very limited, to 16 channels of information, and it is very temperamental. There is a YT video explaining the process, but with a different DAW, and that worked fine for the engineer. FL has no support for this combination, but does for the P1, hence my change of heart. Still using the DP24 tho because I love that way of working.

 

[-mjk-]

Using Cakewalk Sonar, I was able to get my DP-32 to control 8 channels of faders and pans. Since those 8 channels can be moved around the tracks, that does not appear to be a major limitation, since I usually only write a few tracks at a time in mixdown automation. For the control-surface definition, I have to use a Generic type, and the preset that seems to work best is Akai, but there is no Tascam preset. I'd like to find one! I know other DAWs do support Tascam surfaces.

Virtually every parameter on the DP-32 outputs MIDI data, and if you look at the MIDI implementation documentation, there is indeed MIDI control for everything. I'm going to attempt to go parameter-by-parameter and have the control-surface plugin learn as much as I can get it to learn.

Once I am better acquainted with how it all works, what I really want to do is to use the DAW to MIDI record Mixdown data from the DP-32 and to control the DP machine using MIDI for mixing in the DP machine and not on the computer.

I read that some have gotten 16 channels to work, but the max number I can get is 8. I believe that is because the DP-32 has 8 mono tracks. What I haven't tried yet, is changing stereo tracks to mono, which would give me 20 mono faders. I'll try a new blank song with all mono tracks and see how that works as a control-surface. I'll report back later.

 

[hilltopstudios]

I have a SD model so I can't check this but every control knob or slider should be on the same MIDI channel. I would plug the DP-24 into the computer and run MIDI Ox (the Swiss Army knife of MIDI) and by moving every controller one at a time it would tell you what channel and Controller Code (CC) it was transmitting as well as the range of those controllers . MIDI Ox is free but if you find it useful please donate to keep it being updated.

http://www.midiox.com/

 

[-mjk-]

Don't need to do that. The MIDI implementation chart tells the complete picture.

 

[-mjk-]

OK, I tried creating a new blank song (after resetting to a known state, per Phil Tipping), and then changed all the stereo tracks to mono. Then I tried to use the now-configured-mono faders as individual track faders on 20 channels. No dice. What happens is, the first 8 faders control 8 individual channels on the DAW. But, once you go past 8 and onto 9/10, that single fader controls 1/2, then 11/12 control 3/4, etc., in pairs, out to the last fader 31/32 in repeating groups of 4 physical faders. Trying to "learn" individual track control with the stereo faders doesn't seem to work. But, it could be useful to control stereo pair tracks in the DAW perhaps.

 

[-mjk-]

The DP machines use different channels to perform functions, and also the Bank parameter to select channels in groups of 8, and the 8 inputs. Interesting to note that every effect type and preset is selectable, including user presets.