Prevent Pass-Through Of Received MIDI Notes

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

In the manual it says

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. For more information about CC DIRECT CONNECT, please see “8.6.4 MIDI SEQUENCER” on page 37.

Is there any way to change this behaviour though? I.e. stop received MIDI note messages from being mixed in with outgoing MIDI data? This may seem a little peculiar an ask, but the routing between my gear means this can cause feedback loops, and I’d prefer to have the Octa not pass through received MIDI notes rather than redo routing/dig into my MIDI processing patch since that’ll take a lot longer. Thanks!

#2

Don’t use the Thru port? Or a MIDI processor …? I THINK it’s not possible … it’s called Thru … so that’s its destiny.

#3

It’s not that it sends them to Thru, it’s that they go through MIDI Out, and I’d prefer them not to. I’ve got the tools to handle this outside of the Octa, but I’d prefer it if it was possible to switch this behaviour in one place (the Octa) rather than have to fiddle with the other stuff. I share your scepticism about it being possible :sweat_smile:

#4

I don’t know … I was pretty sure this is not possible.

#5

I had the exact opposite problem recently – I wanted midi from my keys to be passed through the midi out. To solve it, I had to have my keys output on the same channel as one of my midi tracks. So, for your problem, can you set the gear going into Octatrack to a channel not being used elsewhere? What are you sending to the OT anyway? It might help us understand the problem a little bit better to have a bit more information.

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#6

Appreciate the gesture, but I think it might take a bit too long for me to write out the whole routing chaos haha! In short, to one synth I want CC sequencing from Octa and Note messages from a controller, but I also want Octa to send a bunch of other stuff to other things that requires me to have this loop - well, it only becomes a loop because of the MIDI note pass through, it’s fine otherwise.

Basically the issue is that I have a MIDI processor going to a thru box, which goes to Octa. Octa goes back to the MIDI processor, but gets routed to the thru box as well cos it has to talk to things that are connected to that. Things are set up so that this works fine despite the obvious no-no of this circular connection, but this "sending incoming MIDI notes to MIDI Out when there’s a MIDI track on the same channel’ is… what’s the opposite of a sweet spot? Well, it’s the one circumstance where this goes wrong.

I know how I could fix it in the routing/processing (filter out Channel 15 note messages in the Octa -> Midi Processor connection), but just curious if what I’m hoping could be done on the Octatrack is possible (I’m strongly thinking not at this point, but tbh my curiosity is bigger than the problem now) since it would be vvv quick and wouldn’t require changing my MIDI filtering whenever something new is brought into the mix. I think I need to test if this still happens when MIDI mode is off / MIDI mode is on but the track with the problematic channel isn’t the active MIDI track, which would provide a slightly more awkward semi-solution but doesn’t involve me jimmying everything else.

#7

Just assign different MIDI channels to your audio tracks.

#8

Nah the issue here is I have a synth that I want to send MIDI CC from an Octa MIDI track, and MIDI note from a separate controller. So I need to have an Octa MIDI track with the same channel (15) - if I’m on that track in MIDI mode twisting knobs to send CC, I get the MIDI note feedback loop because (due to my funky set up) Octa is receiving the note on messages from my controller on Channel 15 and sends them again on MIDI Out… which ends up back at my Octa again, ad infinitum. I can prevent pass through of all other received MIDI messages on the Octatrack except, seemingly, MIDI note messages. Which is why I’m curious if I can stop that on the Octa too.

#9

Why do you need to send midi data back to your controller?

#10

It’s not going back to my controller, it’s going into a MIDI interface to be distributed elsewhere:

Controller -> MIDI Processing Interface -> MIDI Thru Box -> Octatrack, Synth
Octatrack -> MIDI Processing Interface -> MIDI Thru Box -> Synth

The interface and the thru box are my only means of merging/splitting MIDI messages between my hardware. The I/O of the interface (where I can actually filter/process MIDI) is completely full, so many things end up connected by the Thru box, which can’t do anything except send what it receives to all connections. Octatrack needs to talk to things connected to the interface and things connected to the Thru box, so it’s necessary to have these connections given the restriction that I only have the Thru box and the interface. Everything is set up in such a way that there are no problems, except for in the specific scenario of Octa also having a MIDI track set to the channel of the synth (which is there because I want to sequence CC messages to it). Octa lets you choose whether CC messages received on the MIDI channel that a MIDI track is set to are passed through to MIDI Out (which suggests some anticipation of routing in the same ballpark as my set up) but seemingly not for MIDI note messages. This setting is why usually the loop

Octatrack -> MIDI Processing Interface -> MIDI Thru Box -> Octatrack

doesn’t cause any problems: the stuff the Octa is receiving (outside my specific scenario) doesn’t go any further - no loop.

I get why it works the way it does: you have controller -> Octatrack -> thing you want Octatrack to sequence. You want to jam with the controller and commit your jam to the Octa’s sequencer with live record when you’re happy. This would be much more convoluted (and impossible in the simple set up where you only had these three bits of gear) if it didn’t pass on the MIDI note messages it received to the MIDI out port. I was just hoping that the fact this behaviour isn’t fixed for CC meant it wasn’t fixed for note messages, and that I’d overlooked something.

There is a simple fix with the gear that I have: filtering the problematic note messages Octatrack is generating at the MIDI interface. A more convenient (for me) fix would be if Octatrack allowed you to do what it does with received MIDI CC: choose whether it’s passed forward in MIDI Out when you have a MIDI track set to that MIDI channel.

#11

What your asking for is a way to disable “Soft thru” (in MPC terms) right? It’s been wished for in other threads but not implemented. For me it’s on the verge of a must, but it doesn’t seem like enough people see a use for it. So it will not likely be implemented in the current product line.

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#12

I hadn’t heard that terminology before, but yes that’s it. And googling it, it looks like I’m not the only one who’s found this annoying (in fact, that’s you in the OP haha!) Stop OTs "soft thru" of midi notes?. Well at least I can take some solace in not being a total freak for wanting this, time to filter some MIDI messages :stuck_out_tongue: