Thanks for the clarification as it was getting confusing. I do appreciate it. My question concerned only MMC; nothing else though.
More info:
I’ve tried to get MMC to work with 2 DAWs and 2 different MIDI interfaces. Neither interface shows an LED blinking as to indicate a message being sent when Play or Stop are pushed. Both DAWs can act as Masters and the Octo will Slave to them via Beat Clock without issues in either configuration.
I’ve got MIDI I/O Port 2 going to a DACs MIDI Patchbay and then to my gear. MIDI I/O Port 1 goes to the DAW only.