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This page is read from MIDI Instrument Definitions, a Python library used in the author's other projects, in which every number is traced to a document its maker published. Its source is on GitHub.

Elektron Model:Samples MIDI implementation

The MIDI implementation of the Elektron Model:Samples: what it answers to, and the 29 controls it offers, on firmware 1.13.

At a glance

Firmware
This page describes firmware 1.13.
MIDI channel
Any one of 1 to 16.
Parts
Track, 6 of them: each on a MIDI channel of its own, taking notes and controls, with 1 voice each.
Delay and Reverb: on a MIDI channel of its own, taking controls.
Voices
Each part's own, under Parts.
Note range
0 to 60: C-1 to C4, counting middle C as C4.
Velocity
Sent and received.
Aftertouch
Not recorded.
Pitch bend
Not recorded.
Program change
Received and sent, with 96 presets.
MIDI clock
Sent and received.
Start and stop
Sent and received.
Control change
29 controls, in the tables below, 1 of them with a fine half on a second controller number.
NRPN
Supported.
System exclusive
Not recorded.

Controls

In the order the definition gives them, by part and group. Under each control is the name a program calls it by, once pymidiinstrumentdefs.load("elektron/model_samples") has loaded them.

Track

Track parameters

Control CC Values
Note
note		 3 0-127
Mute
mute		 94 0-127
Track level
track_level		 95 0-127
Pan
pan		 10 0-127
Pitch
pitch		 16 0-127
Decay Time
decay_time		 80 0-127
Sample Start
sample_start		 19 0-127
Sample Length
sample_length		 20 0-127
Cutoff
cutoff		 74 0-127
Resonance
resonance		 71 0-127
Delay Send
delay_send		 12 0-127
Reverb Send
reverb_send		 13 0-127
Volume + Dist
volume_and_distortion		 7 0-127
Swing
swing		 15 0-127
Chance
chance		 14 0-127

Playback

Control CC Values
Loop
playback_loop		 17 0-127
Reverse
playback_reverse		 18 0-127

LFO

Control CC Values
Speed
lfo_speed		 102 0-127
Multiplier
lfo_multiplier		 103 0-127
Fade In/Out
lfo_fade		 104 0-127
Destination
lfo_destination		 105 0-127
Waveform
lfo_waveform		 106 0-127
Start Phase
lfo_start_phase		 107 0-127
Reset
lfo_reset		 108 0-127
Depth
lfo_depth		 109
fine 110		 0-127

Delay and reverb

Delay and reverb

Control CC Values
Delay Time
delay_time		 85 0-127
Delay Feedback
delay_feedback		 86 0-127
Reverb Size
reverb_size		 87 0-127
Reverb Tone
reverb_tone		 88 0-127

Where these facts come from

Source documents

How they were read

User Manual, OS 1.13, 58 pages: the sound architecture on p. 16, the MIDI notes and the program changes on pp. 19-20, the MIDI menus on pp. 38-40, the technical information on p. 50, APPENDIX A: MIDI SPECIFICATIONS on p. 51 and APPENDIX B: MODULATION DESTINATIONS on p. 52. The downloads page is cited for which OS is current and the release notes for what it changed, because the manual says neither.

TWENTY-NINE CONTROL CHANGES, IN THE APPENDIX'S OWN FOUR GROUPS: fifteen track parameters, two playback parameters, eight LFO parameters and four effect parameters. Every number is distinct and inside 0 to 127, and the generator that wrote the block below checks both.

WHICH PART A CONTROL ANSWERS ON COMES FROM THE CHANNEL MENUS AND NOT THE APPENDIX, and the manual draws the line in one sentence each way: "T1-6 IN selects the dedicated MIDI channel that is used to receive parameter data to a specific track" (p. 39) and "FX IN selects the dedicated MIDI channel for the DELAY and REVERB parameters" (p. 39). So twenty-five of the twenty-nine answer on a track's own channel and four on the effects' channel. Delay Send and Reverb Send stay with the track, because they are a track's amount of an effect rather than the effect.

THERE IS NO BASE CHANNEL AND SEVERAL TRACKS MAY SHARE ONE. "Any MIDI channel can be assigned to a track and several tracks can share the same channel. If several tracks are assigned to the same MIDI channel the track with the lowest number has priority regarding parameter conflicts" (p. 16). That last rule is this instrument's own and no field here holds it.

A THIRD CHANNEL IS AN ALIAS RATHER THAN A PART, which is why it is not below. "AUTO IN selects the MIDI channel for the AUTO channel that gives access to the currently active track. If an external MIDI keyboard connected to Model:Samples sends MIDI data on this channel, the keyboard controls the active track" (p. 39). Whichever track is active answers on it, so it addresses no fixed part. A fourth, PCH, carries program change alone and may be set to AUTO.

WHAT THE PADS AND THE VELOCITY DO. "The responsive pads are made of sturdy synthetic rubber and are velocity sensitive" (p. 19), velocity reaches the volume through a depth setting, and it may be routed to one of twenty destinations which APPENDIX B names in words and gives no number for. So velocity arrives and what it reaches is a menu rather than a controller.

NOT RECORDED: aftertouch, pitch bend and system exclusive. The manual mentions none of the three anywhere - no page says the instrument answers to them and no page says it does not - so all three are silences rather than checked absences. This is a six-pad sampler with no keyboard, so none of them is surprising; what matters is that nobody was told.

NOT RECORDED: which number means which named state for any stepped parameter. The appendix gives controller numbers and no ranges at all, and APPENDIX B names the LFO's and velocity's destinations as words in a list. So a reader knows that CC 105 selects an LFO destination and that there are thirteen of them, and not which number picks which.

THE MANUAL SENDS YOU FOUR TIMES TO A MENU IT DOES NOT HAVE, which matters only to a reader trying to follow it on the instrument. Its MIDI chapter contains IN CHAN and OUT CHAN and nothing called CHANNELS - yet p. 20 says to set the AUTO channel in "SETTINGS > MIDI > CHANNELS" (p. 20), p. 23 says the track's channel is "set in the CHANNELS menu" (p. 23), and pp. 38 twice says "the MIDI CHANNELS menu" (p. 38). Each of the four carries the right numbered cross-reference straight after the wrong name, so no reader is actually lost. The menu's own name is unsettled too: the chapter is "11. CONFIG MENU" (p. 37), the screen reads "Config Menu", and the index files it as "SETTINGS MENU" (p. 56).

AND ONE DIRECTION HAS NO AUTO CHANNEL. The input menu has nine entries, six tracks and FX and AUTO and PCH; the output menu has eight, six tracks and FX and PCH. So the AUTO channel receives and does not send.

NOT RECORDED: the kind of MIDI socket, which is worth a line because it is not a DIN. The specification gives "3.5 mm dual polarity TRS MIDI In, Out/Thru jacks" (p. 50), the output's polarity is a setting - "STD Standard ('Type A' ...)" (p. 40) and "INV Inverted ('Type B' ...)" (p. 40) - and "The MIDI IN port accepts any polarity and does not need to be configured" (p. 40). There is no field for a connector, so it is here.