I have a track with midi fx applied… scale and arp but when I play the tracking using an external synth with local off the synth plays as normal without any of the fx being applied. If I record something into the track then the fx are applied. Is it possible to have the fx play live?
If I play the notes on the pyramid the fx and arp are applied in realtime.
Am I missing a setting?
Yes, effects apply in LIVE mode too, as it also says on the fx manual page https://squarp.net/modefx#ancre01:
Notes (played or recorded in LIVE mode, or programmed in STEP mode) are processed and sent to the outputs in real-time by the effect engines.
Based on the description I’d say you have MIDI ECHO set to STOP ECHO (in the Midi in-settings), which is unnecessary since your synth has the LOCAL OFF setting.
Erm…
The description sounds like the expected behavior for MIDI ECHO -> STOP, and LOCAL ON in the synth. However you said that you have LOCAL OFF, and that doesn’t really compute. Not to say that’s the only possible cause for such a behavior but I can’t see what else could cause it.
Might want to double check it. This is the expected behavior for realtime playing, for recorded playback none of it matters:
MIDI ECHO: STOP, LOCAL: OFF -> no sound
MIDI ECHO: STOP, LOCAL: ON -> sound but no fx
MIDI ECHO: ALLOW, LOCAL: OFF -> sound and fx (ie the desired setup)
MIDI ECHO: ALLOW, LOCAL: ON -> double sound (“echo”) and fx for one of them
Thanks for the response. I will check these settings tonight… I think you’re on to something.
Will report back soon.
Ok… so the settings which worked were:
MIDI IN > MIDI ECHO > ALLOW ECHO
MIDI OUT > MIDI A/B MODE > MIDI OUT
I was using MIDI OUT + THRU which was playing both the notes I played on the keyboard and output of the fx.
Whoa, OUT + THRU is indeed a perfectly logical explanation, but one that never even crossed my mind. Good thing you got it sorted out 
I’m having similar difficulties and it’s probably having multiple controllers on different channels that causes it.
I can only use fx when track is selected, and only by using the pads on the machine itself.
Am I right to assume if you send data on say channel 2, to a blofeld set to channel 2, you can only control it when the track is selected? (multitrack set to OFF) That means I have to select the track before jamming on my keys? This is a shame as I often control multiple synths at once using various controllers.
Given this setback, I set midi out to out/thru and can now control my gear from different sources, but all fx are now ignored as it see’s the MIDI IN and passes straight to the output rather than using it’s processing. Which is a bugger as I lose keys and velocity when using pads and not my “nice controller”.
My reason for needing out as thru is that Octatrack needs to be master or it crashes/glitches and needs to send clock to other gear in the chain. Also I am using LFO’s and sequence data from octatrack to control pyramid parameters such as FX, as well as adding more modulation to external gear, which would be ignored if I needed to select a track first. (I often tweak parameters on one instrument whilst playing another - who said men couldn’t multitask?)
I hope this all makes sense, and I also hope it’s something I’m just missing and there is a solution out there.
Any solutions will mean that I now have my ultimate setup, so I’ll do a little happiness dance!!!
This is what the multitrack option is for,
Why do you have it off?
I don’t have multitrack set to off (I tried it whilst testing and could’nt get on with it, obviously needed to try it as I’m trying to find a solution), though when set to off, I can control fx externally, though need to select a track first, which is counter productive as I’ve other controllers tweaking synths whilst using keys to control something different, so yes, multitrack is the way (I think). When I have it set to multitrack (which is what I want), all fx are ignored by my external controller, meaning I have to use the pads for all input if wanting fx.
The other thing is that my output is set to Out + Thru, which is needed because the octatrack does not like being a slave and starts glitching, and the Octatrack is an integral piece of my performance.
I think I’ve explained all this in my post, do you have a solution?
So, I have a similar setup.
Pyramid sends out via USB MIDI which gets filtered in a BomeBox and routed to multiple synths including an OT MkI. The Pyramid triggers Audio samples, usually in Chromatic mode via their specific incoming MIDI Channels. The OT also sends CC data derived from the MIDI LFOs & sequenced PLocks back to the Pyramid which modulates MIDI FX, and currently in one situation gets routed to synth destinations (although that might end up to be more situations).
However, Pyramid is my Master Clock and I haven’t run into crashes/glitches (yet…?).
Do you think I’m going to run into problems? Were yours intermittent?
Can you suggest any steps to try to force a crash (as in, something you were doing) so I can see if it’s specific to OT OS, PyraOS, or some routing configuration rather than a big brush “this will crash”?
Also, you know that you can route Pyramid incoming CCs to different CCs, right?
I figure that’s an idiot answer to a more complex problem. Sorry. blush
It may be the level of work that the OT is carrying out. I do a lot of live looping and mangling, using pickup machines, and i also overdub tracks. The OT crashes everytime if Pyramid is master, my overdubs get aborted or a loop gets aborted during recording. I notice that when OT is master, I can see the tempo slightly fluctuating (in the decimals) so maybe it is a cheap way that they try and tempo sync/timestretch. Either way it isn’t playing ball, and although I read the manual, I can’t work out how Turbo MIDI is supposed to work (I thought that might work). From what I understand you aren’t recording into OT live so just accessing stored samples? In that case I can’t see it crashing, I’m pushing mine a fair bit but it “should” be able to handle it.
Yes I know about reassigning CC’s, though I’m blown away by the LFO’s (and Plocks) of OT controlling Pyramid parametres, so much scope there! Though I feel squarp could implement having their lfo’s able to control fx parametres rather than just CC’s, that would be boshty!
I’m still confused on having multiple controllers assigned to pyramid tracks (not just midi channels) so I can use FX in realtime, it is a proper pain to have to select a track before controlling it, for the reason of having many items I control at once (ie, I could be playing my se-02 via midi keyboard, whilst tweaking blofeld on my controller).
The only way I can currently operate is by setting MIDI IN to multitrack A, and setting MIDI out to OUT+THRU (as I need OT’s clock to be sent to other gear). I know that setting it to THRU connects IN straight to OUT, hence no MIDI FX, though if Pyramid is Master, OT won’t play. I may be repeating myself here but not sure if I’m clear as I do make things complicated sometimes