MIDI Fighter Twister: Switching Banks Messes with Values

VCV Rack
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The MIDI Fighter Twister (MFT) has 16 physical encoders, but three banks, giving you a total of 64 possible encoders.

I’ve noticed that when I switch banks, with most plugins a mapped knob will move to the MIN - 0 position when I switch to another bank on the MFT. When I switch back to the bank controlling the knob, the knob will jump to the MAX - 127 value. This is highly undesirable behavior. It pretty much limits you to using only one bank, or all your mapped settings go wonky when you switch banks.

I have noticed one plugin that does not exhibit this behavior: Alright Devices Chronoblob. With it, a mapped knob retains its value if I switch to another bank and back on the MFT. Maybe this is a bug in Chronoblobs implementation of MIDI Mapping, but if it is, it’s the RIGHT KIND OF BUG. I wish all plugins behaved this way.

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I just ordered one a few hours ago with VCV Rack and my laptop in mind! Hope I don’t run into this. :rofl:

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Maybe it has to do with Midi channels ? If all your banks are on the same midi channel (or if the Midi module in vcv is in ‘‘all channels’’ mode) i guess it’s normal…
You would need to have each bank to a different channel, so that going to a new bank doesn’t ‘‘erase’’ your parameters :wink:

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I think Olical has it right.
I had to change my Twister settings once using the Utility application and then everything was good.

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I checked the Twister in the utility. I tried putting two banks on the same MIDI channel and I tried putting two banks on separate MIDI channels. Neither changed the behavior. And actually, with the Chronoblob, the only knob that retains it’s value when I switch between banks is the big delay time knob. The other knobs jump to either 0 or 127 when I switch banks just like the unwanted behavior with other plugins.

I’m not sure what to check next …

EDIT: I think this may be an issue with the Twister, itself. I now see that banks 2-4 behave “properly.” Only switching to and from bank 1 causes mapped knobs to jump to either 0 or 127. If I use banks 2, 3 and four, knobs do not change value when I switch between those three banks.

BTW, I am on the latest Twister firmware (09 Mar 2019). I just updated last night.

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Hey, I just got the MIDI Fighter Twister today and immediately upgraded my firmware. I had similar issues. I was trying to setup one knob to act as CC0 and CC64 both on MIDI Channel 1 using the Shift Toggle mode. CC0 would work fine, but Toggle Mode behaved like an on/off button instead of a second knob.

I found an old firmware from August 2014 on the web, installed it, and afterwards, everything seemed to work as expected. I’m running on the assumption that the new firmware may have some bugs. At least with certain things.

I reported the issue to DJ Tech Tools.

2 Likes
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I also had weird behaviors after unboxing and updating firmware. DjTT advised to reset to factory defaults which cleared all issues. I wouldn’t think to do that for a brand new updated device but it worked!

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I’ll try that.

EDIT: Didn’t help my situation with bank one losing its values when switched away from, but that’s OK. I’ll pretend bank one doesn’t exist. I still have 16x3 knobs with the other three banks. That’s many more than I’ll map and remember what they are.

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And with shift encoder hold, each knob is really two knobs, so you’ve got 32x3 :slight_smile:

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So I’ve had the MIDI Fighter Twister for a few days now and figured I’d post back to share some of my experiences:

  1. I wanted pressing an encoder to switch between CC X and CC Y without the encoder press transmitting a CC of it’s own. This doesn’t seem to work at all in the newest firmware. In the newest firmware, the encoder button press seems to always transmit a MIDI CC even if Shift Toggle or Shift Hold modes. However, I found a firmware from August 2014 where this worked exactly as I wanted. So encoder 1 = CC0, encoder button press shifts to CC64. No extra MIDI messages sent as I press the button. Works great!

  2. The side change buttons are great for switching banks, but these will also transmit MIDI CC’s on press. Even in the August 2014 firmware. The workaround here is to make sure when you’re using VCV Rack’s Map module, that you’re changing it from “All Channels” to “Channel 1” (assumes all your other CC’s are on channel 1). In this firmware, I believe the button presses are on Channel 4 (by default), so changing Map to Channel 1 saves you the trouble of VCV Rack seeing the bank change messages on the side buttons.

Love the hardware. Great box, very flexible. Incredible build. Can’t believe what this is capable of.

I’m still tweaking a template. Right now I’ve got one that’s setup entirely for knobs, but I’m going to tweak it to get some on/off buttons back via the encoders. Great stuff.

I’ve also been in touch with support and they seem to be open to adding some new modes in the future to allow for more flexibility in terms of the kind of messages the button presses send. Great all-around product and company. I’m seriously thinking about buying a 2nd and having one planted on my desktop and another for my laptop.

2 Likes
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Yes, the channel 1 workaround makes the 1st bank usable again. You had more energy to investigate this than I did. And I thank you for that!

Now I guess I will track down the old firmware to get proper button presses.

Thanks, again!

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Hi @Jon, could you solve this?

I´m struggling a lot with the side buttons sending MIDI CCs and have already a lot of channels used in Ableton.

It seems 2 years after DJTT haven´t done anything…

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The engineer that worked on the firmware for the Twister left the company a while back and has not been replaced last I checked. The firmware on that device may never get another update. I’m afraid I use it so rarely, I can’t remember what works and what doesn’t