Basic question about parameter locks and MIDI

tayholliday · 2014-05-02T05:16:19.000Z

I’m thinking of buying an Octatrack

I have a question which I couldn’t divine from reading the manual:

Say I have my synth connected to the OT via MIDI. When I hold down a trig button, and then play a note on my synth (thus sending a MIDI note-on message to the OT), will the note for that trig be set? Similarly, if I hold a trig button and turn a knob on my synth (sending a MIDI CC), will a MIDI CC parameter lock be established?

Seems like this is the way it should work, I just want to be sure! I don’t want to have to turn knobs to set MIDI notes, or look up the MIDI CC numbers in my synth’s manual

Thanks!

Taylor

nedavine · 2014-05-02T05:22:47.000Z

If you hold a trig button on the corresponding midi track and hit a note on the midi keyboard it will record that note.

Turning knobs depends what you have the midi CC set to. Generally if you are wanting to parameter lock synth parameters I would imagine its easier to do it from the OT to the synth (ie from within the midi track). I don’t think the midi tracks read midi the same way they send it. I may be wrong though.

sabo · 2014-05-02T05:35:30.000Z

theres a CC learn function, where OT CC values can be set automatically by turning the corresponding knob on your synth

glaciertree · 2014-05-02T13:46:22.000Z

@tay - Re notes: yes, hold trig button on OT, play up to 4 keys on your synth, should work as you are expecting; Re: plocks for CC yes, I believe it should work like that though I’m using a controller instead of the synth itself for that. As Sabo said, if you use learn function you can probably avoid the manual

@nedavine - Not sure what aspect you are referring to there? I think you can live record knob tweaking once they are set up on the CC setup pages as well as plock CCs for a single trig using grid record mode. If you are referring to the fact that the resolution of the CC changes are only as fine as the steps in the pattern… I do kind of wish I could have a more continuous tracking for pitch bend for example though.

tayholliday · 2014-05-03T05:40:54.000Z

Thanks for the answers!

Its interesting that the OT would need a MIDI learn function for CCs. I suppose if it were to automatically assign a CC, there’s the possibility of running out of CC assignments.