Mystery question about MIDI and MPC1000

MPC1000/JJOS2XL

The set up is MPC as MIDI controller/master.

mophokey synth is connected to the MPC:
mophokey MIDI IN to MIDI OUT A on the MPC
mophokey MIDI OUT to MIDI IN 1 on the MPC

micron synth is also connected to the MPC:
micron MIDI IN to OUT B on the MPC
micron MIDI OUT to MIDI IN 2 on the MPC

Le's say I have 2 MIDI tracks on the MPC:
-- track 5 with MIDI OUT 1A on the bottom right of the main screen (for mophokey)
-- track 6 with MIDI OUT 1B on the bottom right of the main screen (for micron).

A strange thing happens after programming a MIDI loop on these 2 tracks:
the volume knob of the mophokey (playing on track 5) controls ALSO the volume the micron playing on track 6, even though the MIDI channels are not the same (1A for mophokey and 1B for micron)

The weirdest thing is that the reverse does not happen: the micron volume knob does not control the volume of the mophokey playing on track 5 ....

What happens ? How can I prevent the volume knob on the mophokey from controlling the volume of the micron ??

Not sure about JJOS, but on Akai OS's , the two MIDI inputs are merged and control whatever the active MPC sequencer track is.

So if you have track 5 selected on the MPC, whatever is connected to both MIDI inputs will control track 5.

I would guess that the Mopho volume knob is sending a MIDI CC volume message to the MPC input, while maybe the Micron volume knob does not send that message.

You might have to check the Mopho user manual, to see if you can turn off the sending of that MIDI CC message from the volume knob, or see if you can filter it out on the input to the MPC in JJOS.

Basically whatever comes in to MIDI IN 1 gets sent out to the MIDI OUT of the active track. If the active track is track 6 (1B), it's sending MIDI on channel 1 on output B, which is your Micron. So that's why you get that behaviour.

Since the Micron is connected to MIDI IN 2, it can't control anything else. I think there are various settings on the MPC that change all this so look around in the MIDI/SYNC and OTHER screens.

converter wrote:A strange thing happens after programming a MIDI loop on these 2 tracks:
the volume knob of the mophokey (playing on track 5) controls ALSO the volume the micron playing on track 6, even though the MIDI channels are not the same (1A for mophokey and 1B for micron)

The weirdest thing is that the reverse does not happen: the micron volume knob does not control the volume of the mophokey playing on track 5 ....

what settings do you have in mode 9 on it's first page?

I've had this happen too. basically if the sequencer is in channel 6 and you move a know on the synth on channel 5 the knob will control its own synth locally and send the volume value to the mpc and to the synth on track 6. track 6's knob wont do the same unless the mpc is on track 5 when you move 6's volume knob.

Bugfix wrote:
what settings do you have in mode 9 on it's first page?

I have:
multitimbre: OFF
active track receive channel: ALL
softthru: AS TRACK
sequence change by program change: OFF
midi out aftertouch: OFF

mopho sends on channel 1 to MPC in port 1, receives from MPC on channel 1A
and micron sends on channel 1 to MPC in port 2 and receives from MPC on channel 1B.

Superpowerface wrote:Basically whatever comes in to MIDI IN 1 gets sent out to the MIDI OUT of the active track. If the active track is track 6 (1B), it's sending MIDI on channel 1 on output B, which is your Micron. So that's why you get that behaviour.

Since the Micron is connected to MIDI IN 2, it can't control anything else. I think there are various settings on the MPC that change all this so look around in the MIDI/SYNC and OTHER screens.

If I was in active track 5 (mopho track, output 1A) and if I adjust the volume knob of the micron, then do you agree that the volume of the mopho should also be modified ?

Well this work in one direction, but not the other:
-- active track 5 (mopho track, output 1A) -> volume knob of the micron does NOT affect volume of mopho.

