YES… and this is what i have been doing…
other than changing the Audio midi channels - which i just turned them all off to stop confusion.
But I am back at square 1.
I can only control the external synth with the external controller when the midi track is selected.
But like I said. I was able to still do that even when the midi track was not selected.
Hence the confusion.
Big apologies and big thanks for helping…
maybe it’s this…
If you really switched the audio-channels there is no surprise that it didn’t work … this is business of the 8 midi-channels. You have to switch to midi-mode first …
not sure I understand
Disregarding why you would want to do that (because you would lose the convenience of the auto channel feature), you can do this by setting the MIDI channel number of the Seaboard to match that of the MIDI track on which you’re sequencing the Evolver. This may work if you have now deactivated conflicting MIDI channel numbers on the OT’s audio tracks.
Could you describe, what you want to achieve …
I guess you have a particualar channel setting in your setup, which happens to produce this behaviour. But we can sort it out … did it many times before … 
So by changing all the midi track channels to the same as the track I am using to control the synth - they all seem to pass the midi notes thru… so surprises there.
although if I had multiple ext synths running - that would get confusing right?
my plan was to (which I already had it working at one point) is to be able to still play the midi keyboard through to the ext synth gear - even when in audio mode.
or am I tripping?
If an OT audio track and a MIDI sequencer track are sent to the same channel number, then the audio track blocks the MIDI sequencer track from receiving messages.
What I outlined above will enable you to achieve that.
right… so with all Audio Midi Channels set to OFF… then there shouldn’t any blocking going on… so thats not it either…
This bit?
That’s where I would use midi splitter and merger. The splitter and merger would be used to built a bypass of the OT. So the OT can be used as a re-routing device and could send midi from the midi channels, but if not needed, it would not be in the way, if we play with the audio-tracks in audio-mode.
Correct.
It requires you to change the MIDI channel number on the Seaboard. Have you tried that as I described above?
The midi channel on the seaboard set to channel 11 - auto channel of the OT
DONE EXACTLY THIS>> STILL NO JOY
the only change from my original set up - was turning off the audio midi channels.
That will allow you to use the auto channel function to control the active track of the OT without changing any channel settings.
BUT
your quest seems to be to not use the auto channel function and instead be able to control an external device that is not connected to the currently active track.
So that’s why I wrote:
This enables the auto channel feature to be used, but you say that’s not what you want.
This worked…
Thank you. This must have been where I had the setting the other day.
Now - what if I wanted to use the Roli as a master keyboard for the OT.
To control other ext synths… Limited here right?
sorry … this might be a little misleading …
I did mean “each midi-track of the OT to the appropriate midi channel of the gear, which is connected.” So if there were two devices connected to the midi-out of the OT, two of the midi-tracks of the OT would be setup to address the devices one by one.
Thats why I thought using the AUTO channel as the Keyboards midi channel works correctly to control multiple ext gear… but not if you want to pass midi notes thru when in audio mode right…?