Why not control Recording of all (8) tracks through the Auto MIDI Channel?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Does anyone else want direct/remote/simultaneous control of all the ComboRec buttons on the (one) MIDI Auto Channel ?

I don’t understand why Elektron put the ability to control Machine play-trigger, Track play/stop, and global Transport, and such all under one Auto channel … YET the OT’s MIDI spec left any/all the recording/sampling controls of a track under per-channel control.
This means that, if I want to have direct/remote control of sampling to multiple tracks, I have to chew up that many MIDI channels.

I understand that how we’d need to use a dedicated MIDI channel to use CCs to control pages of parameters on a single track, or the 2-octaves of notes for chromatic re-pitching…but I’m left wanting direct control of all 8 tracks’ ComboRec through the one Auto Channel.
We certainly have (several) octaves of MIDI notes to spare another 8 version switch-action messages. Additionally, when I want to use the OT with other gear (which may itself have multiple tracks or timbres under a range of channels), then I hit the 16-channel limit faster. Doubly so if I reserve MIDI channels for the OT to control that gear.

It’s frustrating to I have to eat up channels JUST to get direct control of the “record button” for different Flex machines.

I’ve already explored the OT’s (unique) ability to record live audio into separate Flex buffers simultaneously (“recording polyphony” or “polySampling”), using the Track Trigs, as show in my write-up here.

I see similar constructs of quick-grabbing of multiple samples used by laptop improvisers like BeardyMan all the time. For illustrative proof-of-concept, check this video excerpt by BeardyMan, wherein he seems to have several one-shot (re)samplers arranged on the columns of his LaunchPad, with…

  • sampling controlled by the bottom/round button
  • playback triggered by square button(s) above
  • some addition re-sampling or re-sequencing controls

The OT can already handle so much of this kind of behavior (and more), but just not (yet) through a single MIDI channel. At present, if you wish to control sampling on multiple tracks, you have to either…

  • eat up multiple MIDI channels to use that track/channel’s ComboRec (and similar) messages

OR

  • use the Auto channel’s ComboRec message, and manually pick/switch tracks on the OT’s buttons.

I’m not saying we should all have to use button-spreads for all 8 tracks such as in the above case, but I think it would be a great (and simple) update to the OT for more effective (less channel-hungry) remote MIDI control of the OT’s best strength: sampling.

What do you friends think ?

1 Like
#2

It doesn’t bother me.

  • You can set several or all your tracks on the same channel > control all.
  • You can also use one shot rec trigs on several or all tracks, press YES or send Arm All CC.
  • With midi loopback + external midi, you can trigger several or all Plays Free tracks that can control several or all tracks recordings.
  • You can use a midi processor to send a midi message on several or 8 channels.

But yes, multi recording is really interesting.

#3

these are are true and good points.

Multi-recording is the jams.
Been toying with it for another year since last post, and still finding myself wishing it were different… better…

Since the OT is sitting in a(n increasingly large) family of other gear, spreading 16 channels around is getting thin…
I just REALLY wish that I didn’t have to eat up 8 channels of MIDI to have direct-remotes to the ComboRec of 8 buffers.
Strange, since there have always been groups-of-8-Note-messages in various octaves for so many other “parallel” functions, like

(24~31) trigger Audio track Sequence 1~8

(36~43) trigger Audio track machine playback 1~8

(48~55) trigger MIDI Track sequence 1~8

and ALL those other global messages…(start, stop, etc)

The ability to freely trigger the Record action (by panel, remote, or sequencer) for multiple separate tracks’ buffers SIMULTANEOUSLY is one the the most unique and powerful thing the OT can do (at least in the hardware world), so why should that not have the same remote MIDI command as the Play… ?

how about:

(12~20) trigger Audio track combo record 1~8 ?

this would make it SO much easier to integrate the OT with my other gear (by only taking up ONE channel, instead of 8).

Please Elektron ?