I am indeed aware that it is possible to do something remotely similar to the requested functionality with (for instance) an Unitor in standalone mode.
In practice this means setting up the Unitor as a ‘dumb’ midi thru box, where the incoming Octopus MIDI stream is just spit out on all 8 output ports. Now, with some clever setting of all receiving hardware MIDI reception channels, it is indeed possible to effectively address multiple hardware synths in this way.
However, the above is a fairly blunt solution. 
In order to to smarter stuff, such as rechannelizing / channelfiltering per output for multiple outputs, one needs some very specific (obscure / outdated / hard to obtain) hardware. As you are certainly aware, Adam, the Unitor / AMT8 is not able to do routing on the midi channel level, only on a port basis (where one can selectively filter out some generic MIDI messages).
Whereas the alternative, the Octopus driving a USB 8×8 MIDI interface, could be fairly easy to implement (seen from a user perspective, since I am not aware of the Octy’s finer technical details – I would certainly understand if this would be a limitation).
Where there are currently 2 MIDI outputs, 32 channels, selectable through the MCH function, this could be easily increased to work with a larger amount of channels (thus: outputs). Why stop at 32? :woohoo:
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with trying to think of a ‘workaround’, thanks for bringing that up, Adam. Actually, with my previous hardware seq (the Schrittmacher) I hardly did anything other than that. Being forced to think ‘out of the box’ is certainly fun, however I am greatly enjoying the luxury of the Octy easily doing what I was trying to accomplish by wringing out the last bits of the Schritty.
If one can avoid having to use workarounds, the direct usability of the Octopus increases, IMHO. Remember; not everybody is trying to using the octopus with the latest/greates multitimbral/megavoice VA instrument… 
When I am connecting a drumbox such as the Vermona DRM1 and a single analog monosynth through my Kenton midi/cv box, I am already out of MIDI connections and would already have to resort to alternative solutions…
Anyway, to cut my little tirade short :blush: , I’d be greatly interested to hear if the USB MIDI thing is definitely ‘out of bounds’… or maybe…?
Post edited by: Hanz, at: 2009/11/20 23:27