RK-002, FB-01 Editor

yassine

Hi,

Just unpacked my Smart midi cable and I can't make it work with Fb-01.

Using CME U6MidiPro. It gets powered and recognised in Duy Portal with the Fb-01 Firmware.

RK002 In loopback on Midi In 1 and Midi Out 1
Fb 01 Out to Midi In 2
Nanokontrol hosted by Mac via Ableton and goes to Midi In 3
Midi Out 2 from to Fb-01 In.
I did merge every in to Midi Out 2.

Sometimes it plays random notes/patches and freezes but never works so far. doesn't change voices, neither play notes from the assigned REC buttons.

Any help would be much appreciated 🙂
Yassine

grit

Hi Yassine, the RK002 sets the RK006 in a MIDI FX mode which allows it to nest inbetween all the midi ins (also USB) and all the midi outs. In your configuration you need to make this break in the midi setup in the computer and make sure the midi sysex is properly forwarded to the FB01 -and- nanokontrol.
Your artifacts can be caused because midi messages are getting corrupted or that you have a loopback. The thing is that the RK002 controls both the FB01 sysex and also sends out CC control messages to the nanokontrol to provide user feedback (if you load a patch, the nanokontrol shows things like used algorithm and such)

Dr. Kunz

The CME U6MIDIPro is a MIDI interface with extensive data merge/route/map/filter capabilities which can also work connected to pc or standalone, not exactly the simplest tool to interface/drive the RK002 with.
I would start checking how USB/MIDI routing is set (using CME UxMIDI Tools app) before going to further troubleshooting.

grit

in this image is the original routing with the RK006: https://duy.retrokits.com/fb01/fb01nano.pdf
What happens is:
nanokontrol gets USB hosted by RK006 (and you can use a hub to host/midimerge an additional USBMIDI keyboard for playing), MIDI goes into RK002 in RK002/RK006 MIDIFX-sidechain mode, this data gets translated to 1. FB01 sysex MIDI and 2. nanokontrol MIDI CCs for led indicators.
Also, FB01 patch request sysex output gets merged by the RK006, also captured by the RK002 and translated into nanokontrol data to show the patch contents via the Nanokontrol's LED indicators.

if you can't get this roundtrip to work (and don't want to get a proper hub 😉 ) you can also perhaps adapt the RK002 FB01Kontrol DUY into something else 1-way, the controller numbers which the nanokontrol sends are on the sheet as well, you could try and send something to the RK002 connected directly to the FB01 (e.g. sending CC00 will translate into AttackRate Operator 1, sending CC43,44,42 or 41 will change FB01 operator destination, etc).

yassine

Thank you guys fo the help.

I ended up trying the set up with another controller with midi out port (EC4 Faderfox) which was the one meant to be used with the script anyway. Notes started playing as soon as I assigned their values, then after assigning more ccs, everything is going smooth I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!...

I still haven't got to deal with FB-01 out to see if I'll have the user feedback on the EC4. I'll let you know, but for now I'm happy the little black box finally feels like a synth 🙂

grit

That's good to hear, when you omit the whole midi return commands for the nanokontrol / FB01 parameter status display the setup will be much easier. I might slim down the sysex controller thing one day 😊