Name one built in the last 15 years? My guess if there is one, it is a totally cheap POS. There used to be stage/light/rig controllers that did it. But, those don’t do it anymore either … for the same reason we are complaining. The MIDI indicator has for quite some time been an activity indicator, not a “HI I am here, Are you there? Yes, I am here, are you there?” That implementation has been dead a long time.
really I find that very hard to believe even thou I own neither of those which is funny really as I own 19 synths and loads of modules and not one of the cause this midi detection , so your telling me that the nord still shows this behaviour like this ,then you must have some sysex message option setup wrong because this behaviour is not normal with hardware
I’m fairly sure you can turn it off on the xp 80. Maybe it was a mod … can’t remember. But, we had one that didn’t do it.
I don’t know jack about nords.
sounds like it’s transmitting the arp sysex data , which can be switched off
anyway back topic , the reason I started this thread in the first place is because it is damn right irritating and still is !
Sure I see it too- 
What does it mean? = It means CMC communicate with Cubase 7
Does it add any extra midi message/ midi exclusive or something to any other midi recordings? = No
Do I get personal bother with it? = No
If you get irritate by it= inactive “MIDI message” in the transport panel so you can’t see it anymore.
No brainer! 
Except when you have a ton of external gear that you actually want to monitor. Then it’s not a no brainer.
and how are you going to tell if you have a rogue sysex output from your instrument with out having to open up your midi monitor mister no brainer ???
mr
Sure, you both have a valid point there. I agree with you!
Perhaps Steinberg can program CMC so you can disable it as an option.
If they did, I would certainly disable the spikes too. 
Best regards
Freddie
Bump…
Good idea!
That’s the point of the thread
Having just purchased a CMC-TP last week, I can confirm that this is still indeed happening.
Myself, I was also curious about this when I first plugged it in.
I hadn’t read this post yet, so I also had to find & isolate it.
I find it equally annoying as others here do, but it looks like the issue has been bailed on altogether, since this is now August 2013, and it’s still happening.
I don’t have any other MIDI controllers that do this either, and I agree that disabling it from the Transport Bar isn’t really feasible or ideal.
It would nice if Steinberg could revisit this issue, or tell us that it’s simply not possible to do and close the issue once and for all, although I believe that it is doable, as virtually all software can be reprogrammed.
The worst part is that the MIDI activity seems to be a ‘MIDI output’ spike which seems completely unnecessary, since it’s indicating nothing more than connectivity, which the little white led at the top right corner is already doing.
just a bump on my OP
Looks like steinberg have totally forgotten about this and it will never be resolved , just dumped like all the other hardware
Same sort of spiking will happen with other 3part MIDI hardware’s too so its not only Steinberg CMC-Series.
Got this annoying spike myself, have no idea the cause. I have 7 CMC units and an Impulse 49. God knows what the cause is!
So turn off the activity monitor if it bothers you. You will still always see the midi activity specific to a particular track in the Project and mixer windows.
I’d be more concerned if it weren’t showing any activity when we know in fact there is activity.
Then you didn’t read the thread.
What I have found out so far:
1: you can turn off the CMC’s Midi output: Devices → Device Setup → Remote Devices → Steinberg CMC… → Midi Output → choose “Not Connected”;
2: this eliminates the MIDI activity spiking while the CMC still sort of works, but it is not recommended by Steinberg (see here a message from moderator JHP);
3: this also turns off the LED Dimmer though;
4: and lastly, when you close Cubase and then re-open it, the CMC’s MIDI Output will be enabled again! It must be disabled every time you run Cubase 
.
Paolo