We recommend using the software Elektron Transfer to load sound packs to your device. For devices that are not supported by Transfer, we recommend using either Elektron C6 or other SysEx software capable of sending and receiving SysEx data. Please note that C6 is not compatible with macOS Catalina and later.

For more detailed information on how to install sounds to your device, please see the Sound Pack Install Instructions.

RESOURCES

Transfer

C6

Sound Pack Install Instructions

If you have problems connecting to Transfer, please refer to this article.

INSTALLING SOUNDS TO A SPECIFIC SOUND BANK ON YOUR ELEKTRON DEVICE

1. Press [GLOBAL SETTINGS] or [SETTINGS] (depending on your device).

2. Scroll down and select SYSEX DUMP, and then press [YES].

3. Select SYSEX RECEIVE and press [YES]. 

4. Select +DRIVE SOUND or SOUNDS (depending on your device) and press [YES]. 

5. Select the BANK you want the sounds to be transferred to, for example, BANK D, and then press [YES]. The screen now reads “WAITING DATA”. 

6. In Transfer. On the DROP page, drag and drop the .syx file containing the sounds you want to transfer to where it reads “Drop files here”. 

When the transfer is finished you will find the Sounds in BANK D (in this example) when you go to the Sound Browser.

LOCATING YOUR SOUNDS IN YOUR ELEKTRON DEVICE AND LOADING THEM TO A TRACK

1. Press and hold [FUNC] and then turn the LEVEL/DATA or TRACK LEVEL knob (depending on your device) to open the SOUND BROWSER.

2. Press [BANK] + [TRIG 1-16] to select sound bank.

3. Navigate to the Sound you want to load, and then press [YES] to load the selected Sound to the active track.

INSTALLING A SAMPLE PACK
Here’s how to install a sample pack using Transfer. The steps below apply to Digitakt, Analog Rytm MKI, Analog Rytm MKII, and Model:Samples.

Method 1:

1. Select the device for both MIDI IN and MIDI OUT in Transfer, then press CONNECT.

2. Drag and drop the samples or folders on the DROP page.

Method 2:

1. Select the device for both MIDI IN and MIDI OUT in Transfer, then press CONNECT.

2. When the device has connected to Transfer, select the EXPLORE page.

3. Navigate to MY COMPUTER (e.g., your computer) in the left column and select the samples or folders you want to transfer.

4. Drag and drop the samples or folders to your preferred folder under DEVICE NAME (e.g., Digitakt or Analog Rytm, etc.) in the right column.

The default name of the folder the samples or folders end up in is /transfers-YYMMDD, which means you will get a folder with today's date by default. If you want to rename the folder, right-click and select RENAME. Change the name to e.g., the name of the Sound Pack.

If you have any further questions or issues, please contact Elektron Support.

In order to update your device using the method described in this article, your device needs to run at least the OS version listed below. The OS version is visible in the bottom right corner of the device screen when it is being powered on.

If the device is running an older version than the one listed below, you need to update your device using sysex transfer. Refer to the following article for information on how to update using sysex transfer. Once your device is running at least the OS version listed above, you can use the method described in this article for future OS updates.

Connect your device to one of the USB ports of your computer and start Elektron Transfer, make sure the unit is selected as the MIDI in and MIDI out ports, and then click the Connect button.

Unzip the archive and drag and drop the .syx file containing the OS update onto the big area with the text "Drop files here".

When you drop the OS file, it will automatically be transferred to the device.

When OS has been transferred, Elektron Transfer will let you know that you need to press the YES button on your device to perfrom the upgrade. Press the YES button and follow the instructions on the device screen. DO NOT TURN THE DEVICE OFF UNTIL THE UPGRADE IS COMPLETED.

The Elektron C6 utility is a 32-bit application and is not supported under macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later. C6 will not be updated further, instead, we recommend using Elektron Transfer for transferring samples, sounds, presets, and OS updates to your Elektron device.

