MIDI parameters for controlling A4 and AR with OT

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

Hello dear Elektronauts,

I’m trying to find a topic about this that has already been done, but I don’t find it exactly.
I’m simply willing to control midi CCs with my OT, sending the changes to both AR and A4.
For A4, I put the 4 synths tracks from midi chanel 1 to 4. I did the same for the OT, tried to make it recognize midi messages from the A4 (didn’t work) and I tried to do it “manually” ,which didn’t work either. It seems like it doesn’t recognize any CC messages and I just don’t know what to do to be honest.
I guess some parameters must be wrong but I have no idea which one and on which machine…

Can someone help me with this ?
I would really love to get the midi section of the OT in order to control parameters from the two other machines.

Thank you :slight_smile:

2

Let’s take a simple example; use MIDI sequencer track 1 on the Octatrack to control the filter 1 cutoff frequency on track 1 of the Analog Four.

I’m assuming that you have a working MIDI cable connected from the MIDI Out port of the OT to the MIDI In port of the AF.

To receive on the AF:
In the GLOBAL > MIDI CONFIG > MIDI PORT CONFIG menu:

  • set INPUT FROM to “MIDI”
  • activate RECEIVE CC/NRPN

In the GLOBAL > MIDI CONFIG > MIDI CHANNELS menu, set TRACK 1 CHANNEL to be 1.

Look in Appendix D of the manual to find the MIDI Control Change message number for filter 1 cutoff frequency: it can actually use two values but the major (MSB) one is 18.

To send from the OT:
Select MIDI sequencer track 1.

In the MIDI NOTE SETUP page for this track, set CHAN to 1 and remember to press either Data Entry knob A or the [ENTER/YES] key to activate this setting.

In the MIDI CTRL 1 SETUP page, select a CC command number (for example, CC1 using knob C) to set the CC message number to be 18. Remember to press either the Data Entry knob or the [ENTER/YES] key to activate this setting.

Now on the MIDI CTRL 1 Main page, hold [FUNCTION] and press Data Entry knob C to enable control of CC command 1.

You should now be able to control filter 1 cutoff frequency on the AF by either manually turning this knob, or parameter-locking its value, or sending an LFO to it.

Let us know if this works, or if you have any questions about any of the steps.

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Thank you for your very clear response, I did everything like that though and it didn’t work.
Maybe it could be because the AR is between the OT & A4 ? I don’t know if there are parameters that shouldn’t be on on the Rytm?

Even when I press function and the CC button to go ‘midi learn’, it doesn’t recognize the filter knob.

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4

Make sure your audio tracks are not blocking the MIDI channel, i.e. NO audio tracks set to CH1

5

I put the midi channels of the Midi tracks in OT from 9 to 12 so it shouldn’t be that (and I assigned the same Midi channels on the A4)

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ensure A4 receives CC, is not exclusively NRPN and that the wiring is bi-directional for midi learn

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It receives CC and I changed the Param Output from NRPN to CC and it doesn’t change.

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I believe you’ll need to set the Output Channel (MIDI ports config) to TRK CHAN as opposed to AUTO CHAN to do the learning

either that or temporarily set the OT midi channel to the A# auto channel whilst learning CC assignments

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Well, I was trying to get you to run through the simplest possible example to get you started, and I still recommend that you actually do that. Of course, it’s OK to try your complete setup with the AR included and trying to set up the MIDI learn function.

If you want to involve the AR, connect Octatrack MIDI Out to AR MIDI In and connect AR MIDI Thru to AF MIDI In. You will need to make the appropriate settings for the AR’s MIDI ports.

However, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a case where it’s easier to use MIDI learn than to simply look up the appropriate MIDI CC message number.

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10

YES ! It’s working that way, the thing I was doing wrong was putting the midi cable in “out” and not “through”.
Thank you very much.

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