Basic question about how midi channels work.
If I am sending all commands from OnSong to the BB down channel 1, and then I send a command from OnSong down channel 2, will BB ignore this CC but still pass it through to the next device down the chain that is configured to receive on channel 2?
Or will it never make it to that device because BB ignores it (blocks it or never “sees it”)?
Depends on your settings (MIDI has to be set for pass-through) and what channel your BBis set to (must be CH-1 and not OMNI).
So, short answer: Yes.
Long Answer: Yes, if you set it up right.
Joe
I think I would set the midi input to channel one and the midi output to channel 2… is that correct?
Then I could send some signals to control the BB on 1 and the signals intended for the looper would be sent from OnSong to channel 2.
Also, I think I have to use midi merge on the BB for the output…
If the pedal has a MIDI pass-through (I am almost sure it does, bu I don’t have mine up right now), you would simply set the BB to CH-1 and allow MIDI to pass untouched. The way MIDI channels work is that a MIDI signal can have as many as 16 separate command streams going at any given time, and devices only “listen” to what’s on their channel. So, if your BB is set to channel 1 and MIDI THRU, it will respond to messages on CH-1 but ignore anything happening on any other channels.
MIDI Merge sounds right – and now that you say it, I don’t think the BB has MIDI THRU, but does have MIDI MERGE. The way MERGE works is it takes everything from the input plus anything added by the BB and sends that as output. That’s why the BB has a MIDI OUT CH, because the BB can only issue commands on a single channel. So, if you had, let’s say, a DMX controller on CH-2, you could program the BB to listen on CH-1, “speak” on CH-2 to control your lights, and pass all other information coming in on all other channels.
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Thanks. I will try this tonight!
I feel like I am very close to the setup I want…
Got it!!
In addition to all the variables I didn’t fully understand, I was also sending the wrong friggin CC to the looper!!
Fortunately, that cc made a light change and after about a million hours I noticed it 
I was sending a CC for “Stop Mode” instead of “Stop FTSW”.
So you’re good?
BTW, that example of running the light? Yeah, that’s real.
All good… lights are pretty far down my list right now:)
Just something to note in the future. If you ever use the MIDI Maestro with a volume pedal (control pedal) attached you need to always use MIDI channel 1 for the BB. Back in the 80’s maybe drum modules mostly were assigned to Channel 10 so that’s how I set mine up. My wife plays a Nord Keyboard and we send all the sound patches and BB songs via Forscore or OnSong. She sets her’s to MIDI 2 and it works fine however when I had it set to 10 we discovered Singular Sound has a flaw where the control pedal (volume) ONLY sends on MIDI 1 so things started NOT working but when I changed back to 1 it fixed it. OnSong can also send MIDI tempo from the metronome which is another nice feature.
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I have a SONICAKE Vexpress volume/expression pedal connected to my MM and it only seems to control the BPM on the BB, not the volume. Is there a way to change this?