Elektron Transfer does not support SID Station, Octatrack MKI/MKII, and Analog Drive. For Monomachine and Machinedrum (all versions), only OS transfers are supported.

You can download the Transfer utility here: https://www.elektron.se/support/

Another possible (non-Elektron) replacement for C6 is SysEx Librarian.

When the repair has been completed, you will receive a PDF invoice via email. You can pay the invoice via bank card, PayPal, or bank transfer.

To pay via bank card or PayPal, log in to your account, and find the invoice under My Orders/Unpaid orders. Click on the invoice number and you will find the details and the payment options there.

To pay via bank transfer, you can find the bank details on the PDF invoice. Make sure that you write the invoice number as the payment reference, or we will not know who sent the money or which repair it is for.

When you have paid for the repair we will ship the machine back to you within a week.

If you have problems connecting your Elektron device to the Elektron Transfer software, please try the following:

• Make sure to set your Elektron device to USB MIDI in the SETTINGS>SYSTEM>USB CONFIG menu. 

• Remove any other USB peripherals from your computers USB ports and/or USB hub.

• Connect the Elektron device directly to the computer and not via a USB hub.

• Connect to another USB port on your computer. 

• Use another USB cable.

• If you use an adapter (such as a USB-C dongle), please try a different adapter if possible. A third-party adapter sometimes causes connection issues.

• Plug the USB cable into the computer and the Elektron device before turning the Elektron device on. Then start Elektron Transfer. 

• Close all other applications that are running on your computer. 

• Reinstall Transfer and restart the computer. 

• Make sure you have the latest OS for your Elektron device. Available for download here. 

If these solutions didn’t solve the problem, please contact Elektron support: https://www.elektron.se/customer/tickets/.

If you are experiencing that Overbridge or Transfer crashes on Windows it will be easier to see what caused the problem if you can provide a memory dump when you open a support ticket at Elektron. When memory dumps are enabled, they will be created in a specific location on your computer if Overbridge or Transfer crashes. This guide describes how to enable memory dumps on Windows and where you can find them.

ENABLING AND LOCATING MEMORY DUMPS

1. Download the file “enable_full_memory_dump.bat” that is attached to this article.

2. Press the “Windows” key on your keyboard and type “cmd”, then choose “Run as Administrator” for “Command Prompt”.

3. Press “Yes” on the User Account Control popup.

4. In the Command Prompt window, navigate to the directory to where you saved the “enable_full_memory_dump.bat” file. For example, C:\Users\*UserName*\Downloads
   If you don't know how to change directory, make an internet search with the search phrase “Change directory in cmd”.

5. Type “enable_full_memory_dump.bat” to run the script, and then press the “Enter” key. The output from running the script will look something like this:
   c:\Users\*UserName*\Downloads>echo off
A subdirectory or file C:\Users\*UserName*\AppData\Local\CrashDumps already exists.
Your memory dumps will be created in "C:\Users\*UserName*\AppData\Local\CrashDumps"
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.

After completing the above steps, you should try to reproduce the crash. After the crash, there should be a memory dump file in the location pointed out in step 5 above. Make sure to attach this to your support ticket.

Open Elektron Transfer and click on "Go to the SYSEX TRANSFER page"

On the next screen, click the "Browse" button and load the OS file, or if your device is not booting and you need to perform an update from the startup menu, click on "OS upgrade via device startup menu" instead.

When you load an OS file, the instructions will change to match the OS file.

If you selected "OS upgrade via device startup menu", you will be taken to the screen below. Click the "Browse" button to load the OS file and follow the instructions.

When you are performing an OS update from the startup menu, you must use a physical MIDI interface connected to the physical MIDI port of your device. It cannot be updated via the USB port from the startup menu.

Information on how to download purchased Sound Packs and detailed step-by-step instructions on how to transfer a sound pack to your device can be found here: https://www.elektron.se/se/instructions

Please note that C6 is no longer supported in macOS Catalina and later. 
For more information, please read this.

