I picked up an Octatrack last week and I absolutely love it. But, for the life of me, I can’t get it to record midi messages from my keyboard. I’ve checked out these sources but still no dice.
I think it’s a settings issue since I can see the little white pixel indicating midi in whenever I touch the keyboard. But, while in chromatic mode, touching the keyboard doesn’t effect the visual piano. Anyway, any pointers would be very much appreciated.
Audio CC in: off
Audio Note in: off
Auto Channel: 11
CC Direct Connect: off
All sync options are unchecked.
If you want to play, record into and control the active midi track with midi cc, your keyboard controller has to send midi on the autochannel which is by default set to midi ch 11.
So if you change your OTs autochannel, keep that in mind.
Besides that, you can play the track with your keyboard controller, hold a trig button (Have to be in Grid Record Mode, LED on) and press a key to have only this step record note, velocity and note length or use Live Recording Mode (Hold Rec and press Play) to record into the track.
Also if you assign any midi ccs on a midi track, those can also be controlled by your controller on the autochannel.
Check the midi implementation at the end of the OT manual for the midi track cc# and maybe also read about midi tracks and cc direct connect in the manual.
Thanks, it’s becoming clearer to me now. This is my first deep dive into controlling multiple devices via midi and CC messages. I think the whole midi side of the OT is too powerful to leave unexplored. Especially the Midi lfo’s. Just like that, my old Akai S500 has round robin now.
Absolutely!
There’s so much you can do with Midi Tracks.
The Arp can be used to inject all sorts of rhythmic movement into basslines and leads, but can also do some crazy stuff with drums and percussion.
With Arp=Off you can use the legato knob to do note slide (just make sure the first note is long enough overlap and p-lock the Arp’s Leg parameter on the second note).
The Arp’s parameters are also lfo modulation targets.
Don’t forget you have microtiming and swing as well as conditional trigs on the midi tracks.
You can use several midi tracks set to the same midi channel if you need more than the four notes each track can send or if you want to use more midi cc messages for example.
