Invalid and inconsistent MIDI, possibly from OT MKII ? [resolved]

I made my test with audio channels ON, with midi track 1 (shared). No problem. I use these settings all the time with midi loopback.

Nope new project has no effect :pensive:

Hmm, no midi coming into OT?

Is OT able to send notes properly to your other gear?

If yes seems like it could be a problem with the midi-cv converter, did you check if there is a firmware update for it?

Edit: just saw your video, I did not see it before.

OT is not receiving MIDI from anything. It seems to be able to sequence my Sub37, but there are some weird quirks that I originally chalked up to me being a noob (like seemingly incorrect pitch data being sent/recorded).

Btw - the audio 6 is able to capture the midi from my Rytm (w/ clock) and not choke at all

The Rytm sends Note On only no?

Not sure if you read my post :

send MIDI back and forth between your Elektrons then, see if the OT is behaving well both ways - explore settings to get MIDI in

you have to look at simpler tests to get to the heart of this - the title says inconsistent MIDI from OT, so far this isn’t obviously nailed as the only possible explanation, especially as …

Yea AFAICT the MIDI going to my Rytm is working fine as well. I think my next step is to head to a local shop with my modular case and see how a different OT interacts with it.

A common issue that comes up with MIDI & CV is the sequencing of notes without a gap - this leads to a situation where the gate is perpetually held high - ensure the default note length is not the same as the step length

taking your kit out is imho a last resort step - you can surely pinpoint if your OT is functioning correctly and then take it from there - timestamp the OT midi output in midi monitor or send it to something visual like a DAW

Keep tests simple and methodical and strip the setup down to the bare essentials
try to establish the root cause of the garbled midi messages - what about trying a different midi interface to a computer to test the accuracy of the OT output

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yeah, Id echo @avantronica
its important to simplify the problem, to boil it down to its essence, it’s tempting to keep trying different things, but that also introduces more variables.

what id do is:
just connect the octatrack midi out (only) to the audio 6, disconnect everything else from your computer - then look at the midi traffic…

(I assume you’re not using any midi hubs/splitters/mergers or anything else, if you are remove these too)

it seems unlikely the audio 6 has issues as its working elsewhere, and this with midi monitor gives you the most information - so feels like the way to explore the issue.

then on the OT, turn clock send off, menu -> midi control -> audio CC out = INT , audio NOTE out = INT, then place 1 midi note trig going out on midi ch1.

the idea here is just one message going out of the OT, check that works…
if that works you can start sending more messages. (e.g. more note trigs)
then if thats working start turning on clock and audio out settings.

but my suspicion is, even the simple case won’t work reliably :frowning:

even with all the defaults, it should ‘just work’ - but you need to strip the problem back to the minimum traffic possible…
(I highly doubt its choking - we are not talking SysEx dumps here, nor particularly high volume data, you be much more likely to see messages being delayed rather than corrupting the byte stream)

one with surprises me… when you connected the OT to the sub37, I know you said there were some ‘odd things’ , but was basic note on/off functionality working ok?

EDIT:

are you saying the OT is controlling the Rytm ok? if so thats interesting too (like the sub37) points away from the OT as the issue.

can the Rytm send midi out to nifty case ok, does that work? what about the sub37 with the nifty case?

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Yes connecting to the sub37 basic note on/off worked fine, and same to the Rytm. The OT controls the Rytm like normal.

I haven’t checked that the Rytm triggers the niftycase yet, but the Sub37 works fine. I’ll also check that the midi DIN out of the Audio 6 can do it too.

I’ve tried this and It works if I just have one trig every 16 steps BUT it only sends the note on message. No note off or 0 velocity message. As soon as I add another trig on say the 7th step, the inconsistency starts. Sometimes the first trig will register, sometimes the 7th.

We are talking midi mode, and you have the length set to 1/16?

Does it work ok if the OT sequencer off and you use the OT chromatic keyboard?

Yep in midi mode. Have the note length set to 1/16 (and have adjusted it from min to max to make sure) to no avail. And no chromatic doesn’t work either.

Have you tried turning off Audio tracks effecting midi? EXT + INT stuff? It often ruins midi.

OT+Sub37

OT+Audio 6 (and more??)

Which means your Audio 6 stuff is not reliable for tests. Something wrong. I’d monitor with something else.

Examples? For me it’s not related. Midi tracks can send midi whatever audio tracks settings are. Audio tracks send midi only if you turn knobs or use chromatic mode in audio mode, not with the sequencer.

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I have something else I can test on tonight. I think it’s peculiar that the same behavior happens with both the Audio 6 and the NiftyCase.

I HAVE AN UPDATE!

I used a different MIDI-USB input I had lying around and it worked great. Doing so reminded me that audio interfaces have firmware too. After updating my Audio 6 everything is hunky dorey and the OT is working as it should.

The NiftyCase however is not, so hopefully they can get that bug fixed. It’s interesting because it is behaving pretty much exactly like the Audio 6 was behaving before the firmware update. Will be interesting to see what they find.

Cheers to everyone who helped me track this down!

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I’m courious what they update about MIDI in your Audio6. I have exactly the same problem with my Behringer Pro-1 and RD-8. It looks like Octatrack MIDI clock data is quite different than MIDI clock from Logic or Cubase because these units works good with that DAWs.

Me too…the people over at Cre8Audio are working on it now so as soon as they fix it I’ll let you know. I’m going to reach out to NI (not holding my breath) to see if they have any insight

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EXACTLY the same midi message for all. It’s a standard protocol.
Midi clock are 24 MIDI F8 messages in every quarter note.

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not at all…

“MIDI-clock is allowed to occur anywhere in the MIDI-stream according to the MIDI-standard. A note message that normally looks like eg. 0x90 0x60 0x7f is allowed to be interrupted by MIDI-clock (0xf8). In other words, it is fully possible that the sequence could look like 0x90 0xf8 0x60 0x7f and that’s totally fine according to the MIDI-standard.”

sometimes this MIDI informations are simply not interrupted by this messages and this is that difference that i talked about