Octatrack MK1 Midi OUT Doesn't Work

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

hello,

i’ve searched far and wide on this topic before writing this post. although i’ve seen similar problems written about, none of them have applied to me unfortunately. i’ll try to make this as simple as possible.

i’m trying to use my OT mk1 to control my hardware synths. i’ve tried it now with a behringer model D, roland tb-03 and a behringer td-3. i’ve done this before with an MPC 2000XL so i have a bit of experience with these functions.

-i plug a midi cable from midi out (OT) to midi in (td-3).

-i set the td-3’s channel to 9 and make sure the midi mode is set to MIDI and not INT.

-go into MIDI mode on the OT, set track 1’s channel to 9 to avoid any complications from using channels 1-8.

-i hit the record button and set a trig on 1, 5, 9 and 12 just to keep it simple. hit record again.

-i press play and get nothing. the td-3 is completely unaffected.

-to be clear, i’m not sending the audio of the td-3 back into the OT as a THRU channel, i’ve got each machine going into a mixer separately so i can just focus on the MIDI issue.

-out of curiosity, when trying this with the roland, i switched the roles, making the tb-03 MIDI OUT go into the MIDI IN of the OT, and the tb-03 actually triggered the play/stop of the OT when played! so there’s no issue in that direction.

i’ve never had this issue with another sequencer, be it an MPC or sending MIDI out of ableton. it’s usually the easiest possible thing to do with MIDI! i was really excited to start exploring the many functions of the OT but now just frustrated and sad haha.

any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you very much!

2

Welcome @bubblemetropolis.

Do you want to play TD3 notes, or sync its sequencer, both ?

Which notes ? TD3 notes range is limited…
You can use OT Chromatic mode (Func + Down arrow) to play TD3 with OT trigs.

This concerns midi clock sync.

3

thanks!

Do you want to play TD3 notes, or sync its sequencer, both ?
-ideally both. i’ve tried both things and nothing works. whether it’s make a sequence on the OT and have it play on the td3 (or any synth), or simply have the OT start/stop a sequence that already exists on the td3 itself.

Which notes ? TD3 notes range is limited…
You can use OT Chromatic mode (Func + Down arrow) to play TD3 with OT trigs.
-yeah i played around with chromatic mode and moved around the octaves to make sure i just wasn’t in the neighborhood of the td3…nothing.

i’ve since come across a post saying that on some octatracks the MIDI buffer chip inside the machine breaks and needs to be replaced. at this point, i’ve tried so many things that i think this might be the issue.

thanks very much for your help.

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4

When selecting the midi channel, you have to click the encoder to confirm. You probably already checked this, but im just mentioning it because it caught me out once or twice years back.

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5

I hope not ! This is really rare.
IIRC this can be checked with a multimeter.

So it didn’t work the other way, OT master ? I’d use the same cable for tests…

If you have a midi interface and a computer / ios gear, you can make tests with a midi monitor.