I really hope a moderator is watching. Question set-up...I have a Chauvet Obey 40 but I am swapping it for a Elation operator 192. Here is why...I hooked up a Korg padKONTROL to the Obey 40. Got a lot of scenes and so I played the padKONTROL just like a drum machine. The lights and scenes flickered exactly to my lightning fast rudiments. Even if I stayed on one scene, one light, the COLORado 3 for example, would flicker exactly as attacked. But when I recorded a sequence onto my Korg M-3 and played it back what I got was mud. So I recorded on a stand alone floppy disk midi sequencer/filer. The results were a lot better but not reliable. I then made sure the midi signal was passing THRU the M-3 by hooking the Obey 40 to the thru output of the M-3 and played the padKONTROL. It was flawleaa. Any ideas? Will the Operator 192 do better?

You do know how MIDI works, correct?

MIDI IN is for INPUT. THRU is for passing the IN signal untouched to the next MIDI IN.
MIDI OUT is for, largely, LOCAL COMMANDS being sent OUT(ie controller/sequencing).

Are you sending continuous controller data? If so, why? If you don't need something, it needs to be quiet. Even if it's not on the same MIDI channel, MIDI is asyncronous and all data instructions have to line up 1 3-word instruction at a time. CC data can quickly saturate the limitations of MIDI.

What is the Korg M-3 adding to the data stream? It sounds to me like the M3 is sending extra data out from it's MIDI Out port. The question is what exactly is it sending. There's no harm in using a MIDI Thru, that's what it's for. If you send INTO the M-3, then you have to take the THRU to get teh signal to whatever is next in line.

If you using the MIDI OUT of the M-3, then you're saying that the M-3 is the controller/sequencer and it is sending out locally stored instructions VIA the output.

You have your signal flow dead on. Sounds like the M-3 is adding stuff.

I've done some minor sequencing with my DMX Operator(not 192) and for testing with dimmer packs only(so I could see the usage lights on/off) was sufficient and my tests were adequatre for just that: testing. I haven't done that live yet. Don't plan to either, not convenient.