MIDI Plays Free tracks won't play 'Direct'

tasmansea · 2017-04-20T18:23:45.661Z

i made my peace with the OT for all its (perceived) quirks but with the ‘plays free’ bugs. something I’m using extensively and wish could be fixed. there are numerous threads on here about quantization issues. I opened a ticket with elektron some time ago and they said it was indeed bung.

slicetwo · 2017-04-20T19:46:27.660Z

I’m not even worried about the quantization. My timing has gotten a lot better. I’m worried about not being able to trigger MIDI sequences live separate from the PLAY button.

sezare56 · 2017-04-20T21:53:12.578Z

“Funny”, I tried to control them with midi tracks today. What are the issues ? (Except Quantize)

I found something interesting today : with plays free tracks, in hold mode, you can latch them pressing Rec (grid recording mode), like for time delay in delay control mode.

Clancy · 2018-09-02T11:34:29.000Z

So Midi tracks set to plays free CAN now be trigged with quant setting ‘direct’?! That’s great!

Wait, Elektron fixed this and didn’t announce it?!

For anyone wondering. This is a powerful feature - try it! but previously it was broken leading to much convoluted discussion and trial and error head scratching. As here:
https://www.elektronauts.com/t/midi-plays-free-tracks-wont-play-direct/4110/15?u=clancy

Supercolor_T-120 · 2018-09-02T13:59:27.693Z

What OS version do you have? If this is a 1.30d change I’ll be sad.

Clancy · 2018-09-02T16:44:16.146Z

1.30c

Why sad?

Isn’t D the mystery one they ship with new units, and no one knows what it has over C? Or am I out of date on that?

avantronica · 2018-09-02T17:11:49.630Z

Midi plays free direct FIXED?

no one knows what it has over C?

nothing feature wise at all afaicr - so should behave identically to C

thanks for sharing, but this thread will likely be merged with the original for obvious reasons

Clancy · 2018-09-02T17:50:29.774Z

yeah i get the merge but wanted to share the good news more high profile. It amounts to a fun new feature to play with.

Supercolor_T-120 · 2018-09-02T22:29:21.917Z

Clancy:

1.30c

Why sad?

Isn’t D the mystery one they ship with new units, and no one knows what it has over C? Or am I out of date on that?

Because I have a MKI, so if it was a fix in D I’d have to wait for it until whenever Elektron puts D out for the MKI.

Clancy · 2018-09-03T10:59:22.488Z

This is where I first came across it & some details about what used to happen

Weird buggy behaviour or a feature? Octatrack

Just started using MIDI Trigs. As well as being unmentioned in the manual as far as i can tell, MIDI Trigs behave really strangely when Scale Mode is set to Per Track. Okay so in Normal Scale Mode they do what you expect - they start those MIDI tracks which have been set to Plays Free. But switch on Per Track and you get: An orange light on step 1 of all tracks set to Plays Free, whether in Grid Record or Tracks mode -tracks with a trig on step 1 - you hear just that one trig, no later trig…

Clancy · 2018-09-06T20:34:44.791Z

Seems trig quant ‘1’ has been fixed too!

If I recall that was broken across the OS wherever trig quantising occurs…

how weird of Elektron not to say

sezare56 · 2018-09-06T21:33:38.657Z

IIRC, it was working with 1.25E. At least 1 step quantize, which I prefer. Not 100% sure, I was triggering recorders with Free Play midi tracks (Hold mode), and playing recordings with Free Plays audio tracks (Hold mode, 1 step quantize too). Different length quantized recordings on the fly.

Clancy · 2018-09-07T05:26:38.558Z

sezare56:

Different length quantized recordings on the fly.

Yes exactly the sort of thing that makes this feature so good!

Pretty sure I tested at 30bpm with s multiplier of 1/8 and couldn’t get it to fire on the next trig. Can my timing be that bad!?

brainpump · 2021-06-17T15:03:12.055Z

I know this is an old topic, but has the issue been fixed?

Because on my Octa II (OS 1.40A) this issue seems to be still there. I have disconnected MIDI tracks with trig quantization set to DIRECT, but triggering the tracks with buttons 9 to 16 will only play step 1 and then stay on step 1 (sequencer is running).

Yes, changing trig quant. from DIRECT to e.g. 1/16 will help - but that is not really the same as DIRECT. So the bug is still there?

Can anyone confirm or has any news?

sezare56 · 2021-06-17T22:12:15.257Z

@brainpump It seemed working correctly last time I used it with Direct, a couple of weeks ago. Not 100% sure.

Can’t check for a few days…

brainpump · 2021-06-18T10:53:53.111Z

Thanks @sezare56. In parallel I have created a support ticket (#56909). But no response by now. Keep you posted …

sezare56 · 2021-06-19T00:55:14.717Z

brainpump:

Keep you posted

Yep, I’m interested in testing again in a couple of days.

brainpump · 2021-06-21T19:09:32.807Z

I have some more important details. The unexpected behavior only occurs with SCALE MODE per TRACK.
Steps to reproduce:

Create new project
Change to MIDI
Add random midi trigs to track 1
Set scale mode to PER TRACK (<-- important)
Set PLAYS FREE to yes for track 1
Set TRIG QUANT to DIRECT for track 1
Start sequencer
Hit T9 to trigger track 1 (as starting the sequencer has no effect because of PLAYS FREE)
The yellow light should advance from 1 to 16 - but it does not: it stays on T1

Cheers,
Thomas

Clancy · 2021-06-21T19:18:49.585Z

brainpump:

The yellow light should advance from 1 to 16 - but it does not: it stays on T1

Confirmed.

Feels like an old nemesis back. I guess it was never properly fixed. I was stoked it seemed to be working though I always wondering why it wasn’t announced as fixed

brainpump · 2021-06-22T18:43:43.096Z

Update: Elektron support has confirmed that this is indeed a bug. They can reproduce it and their developers are informed.

Keep fingers crossed that a fix will make its way into the next firmware upgrade.

Thomas