been trying to connect midi keyboard to ot to play synth further in chain, but didn’t find a way. it works only with midi thru, but ot also sends clock and everything, so i need it in midi out. is it possible?
thanks!
In MIDI mode, notes received on the auto channel or the MIDI channel of the active track are mixed with the MIDI data sent by the track. Incoming notes will also be arpeggiated according to any arpeggiator settings made to the MIDI track. Depending on the CC DIRECT CONNECT setting, incoming MIDI messages will be handled differently. If the setting is activated, MIDI CC messages sent to the auto channel or the MIDI channel of the active MIDI track will be sent straight to the MIDI output port. When in LIVE RECORDING mode, specified CCs in the CTRL 1 and CTRL 2 SETUP pages can be recorded by the sequencer. If the setting is deactivated, the MIDI tracks listen to MIDI CC messages according to the MIDI MODE MAPPINGS table found in “Appendix C: MIDI CONTROL REFERENCE“. Note that 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. The only exception to this is if MIDI CC messages are sent to the MIDI channel of the active track. In that case, the Octatrack will behave as if CC DIRECT CONNECT was activated.
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appreciate your thoughtful response!
so when i turn midi mode, select track 1, set ch.1, is OT supposed to pass midi notes from keyboard (talks ch.1 as well) to my DN, which listens to ch.1 on track 1? tried this, didn’t work. i’m not interested in passing CC messages (so far), i want just midi notes get through OT via midi out to DN 
EDIT: i got it. i need to use OT’s auto channel and then ‘reroute’ channel from OT further in chain.
thanks for your help!
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having a similar problem
using a Novation Impulse 49 midi controller, into the OT’s MIDI IN
then OT’s MIDI OUT goes to a Volca Keys
I want to send clock from the OT to the Volca, but MIDI NOTE data from the Novation through the OT without the OT taking any itself
Novation on MIDI CH9, OT MIDI AUTO on CH9, Volca set to CH9
Track 4+6 are pickup machines for looping Inputs C+D aka Volca Keys
OT MIDI menu, double click SRC and set CHAN to MIDI CH9
I can now get the MIDI NOTE data from Novation passing through to the Volca, but only when I’m in the MIDI tab itself which is frustrating
Any ideas?
Don’t use the auto channel. IIRC: set impulse to channel 10, for example. Make a MIDI track on Octatrack also set to channel 10. Set volca to channel 10. Might be missing a step
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Urgh worked instantly thank you so much
Digging this old thread up again.
I have a very similar problem. Only that I would like to have the OT forward all channels’ MIDI messages from it’s IN to it’s OUT. It works with the described method above on the AUTO channel and the active MIDI channel. That doesn’t help my use case though:
I want the OT as the clock and have a Firefox control a Syntakt, which is slave to the OT, so I need to merge the OT’s and the Faderfox’s MIDI data.
I can achieve it somewhat via MIDI through if I have the OT as a slave to other devices, but I’d prefer it to be the main for best accuracy.
But the right method is to set midi tracks with the channels you want to pass thru midi OUT…8 channels max.
So this is, in fact, supposed to work? I’ve skimmed through the manual, and the only section I could find - to me - reads like this use case is not supported. That’s the section also referenced by @Schnork.
To try it out regardless, I went to MIDI mode and assigned 2 tracks to different channels (1 & 8 in this example). Neither in MIDI mode nor outside of MIDI mode do my Syntakt tracks 1 & 8 react to any incoming signals.
Only when I change the OT’s outgoing cabling from the MIDI OUT port to it’s THRU port, does it start to work (without any other re-configuration of any cabling or machine). But then I can’t have the OT be my main clock anymore again.
I must be missing some setting then?
It is because your audio channels are set to 1-8. You can use channels 9-16 or :
In MIDI > CHANNELS set them to different channels or OFF. These channels are audio track channels.
Why ?
HOW MIDI IS ROUTED If an audio track and a MIDI track share the same MIDI channel, the MIDI track will block the audio track from sending out data while the audio track will block the MIDI track from receiving data. In the PROJECT menu you can see which MIDI channels are assigned to which audio tracks.
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OMG thank you so much! That was it! I had even read that part. But I guess I was too stupid to understand what this really means 
Really appreciate your help and patience 
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Not obvious ! 
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I’ve tried wrapping my head around the information in this thread for a while now, so can someone tell me if I’ve understood everything correctly.
Let’s say I want to use my Octatrack to sync and sequence the Analog Four but also play it using an external keyboard. Let’s assume I’ll use my Minilogue.
- Octatrack MIDI OUT -> Analog Four MIDI IN
- Minilogue MIDI OUT -> Octatrack MIDI IN
- Set the MIDI channel on Minilogue to something the Octatrack is not using for anything, let’s say channel 16
- Set a MIDI channel on one of the Analog Four tracks to 16
- On the Octatrack MIDI page, set any of the channels to 16
- As long as the project / global settings are correct on all devices and one of the OT’s MIDI tracks is set to channel 16, anything I play on the Minilogue gets passed from Octatrack’s MIDI OUT to the Analog Four, together with sync and pattern change commands, without me having to worry about the AUTO channel
Does it work like that? I can’t test it right now.
Holy shit, it actually worked!
And if I’m not wrong, the MIDI channel assignment on a MIDI track is stored in a Part. Which means I can use Parts to control whether I need the Minilogue controlling the A4 or not.
This box is a gift that just keeps on giving.
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yes. Parts keep all the needed midi settings, that includes all options of the midi channel, midi bank, midi-program, ARP, LFO + LFO design, assigned and turned-on CC, including their performance parameters (cc-value).
But the sequences are still stored in the patterns, including their out of line trigs (and their cc-value if assigned [trig-hold and turn the knobs]), pattern length, microtiming and given swing for that pattern.
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I don’t know why but I instantly thought of hacking together two Parts with either tracks 1-4 or 5-8 assigned to relevant channels on the A4 and then just switching Parts instead of Patterns.
Maybe because I spent six hours arranging and rehearsing a new live set yesterday and my brain is still stuck inside the box.
thats a very good idea, just remember you can’t switch parts dynamically with the arranger and also not via midi. Each pattern can only “speak thru” one part. Yet still manually switching parts works perfectly fine. Well you can switch pattern and have each different parts prepared than switching the pattern switched of course also the part. (that is the actual confusing name-scheme with the OT, parts are not really parts but more like type fonts of a book, you can change it and the text is still the same)
I tend to be very hands on anyway. I like the sense of danger. 
It depends… If you use a lot of Static samples (like background tracks) and Thru tracks or Pickup machines with emphasis on effects, you can easily build four complete songs in just handful of patterns (maybe even just one if you’re feeling brave) using Parts.
haha. indeed, in that regard i am more of a scene abuser. What i can’t do with scenes goes into another pattern and if that is still not enough then parts come in. That is i also use very often non-same-sized 64er slices in particular for percussive elements. Worked some groups of elements out which are kept together by those slices. So there is a wave full of kicks, one with hh, snares, weirdo tones and so on.