MIDI Remote Control (since v1.1.4)

Track8’s encoders and most transport/edit buttons can be driven from an external MIDI controller — faders, knobs, buttons and jog wheels. Mappings are created either with MIDI Learn (hold an encoder) or manually in a mapping editor.

• Mappings are global: they survive project switches and reboots
• They are stored in a separate midi.json file next to main.json, so they can be backed up and copied between devices
• MIDI Remote Control is only available on the Track8 hardware (not in the Companion App)

🔌 Step 1: Flag your controller (DEVICE)

Go to UTILITY → MIDI → DEVICE.

• The list shows the built-in DIN MIDI IN plus every connected USB MIDI input
• Scroll with Encoder 8, toggle the CTRL flag with Track Button 8 (or push Encoder 8)
• EXIT (Track Button 1) returns to the MIDI settings

A device flagged CTRL becomes a control surface: its CCs drive your mappings and are no longer recorded into MIDI tracks. Devices you disconnect stay in the list greyed out, keeping their flag — they work again as soon as you plug them back in.

🎓 MIDI Learn (encoders)

On a supported screen, hold any encoder for 2 seconds to open the MIDI Learn modal:

1. If the encoder has multiple functions (push states), select the function you want with Encoder 6
2. Move a knob/fader on your controller — the captured source appears as e.g. CC#74 ch 1 (it takes two consecutive messages to register, so a single stray event won’t latch)
3. CONFIRM with Track Button 6, or CANCEL with Track Button 3

Supported screens:

• Audio Overview
• Track FX
• Track Mixer (new in v1.2.1)
• Track Sends (new in v1.2.1)
• Master FX
• Mastering
• External Channels

Notes on how encoder mappings behave:

• A full sweep of the CC (0–127) always covers the full parameter range
• A mapping drives the screen and function it was learned for, whichever screen is open: a Volume knob keeps working while you are on MIDI Edit, and the Audio Overview switches to VOLUME when you turn it. Cycling an encoder to another mode on the device never retargets your knob
• Mappings learned on the Audio Overview’s SCROLL page follow the overview that is on screen (since v1.2.2): while the MIDI Overview is showing, the same knobs drive its scroll step, MOVE MARKER, SPLICE, zoom and scroll, and the MIDI Overview switches to SCROLL. Each overview keeps its own step and zoom, as with the encoders on the device. Volume, Pan and the return mappings always drive the Audio Overview
• Audio Overview encoders are per-track: a mapping on Encoder 3 always drives Track 3. Map all 8 encoders for a full fader bank — or create a SEL mapping in CONTROL that drives whichever track is selected (see Following the selected track)
• Track FX and Track Sends mappings learned this way are locked to the track (and filter node) that was selected when you learned them. To make one follow the selected track instead, edit it in CONTROL and set TRACK to SEL

🗂 Managing mappings (CONTROL)

Go to UTILITY → MIDI → CONTROL to see all mappings, one row per mapping (source → screen / encoder / function).

• Encoder 8: scroll the list
• ADD (Track Button 7): create a mapping manually
• EDIT (Track Button 8, or push Encoder 8): edit the highlighted mapping
• DELETE (Track Button 6): delete the highlighted mapping (with confirmation)
• EXIT (Track Button 1): back to the MIDI settings

The Add/Edit modal

While the modal is open, incoming CCs from your control surface auto-fill the CC number and channel — just wiggle the control you want to use. In BTN mode a pad or key does the same: its Note On fills in NOTE, the note number and the channel (since v1.2.2).

The list shows each mapping’s binding: Audio Overview / Enc SEL / Volume, Track Fx SEL / Enc 2 / N1 FREQ or Track Fx Track3 / Enc 2 / N1 FREQ.

🎯 Following the selected track

(since v1.2.2)

If you know the auto channel on Elektron boxes — one MIDI channel that always addresses the active track — this is the same idea: map a set of knobs once, and they control whichever track is selected on the Track8. Press a track button, and the same knobs now tweak that track.

