April 19, 2016
The Solton Programmer 24 may well be a bit of a vintage piece of hardware, but is a good arranger with plenty of rhythms and other features to make playing with it quite a lot of fun, however, it has to be programmed to listen in on specific midi channels before it can work with my Elkavox 83 accordion.
Though the process is easy, if you haven’t touched it in over 25 years, one can easily forget the sequence of buttons to press so that it becomes functional with the Elka. The first time, I must have wasted an hour playing with it before I hit the right combination, and that is why this page here exists, so I don’t have to bang my head against the wall again in the future (I likely won’t ever need this page, but it’s now here for posterity). Here is that process in Video.
OK, in written form, the process is:
Press PATTERN 7 times until all LED lights are unlit.
Press FUNCTION 1 time so the numeric display reads “O”
Press PATTERN 1 time to select the OMNI function
Press FUNCTION 1 time to set OMNI to “OFF”
Press PATTERN 1 time to highlight the RECEIVE LED
Press the “1” button 1 time to highlight the arranger’s chord/arranger section
Press PATTERN 2 times to highlight the CHANNEL LED
Press the FUNCTION button as many times as needed until the numeric display reads “04”
Press the PATTERN button 2 times until all LEDs are unlit
Press the “PRESET RHYTHMS” button 2 times until the numeric display reads “.11”
The final step that I forgot to show in the video is very minor… right now, as it is, the Solton has the MANUAL DRUMS turned on by default. Your turn them off by pressing the MANUAL DRUMS button once to deselect it. You are now all set to go enjoying the Solton Programmer 24 arranger module by selecting your chosen rhythm, the speed of the tempo and no Arranger or Arranger variations “A” or “B”.
I prefer to use the bass and chords of the Elka, but the Solton will faithfully follow my chord changes should I desire it. This process has to be repeated every time you turn on the Solton, however, as long as it remains powered on, these settings remain functional. Do you see now how it was easy for me to forget this process after not having do it for a couple of decades?