Hi there. I am pretty sure I am not the first one to ask themselves this, but I didn’t find anything about it online.
I want to externally control the ‘function’ button of my octatrack, specifically with a foot pedal. I though with all the knobs in my setup, it would be really handy if I could use all the secondary functions of the OT interface without having to sacrifice a finger or even whole hand (that could be controlling a synth or idk at the same time). I couldn’t find it in the midi control section of the manual though. Please don’t tell me it’s not possible! 
I was really looking forward to using this…
Welcome to the forum!
It’s not possible.
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Well. Quick and clear answer, at least. The content does not make me happy though. And - another question I have asked myself a couple of times - there is no way to write a tiny little bit of code on ones own to make it possible?
I haven’t ever seen any mods for the OT, but it is already 10 years old and I figure somebody wanted to do something some time in the past. Is there some limitation making it impossible?
There is not
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I want to externally control the ‘function’ button of my octatrack, specifically with a foot pedal
Possible with soldering !
I planned to do it one day, for rec buttons…
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That is actually a good idea, didn’t even think about it but yeah. Would work. Though it feels like for me who doesn’t know much about midi coding it would be a lot of work to make it smooth. I’ll see if I can find the motivation to try it…
Alrighty. Guess I’ll do some digging myself on why that is.
Wouldn’t help (Edit : you can test to send sysex, see below). It would require a firmware mod. I think you should be able to test if Function can be controlled by a switch with a single wire, making contact between 2 contacts, without soldering. Not sure, I didn’t test.
Edit : Soldering seems necessary for tests from that video ! Don’t know about MKII.
If you can make conctact, you can power on and see if OT goes to test mode, which would mean Function is activated…
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In theory you could fit a 3.5mm socket to the contacts on the function switch, then connect a regular non midi normally open footswitch to the 3.5mm socket, every time you press the footswitch the function button would be on.
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You could build a rig that included a linear actuator to press the button and hook it up to a foot switch?
Elektron sysex doesn’t change that much between the early devices. Here’s the MD sysex:
Maybe try substituting this in the OTs sysex format?
(I don’t have an OT to try with)
(also don’t know if this would be applicable to the mkII )
You’ll have to use the foot pedal elsewhere to trigger sending the sysex via MIDI to the OT
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It would be interesting to try, but I don’t know about an OT SYSEX implementation chart…
Once I sent a SYSEX from OT. I don’t remember what it was, maybe arranger related…
Here is the sysex I sent and monitored :
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If there isn’t one published, or pre-sniffed out, I’d probably start by sending the OT an update via sysex to find the initial string needed. Then start dicking around from there.
But again, don’t own, never have, nor ever will own an OT.
Edit: the upgrade process (I assume) should tell you at least what the machine identifier is, and the initial string.
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This is similar to what I was thinking the other day : “why isn’t the function button located more central on the ot“
If it was located a generic hand stretch away from all tracks and more trigs that would be way more ergonomical . Though it’s not a deal breaker just a minor annoyance
Did anyone suggest a remote button presser yet? I’ll bet there’s a way to remotely physically press the button, whether midi is involved or not. Like with switchbot
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