Dirtywave M8 Basic MIDI Implementation

April 06, 2025

I recently picked up a v1 Dirtywave M8 in a trade. While browsing the web, I noticed that the OMX-27 has some macros for controlling things on the M8. I couldn’t find an official Dirtywave MIDI implementation chart, so I dug through the OMX-27 code to get the basic idea. Thought I’d share.

Implementation Chart

Commands are all sent as note on/off messages. The default channel is 10, but I believe that’s configurable in Project> MIDI > Settings > CC Map Chan on the M8.

MIDI Note	Function
0	Play button
1	Shift button
2	Edit button
3	Option button
4	Left button
5	Right button
6	Up button
7	Down button
12	Track 1 mute
13	Track 2 mute
14	Track 3 mute
15	Track 4 mute
16	Track 5 mute
17	Track 6 mute
18	Track 7 mute
19	Track 8 mute
20	Track 1 solo
21	Track 2 solo
22	Track 3 solo
23	Track 4 solo
24	Track 5 solo
25	Track 6 solo
26	Track 7 solo
27	Track 8 solo

So for example, given these placeholder functions:

type sendNoteOn = ({
  note: number,
  velocity: number,
  channel: number,
}): => void;

type sendNoteOff = ({
  note: number,
  velocity: number,
  channel: number,
}): => void;

// the OMX-27 code uses delays between MIDI messages
// probably just to keep the M8 from getting overloaded
// with messages
type delay = (ms: number) => Promise<void>;

We can control mutes / solos:

// mute track 1
sendNoteOn({note: 12, velocity: 1, channel: 10});
await delay(10);

// solo track 2
sendNoteOn({note: 21, velocity: 1, channel: 10});
await delay(10);

// unsolo track 2
sendNoteOff({note: 21, velocity: 0, channel: 10});
await delay(10);

Or move around the menus:

// press and hold shift
sendNoteOn({note: 1, velocity: 1, channel: 10});
await delay(10);

// press and release the left button 4 times
// to move through the menu tree
for (let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
  sendNoteOn({note: 4, velocity: 1, channel: 10});
  await delay(10);
  sendNoteOff({note: 4, velocity: 0, channel: 10});
  await delay(10);
}

// release the shift button
sendNoteOff({note: 1, velocity: 0, channel: 10});
await delay(10);

Launchpad

The M8 also supports interfacing with the Launchpad Pro and that includes being able to launch chains like Ableton’s clip view. I imagine it similarly works by sending/receiving MIDI notes since that’s typically how one programmatically controls Launchpads pads; for example from the programming reference guide:

Lighting the lower left pad static red:

Host => Launchpad Pro [MK3]:

Hex: 90h 0Bh 05h

Dec: 144 11 5

This is Note On, Channel 1, Note number 0Bh (11), with Velocity 05h (5). The Channel specifies the lighting mode (static), the Note number the pad to light (which is the lower left one in Programmer Mode), the Velocity the colour (which is Red, see Colour Palette).

So I’m guessing how it works is:

M8 sends a device indentification request
LP sends a response
M8 sends a bunch of messages to the LP indicating which pads should be lit and with what color using MIDI “note on” messages
When an LP pad is pressed, the LP sends its own “note on” message to the M8
M8 starts/stops the chain
M8 sends a new “note on” message to update the state of the LP pad

Unfortunately I don’t have a Launchpad Pro to try this.

I’d love to reverse engineer the API to make a Norns script for this so that my Launchpad Minis would work with the M8, but until I can get more information on how the two devices are communicating I’m stuck.