swallow midi does not seem to be working

I am running live on mac and sounds are changing in my soft synths when I record arm the track.
I thought I had this figured out. Swallow midi is checked and midi thru is deselected in Bomes.
Ableton is set up to not receive from translator in the preferences.

Hi,

can you explain in more detail what your setup is?
Note: Swallow MIDI does not globally "delete" MIDI messages. What it does is this, for example in such a configuration:

MIDI DEVICE -> APPLICATION

You want to filter/swallow certain messages. Then you need to create a chain:

MIDI DEVICE -> Midi Translator -> APPLICATION

To do that, enable these MIDI ports:
in Midi Translator:
MIDI IN: MIDI DEVICE
MIDI OUT: Midi Translator Virtual
MIDI THRU: checked

in the APPLICATION:
MIDI IN: Midi Translator Virtual
Do not enable MIDI DEVICE in your APPLICATION's MIDi IN!

By activating MIDI THRU, "normal" messages will be passed lon from MIDI DEVICE to APPLICATION. Only MIDI messages that are triggered in a Translator Entry (Incoming Trigger section), they are not passed on to APPLICATION if you have checked "swallow".

Hope that helps!
Florian