MIDI FOLKS!! Midi being sent back to external instrument being played causing doubling/phasing

I'm using a cp88 keyboard (port 1 ch 1) sending midi over usb to logic. I want to record both the midi and the audio at the same time. But whenever I click on the midi track to record midi info I get phasing. I assume whats happening is the midi is going in and straight back out to double play the note.

This happens whether is a regular midi track or one using external instrument plugin

Is there a way to "mute" the midi outputs while recording. Turning off (power) the track doesn't fix it, nor does turning off the external midi plugin.

The only solution I have is to click on a seperate audio track which for some reason records the midi info?? another odd midi thing. Then drag it to the midi track so I can use it for playback.

If I switch to port 2 it fixes the phasing problem but then I lose playback??