For midi sequencing which do you prefer OT or DT?

It is not terrible, just not very flexible to be kind I’d say it could be used in a pinch for simple chords, but for example using a single track you can’t have any notes on the same step with different lengths or velocity.

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Thanks again for advice. Ordered a Poly today! You should get a commission! Or at least a sticker :slight_smile:

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Surprised this hasn’t been mentioned yet but a major advantage (to me, at least) that the DT has over the OT for MIDI sequencing is that it can handle overlapping MIDI notes, meaning you can hold a chord and have other notes play over it. On the OT, any MIDI event would cut off the previous/current event, meaning that a chord would be cut off by any notes that came after it was started.

I had basically written off Elektron sequencers for MIDI after having an OT because it was such a bummer to work with, so I was pleasantly surprised by the DT (and DN) when I discovered it could handle overlapping notes.

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That’s badass, sounds real. Never really considered using world drum kits with OT. I’m gonna have to try this triggering hang drum samples

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Thanks for pointing this out, it does though illustrate again the strange decision that Elektron midi sequencers have little consistency between machines, you can literally create a midi sequence on one machine that another couldn’t make. Argh!

In theory a track set to PLAYS FREE & trig mod DIRECT would do this if you had just one trig on first step. But that configuration has a bug

Could be such a powerful feature if it worked

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OT MIDI seq is much more intricate. You can get pgm chgn plocking by MIDI translating a, say, aftertouch into pgm chng. Doing it this way will also give you eternal freedom from those pesky parts and their inherent limitations wrt pgm chgn assigning…

For capturing polyphonic keyboard playing, I cannot really recommend OT nor DT/DN. Much better options out there for that (MPCs, pyramids, MMT8, RS7000 etc)

But for ”esoteric” MIDI seq use, the OT is such a blast! Its also the reason why I bought an OT in the first place. Especially now with true polymetry and scales per track, swing trigs AND conditrigs, with pattn shifts and copypastes, there’s just so much that can be done…

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very cool, and the stylistic application is perfect.

i’m so keen to try this (OT sending arp) with a Roland SE02. not quite sure how or why, but anyway will give it a go.

something about arpeggiators is cool … although it is possible to sequence the notes manually, maybe the timing is ever so slightly different when arpeggiated … i haven’t actually tried the OT arpeggiator at all, not once.

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I think this is about right, a shame nonetheless.

Care to elaborate on this? Not that I ‘need proof’ but it is always interesting to hear others methods :thup:

Well, stuff like going mental with scales and step lenghts of tracks, plocking the arps, throwing in LFO controlled chaos into the arp settings, trigless locking arp/scale/lfo settings, multiplexing all this into a signle MIDI output channel from several tracks. Use one track for some note data, another for contasting note data, yet another for CCs, all having diff. scales and lenghts… you get the idea :loopy: Obviously this fun is increased greatly if you are controlling something over MIDI which also responds to CC.

Some of the most wonky, royally skrewed patterns I have ever made have resulted from having too much free time messing with the OT MIDI tracks. I can add so much MIDI sauce that I will have no fn clue as on what the result will sound like, no matter how hard I tried!

Some people have said that having the OT as a MIDI seq equals having thousands worth of exotic sequencing modules in modular world? I can kinda understand how that could be the case.

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Wait till they try a MidiBox Seq or Cirklon!

I’m going with @tsutek here… :slight_smile:
I run the OT midi sequencer and I only have a mono synth as far as hardware so poly hasn’t been an issue. I’ve heard a lot of neat stuff come out of it. The arp is awesome, and three lfos per track. Having the lfos modulate arp parameters, plocking the arp and lfos, and custom designed arps and lfos add a ton of options. I use the added poly notes as notes for the arp to play, which again can be plocked per step. Multiple tracks can play to the same channel. Have made a chart that works to lock the arp to modal scales and then you can go to town modulating pitch affecting parameters and it all stays in key. Track length, trig counts, etc… I like how it provides a grid based sequence to feed back into the recorders and then you can lock the recorder/playback tracks referencing the same steps. I’m sure it could be better with poly but really it’s not too shabby and a lot of amazing things can be done…

I like the midi control of the midi side too. You can midi control the arp and other midi parameters, have had some fun with OT sequencing Logic au’s while at the same time Logic midi au’s modulate the arp and other midi track parameters, freeing up midi lfos…

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There’s something about having the midi sequencer be part of the same unit that can accept the audio signal and then apply locks per step. If you have a 64 step midi track coming into a 64 step thru machine you can easily add fx locks per step, a reverb lock on step 32 of the thru puts reverb on step 32 of the midi track. With a recorder going you can have it slice and be able to playback any one of the 64 steps, so you can have flex remixes going as well, with of course all manner of flex plocks. Change the track length between the midi track and the recorder/playback and lots of interesting variations can happen.

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Can you elaborate? Are you creating a custom arp that contains the steps of a certain mode/scale, and then modulating/locking the arp params to have random/locked runs of notes?

I agree that it is handy having the midi sequencer on the OT for sure, it makes sense when sampling a midi synth or drum machine when wanting to do sample chains or getting exact timing, sampling loops and so on.

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Believe or not the OT and A4 have all the same scales as the Digitone. It’s a music theory thing. Any major or minor scale is actually the same notes as 6 other modal scales in different keys… The only thing needed to be updated in the OT and A4 would be the UI to allow you to select them by the proper key and name.

Using the following chart you can access the 6 other modes in any key by setting the OT arp to the corresponding relative major scale and key.

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oops, had totally forgotten there’s scale modes at all on the OT in the arp menu, thanks.

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Yep, works on just note trigs too. With it turned on you can send lfo’s to transpose or whatever and it stays locked in key… :slight_smile:

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Could you make a chart for chromatic scale modes ? :wink:

to echo @tsutek4h - do not under-estimate the fun of setting multiple octatrack midi channels to the same channel. you can then mute/unmute tracks for interesting variations.

on a related note, if i’m using limited midi tracks (for example just a bassline), i use the other tracks to store alternate takes of the bassline.

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