Novation KS Rack MIDI CC / NRPN Control Madness

Published on May 6, 2015 vyd239

Some good points in this one, both the video and the description.

"Novation KS Rack synth with extensive MIDI control via an Edirol PCR 300 midi keyboard controller.

With the ever increasing craze of the current modular scene, many electronic musicians and sound designers have been going mental buying tons of expensive and complex modular units.

After realising my budget would not stretch to accommodate enough units to accomplish generative soundscapes, random, glitchy noises and drones, I decided to create an alternative solution with my cheap and cheerful digital gear.

I couldn't give two shits whether it's digital or analogue, if it sounds good (or disgusting), that's all that matters. I consider the KS Rack an extremely capable and very underrated synth that I will never part company with. It's strongest feature is the non-destructive editing of programs whilst in Performance mode, as the performances store the parameter settings for programs independently from the originals - what's more, it cost me £140 off Gumtree 3 years back.

The KS Rack's CCs and NRPNs were mapped in a logical fashion, primarily for each oscillator.

The sliders, knobs, mod wheel, crossfader and pads provide additional control over multiple external and internal parameters, using the PCRs editor application.

Very simple to use and very effective.

The results of this extended control are far more interesting than manually menu diving to modify them. You can basically mould' the sound on the fly, rather than modifying it step by step, thus loosing your creative flow by getting caught up in menus and button pushing.

Mapped controls are:

R1 - CC 72(48) - OSC 1 Level
R2 - CC 73(49) - OSC 2 Level
R3 - CC 74(4A) - OSC 3 Level
R4 - CC 40(28) - OSC 1 Semitone
R5 - CC 48(30) - OSC 2 Semitone
R6 - CC 56(38) - OSC 3 Semitone
R7 - CC 43(2B) - OSC 1 Pitch Mod Amt
R8 - CC 51(33) - OSC 2 Pitch Mod Amt
R9 - CC 59(3B) - OSC 3 Pitch Mod Amt
S1 - NRPN 50 - OSC 1 Wave
S2 - NRPN 51 - OSC 2 Wave
S3 - NRPN 52 - OSC 3 Wave
S4 - CC 80(50) - LFO 1 Non-Sync Speed
S5 - NRPN 53 - LFO 1 Waveform
S6 - CC 83(53) - LFO 2 Non Sync Speed
S7 - NRPN 54 - LFO 2 Waveform
S8 - NRPN 0 - FM Fixed Level
S9 - CC 71 - OSC 1/2/3 Octave
A1 - NOTE 64 - Triggers a sustained/infinite note
BEND - CC 19 - Non Sync Delay Time (left / right)
MOD - CC 92 - Delay Amount (up / down)"