Send midi from midi keyboard to Octatrack, and to Analog 4

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

Hi…

another situation with MIDI connectivity and settings:
here’s the situation

  • Octatrack is Master and has MIDI out connected to A4 MIDI in.

  • Nord Wave (or whatever MIDI keyboard) is connected to MIDI IN of Octa.

  • I want to be able to PLAY the A4 with the MIDI keyboard as well as being able to use it in the Octa for Chromatic mode, where I like to jam in beats and stuff.

Can’t get it to work… tried a lot.
It does work when I connect the A4 to the MIDI THRU of the Octa, but then they are not synced anymore.
Seems like the MIDI data coming from my Nord stops at the Octatrack? How’s that supposed to work?

Any suggestions most welcome.

cheers MDM

2

That is the way it {MIDI} works - you need a MIDI merge at your A4 (combining the OT clock/etc & keys) - (see link for one example)

3

thanks, i know about midi mergers and splitters, and have a bunch of those things back in The Dam, but right now I am in Taipei - can’t find them here so far, and I thought maybe there’s a possibility…
how about some kind of ‘routing’ of the keyboard notes through Octatracks’ MIDI sequencer ?

when I reverse the situation, it’s different:

Nord Midi Out into A4 MIDI In ----> A4 Midi Out to Octatrack , A4 is master now ----> Octatrack MIDI out to Nord

this way I am able to use the keyboard to trigger both the A4, and also sequence the Nord with the Octatrack

so why doesn’t it work the other way around?

4

Page 111 of the manual:

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.

so you can play the audio track OR the midi track but not both simultaneously.

Edit: forgive me if you know this already, but the OT can play the A4 and sequence it at the same time.

[ol]
[li]midi controller out to OT midi in[/li]
[li]OT midi out to A4 midi in[/li]
[li]OT in midi sequencer mode[/li]
[li]OT midi track’s midi channel is the same as the A4’s receive channel[/li]
[/ol]

you can set multiple OT midi tracks to transmit on the same channel, but only the active midi track will record note and CC data.

Edit #2: when you leave midi mode, the midi controller will play the audio tracks, assuming you have enabled AUDIO NOTE IN.

5

I picked up an old used Roland A-880 midi router a few months ago and it is great. Very cheap too. Surely there are a few for sale wherever you are right now and probably very cheap as well.