UPDATING DEVICE OS WITH C6

1. Go to https://www.elektron.se/support/ and select your machine from the drop-down list

2. Download the latest OS and the C6 software

3. Install C6 on your computer

4. Make sure your machine is connected via USB and set to USB-MIDI mode only under SYSTEM > USB CONFIG,

5. Start C6 on your computer, click the Config button to open the config screen. Make sure that the machine you want to update is selected under MIDI In and under MIDI Out (They will be marked blue when selected).

6. Drag and drop the .syx file containing the OS update to the C6 file list.

7. In the device GLOBAL/SETTINGS menu, navigate to SYSTEM, and then select OS UPGRADE, the display should read OS UPGRADE, WAITING FOR SYSEX.

8. In C6, click Send to start the os file transfer to your machine.

For more details about configuring the C6 software, see the manual included in the C6 download.

For further information about the OS upgrade, see the product manual, which can be downloaded from the same location as the OS update and the C6 software.

Kits and patterns are part of projects, while sounds in the +Drive sound library are not, so backing up the project(s) will include patterns, kits and the sound pool of the project. Sounds located on the +Drive needs to be backed up separately.

In the global menu, go to the SYSTEM / USB CONFIG menu and make sure the machine is in USB-midi mode and not in Overbridge mode, the Overbridge mode setting is machine global, the change is persistent and is not saved as part of projects. You can change it back to Overbridge mode once the backup / restore is complete.

In the global menu, go to MIDI CONFIG / PORT CONFIG and make sure that OUTPUT TO is set to MIDI + USB or just USB. The midi port config is project specific and will be saved with the current project. Saving it and loading another project will activate the midi port settings of that project, the default setting of a new project is MIDI only, so if you haven't changed this before it needs be changed in order to use the USB port for midi output.

How to back up an entire +Drive sound bank from AK / AF

1. Start C6 and select the appropriate in/out midi ports and click the receive button.
2. Open the sound manager on your Analog Keys
3. Click trig 16 to open bank P
4. Click the right arrow button to open the sidebar menu
5. Scroll down and and choose SELECT ALL, all sounds should now be selected
6. Scroll further down and choose SEND SYSEX
7. The sounds in bank P transfers to your computer.
8. Once complete, click Stop! (where it previously said receive) in C6
9. Click the received data syx file and click the save button to save the backup file to the hard drive (make sure you have clicked the file(s) to save before clicking save, otherwise it will simply save a list of the currently open files and not the files themselves).
10. Repeat the above process for every bank where you have stored your sounds.

How to back up a project from AK / AF

1. Go to the MIDI CONFIG / PORT CONFIG and make sure that OUTPUT TO is set to MIDI + USB or just USB in your project
2. Start C6 and select the appropriate in/out midi ports and click the receive button.
3. Go to SYSEX DUMP in the global menu
4. Open SYSEX SEND
5. Send WHOLE PROJECT
6. Once complete, click Stop! (where it previously said receive) in C6
7. Click the received data syx file and click the save button to save the backup file to the hard drive (make sure you have clicked the file(s) to save before clicking save, otherwise it will simply save a list of the currently open files and not the files themselves).
8. Repeat the above process for every project you want to back up.

How to restore a project to AK / AF

1. Open C6
2. Click to mark the project syx file that you want to send to your machine
3. On your machine, create a brand new project, then open the global menu, go to SYSEX DUMP / SYSEX RECEIVE / ANYTHING / RECEIVE ANY
4. Click Send button in C6
5. Once the project has been received, save it to a +Drive slot using the SAVE PROJECT menu option in the global menu

