Sending CC automation to OTO Machines BIM/BAM on 2.3.2 RC: edit, figured out

[kpv]

Hello,

I'm having trouble automating any parameters on my beloved OTO boxes. I had no problem making the BIM freeze sequentially when I sequenced it with Reaper. I want to do the same with Bitwig, but there doesn't seem to be any way for me to make it work. I have absolutely no problem with sequencing CC automation on my Novation PEAK.

BIM is on channel 5, BAM on 6, neither of them have CC filtered, BIM has midi clock filtered. Has anyone here managed to do it? What I'm doing is simply creating an new instrument, place hardware instrument within it and set it to corresponding midichannel, and selecting, for instance, CC 28, which is Freeze on BIM, and draw in the automation where I want it to take place within the arranger. Nothing happens on BIM, no freeze, and no other CC seems to work. Same story with BAM, but I had no problems with Reaper... what am I possibly doing wrong here?

Edit: I managed to make it work after all - like everything else I've come across in Bitwig. However, I don't really know what I did to make it work, other than restarting the the machines and making the curves more square-y instead of drawing them.

After spending some time with Bitwig and OTO, after I got the CC automation to work, I can highly recommend the combo!

[kpv]

Those problems were on and off.... randomly working and randomly not. Since moving to 2.3.2 there has not been any issue with the OTO boxes.... weird?

[loekazz]

Hello,

I've also problems with sending MIDI parameters to my BIM/BAM.

I'm using a Squarp Pyramid MIDI sequencer, not bitwig though.

The problems seem to occur when I use a MIDI LFO to, for example, the MIX parameter (CC14) of BAM.

When editing the LFO settings on the Pyramid, the BAM always 'crashes' after a short period.
When it crashed, it still produces sound, but doesn't get MIDI recognized anymore (so also it can't receive an 'all notes off' message anymore).

After starting up the BAM again, it recognises MIDI again...

I've tested with different setups, but even on a very simple direct MIDI connection from Pyramid's MIDI DIN out to BAM's MIDI in, the problem occurs. I monitored the MIDI of the Pyramid, and everything seems normal. I also tried to filter 'program changes' on the BAM (not that I use them at this moment), but didn't help as well. There's no clock being send to the device / on that channel...

Could it be a problem that the BAM can't handle 'fast' MIDI data?

Some advice of BIM/BAM users?

I also mailed support of OTO...

Thanks a lot!

[kpv]

im sorry to read that. i hope you'll find the answer to your problems, pyramid is a great machine and cc is such a big part of the oto magic

here is a reply from denis regarding the bitwig (and ableton) cc behavior, which is now working okay for me, since I know how it works, but I forgot to report back here.

>> Hi,
>>
>> The problem could be linked to the « running status » feature of MIDI messages.
>> Some hardware or DAW only send the CC header at the beginning of an automation (unless you have another MIDI messages in between), and then send only the CC number and the value.
>> If you switch BIM and BAM off and on, you need to close your Bitwig project and re-open it, so it will send the CC header again.
>> We had the same problem with Ableton Live, it only send the CC Header at the beginning of the session.
>> I don’t know Bitwig but maybe you could check if the running status is always active.
>> Do you send other MIDI messages (like note-on, Beat clock…) from Bitwig when you experienced the freeze of BIM and BAM ?
>>
>> Our machines were tested with a MIDI keyboard/controller (all the CC were changed at the same time !), few synths like the Nord Lead, Akai MPC 1000, Ableton Live and Pro-Tools.
>> We never had any problem so far, so maybe the problem is the running status.
>> We cannot improve the CC reception, because there’s only one way to recognize the CC messages, it’s working or it’s not working at all !
>>
>> Please let me know if it works when you close and open the Bitwig session after powering BIM and BAM.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Denis