Pretty much anything on the H8000 can be controlled by MIDI. The more specialized requirements may call for some Vsig programming. For example, the following is one of the factory programs with MIDI control of play record and stop. They also have very high quality pitch and time change.
HEADM adc 2 2 sampler-playMonL sampler-playMonR "SAMPLER (single)" "" 6 menu1-obj record-obj play-obj stop-obj menu4-obj info-obj ;=325,0,100,0
TEXTBLOCK info 6 "Single take Sampler. Panel, audio or" "MIDI triggering. When enabled, audio" "trigger for record and play is on left" "input IMPORTANT ! Recording with this" "preset will clear all previous" "recordings !!! Stereo in, stereo out." ;=800,575,100,0
MENUPAGE menu1 "Sampler Params" Params 8 currentime-obj starttime-obj stoptime-obj loopmode-obj pretrig-obj menu2-obj menu3-obj savemode-obj ;=750,1175,100,0
MENUPAGE menu2 "Edit Params" Edit 5 timeamt-obj pitch-obj fadein-obj fadeout-obj xfade-obj ;=425,1175,100,0
MENUPAGE menu3 "Audio Triggers" Audio 6 modemon-obj dummy-obj trigplay-obj trigrec-obj thresh-obj playhyst-obj ;=600,1350,100,0
MENUPAGE menu4 "External Controls" External 3 extrec-obj extplay-obj extstop-obj ;=650,850,100,0
TEXTLINE dummy "" ;=450,1975,100,0
TRIGGER record Record: " Record" ;=275,225,100,0
EXTTRIG extrec ExtRecord -256 0 0 0 ;=125,350,100,0
C_ADDER c_recs 2 record-out extrec-out ;=275,350,100,0
TRIGGER play "Play :" " Play" ;=125,475,100,0
EXTTRIG extplay ExtPlay -4096 0 0 0 ;=125,600,100,0
C_ADDER c_plays 2 play-out extplay-out ;=275,475,100,0
TRIGGER stop "Stop :" " Stop" ;=125,725,100,0
EXTTRIG extstop ExtStop -512 0 0 0 ;=125,850,100,0
C_ADDER c_stops 2 stop-out extstop-out ;=275,600,100,0
KNOB pretrig "PreTrig: %3.0f mS" "" 1 500 0.1 100 ;=125,975,100,0
C_DIVIDE ptrig_fix pretrig-out 1000 ;=275,725,100,0
SKNOB3 starttime "Start: %6.3f Sec" "" 0 0.001 0 sampler-startTime 0 85 sampler-startTime ;=275,850,100,0
SKNOB3 stoptime "Stop : %6.3f Sec" "" 0 0.001 0 sampler-stopTime 0 85 sampler-stopTime ;=275,1000,100,0
KNOB fadein "FadeIn : %4.0f mS" "" 0 1000 1 1 ;=275,1150,100,0
KNOB fadeout "FadeOut : %4.0f mS" "" 0 1000 1 1 ;=275,1275,100,0
KNOB xfade "XFade: %4.0f Ms" "" 0 1000 1 10 ;=275,1400,100,0
C_MULTIPLY tamt_fix1 sampler-timeAmt 100 ;=575,25,100,0
SKNOB3 timeamt "Duration: %3.0f %%" "" 0 1 100 tamt_fix1-out 1 400 0 ;=725,25,100,0
C_DIVIDE tamt_fix2 timeamt-out 100 ;=275,1525,100,0
KNOB pitch "Pitch : %5.0f Cnts" "" -2400.0001 2400.0001 1 0 ;=275,1650,100,0
KNOB thresh "Threshold : %4.0f dB" "" -100 0 1 -24 ;=450,1350,100,0
KNOB playhyst "Hysteresis: %3.0f dB" "" 0 20 1 3 ;=450,1475,100,0
TRIGGER trigplay AudioPlay: "Play arm" ;=450,1600,100,0
TRIGGER trigrec "Audio Rec:" "Rec arm" ;=450,1725,100,0
TEXTKNOB loopmode "Loop : %s" "" 2 0 Off On ;=450,1850,100,0
SAMPLER sampler 173 adc-in1 adc-in2 adc-in1 adc-in1 adc-null adc-null c_plays-out trigplay-out c_stops-out adc-zero c_recs-out trigrec-out 0 record-out 1 loopmode-out 2 thresh-out ptrig_fix-out thresh-out playhyst-out 0 0 0 1 savemode-out starttime-out stoptime-out pitch-out 0 tamt_fix2-out 1 fadein-out fadeout-out xfade-out 1 25 ;=425,25,100,0
MONITOR currentime sampler-currentTime "Time : %6.3f Sec" "" ;=575,150,100,0
TMONITOR modemon sampler-currentMode State:%s state 27 <<stop>> <<pause>> <<FILL>> " <<STOP>>" " <<PLAY>>" " <<DECAY>>" <<TRIGREADY>> " <<PLAY (trig)>>" <<trigdecay>> " <<RECORD>>" <<recordinit>> "<<REC ARMED!>>" <<trigrecinit>> <<trigfill>> <<scrubinit1>> <<scrubinit2>> <<pitchscrub>> <<tapescrub>> <<recorddone>> "<<file I/O>>" "<<file I/O>>" "<<file I/O>>" <<initialize>> <<initialize>> <<initialize>> <<initialize>> "<<rec stop>>" ;=575,275,100,0
TEXTKNOB savemode "save audio: %s" "" 2 0 no yes ;=100,1100,100,0
