Kram the Midiman
Click on the picture above to watch the movie
This recording is the result of having solved the problem of how to record MIDI data from the Continuum to Logic Pro X through a MIDI interface.
My Continuum had arrived with a Roland UM-ONE MIDI to USB interface. When recording MIDI data and playing them back to the Continuum I was getting weird results like randomly generated continuous controller data altering different parameters of the Continuum. I also have a ContinuuMini and had noticed that playing back the same track with it I was instead getting straightforward results.
So I posted my problem to the Haken Continuum Users group on Facebook and here Richard Kram came to the rescue! After many trials and errors he finally came to the conclusion that the culprit was the MIDI interface. The ContinuuMini has a USB port so it does not need an interface and that explained why I was getting different results playing back the same track on the two instruments.
I had taken for granted that the Roland interface was the right one for the task of translating MIDI data to and from the Continuum to and from the computer. I had read I needed one for firmware upgrades and so on. The interface has a switch to select if it is used with a tablet or a computer. Neither setting seemed to work correctly. Richard Kram suggested to try out a different MIDI interface. I happen to have an old (1 in, 1 out) Midiman MIDI interface. A soon as I replaced MIDI interface everything started working smoothly.
The only concern remains how to avoid “MIDI loops” (see my previous blog post).
This piece uses a combination of two patches, one played by the Continuum and the other one played by the ContinuuMini but having recorded my performance as MIDI data I was able to add a couple of sounds from Spectrasonics Omnisphere: a double bass and a theremin.
Extracting a few notes from the MIDI recording of the Continuum was not an easy task.
I use a “custom tuning grid” meaning that I am not playing in regular 12 equal divisions of an octave.
Even if my performance is somehow sloppy, I like its “gestural fluency”.