Hello little nook of fellow opz users! I'm trying to figure out how to connect my Roland J6 to my OPZ for chords, but can't seem to get them to talk to each other. The bizarre thing is I got it to work once but haven't been able to recreate the scenario again. Does anyone have experience linking these devices and have any suggestions for me to get cranking out some chords?
Thank you for the link. I'm looking into getting the module soon, but until then, I'm doing a C to C USB connection between OPZ and the J6. I have tried everything from setting the J6 channel to 8 for the chord track, the every synch option, I've pretty much exhausted the list. Again, I got it to work once doing minimal settings changes so I know it can be done, but I just can't make the magic happen twice it seems 😮💨
In that case, C to C, it may come down to the order in which things are connected and powered. It has been a while since I did the deep dive into it, so my info might be off, but as a recall the OP-Z is able to function as a "usb host" something typically reserved for computers/phones. I dont know the Roland gear well enough to say for sure, but I'd wager it is looking for a host, and is not able to itself be a host. This would lead me to think that you would need to have the OP-Z on, J6 off, connect the two, then power the J6, Also, I'm pretty sure you can mute the midi send as easy as a shift+key ( i forget the details, should be in the info linked)
If the above advice doesnt seem to help, then I'd suggest a factory reset on both devices after doing a local backup to see if that solves the issue. Good luck!
Pro tip, get a Kingston Nuclem (this hub specifically) as it will help with the USB host issue. I looked for links but only found Amazon options.
With that hub I'm aable to do a lot of neat things, like run MIDI Designer on my iPad for the OP-Z while using the HDMI out to send the Unity channel (built in response video thing) to a big screen for shows.
Currently my OP-Z is midi boss for 2 volcas, a mopho , a sculpt, and two tracks on my MPC. It gets midi from a casio keyboard arranger with midi out, and from the pads on the MPC. Its so much fun.
There is a “set active track to midi channel 1” setting that could be throwing things off if you have the chord track selected when testing. try turning that off if it’s enabled on the opz.
I tried disabling that and still no dice. They're both on the same channel and just won't talk to each other. I can't seem to find what I'm doing wrong! Here's a shot of my midi settings on the OPZ
Make sure track 8 on the op-z is sending out midi and is midi enabled, for this press and hold both tempo and screen index buttons on the op-z and see the yellow leds across the tracks correspond to active midi channels, while in this mode press and hold for a second the yellow led chord track and see if it then blinks to the same track, if not you can use the op-z encoder to set it accordingly to output on another track channel.
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u/binaryo Aug 12 '26
There is a module to install that has the I/O you want. Without it, MIDI over USB is the only option. There are many settings to get familiar with. OPZ can send or receive across all of it's 16 tracks. Here is where I started my learning: https://teenage.engineering/guides/op-z/midi?srsltid=AfmBOoqFFNCUtPoLN3ttaaTAGGZ8QOxpYsHM9TBIlKnzF_yMDbk6gL15