Are you interested in a solution using the REV2 as a universal master keyboard?

Hi everyone,

as I had a lot of trouble using the REV2 as master keyboard in my setup, I developed a small MIDI Interface to solve this problem.

Seqential could easily implement this functionality internal on the REV2 but it seems, that there is no bugfixing or development any more on the REV2. Not to think about adding new features, sadly...

Why there is a problem with MIDI of the REV2?
If you switch local to off, everything has to be sent from MIDI out to MIDI in again to keep the controls working. Many controls need to use the extended MIDI messages (NRPN), the lfo for example. If you don't allow NRPN in the global settings, a part of the the controls don't work any more or behave crazy. My sequencer was very quickly overloaded with all the messages to foreward, only turning on software MIDI trough worked stable but causes other issues such as double note triggers.
An other problem is that you can't use the keyboard for an other device (with different MIDI channel) without loosing the ability of controlling the REV2 with its control surface.

The solution:
I used a microcontroller with two pairs of MIDI in and out. The controller filters out every note, bend and aftertouch message and sends the rest directly back into the REV2 MIDI in. That means, the complete control of the REV2 keeps working with local off setting. On the second MIDI port of the microcontroller all the filtered messages are sent out without the overload of the control and NRPN messages. The remaining messages can easely be handled by the sequencer and other gear I want to control. At the moment, my sequencer transformes the MIDI channel to the device I want o control with the REV2. So I can play for example live my SE-02 with the REV2s keyboard while the REV2 is playing a sequence and is still fully controlable with all its knobs and switches which is a great performance feature.
Yes, I know, perhaps you would like to record also the filter cutoff and other control messages on your sequencer or DAW. Perhaps I will implement different modes you can select on the microcontroller sending more or less of all the control data. I also think about to make the MIDI out cahnnel easy switchable viae the microcontroller (like on the arturia Keystep by holding a button and pressing a key on the piano keyboard) independent of the REV2s channel. So live switching between controlling different devices works fast and easy...

I already built and tested a prototype for quite a while now and it works reliable and makes my setup much more use- and comfortable to work with. To make the hardware as much easy to use, I also will try to power it directly from the MIDI OUT of the REV2 so you don't nedd an extra power source.

It depends on you:
So I want to ask you all, how many of you will be interested in such a device. If there is a certain demand, I think about building and selling a proper hardware device... or is there already any device out there doing the same?

So let me know, what you think? Or what you would expect from such a solution? And how mouch you would pay for such a device. As you can imagin, to design and build the pcb board, solder everything, manufacture a proper case is a lot of work and needs quite some money to invest. So the price will depend on the expected number of saleble pieces...

Kind regards,

Marf

REV2 as master keyboard

I ran into these same issues with the Rev2 and P6. Really a shame they can't give us separate local off options for the keyboard stuff and the knob stuff.

I ended up grabbing an iconnect mio2 just to solve this issue. It should work but I didn't end up setting it up. Unfortunately I am synthless at the moment due to Covid job complications.

Back when I was looking heavily into this I probably would have paid up to $120 max for a ready made solution considering it should be doable with many off the shelf midi devices.

Honestly I loved the Rev2 and P6 keybeds. I only owned one at a time and they were always the centerpiece of my production desk. Such a shame that they have such limited implementation as a master controller.