Melbourne Instruments Roto Control

I asked this in the ‘working MIDI’ thread but thought it should be a separate question.
Will Melbourne Instruments Roto Control work with the MM specifically, will the motorised knobs work? I’m thinking probably not because of the one way MIDI traffic on the MM but perhaps will work in the future :thinking:

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exactly, you’d need bi-directional midi… something I requested a while back.

perhaps now midi out is in the dev branch, it opens up the possibility for this.

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I was literally about to get a Roto Control because I thought this would work with the MetaModule. Really hoping it does - getting the knobs to spin into the correct position based on the last state would be insanely nice as UX.

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yeah, this would be cool…

just be aware if you are buying something like this, bi-directional midi support I can be a bit hit n’ miss in terms of support in products.

that said, the workaround with these kind of things is to use the preset manager on the device itself, and then to use it has the primary controller.
this is why having program change supports is also very useful, and fortunately is widely supported.

note: I dont have a Roto Control, but I have an Electra One which is kind of a similar idea (albeit done with screens/encoders) - so also works best with comprehensive midi implementations.

Just replying to indicate interest in bidirectional midi. Would make the MM so much more open in terms of control.

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Coming soon… @danngreen @TheTechnobear @jsk https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1pqhh0a23gp6pujonlpcg/8241fa40-9602-450c-9e61-086d3d24e179.mp4?rlkey=54lj6by7fs22yhfmz3j5hys3q&st=dc76m89n&dl=0

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That is fantastic work,.

I’ve not looked into developing on the MM, so totally clueless on what is possible, but can you also access the parameter/knob names, so they are automatically shown on the Roto Control mini screens?

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Is that just for the menu knob and back button?

The first dial he was turning was the small pink x below the main encoder.

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Magnificent! is there anything you cannot do? I am going to be thinking about this one a bit.

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Right, i was watching it on my phone without my glasses

Yeah I’m trying to see if this is doable. The RotoControl automatically receives names from Ableton, but it’s likely not through MIDI. I reached out to their team.

At the very least, all the knobs now snap to place with the starting positions of the patch which is still useful. But I am very keen on trying to get the naming to work, as that would mean your mapped knobs instantly update their labels upon switching a patch

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Right I’m back home now :slight_smile: and I’m not getting how you’ve managed to get the thing to output midi. Is there a tutorial for this anywhere?

It’s not supported yet. I’m going to write some firmware changes that allow for full roto control support, just showing a WIP

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Oh wow that’d be awesome.

Hopefully, Melbourne instruments will play ball, but i suppose they’ll have some big players knocking their door to get yhe same functionality for the DAWs.

Here’s hoping :grinning_face:

It should be doable as is, they have a usb serial API. Working with Dan on this at the moment

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Brilliant :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I had an awful time with my Roto, the updates never worked from the off, there was a lot of emails back and forth until their software devs told me to open a terminal when the update started, to see what was going on. Turned out their update was using WMIC to open folders but in Win 11 WMIC is deprecated.

They were easy to get along with tho.

Anyway can’t wait for this to be a thing, it’s not why i bought the Roto but it’ll definitely be a bonus :slight_smile:

Sorry to hear that, it’s worked fairly well for me so far. I actually got the RotoControl for this exact use case with the MetaModule. It’s going to be so useful for reading knobs/button mappings once it’s ready.

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@remixed123 @constantG

It lives https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qjn7xgcz23zcnem0plqr1/Video-May-27-2025-4-38-13-PM.mov?rlkey=i705bvyholuynvmk0tuwa27g4&st=3yot843g&dl=0

It is insanely nice to use and fixes my primary issue with screen size/forgetting knob mappings between setups. Obviously the physical knobs snapping to place from the initial patch looks cool as hell too.

Will try to get this in as soon as I can, but it’s a very hacky implementation and will likely need a few rounds of iteration to make sure it’s up to standard!

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Wow! Congratulations on getting this working! I always like to see Aussie - US innovation at work.

I am curious about the setup steps. Do you use MIDI Learn on Roto Control to learn the Channel and CC the MM is sending? If so, what setup is on the MM to make this work?

It would be so cool to have a VCV Roto Control Module similar to the MM one, where you could map to the Knobs on the Roto Control from the VCV module knobs.

What you have achieved so far is a fantastic leap forward in usability, I am just curious about how much effort it is to setup and how easy it could be made.

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