-- active track 6 (micron track, output 1B) -> volume knob of the mopho DOES affect volume of micron.

yah
so, I think you don't need soft thru, so you can leave that off, but it will not change a **** in this case, BUT I think there is only 16 channels input on BOTH connectors.. I have two controllers on both inputs and all is merged.

converter wrote:If I was in active track 5 (mopho track, output 1A) and if I adjust the volume knob of the micron, then do you agree that the volume of the mopho should also be modified ?

No, if the Micron volume knob does not send a MIDI controller message, then it will not modify the volume of the Mopho.

converter wrote:Well this work in one direction, but not the other:
-- active track 5 (mopho track, output 1A) -> volume knob of the micron does NOT affect volume of mopho.

-- active track 6 (micron track, output 1B) -> volume knob of the mopho DOES affect volume of micron.

Because the Mopho volume knob sends a MIDI controller message when turned, and the Micron volume knob does not.


A couple of possible options...

- Set the Mopho to operate on MIDI channel 1, and the Micron to operate on MIDI channel 2 and up

- Set the Mopho MIDI Control off, so that it doesn't respond to incoming MIDI controller messages such as volume

Ah, I just realised you have a Micron.. I have the Miniak which is the reskin of it. Basically what Simon said: the Micron does not send MIDI when you turn the volume knob so it can't control any volume.

Actually, may I ask why this is a problem? I think it would be quite useful to control the volume of the active track.

If you really want to avoid this kind of thing, I'd suggest getting a dedicated MIDI keyboard/controller for the MPC. Then just treat the mopho and micron as synth modules.

Midi Controller -> MPC midi in
MPC midi out -> Mopho, Micron

SimonInAustralia wrote:

converter wrote:If I was in active track 5 (mopho track, output 1A) and if I adjust the volume knob of the micron, then do you agree that the volume of the mopho should also be modified ?

No, if the Micron volume knob does not send a MIDI controller message, then it will not modify the volume of the Mopho.

converter wrote:Well this work in one direction, but not the other:
-- active track 5 (mopho track, output 1A) -> volume knob of the micron does NOT affect volume of mopho.

-- active track 6 (micron track, output 1B) -> volume knob of the mopho DOES affect volume of micron.

Because the Mopho volume knob sends a MIDI controller message when turned, and the Micron volume knob does not.


A couple of possible options...

- Set the Mopho to operate on MIDI channel 1, and the Micron to operate on MIDI channel 2 and up

- Set the Mopho MIDI Control off, so that it doesn't respond to incoming MIDI controller messages such as volume

Why would the mopho send controller messages and not the micron (I believe that the MIDI settings are the same for both) ?

Superpowerface wrote:Ah, I just realised you have a Micron.. I have the Miniak which is the reskin of it. Basically what Simon said: the Micron does not send MIDI when you turn the volume knob so it can't control any volume.

Actually, may I ask why this is a problem? I think it would be quite useful to control the volume of the active track.

For one thing it "bugs" me to not know why mopho volume knob can control micron volume but that the reverse is not true: micron volume knob cannot control mopho volume
(ie why mopho sends controller messages and not micron. since you have a miniak, do you know why the micron is not sending controller messages ??).

More important, the problem is just that it was a bit confusing to me that one synth on one track would affect the volume of the synth in an another track. For example, say track 6 (micron) being active track, then if I want to decrease the volume of the mopho on track 5 by using the mopho volume knob, I end up lowering also the volume of the micron ....
But to avoid this problem, if I understand correctly, I need to always be aware of what track on the MPC is the active track:
-- to adjust volume of the mopho (track 5) without affecting track 6, I need to have track 5 active.
-- to adjust volume of the micron (track 6) without affecting track 5, I need to have track 6 active.
(is this correct ?)

Active track recieve channel maybe should be something other than 'all' ?

yeah^ now it picks up any channel (16 channels over 2 inputs, not 2 x 16). Maybe turn on multitimbre and set up tracks like you want.

converter wrote:Why would the mopho send controller messages and not the micron (I believe that the MIDI settings are the same for both) ?

Because the Mopho was designed to send MIDI controller messages from it's volume knob, and the Micron wasn't.