Does anyone know of any MIDI control hardware that would allow me to move the Transpose feature on the Octatrack in 12 step (octave) increments?
It’s a great shame thus can’t be achieved by holding Function and turning Transpose, the way you can with Pitch.
Blokas Midihub maybe?
Mutable Instruments MIDIpal or one of the clones.
Voodoo LabMX-8 will do it and is also a good MIDI router if you can find one cheap.
So - using a MIDI processor like the ones suggested, I’d send the MIDI notes from the OT and also send control messages from the OT to the MIDI processor to jump octaves up and down on the fly - right?
I haven’t used either of the ones I mentioned that way, so I can’t say for sure if you can control the transpose amount via MIDI. With the MX-8 you could use program changes to switch between two presets if nothing else, but I also don’t do that so I can’t say if it would be seamless or not - I just use mine as a router, and the MIDIpal I mostly use for troubleshooting feedback loops and stuff like that. The MIDIpal could do it, but I can’t recall whether the stock firmware is set up that way. It responds to SYSEX, but that’s not very helpful with the OT.
with the MidiHub you’d just send the midi notes from the OT and there would be a patch in the MidiHub that does this:
note(s) in from Channel 1 > Transpose +12 > note(s) out to Channel 1
it could be MUCH more complex than that…
you could also do something like:
note(s) in from Channel 1 > note(s) out to Channel 1
note(s) in from Channel 1 > Transpose +12 > note(s) out to Channel 2
both of these at the same time
there are a number of good walkthroughs on youtube (loopop etc) on the MidiHub
That sounds like the way. In the meantime, I’ve found an interesting workaround with the OT.
On the MIDI LFO page of MIDI Track 1, go to the LFO designer and create a waveform, which is a flat line at -12.
On the MIDI LFO page of MIDI Track 2, go to the LFO designer and create a waveform, which is a flat line at +12
Set MIDI LFO 1 to Note and select user wave T1.
Set MIDI LFO 2 to Note and select use wave T2.
Set MIDI LFO 3 to Note and select use wave T2 also.
Now when you play a sequence, you can press/twist LFO 1 to 127. This will lower it by an octave. Turning LFO 2 all the way up to 127 will raise it by an octave. If you keep LFO 2 at 127, turning LFO 3 will raise it up by another octave.
If you use multiple Parts in your arrangement it can get a bit messy as LFO depth will become locked into patterns as you go - unless there’s a way to stop this. Anyway, I don’t use Parts much as my OT is mostly a sequencer and mixer.