Nord Lead A1 MIDI Thru

[juniorshabidoo]

I'm working on getting my Lead A1 up and running with the rest of my rig, but I can't seem to get a MIDI clock to run through. The manual states: "A Soft Thru Channel can be set in the MIDI Menu. By doing this, incoming note messages on that channel and MIDI Clock from the USB MIDI or the 5-pin MIDI Input, will be re-routed through the 5-pin MIDI Out connector." Seems simple enough, I've got everything set to Channel 1 (my MIDI clock source; which the Lead A1 has successfully synced to, the Lead A1 Soft Thru Channel, and the Korg synth at the end of the chain. What am I missing?

[realtrance]

Which is serving as your master clock in your setup? The A1, or something else it's hooked up to?

[juniorshabidoo]

A DSI Tempest is the start of the chain.

[realtrance]

Hmmm.... read the thread on MIDI Thru Sockets, below, there might be a clue in there? Your goal is to trigger MIDI signals via the Tempest and have both the A1and Korg respond, I'm assuming?

Also, have you set the MIDI Soft Thru channel and the Korg's receive channel to be the same, and not ch.1?

[juniorshabidoo]

Oh, no, I may have been unclear. I'm trying to sync the A1 and a MicroKorg XL to the Tempest. The MicroKorg has no MIDI through capability, so I've got the A1 in the middle of the chain. It's receiving the clock signal from the Tempest, but I can't get it to push the signal to the Korg.

[realtrance]

Ok, I understand that: Tempest outputs MIDI; A1 receives it on one channel, then passes it thru via Soft Thru MIDI to a different channel assigned to the MicroKorg.... if that is right.

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-co ... ru-do.html

I've not played around a lot with MIDI chains recently, unfortunately! Seems like your "MIDI Broadcaster" should be set to output to a specific channel for each "Receiver" (in this case, A1 and MicroKorg), but I'd have to fiddle with it hands-on to jog my memory.

Plus that other thread suggests soft-thru might need extra equipment....? Which I also don't really get (have daisy-chained MIDI devices before, but haven't played much with soft-thru).

Also, I'm not at all trying to be condescending but I remember when I was deep into trying to nail exactly how all this MIDI stuff worked, this site actually proved quite helpful for me, kind of a "MIDI for Dummies" mode (my default mode is dummy mode <g>). Again, not sure whether there's anything there that's specifically applicable to soft thru.

http://www.midiworld.com/basics/

[juniorshabidoo]

Yes, that's it. It's a bit of a head scratcher because it seems like everything should work together fairly simply. Looks like I might have to get a patch bay.

Thanks.

[realtrance]

Gah, yeah. Also though, read this (slightly more recent....):

http://electronicmusic.wikia.com/wiki/Soft_thru

I remember being confounded by forgetting to turn Local Off when I had something in a MIDI chain and I wanted it to be triggered by something else. Can't hurt anything (as long as you know how to turn Local Control back on!) to turn Local Off on both A1 and Microkorg and see if that changes anything.

[juniorshabidoo]

The local thing still has me a little puzzled, but I've tried every combination at this point and nothing seems to get it done. One of the problems is that when I turn local off I lose all control at the sound source, when all I'm really looking to do is override the internal clock. I think I'll have to do more research on how Soft Thru works. I appreciate your input on this though.

[with657]

I have exactly same issue for my NS2. I tried every possible thing. Now I am thinking splitting the midi out of clock using Y cable.