Midi routing

[thetechnobear]

apologies if this has been raised in another topic somewhere (didn’t spot it)

I’ve a couple of related feature requests.

a) move routing to preset
so I move my E1 around my studio connecting it to different devices, and this entails the routing is configured differently in different scenarios.
so I actually quite like to say, this preset uses this routing, and another a different routing scheme.

(perhaps if this is not a common requirement, a preset could ‘override’ the current routing config)

b) more routing options, in particular cross-routing.
e.g. route midi din 1 IN to midi din 2 OUT

perhaps even restrict which midi messages or midi channels are routed.

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this actually comes from a bit of a confusion Im having at the moment…

so what Im doing (today) is trying to insert the E1 into an existing midi setup

e.g.
from:
Octatrack <-> Midi Router <-> (lots of midi devices)

to:
Octatrack <-> Electra One <-> Midi Router <-> (lots of midi devices)

so… what I did was connect :
Octatrack in/out into midi din 1 out/in
Midi Router in/out into midi din 2 out/in

k, this works… for step 1…
the octatrack has bi-directional communication, so I can update values on either E1 or Octatrack and it works.
it feels logical…

BUT the issue is… I get no communication from the Octatrack to the Midi Router
since this requires DIN 1 IN -> DIN 2 OUT
e.g. if I turn on midi clock … nada

k, so what if I do a cross-over…
Octatrack in/out into midi din 2 out/ midi din 1 in
Midi Router in/out into midi din 1 out/ midi din 2 in

k, this works for the router config, since now
octatrack data comes into midi din in 1, and e1 chucks it back out midi din out 1, connected to midi router - yay !
BUT now there is the opposite issue

the controls of a preset are attached to a particular midi port
e.g. octatrack levels is assigned to PORT 1 / Channel 1
so now I can send values from E1 to Octatrack (on DIN1)
BUT it cannot get values back, since these are coming in on DIN 2 !

so it appears that placing the E1 as an ‘inline replacement’ is actually not possible.
which is a shame, as in a complex midi setup like mine, this is really the easist way to place it

thoughts? am i missing something?

as far as I can tell the only solution is for me to put in place a smart midi hub, which can do this routing for me… ( I have a midihub and a mioXM so thats not an issue, just more configuration)

[thetechnobear]

I should point out… if my ‘logic’ is correct above…
then unfortunatly to solve this properly then… its not really a simple matter of saying allow routing from din 1 to din 2 in the routing.

since whilst this will sometimes works its a bit fragile.

I think we need to consider things a little more careful…
we have two kinds of messages floating around (octatrack is being used as an example)

parameter control messages:
these messages we use to control the octatrack, this is what the E1 is being configured for e.g. say track levels. these we need to be able to send and receive from the octatrack
BUT they should NOT be routed back
if I update the level on the octatrack, the E1 needs to recieve it update its state, BUT not send it back
also E1 should send same message when a user turns the appropriate encoder

sequencing message:
these are mesage that should just be passed thru
e.g. midi clock… this needs to be sent out to the other din/usb
another example could be notes or cc, which are sequenced… these will be on a different midi channel to the parameter control messages.

these again should not be sent back to the device.

this is why I think we need more control over routing and filtering
so that the E1 can recognise that some messages are the communication between the E1 and controlled device, and others that need to be forwarded elsewhere … like clock, or notes/cc on certain channels.
(this is basically what Im doing on the blokas midihub to solve this)

[nuipb]

Hi, trying to keep my request into some relevant thread :
Are there any plans to create a kind of a MIDI matrix in the near future ? What I mean is a simple column & line page where one could determine to what MIDI OUT would go (or not go) what MIDI IN.
For example at the moment I have a MIDI rack which I need to connect to the MIDI OUT of my MIDI keyboard to play it but also to the MIDI OUT of the E1 to receive the E1 MIDI messages, and also to the MIDI IN of the E1 so that the E1 can receive the MIDI control messages of the rack when sending a [Patch Request]. So I need 2 MIDI INs on the same channel and the only way I imagine to do it is to switch my current MIDI IN 2 into a second MIDI IN 1…

[martin]

Yes, I would like to have it there. At this moment it is possible to route messages only between Electra’s MIDI interfaces. Eventually I would like to make it possible to route MIDI messages between ports and channels. Such feature would cover your needs.

[nuipb]

OK. Looking forward to get this feature implemented ASAP. Thanks again !

[four_corners]

I just logged in to ask a very similar question, I’m looking to do this…

I guess I could just buy a new Midi Thru box that has 2 inputs, that way I could just go from the midi keyboard to the Thru box and skip the electra one for the midi note data, I was just hoping to not have to buy more gear. I know the USB midi info is pushed thru to the other outputs, so technically I could do that, but then the Electra One doesn’t have power! Grrr…

[four_corners]

Well, kind of a strange solution, but i guess it works in my case, basically means my midi keyboard note message goes through the Electra twice, but it doesn’t seem to create any issues so far. I basically lose one input on my merger though, and it was already all full, so I’ll just have to swap something out when I’m not using it. No big deal for the time being.

Here was my solution…