Receive only clock from external device (without notes)

Hello

Me and a friend are currently working on a workflow to perform our music live. Our project consists of 2 members.

My ‘business partner’ uses an Elektron Octatrack MK2 (which we also use as midi master-clock) connected (midi-out) to a Kenton Midithru-box splitting the midi-out-signal to several synths and drummachines.

One of the cables coming out of the Kenton Midithru-box runs into the MIDI-In of a Kenton MidiMERGE-box together with MIDI-cables coming from my other synths. The signal gathered in the MidiMERGE-box (clock from the Octatrack and notes from my synths) then goes into my Pyramid. This way I can receive start/stop and clock from the Octatrack but still play/record/loop notes from my own synths (as we would like to do live).

The issue we’re having is that I would like to receive only the start/stop and clock messages from the Octatrack (without the notes he is playing on his gear) but still receive the midi-notes (cc, program changes,…) I play on my synths. Because each time I loop my synths live while everything is running I also receive his notes into my tracks. So basically I would like to say ‘Octatrack, from you I only want to receive the clock and no notes’.

2 MIDI-inputs on the Pyramid would solve this ‘problem’ (‘Clock from MIDI-in A’ and ‘Notes on MIDI-in B’) but maybe there is a solution by using the CV-inputs (which I don’t use in this set-up)?

Eurosong 2020 is coming really fast so I hope anyone has an idea to solve this! :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance and kind regards!

Tim

Lazy solution…but you could just get a BOME Box or something like it and filter the notes. jim

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Thx for the answer Jim! Didn’t know about this device. A bit expensive (for just this one purpose) but it could do the job :)!

Kind regards

Tim

sure you can do clock via cv, but the octatrack doesn’t have cv outputs…

I think the using Midi A / B for clock + transport and/notes is the right solution.

apart from that theres quite a few products that could filter midi messages, but Id be careful, as you want clock to be as jitter/latency free as possible.

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Thanks for the answer @thetechnobear !

By this you mean that i must be the clock (the Pyramid instead of the Octatrack)?

Kinds regards Tim

In case you’re still in need of a solution to this, here are a couple of specific options.

  1. iConnectivity makes a line of MIDI routers called Mio that have very robust MIDI routing, filtering, and mapping capabilities. I have a couple of their rack-mount Mio10 units, one of which is dedicated to my Pyramid-controlled rig. I use the filtering on it to ensure that no clock signals from either my SH-01A or Pyramid make it to any other devices (I’m using a Pamela’s New Workout as a dedicated clock source, which the Mio10 routes to every other device in the system).

  2. If you want to go the CV route for receiving clock from the Octatrack, I recommend something like the 64Pixels CV.OCD. It’s a MIDI-to-CV converter box that can output a variety of signals as CV (including clock, start/stop, etc) from an incoming MIDI connection. I believe Kenton’s MIDI-to-CV convertor would do the job as well, but it’s not as feature-rich and costs almost the same amount.

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