Expert Sleepers ES-5 and Bitwig
I previously wrote about the Expert Sleepers ES-9 a “Eurorack 16-in/16-out USB audio interface, with DC-coupled inputs and outputs that can be used for both audio and CVs”. While it is advertised as having 16 outputs it can be expanded to much more than that. Recently I decided I wanted to expand the ES-9 and I figured I would write a bit about how I set it up because the documentation is unclear in a number of areas.
Everything in this post builds on my previous ES-9 post so if you have not yet read that I would suggest following through those instructions first.
A Word of Warning
As with all things involving hooking up Eurorack modules there is a risk of damaging this and other modules by hooking things up incorrectly. Anything I write here is documenting my own experiences. Take care and make sure you know what you are doing.
The Expansions
I have currently added three expansions onto my ES-9:
Midi Breakout – I won’t have a lot to say about this one. You plug it into the back of the ES-9 and you can access the Midi in and out that is already exposed through software. There is a version with 3.5mm jacks for those who want to save space.
ES-5 “ES-3 Expander” -The ES-5 is referred to as an ES-3 expander but can also be used with the ES-8 / ES-9. It provides an additional 8 gate outs from the ES-9 and supports other expansions of it’s own. It is connected to the ES-9 through a 10 pin cable and also requires it’s own power connection. The ES-5 has 6 headers to allow for other expansion modules to be connected to it. Connection 1 carries a copy of it’s own signal so realistically it can support 5 expanders.
ESX-8GT – This is an expansion module for expanding the ES-5. This module provides 8 additional gate / trigger outputs. As an alternative there is an ESX-8CV module that provides 8 additional CV outputs. This module is connected to one of the 6 expansion connections on the ES-5. In my case I set it as expansion 2 since expansion 1 is a copy of the ES-5’s outputs.
Connections
Software
This is where things get a little bit weird. By using the ES-5 and expanders you can end up adding an additional 48 outputs onto your ES-9. If you followed along with my previous post about the ES-9 you will remember that the ES-5 is accessed through a single stereo audio connection. The ES-5 treats the audio single as encoded data that it decodes to make all these additional channels. Obviously these will be lower resolution than a true audio signal but should be sufficient for most CV purposes.
This audio encoding is handled by the Expert Sleepers Silent Way plugin suite. Even though this suite is a separate purchase the ES-5 controller VST plugin will run unregistered and allow you to control your ES-5. The suite is installed and located alongside all your other VST plugins and the ES-5 Controller will show up as a VST instrument.
Plugin Settings
This plugin appears to go very deep and I have only scratched the surface of it in order to get my work done.
- Input To Gates 1: Gates 1/1
- Input To Gates 2: Gates 2/1
- Gates 1 Chan: 1
- Gate 1 Base: 48
- Gates 2 Chan: 1
- Gates 2 Base 60
This sets up our plugin to control the 8 outputs of the ES-5 by reading MIDI notes on Channel 1 starting at C2. The 8 outputs of the ESX-8GT is set to read the MIDI notes on Channel 1 starting at C3.
Confusing Output
Theoretically at this step we should be able to assign our audio channel output to the ES-5 output and be good to go but we run into some strange behavior. The outputs will now respond to out MIDI notes but not quite in the way we expect. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what was going on. Bitwig tracks leave extra headroom by default. Since this is encoded data we don’t want to manipulate it in any way. Ctrl + Click the channel fader, type 0 and hit enter to set the fader to exactly 0. Everything should now respond properly.
Additional Enhancements
I added a couple extra enhancements to my ES-5 preset before saving it to my library
- Place the ES-5 controller into a Instrument Layer container
- Add a Note Length device in front of the ES-5, set the length to millisecond mode and use the minimum length. Disable the device.
- Add a button to the modulators for the instrument layer. Name the button “Trig” and map it to enable the note length device.
- In the Remote Controls for the Instrument Layer add controls for both the “Trig” button and the time knob of the note length device.
The following steps give you a device that is sending gates by default but can be converted to send triggers instead at the click of a button.
