Poly chaining two OB6 desktop modules?

[eisblau]

Can a module be set to master, the other to slave? Or do I need the kb version as well? The manual is written fir KB so I don‘t know.

[eisblau]

I know, there are not many who have 2 OB6 desktop units, but maybe a person from DSI can answer this question?

[eisblau]

So I bought a second Ob6 Desktop today, but there is no step by step guide in the whole internet how to poly chain them together.

Could somebody provide me a link or ... anything how to do?

[AlainHubert]

So I bought a second Ob6 Desktop today, but there is no step by step guide in the whole internet how to poly chain them together.

Could somebody provide me a link or ... anything how to do?

From what I've gathered in the Prophet 6 section of this forum about polychaining, you'd simply have to perform an ALL programs dump from the "master" unit to the "slave" (by connecting the MIDI OUT of the master to the MIDI IN of the slave), and then connect your MIDI keyboard controller to the MIDI IN of the master OB6 desktop unit.

The only caveat (until an upcoming firmware update to fix it) is that when you'll want to save a program that you've just created on the master unit, you'll have to also perform a manual save on the slave unit as well, since the slave won't automatically follow the master when saving patches.

But since I don't have (yet) two OB6 Desktop units, I can't be 100% sure of what I'm saying.
But I hope this helps anyway...

[eisblau]

Thank you, Alain. Your tips worked. DSI needs to load up the addendum where they explained poly chain setting on the OB6 module, it is not uploaded yet.

A bug I experienced: The pitchwheel and modwheel informations are only routed to the master module, and not forwared to the slave (...why?). I hope this will be fixed still.

Anything else is working fine.

[AlainHubert]

Thank you, Alain. Your tips worked. DSI needs to load up the addendum where they explained poly chain setting on the OB6 module, it is not uploaded yet.

A bug I experienced: The pitchwheel and modwheel informations are only routed to the master module, and not forwared to the slave (...why?). I hope this will be fixed still.

Anything else is working fine.

You're welcome. Glad that it worked, sort of. I assume that the slave module is set to receive the same type of data (NRPN or CC) as the master ? If so, then it is a serious bug in the PolyChain mode (which was an afterthought on DSI's part, as I understand it). I don't know why the "master" unit wouldn't transmit the controllers CC to the "slave" too ?

BTW, nice Star Trek Balok avatar... ;-)
 

[eisblau]

It is really weird. I set the slave to receive everything and it does not work. Maybe because DSI simulated a kind of MIDI through on the MIDI out port, but then I ask myself, why is transmitted everything else? Sysex, edit data and so on is transmitted instantly and without problems.

For me it’s a really serious bug because I bought my 2nd OB6 only for poly chaining pads. DSI adversed it as an expander for poly chain as well. I hope they fix it because I spent so much money for both and I love the sound of my unit.

I wrote to DSI support, let‘s see how they are regarding this issue.

[eisblau]

Update: Aftertouch isn‘t forwarded as well...  now this isn’t a bug any more, this is a serious malfunction regarding the poly chain.

DSI took notice but can‘t say anything about a fix.

Is this for real or a bad dream?

[AlainHubert]

Update: Aftertouch isn‘t forwarded as well...  now this isn’t a bug any more, this is a serious malfunction regarding the poly chain.

DSI took notice but can‘t say anything about a fix.

Is this for real or a bad dream?

Poly-chaining was an afterthought and wasn't planned from the start, so naturally DSI might have missed a few important things. Hopefully, they'll do something to correct this, and quickly. Because knowing the expensive venture of getting two synths in order to get more voices should result in 100% satisfactory performance from all devices.

I was planning on getting a second OB6 Module myself, for poly-chaining them, but I think I'll put that on ice for now. Especially since I use an external MIDI keyboard controller already.

[eisblau]

Well, an afterthought has to be thought to end as well. After all the experience DSI has with poly chaining, I wonder how this was not finished at all. The only reason this hasn‘t been fixed yet may be that only a very little number of OB6 users have 2 units at once.

I asked if DSI offers a workaround for this. If not, I might sell my 2nd OB6 desktop as it does not justify just for some longer release times. 6 voices make not such a big dfference in that regard at all.

[John01W]

Well, an afterthought has to be thought to end as well. After all the experience DSI has with poly chaining, I wonder how this was not finished at all. The only reason this hasn‘t been fixed yet may be that only a very little number of OB6 users have 2 units at once.

I asked if DSI offers a workaround for this. If not, I might sell my 2nd OB6 desktop as it does not justify just for some longer release times. 6 voices make not such a big dfference in that regard at all.

I'm planning on getting a 2nd module....so this is disheartening(would be either way).....  I hope this gets fixed, there's talk about a firmware coming, so I hope this serious bugfix is included in the update....I wouldn't sell the 2nd module, but man it's sad on such a nice synth.

[eisblau]

On gearslutz I read DSI were working on that issue. Any news regarding a current OS update and a fix?

[cbx]

Can a module be set to master, the other to slave? Or do I need the kb version as well? The manual is written fir KB so I don‘t know.

I don't own an OB-6 nor looked at the manual, I would guess it is at least something like how the prophet 08 worked. Set them to the same midi channel. Make sure they can accept midi sysex messages and NRPN and all that. Now the master unit you set polychain to the total number of voices connected on that port. If you had 2 prophet 08, that would be 8. The second unit, the end of the chain you set to In End. If you had more units daisy chained, you have to set them to the number of voices following it, but you only have two so don't worry about it. The master will have all the voices (except the ones in the unit). A mopho+tetra (a modified prophet 08 archiect) you set the mopho polychain to 4, for the tetra. The tetra is In End. As long as the midi channels are the same, you should be able to do a bulk dump from the global settings from the master to the slave.

So most likely, the master OB-6 will have polychain 6, and the slave OB-6 you set to In End. But maybe the OB-6 is a completely different thing.