How to restore an entire sound bank to AK / AF

1. Open C6 on your computer, load the previously backed up sound bank file
2. On the machine, go to SYSEX DUMP in the global menu
3. Open SYSEX RECEIVE
4. Using the [ARROW] keys, highlight +DRIVE SOUNDS on the left hand menu and press [YES/SAVE]. The highlight bar will now appear on the right hand menu. This is where you select the Sound Bank that will receive the new sounds. Select Sound Bank position using the [ARROW] keys. Sound Bank A and B normally contains preset sounds, so in this example we will select Sound Bank C.
5. Highlight Bank C and press [YES/SAVE]. The words “WAITING DATA...” will be shown flashing on the chosen Sound Bank position, indicating that it is ready to receive the .syx file from the computer.
   Note that if the Sound Bank already contains sounds that aren’t locked (consult the User Manual on how to do this), they will be overwritten with the new sounds. Make sure you select an unpopulated Sound Bank, or a Sound Bank that contains sounds that you do not wish to keep.
6. In C6, click the file you want to restore so it gets highlighted. Press the SEND button. A progress bar will appear at the bottom of the c6 window. On the Analog Keys/Four LCD screen you will see “WRITING DATA...” for the duration of the transfer. Transferring the sounds will take a few seconds.

This article explains some of the reasons for crackles, dropouts (gaps in playback) or glitches during playback. Hereafter these will be referred to as simply ‘dropouts’. It also tries to explain why a modern computer can have performance problems although it is powerful enough for the task. It explains the problem domain and tries to give some tips on how you can solve the problems.

USB BANDWIDTH

In some cases, your USB bandwidth might be limited, and this could introduce various problems. There are a couple of reasons why those problems may arise.

Sharing USB Host controller (USB 2.0 Full Speed)

Overbridge for Analog Four MKI, Analog Keys, and Analog Rytm MKI uses USB 2.0 Full Speed. This USB specification limits the data transfer rate to max 12 Mbps. Later Elektron products use USB 2.0 High Speed and have a max rate of 480 Mbps. Many laptops use a single USB host controller that controls all ports. It means that if you have multiple devices connected that run with USB 2.0 Full Speed they might be sharing the 12 Mbps maximum bandwidth. It is, however, possible that your computer has multiple USB host controllers. You can try to connect a device to a different port that might also use a different host controller internally. This might increase the possible bandwidth for each device.

USB 2.0 Full Speed also limits the number of audio channels that can stream simultaneously. If you open the Overbridge Control Panel and configure your USB Full Speed device to use fewer channels and/or a lower bit depth, this might improve the Overbridge performance on your system.

USB Hubs

When connecting a USB 2.0 Full Speed device (12 Mbps) to an STT hub (typical for an internal laptop hub), all devices on that hub are limited by 12 Mbps, even devices that are otherwise High Speed or Super Speed. We recommend that you use an MTT hub (such as the Elektron Overhub) whenever you connect a Full Speed device to your system so as not to constraint your other USB devices.

It is especially important to use an MTT hub if you want to use more than one Full Speed device at the time. Connecting two Analog Four MK1 to an STT hub, for example, causes them both to share only 12 Mbps bandwidth. If they instead connect via an MTT hub, they get 12 Mbps each.

SAMPLE BUFFER SIZE & AUDIO LATENCY

The audible latency in your DAW can be described as the delay time from when the source of an audio stream is played until you hear it. The sample buffer size is the number of audio samples that are processed in each audio packet. A larger buffer size introduces a higher audible latency but might solve problems related to real-time performance as the computer gets a longer time slot to process data. A system with less processing power or more other software/hardware needs a larger buffer size. If you experience dropouts you might have to adjust this to your needs.

• Make sure your DAW is configured with an appropriate sample buffer size for your hardware.

• Please also make sure that Overbridge is configured with an appropriate Plugin Buffer Size in the Overbridge Control Panel.

• If you are on a Mac, adjusting the Buffer Safety Margin in the Overbridge Control Panel can also improve the performance of streaming audio.

• If you are using Windows, adjust the performance mode in the Control Panel to match your hardware.

