Method for "universal" MIDI controller

I have a MIDI controller with faders which I want to use in two tracks’ mod matrices, and each track controls a LOCAL OFF synth keyboard routed through the Hapax. Is it possible to do this without either giving up the keyboard controls or requiring that I select one track at a time to control?

Can the faders can be set to different channels ?
That would certainly solve the issue

Yes, the hypothetical controller can be customized but I’m not sure how that helps since to receive the keyboard and controller MIDI simultaneously on a single track is apparently impossible without accepting all MIDI on that track. Even that apparently works on active track only: "All Active - Listens to all incoming events, on any port and channel, but only when the track is currently selected. "

I can think of a couple workarounds but I haven’t tested them. I could point multiple tracks at a single MIDI output, so if I have a synth which wants input from two separate MIDI sources I can just dedicate two tracks to it. I’d be okay with that but it’s not ideal. Alternatively I could use Project B with arbitrary tracks and effect plus MIDI loopback to create a filtered and merged MIDI stream but that eats up Project B and precious MIDI inputs.

Perhaps what I am discovering is a desire to pre-filter and merge MIDI channels. I will post this idea in the form of a feature request (or two).

Or perhaps I am missing some knowledge and it is already possible to use multiple-yet-discrete MIDI inputs to control aspects of a single track?

If I understand your issue correctly I ran into a similar problem where if you want to set a track input MIDI to All Active you can’t specify the channel. I don’t know if there is a logical or technical reason for this limitation but it is a bit annoying.

What I ended up realizing is that I could do it myself outside the Hapax with a USB filter/merge box, specifically the U6MIDI Pro. This gave me enough control to send messages to multiple channels over the USB Host, where I could tell track 1 to be channel 1 and track 2 to be channel 2 and could do multi track recording at the same time.

In my scenario I actually had multiple MIDI controllers that I was trying to get to control multiple tracks based on the selected channel on each controller. I don’t know if your situation is too different from that. But it solved my problems so I figured I’d throw it out to you in case you find it useful.

1 Like

Thanks for the tip. I was going to rant about adding more devices on my MIDI chain but honestly that processor looks like the best bang-for-buck MIDI filter I’ve ever seen.