Midi/New User advice

j_spurdo · 2014-03-30T19:19:12.000Z

Hello elektronauts,

I just got an octatrack and love it, but I’m having some issues figuring out exactly how to get it to do what I’d like. I know it’s a complicated and often intimidating machine, but I think what I want it to do shouldn’t be all that hard.
I traded up from an mv8000 to this OT and so far it’s been a really inspiring piece of gear! However, I can’t seem to use it with midi how the mv was set up.

Basically I just would like to have my keyboard plugged into the OT, and have the OT plugged into my synth and have the OT be some sort of intermediary between the two. I.e. I just want to play a note on the keyboard and have it trigger the synth, with the option to record what I’m playing via the OT as a sequencer.

I can’t seem to get it set up right though! All that ever happens with the OT is that certain tracks are triggered by certain notes. I’ve tried setting to set everything up as it logically should be (as described in the manual) but I can’t get it to do this simple function.

I’m sorry if this is a dumb question/very basic use of the almighty OT, as I said I am not too familiar with the device yet (1 week) but I’d love for it to work this way.

avantronica · 2014-03-30T19:51:43.000Z

The audio side of the OT can have the MIDI i/o turned off, so that’s an option for you to look at, if you want to use the OT for midi recording and not play the OT audio tracks via the keyboard then set it up to ignore Note and CC, then enable the MIDI channels on the MIdi tracks and put the thru to use to feed the synth the keys - however, this will require cable switching or a merge at your synth to play the sequencer through teh OT out - or you’ll need a midi thru box after your keys to duplicate the keys and feed both, but it’ll still require a merge i think, if you want to retain maximum flexibility, plenty of recent threads about midi merge solutions

nirun · 2014-03-30T21:30:28.000Z

First, how do you have everything plugged in?

I have my keyboard’s midi out plugged into the midi in of the octatrack, and the midi out of the octatrack connected to the midi in of my synth (minitaur)

hit function + project(mixer) and in midi settings go to channel and make sure the OT’s channel (i have mine set as 16) and your keyboards midi channel is set to the same.

now click midi and then function + playback and assign the channel to the desired channel on your synth and click yes. Now you should be able to play that correspoding channel on your synth with your keyboard and record notes into the OT’s sequencer with live record mode (play+record) enabled.

I have my A4 setup like this as well, set up tracks 1-8 to voices 1-4, with 1-4 controlling a single note, and 5-8 controlling the same voices with a midi arp. great fun

Let us know how it goes

j_spurdo · 2014-03-31T02:31:52.000Z

Thank you!
I’m not sure what I was doing wrong, but following your instructions step by step got me doing what I wanted.
I think it was some issue with having the auto channel set at “auto” instead of 1, but I’m not too entirely sure

Either way, it works how I’d like, so kudos to you

nirun · 2014-03-31T15:07:41.000Z

Excellent! Can’t wait to hear the results