OTHER CPU INTENSIVE APPLICATIONS RUNNING

Do not run other CPU intensive applications at the same time as Overbridge. These might put a high strain on your computer and limit its real-time capabilities.

Examples of these kinds of applications are:

• Web browsers with multiple open tabs.

• Image or video/3D editor programs.

• Games

AUDIO LATENCY AND REAL-TIME REQUIREMENTS 

Real-time applications, such as a DAW, have very different requirements than other software on your computer. The big difference between a DAW and for example, a video editing program is that in a video editing program the editing is mainly done while the video isn’t playing. After the editing is done the result is played. The processing is allowed to take some time and can be interrupted without you knowing that it was. This is not a real-time process.

Another example is a web browser that is allowed to have a response time from click to result of a few hundred or even thousands of milliseconds before it is deemed unusable. The typical case in a DAW, however, is to run a set of plugins and/or recording sessions while also listening to the output of these. The processing of these sources is always time-limited because if something takes a too long time, it is audible, and the harmonic content becomes distorted and unacceptable. This is a real-time process. 

The sound card converts digital samples to analog from the sample buffer at a fixed frequency, decided by the sample rate in your DAW. It always expects there to be a sample in the buffer to convert. If there is no sample available, it tries to convert empty data, resulting in a dropout. 

It is the CPU of your computer that carries out the actual audio sample processing. The CPU is, at the same time, constantly interrupted by other processes or devices in your system. Therefore, it can’t guarantee to deliver at a specific frequency but is instead given a time slot to deliver. This time is decided by the buffer size and sample rate in your DAW. Audio latency is when the CPU fails to deliver a sample to the buffer in time before the sound card needs to read it. 

The CPU itself is capable of delivering in time on all modern high performing computers. However, as mentioned before, the CPU is always interrupted by other processes or devices on the system. This is not a problem per se, but some devices are more prone to lock up the CPU and not giving it enough time to perform the real-time task of audio processing. Other performance heavy software might also cause the same problem. Therefore, make sure you are not running any heavy processing outside of your DAW.

Listed below are some devices that can easily lock up the CPU.

High probability of lock-up

• Video Cards

• Audio Interfaces

Medium probability of lock-up

• Network Interfaces

• USB Controllers 

• Disk Controllers 

Before troubleshooting the devices, make sure you have all of these devices’ latest drivers.

On a Windows PC you can debug your system by disabling devices in the device manager to figure out which device is causing the CPU to lock up. You can use tools such as DPC Latency Checker or LatencyMon to measure the devices’ latency independently from your DAW setup. If you do find problems when you run these tools, we recommend replacing the device or devices that are causing the problems. If you find no problems with either of these tools, there is a possibility that the problem is with your DAW or a plugin used in your project.

COMPUTER HARDWARE RELATED ISSUES

There are som known incompatibility problems with certain hardware:

• Intel Core2Duo processors, or Xeon CPUs from that same generation, are not supported.

• There could be USB 2.0/3.0 compatibility issues. For more information, please see this article.

• Some USB host controller chipsets have worse performance than others. If you use a USB hub, it adds another chipset in the signal chain and could potentially worsen the performance.

WARRANTY

Elektron machines come with a three-year warranty, counting from the date of purchase on the original receipt. If the original receipt is not available, the unit is still covered by a three-year factory warranty, counted from the manufacturing date. The manufacturing date (MFGDT) is printed on the serial sticker as either year and month, or year and week. Wear and tear, mishandling, or neglect are not covered by the warranty.

Please note that the warranty is transferred from one owner to a new owner (unless the device has been reported as stolen).

REGISTRATION

1. Create an account on the Elektron webpage https://www.elektron.se/customer/create/
   If you already have an Elektron account, log in to your account.

2. On your account page, click the user icon in the top right corner, and then select My Registered Machines.

3. Write your Elektron device serial number (available on the box or on a sticker under the device) in the box, and click Register product to add it to your account.

