Alec Davis

This topic is a documentation of me troubleshooting losing all my Machinedrum data after playing a live set with a patch I made in MaxMSP using the gamepad object & a PS5 controller.

So I own an Elektron Machinedrum SPS-1 MK2 that has Firmware X .10 on it. I’ve been using MaxMSP 8.62 & the gamepad object to control my Machinedrum with a PS5 controller in a custom patch I made. I played a rap show a couple nights ago where I was just jammingmaking sounds on the Machinedrum with my MaxMSP patch and PS5 controller. I’m new to MaxMSP, I just started using it a couple weeks ago.

I had a very strange thing happen to me. After I played my set, successfully recorded all the audio into my laptop through FL Studio then exporting my full set, and went back to check on my Machinedrum later that night, I noticed all my kits, patterns, songs, and even global settings were reset back to some default factory settings and all my data was cleared out. The Firmware X .10 was still installed on it though. Really weird. I played my set pretty smoothly though & got the full recording I’m going to make visuals with using Jitter & post online later.

I used midi cc data from the Machinedrum to map the CTRL-AL parameters to the analog sticks on my PS5 Dualsense controller (specifically Retrig on “left x”, Retrig Time on “right x”, Pitch on “left y” & Pitch Bend on “right y”). Then I mapped the d-pad, X Square Triangle Circle, and the left and right shoulders on the trigs to trigger the percussion sounds. I mapped the start button so when you click it on & off, it plays and stops the current sequence on the Machinedrum, & I mapped the Playstation home button to switch Serum FX on/off (I didn’t end up using that in my set).

https://qr.inc.hp.com/qr/specs?cc=us&fl&ll=en&occ=&oll=&pn=1A1L0UA&rd=1 1

My laptop & Machinedrum were freezing up mid set. MaxMSP froze & all the lights on the Machinedrum trigs went on; it was like delayed the reaction. The laptop I was using needs upgrading, but even on my desktop I noticed the response time on the Machinedrum slowing down patching the midi cc on the CTRL-AL parameters. What’s even stranger though is I tested the setup before I played out, and recorded a clean 30 minute take with no issues.

Backup & Restoring Lost Data on Machinedrum:

Thank god I backed up all my sysex data beforehand. I used Elektron’s C6 Sysex Tool version 1.51 to backup my data and update the firmware. I had a few different backups including a sysex all backup. I went into global midi channel 1, then into sysex rec, I checked & verified the sysex file & it was good with no errors. I loaded that sysex file thru the ORIGINAL PLACE SYSEX RECEIVE & was able to load everything back in successfully with no issues.

I was suggested that possibly having two CTRL-ALs on a kit could’ve been the reason why. I can see how using Ctrl-AL on left x & right x on the gamepad can potentially slow down the machinedrum’s response time w/ all those parameters being moved at once. I was confident I didn’t have a duplicate on one of my kits, but I wanted to double check to see if any of my kits happened to have an extra CTRL-AL. All my kits I used in my set only had a single CTRL-AL.

After confirming that I didn’t have duplicate CTRL-ALs on my kits, now I’m really starting to wonder what could’ve possibly happened. I am very surprised this happened after my set. All I did was turn the Machinedrum off when I was done & turned it back on later that night to do some extra noises after the show. If anyone has any questions or possible reasons why this happened, let me know.

This topic is a documentation of me troubleshooting losing all my Machinedrum data after playing a live set with a patch I made in MaxMSP...

my-data-on-my-machinedrum-reseted-while-using-maxmsp-and-gamepad-w-a-ps5-controller-on-firmware-x-10

you must make sure to inspect gamepad to midi conversion

Don't know about buttons, but axsis float input will definitelly produce massive

value repetitions when 0. ~1. float gets scaled to midi 0-127.

If that can be the cause of memory loss  ?

hardware can do weird things when sent tons of MIDI data, and it's really easy to send tons of midi with max or ableton. I'd recommend using 

My data on my Machinedrum reseted while using MaxMSP and gamepad w/ a PS5 Controller on Firmware X .10