06-04-2025, 01:05 PM
Lets say you have a clock being sent from your DAW via USB device port on the MRCC. That port is then routed to a synth on a USB host port. So far so good, you can sync the synth to the DAW's clock, and play notes to the synth from a DAW track. But wait, you also want to capture MIDI from the keyboard on the synth, so you route that synths output/MRCC USB host input back to the MRCC PC port connection to the DAW. Now there's a loop.
Another example, just take the MRCC out of the picture. You connect a sequencers MIDI output to the input of a synth. You connect the output of the synth to the input of the sequencer. Now there's a loop. Sometimes it is very convenient to have this sort of configuration, it's even intuitive to connect things this way, but in many cases the MIDI data coming from the sequencer will be passed through the synths output back to the sequencer making a feedback loop. For channel specific data, you can sometimes use different channels to prevent, for instance, MIDI notes from feeding back, but clock is a realtime message and not channel specific.
Some synths have a setting to prevent using the output as "MIDI thru". Older synths sometimes have a hardware MIDI thru so it's not configurable. So the bottom line is, it's not always possible to get the ideal MIDI routing depending on what hardware you have. Experienced MIDI users learn to use what works rather than waste time chasing an ideal patch setup. It's just the nature of MIDI and the choices made by the MIDI device makers.
The MRCC makes it much easier to make MIDI loops by just pressing the buttons in an attempt to get an output from something back to an input. It also makes it easier to make this work; you can look at the Activity matrix to see where there's a clock(s) coming in indicated by the red arrow, then switch to the Routing screen, and try enabling the clock filter for that input. If there's more than one clock coming in, that isn't ideal, and it's best to disable the extra clock source, but if you can't then use the MRCC's clock filter. If the extra clock source is not coming from another device, but is a MIDI loop, then filter that input with a clock filter if clock is the issue, or unroute the output from the looped device to eliminate the MIDI loop.
Another example, just take the MRCC out of the picture. You connect a sequencers MIDI output to the input of a synth. You connect the output of the synth to the input of the sequencer. Now there's a loop. Sometimes it is very convenient to have this sort of configuration, it's even intuitive to connect things this way, but in many cases the MIDI data coming from the sequencer will be passed through the synths output back to the sequencer making a feedback loop. For channel specific data, you can sometimes use different channels to prevent, for instance, MIDI notes from feeding back, but clock is a realtime message and not channel specific.
Some synths have a setting to prevent using the output as "MIDI thru". Older synths sometimes have a hardware MIDI thru so it's not configurable. So the bottom line is, it's not always possible to get the ideal MIDI routing depending on what hardware you have. Experienced MIDI users learn to use what works rather than waste time chasing an ideal patch setup. It's just the nature of MIDI and the choices made by the MIDI device makers.
The MRCC makes it much easier to make MIDI loops by just pressing the buttons in an attempt to get an output from something back to an input. It also makes it easier to make this work; you can look at the Activity matrix to see where there's a clock(s) coming in indicated by the red arrow, then switch to the Routing screen, and try enabling the clock filter for that input. If there's more than one clock coming in, that isn't ideal, and it's best to disable the extra clock source, but if you can't then use the MRCC's clock filter. If the extra clock source is not coming from another device, but is a MIDI loop, then filter that input with a clock filter if clock is the issue, or unroute the output from the looped device to eliminate the MIDI loop.