These mappings are created manually in UTILITY → MIDI → CONTROL (ADD), not with MIDI Learn:

• Audio Overview / Track Mixer (Encoder N = Track N): turn Encoder 5 past 8 to SEL. The mapping drives the selected track’s Volume, Pan, sends, … — whatever you pick as the function
• Track FX / Track Sends (one track on screen at a time): leave Encoder 8 (TRACK) on SEL. Pick the function with Encoder 6 (Frequency / Q / Gain per filter node — N1 FREQ … N4 GAIN — Attack / Sidechain, Release, Threshold, Gain, sends). Set TRACK to 1–8 instead to lock the mapping to one track, which is what MIDI Learn does when you hold an encoder
• The selected track is the one highlighted on the Audio Overview, Track Mixer, Track FX and Track Sends screens — a Select button mapping (see below) switches it from your controller, so a controller page with 8 select pads plus one set of knobs covers all 8 tracks

Tips:

• A SEL mapping and a fixed-track mapping for the same function can coexist, as long as they use different CCs. Keeping the follow set on its own MIDI channel (e.g. channel 16) makes that easy to organise
• Track8 applies knob movement relative to the last position it saw, so switching tracks never makes a value jump — but a knob’s physical position does not reflect the newly selected track’s value until you move it
• Manually created filter mappings name their node (N1 FREQ …), so a follow mapping addresses the same node on every track. Map all twelve for full filter control from your controller

🔘 Button mappings

Set Encoder 7 to BTN in the Add/Edit modal. Button mappings are momentary: the action fires once when the CC value rises to 64 or above, and re-arms when it falls below 64 — perfect for pads and momentary switches.

A button mapping can also listen to a note instead of a CC (since v1.2.2): set Encoder 1 to NOTE, or simply hit the pad while the modal is open. The action fires on Note On at any velocity and re-arms on Note Off. A note and a CC of the same number are different sources, so both can be mapped. Notes only reach MIDI Control from a port flagged CTRL on the device screen, like CCs — they are not recorded or passed through. Encoder mappings stay CC-only: a note has no value to turn a parameter with.

Global actions (work on every screen): Play, Record, Left, Right, Shift Left / Shift Right (marker jump), Loop Tgl, Loop In, Loop Out, Punch Tgl, Set Marker, Cut, Copy, Paste, Locate 1 … Locate 8 (see Locators), Free Bar (jump to the next empty bar, see FREE BAR; since v1.2.2)

Audio Overview actions: Select / Mute / Solo / Arm for each of the 8 tracks

MIDI Overview actions: Select / Mute / Solo for each of the 8 tracks

📍 Locators — jump straight to a section (since v1.2.2)

Locate 1 … Locate 8 turn eight pads or buttons on your controller into a locator row, like the numbered locate keys of a tape machine (#316).

• Which marker a number means is decided by the marker’s label: a label that starts with the number is that locator — 1 Verse, 2. Chorus, 3-Solo, or just 4. Name your markers in the marker edit screen as usual; the number is visible on the timeline and stays with its marker when you add, move or reorder markers
• The leading digits are read as one number: 12 Bar Blues is 12, not locator 1. Only 1 to 8 can be addressed
• Several markers with the same number: the earliest one on the tape wins
• No marker with that number: NO MARKER 3 appears briefly and nothing moves
• The jump is immediate, stopped or playing, like Shift Left / Shift Right from a controller
• Create the mappings in CONTROL with ADD: Encoder 7 to BTN, Encoder 4 to Global, Encoder 5 to Locate N, then hit the pad. They cannot be learned by long-press, as there is no control on the Track8 to hold

🎡 Jog wheel scrolling

Map a jog wheel to the Scroll function (e.g. Audio Overview → Scroll). Scroll mappings use relative CC decoding instead of absolute positions, so an endless wheel works without end stops:

• Sign-magnitude encoding (e.g. Korg nanoKONTROL) is detected automatically
• Two’s-complement / Mackie-style encoding (e.g. Behringer X-Touch, most DIY jog wheels) is detected as well (improved detection new in v1.2.1)

Set your controller’s encoder to a relative CC mode if it offers one.

⚠️ One CC, one function

Each CC can control exactly one function, and each function can be controlled by exactly one CC. If a mapping you learn or save would collide with an existing one — same CC source or same target — Track8 shows a warning listing what would be replaced, and the confirm button changes to REPLACE. Confirming removes the old mapping; cancelling keeps it.

Tip: since a channel setting of ANY intercepts that CC on every channel, two mappings for the same CC number on different channels only work if neither is set to ANY.