OT sequencer started with midi keyboard note? Why?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

I’m still learning about midi, and am attempting to connect my hardware in a way that lets me use my prophet 6 to send midi note data to the OT sequencer, to then be played on my cyclone 303.

I was able to make this happen (I even achieved live midi recording), but encountered a strange thing that I’d like to fix/learn about in the process.

I was able to start the OT sequencer and select tracks on the OT by pressing certain keys on the prophet. Is this some sort of midi conflict, or am I missing a setting on the OT?

I have the OT transmitting on channel 2, and the 303 receiving on channel 2 as well. I’m not clear on what the OT autochannel does/controls, so maybe this is it. The keys and notes on the prophet and 303 did seem to correspond, but once I got up to the higher notes, the keys began selecting tracks and starting the OT clock. Why is this?

#2

I’m in same boat being pretty new to midi. Had similar things happen when I first sent midi in to OT from keyboard. OT audio tracks only have 2 octaves (I can’t remember which they are, maybe C3 +C4, someone else can probably clarify). Other incoming midi notes can change a bunch of other stuff. Be careful cos I changed some settings this way that took a while to track down afterwards when things weren’t sounding right all of a sudden…

Just a quick heads up in case you’re there sending all kinds of messages in to OT before someone else chymes in with better help :wink:

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#3

The OT allows remote control of its operations using MIDI Note messages.

As Cotv pointed out, the OT can only play back samples chromatically in a two-octave range.

The exact details are given on page C-1 of the OT’s manual.

If you have more than one MIDI device connected to the OT’s MIDI Out, the Auto Channel feature allows you to play each of those devices in turn from your master keyboard by selecting the applicable track on the OT without having to change the MIDI channel on the master keyboard.

For now, set the MIDI channel on the master keyboard to match the AUTO CHANNEL number.

#4

I have also run into this problem before. Maybe someone else will be more helpful, but if you only need the note data from the keyboard, then you can go into the project’s midi options and uncheck audio CC in. This way you can still get the notes, but without the annoying starting and stopping every time you hit a certain C or whatever it is.

That being said, this means that you can’t control parameters over midi from your midi controller, which is obviously not ideal for many situations. I’m hoping someone better at this than I can explain a way around this.

#5

Thanks guys, this has been very helpful. My last problem is when I go into live recording mode by pressing record and play at the same time, it stops the sequencer. I’ve seen videos where people don’t seem to have this problem, so what am I doing wrong?

I figured it out - you hold rec then press play.

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#6

So, by pressing rec while it’s playing, I’ll be able to live rec, or manually set trigs? Ok. (Sorry, I’m not in front of it right now to try)

Wait, doesn’t the rec light flash when in live rec mode? That won’t happen if it’s playing and I just hit rec…

#7

You know what I was totally wrong about that… Sorry. Disregard that last reply! I’ve had this happen before too and I’m not sure why. It seems like a timing thing. Sometimes it works and sometimes it stops the sequencer. Maybe experiment with pressing one button first and then vice versa.

#8

Damn, I’d been looking for this for a long time.
Thank you pal ! :kiss:

#9

I’m having this same problem but unchecking “audio cc in” does not fix the problem and It’s driving me crazy. Right now i’m using the little keyboard of the digitone to input notes on the octatrack sequencer. Everytime I press note b2 de octatrack starts playing from the first step in the pattern, consecutive notes trigger audio tracks 1 to 8. This behaviour does not happen when i uncheck “audio note in” but then I can not use the digitone keyboard to play notes on the audio tracks anymore. Weird thing is that I can still control the MIDI sequencer tracks of the octatrack with both “audio cc in” and “audio note in” unchecked. The digitone Keyboard is set to send on the octatrack’s auto channel. Does anyone know how to solve this?

#10

Disabling Audio CC in only disables the audio tracks from reacting to CCs (Control Changes).

There is no way to disable only the MIDI note mappings (listed in the manual at C.1 NOTE MAPPING). The only workaround is to filter out the “offending” notes externally with a MIDI processor.

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#11

Ok, thanks for clearing that out. I thought you could disable this as explained in jurfin’s post. But this doesn’t work unfortunately.

#12

Check the “Cc direct connect” option.
Iirc it disables this (IMO very annoying) feature.

#13

CC DIRECT CONNECT concerns midi tracks control only, and doesn’t change the sequencer start behavior. With OFF it allows midi control of active midi track parameters with CCs. The name is not explicit.

If only Elektron could filter those notes with some options…:thinking:

CC DIRECT CONNECT.
• ON will, when the Octatrack MIDI mode is activated, route MIDI CC messages straight to the MIDI output port. When MIDI mode is enabled and LIVE RECORDING mode is active, specified CCs in the CTRL 1 and CTRL 2 SETUP pages can also be recorded by the sequencer. Other CCs will not be recorded by the Octatrack, but still routed to the MIDI output port.
• OFF makes the auto channel listen to MIDI CC messages according to the MIDI MODE MAPPINGS table found in “APPENDIX C: MIDI CONTROL REFERENCE” on page 136. MIDI CCs 36-45 sent on the auto channel will be remapped according to the CC messages specified in the CTRL 1 and CTRL 2 SETUP pages.

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#14

I thought I had found some secret combo that avoided this, but I might be wrong…

Still, there is also this mention in the manual:

image
image1334×750 95.5 KB

But this is only in MIDI mode.

C3 on keyboard is starting Machinedrum and Octatrack
#15

You can control the sequencer play only if you use audio track midi channels, or auto channel and an audio active track.
No problem if you use midi channels not used by audio tracks channels…

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#16

Yes indeed.
I deactivated every audio track midi conf, that might be my own combo :rofl:

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#17

I never use any of the keyboard commands, wish you could deactivate them.
The middle C should be middle C for pitch imo

#18

Disable Audio Note In:

AUDIO NOTE IN controls whether incoming MIDI notes should affect audio tracks or not. Enable or
disable by pressing [YES]. When disabled no incoming MIDI notes will affect the audio tracks, meaning tracks or machines can’t be triggered externally.

OR:

Set a different channel for control transmit than for what you’re playing or wanting to send in midi thru. If you’re sending midi only on channel 1, you’ll notice that if none of the channels in midi -> channels -> trig channel are set to one, then the octatrack won’t start using midi notes.

8.7.3 (os 1.41 manual)

TRIG CHANNEL sets which MIDI channels the audio tracks respond and send data to. If for example
MIDI channel 1 is assigned to track 1, the track can be externally controlled according to the mappings
found in “APPENDIX C: MIDI CONTROL REFERENCE” on page 137. The track can at the same time,
when active, send out MIDI data on MIDI channel 1. This occurs when the DATA ENTRY knobs are
adjusted and when [TRIG] keys are pressed. An OFF setting means the audio track will not respond
to, nor send out, any MIDI data.

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