Unregister an Elektron device from your account:

You can unregister a machine from your account on the My Registered Products page https://www.elektron.se/customer/products/. Click the "X" next to the product you want to remove to unregister it from your account. After this is done, a new owner can register the device to their account.

This information applies to Analog Four, Analog Keys, Analog Heat, Analog Rytm, Digitakt, Digitone, Digitone Keys, Syntakt, Model:Cycles, and Model:Samples

To perform a Factory Reset, hold down the Function button (ACTIVE/ON button for Analog Heat) while powering on the device, then press the appropriate button when the startup menu appears. When the reset has been completed, the unit will reboot.

When you perform a factory reset on Analog Keys or Analog Four, the following happens:

• Project slot 001 will be overwritten and re-initialized with the factory preset project.
• The currently loaded project will be cleared and the factory preset project will be loaded to memory.
• Soundbanks A and B will be overwritten with the factory preset sounds.

The remaining project slots and sound banks will not be overwritten.

If you wish to keep the active project, remember to save it to a project slot higher than 001 before you perform the factory reset. If you have saved your own sounds to soundbanks A or B, you need to move them to a different bank if you want to keep them.

When you perform a factory reset on Analog Heat, the following happens:

Preset slots 001–016 will be overwritten with the factory presets. The remaining preset slots will be cleared.

When you perform a factory reset on Analog Rytm, the following happens:

• Project slot 001 will be overwritten and re-initialized with the factory preset project.
• The currently loaded project will be cleared and the factory preset project will be loaded to memory.
• Soundbank A will be overwritten with the factory preset sounds.

The remaining project slots and sound banks will not be overwritten.

If you wish to keep the active project, remember to save it to a project slot higher than 001 before you perform the factory reset. If you have saved your own sounds to soundbank A, you need to move them to a different bank if you want to keep them.

When you perform a factory reset on a Digitakt or Digitakt II, the following happens:

• Project slot 001 will be overwritten and re-initialized with the factory preset project.
• The currently loaded project will be cleared and the factory preset project will be loaded to memory.
• Sound/preset bank A will be overwritten with the factory presets.

The remaining project slots and sound/preset banks will not be overwritten. Any samples that you have transferred to the unit or recorded directly into the unit will remain on the +Drive after a factory reset.

If you wish to keep the active project, remember to save it to a project slot higher than 001 before you perform the factory reset. If you have saved your own sounds/presets to soundbank A, you need to move them to a different bank if you want to keep them.

When you perform a factory reset on Digitone or Digitone Keys, the following happens:

• Project slot 001 will be overwritten and re-initialized with the factory preset project.
• The currently loaded project will be cleared and the factory preset project will be loaded to memory.
• Soundbanks A and B will be overwritten with the factory preset sounds.

The remaining project slots and sound banks will not be overwritten.

If you wish to keep the active project, remember to save it to a project slot higher than 001 before you perform the factory reset. If you have saved your own sounds to soundbanks A or B, you need to move them to a different bank if you want to keep them.

When you perform a factory reset on Syntakt, the following happens:

• Project slot 001 will be overwritten and re-initialized with the factory preset project.
• The currently loaded project will be cleared and the factory preset project will be loaded to memory.
• Soundbanks A through E will be overwritten with the factory preset sounds.

The remaining project slots and sound banks will not be overwritten.

If you wish to keep the active project, remember to save it to a project slot higher than 001 before you perform the factory reset. If you have saved your own sounds to soundbanks A through E, you need to move them to a different bank if you want to keep them.

When you perform a factory reset on Model:Cycles or Model:Samples, the following happens:

• Project slot 01 will be overwritten and re-initialized with the factory preset project.
• The currently loaded project will be cleared and the factory preset project will be loaded to memory.

The remaining project slots and sound banks will not be overwritten.

If you wish to keep the active project, remember to save it to a project slot higher than 01 before you perform the factory reset.