Erae II and Bitwig Devices

Erae Touch
1

I’m trying to use my Erae II to control parameters on 2 devices on a single track in Bitwig 5.3.13. In my case, I want to use faders to control the macros in Plasmonic and also the macros for Synestia as an effect on the same track. I have faders with different CC#s on the Erae and when I first set it up, it worked fine. I could control both at the same time using different CC numbers. But at some point, it stopped working. I think when I saved and reloaded. I have the track in Bitwig set to Channel->Same and Use MPE on for both devices (not sure if this is necessary).

Using my Launchkey Mini Mk3 with Moss’ script, I can switch device focus and control each device without using different CC#s. But then I don’t have MPE.

So my questions are, why did it stop working using the Erae and is there a way to get it to work consistently?

Thanks for any hints!

2

I was updating firmware for E2 so gave it a go, and seem to work fine for me.

Track In shouldn’t matter, as the automation is separate from the track input.
as long as you have a controller setup in Settings → controllers , you are good to go.

for plugins I assume you are using the automation values and map in Bitwig?
does Bitwig say its mapped correctly when you map / recall it?

you can try using a midi monitor to check the E2 is still sending - my bet is it is, so its something related to bitwig or your plugins?

note: automations are not MPE capable…
e.g. you cannot map to cc74/y , as this would change ch for every note played.
so you have to use an Erae control that is set to be monophonic i.e. fixed channel.

2 Likes
3

Thanks for the reply. The CC values are assigned in Plasmonic and Synestia so not mapped in Bitwig. Yeh, ShowMIDI shows them being transmitted.

4

I was able to get this to work by re-mapping each macro on the remote control pages from within Bitwig for the second device in the chain and it worked. I don’t understand why it didn’t work the other way but I’m happy to have all the controllers on one page in the Erae!

5

sounds like its an issue with the internal midi input on the plugins.

are you on Mac or Windows?
iirc, windows usually only allows one app/process to connect to a midi device at a time.
so if Biting is connected, your plugins cannot be, and vice versa.
there are workarounds like loopMidi ? … sorry dont use windows for music stuff, so this may be outdated.

OR, as you have found, use vst automation via bitwig IF its available on the plugin.

this is not an issue on a Mac. as it allows multiple processes to connect to a midi device.

1 Like
6

I’m on Mac. I was using the macro assignments within each plugin (Rhizomatic Plasmonic and Synestia). The plugin itself assigns CC#s to 8 parameters and I was just setting up Erae to access those, making sure they were a different set in each plugin. It was working fine when I first set it up, which is odd that it just stopped working. I did notice something that I thought might be a clue. The first device’s parameters don’t automate until I hit one note (not cc) on the Erae first.