OT vs. MIDI : limits

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Ahah !
I think I just touched two limits in the almighty OT !
And that’s a first for me :slight_smile:

[ol]
[li]There seems to be no such thing as “MIDI Scene”.[/li]
So the Xfader cannot be used to manually control a fade between a pool of parameters. Such a shame ! Why did Elektron put this away ? It seems so straightforward to fade between different values of MIDI parameters, and the machine is so deep. I don’t get it.[li]I cannot seem to trig a MIDI chord from OT towards my Volca Keys. [/li]
Same for the Volca Bass apparently : I can trigger the 3 voices from one OT note, but not each voice separately.This annoys me a little : I believe there are workarounds but all I have found so far is this :[/ol]
[ul]
[li]put the sequence of the chords I need in one of Volca memories and then trig the right step/chord from the OT.[/li]
Not sure I can do that though.[li]get back to what I know : memorize the sequence inside the OT and mangle it.[/li]
[/ul]
[ol]
But I would have appreciated to be able to completely control the notes played by my Volca toys from the OT. Plus I liked the idea to be able to control even some of the Volca parameters with trigs, so I really wanted to find a way to get the grip on the MIDI control.[/ol]

So : am I forgetting something ?

How do you achieve to play chords from the OT ?

Advices, ladies & gentlemen ?

#2
  1. Correct. We hope for an update someday.
  2. Something’s wrong - I do this every day with other polysynths.

Sorry no help, but I would investigate the Volca.

1 Like
#3

Cool ! But do you trig a chord via MIDI on the same OT track ?
There must be something I didn’t get, for me it appears like a monophonic track.
Niiiice :slight_smile:

#4

You can p-lock additional notes for the step

#5

Hi, this is from the Octatrack manual (p. 111-114)

THE MIDI SEQUENCER
The Octatrack MIDI sequencer consists of 8 dedicated MIDI tracks. It is used to control external, MIDI equipped, gear. Each MIDI track can trigger a chord of up to 4 notes with adjustable velocity and length, control pitch bend and aftertouch as well as 10 freely assignable control change parameters.
Any MIDI channel can be assigned to the MIDI tracks and several tracks can share the same channel. If several tracks are assigned to the same MIDI channel the track with the lowest number has priority in regard to parameter collisions…

MIDI TRACK PARAMETER PAGES
…
NOTE sets the root note that should be sent by the MIDI track. When pressing and holdinga [TRIG] key a mini-keyboard will appear in the lower part of the LCD screen. Turning knob A while holding the [TRIG] key pressed will visualize the root note on the keyboard.
…
NOT2-NOT4 will add more notes, offset from the root note by the selected values, to a note trig. This makes it possible for a MIDI track to send out chords consisting of up to 4 notes. If the root note is changed the offset notes will transpose accordingly. When a [TRIG] key is pressed and held the added notes can be seen on the mini-keyboard.
A value of 0 will remove an offset note.

Have fun!

#6

Cool ! But do you trig a chord via MIDI on the same OT track ?
There must be something I didn’t get, for me it appears like a monophonic track.

…[/quote]
Use NOT2, NOT3, NOT4 on the Note Main page in the MIDI sequencer.

#7

Concerning the MIDI scenes, I think it was mentioned either on old forums or maybe here that it’s not very likely happening.

Imagine you are morphing several CC streams at the same time. And then imagine what happens when you start doing some mad lightning fast fader-fu. OT would struggle with prioritizing all the MIDI data and the target synth would probably choke too. Most likely the MIDI timing would get affected and that was I believe intentional design decision of Elektron to leave out MIDI scenes.

But still, it’s my wet dream too :slight_smile:

#8

^^^ :+1:

#9

Exactly this. But I’d be content with even being able to map scenes on the first page of CCs and not the second to cut down on the amount of data being sent. It would be nice to map even just a few parameters, so you could do a filter sweep on an external synth with scenes.

#10

Check out Guga’s Morph4 for MIDI scenes link.

1 Like
#11

Outch ! I think I was sleepy when I reached the MIDI chapter ^^
Thanks for the help, everyone !

Edit : I get it now : arp was messing up my mind !
I can now trigger volca keys notes !
Shugoi !

#12

OK, a tiny little thing : I can now control any Volca through the OT from an external keyboard, quite pleasant.

One thing I don’t get, though, is the reason why I need a trig on the first step and play button being pressed so that I can actually hear my thru tracks.
What is the logic behind this ?

#13

It stems from Elektron’s coupling of sound generation to sequencer in their instruments. The exact ‘why’ would only be revealed in the firmware code.
You can monitor the output of a connected external device using the DIR input and controls.

#14

I see, thanks dear.

1 Like