Hi guys,
I know it’s not possible to import midi files from any external source into the octatrack.
But do you think it might become possible in any further software updates?
Or is it a hardware restriction that makes it impossible?
would love that feature tho …
I think it is safe to say, that it will never be possible.
You can record midi data in real-time though, so you could import it that way.
I’m having trouble thinking of a good use case for this, it’s a weird fit for the Octatrack and its sequencer.
You’d probably have a better time playing the MIDI file off a computer or something, sequencing another synth/sampler with it (or its built in MIDI module), recording that synth/sampler, and finally messing with the recording on the OT.
At least it’s possible to record MIDI files … thanks.
But I am wondering how it can me impossible hardware-related not to implement this feature in a future OS update
There is no hardware limitation on importing MIDI files into the OT but, as license wrote above, it seems unlikely that Elektron would implement this even if they were to add new features to the OT in the future.
Many MIDI files have many high-resolution tracks that go on for much longer than the OT’s pattern length of 64 steps, which is unlike Elektron’s pattern-based step-sequencer. The OT firmware would have to read the information from the file, quantise the data to 16 steps per bar, spread the events over many patterns, and decide which tracks to store and which to ignore. The results would often not adequately reflect the content of the original MIDI file.
You might like to consider contacting forum member Rusty whether his OctaEdit software could be developed to allow the importing of MIDI files.