Pattern change digitone and a4 from octatrack

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hi
i know it has been discussed before… but i dont find a solution for it. i looked through all old forum posts. its rudiculous. i spend literally days trying. send various bug reports. still its not working.

octatrack is sending pattern change cmds on ch 16, A4/digitone is listening…
All machines have their ch. ln. on 16 steps, on every pattern.
Pattern lenght is longer though. (if its on 16 on all machines it always works, wow, very helpful)

All i want that the patterns change at the same time, eg when the octa changes!!

But most of the time the other machine is a pattern late, as if the pattern change command is sent a millisecond too late, after the other machines are in their switchable state. why the hell does the octa not send just when i press the button (instead on the beginning of the upcoming pattern)

The fun part is that sometimes it works perfekt for some time. then im happy and think i finally have it working. then it suddenly stops. And then most of the time im just spending the next hour trying to figure out why, but i so far never succeded…

just now it worked flawlessy, i jumped back on forth from pattern a1 to a2, it changed perfectly everytime for an hour. then i changed the part on a1 on the octa by accident. Stopped working. changed back to the previous part. still not working. and thats it again. all music making finished. i clearly didnt change the pattern lenght options nor the miid settings whatever, nothing from that is saved in the parts.

i tried fresh projects on all machines. i tried everything. different midi channels. just the a4 on the octa. just the digi. high speed midi. everything i could think of.
then its suddenly working again. 10 min later broken.
please… can anyone confirm that its working for him/her (all the time)… so i know maybe my octa is broken or something?

or im really missing something super obvious?
its driving my crazy and takes all the fun out of it.

#2

It happens the exact same thing to me with analog four + digitakt + digitone. It doesn’t matter which device is the master. It’s terrible, really. Cause one would think they would sync and everything would be perfect but it’s not.
Sometimes one of the slaved devices changes pattern on time but the other changes one pattern late. I don’t know

1 Like
#3

nobody else having the problem, can confirm or found a workaround?

#4

Did you try without Turbo Midi?
I made a test with OT master, A4 slaved, then A4 master, no problem.
Channel 16 too.

1 Like
#5

tried with turbo midi from octa -> a4. still the same, a4 starts blinking to change pattern in the same time octa switches (and then takes another round).

sure you had longer pattern lengths than 16 in your test? do you have the latest os (i have)?

#6

A4 1.23C, OT 1.30B
I’ll try to make further tests.

1 Like
#7

It´s a well known problem with elektron machines and it´s a shame that elektron hasn´t managed to fix this the years these machines are out. But their whole 2-person-software-departement seems to be totally burnt with overbridge (which seems to be scheduled around 2022).
There is no workaround other than getting additional midi-hardware or switching patterns manually (search forum you should get a good overview).

#8

jeah im starting to hate overbridge. this problem is the only reason i have to have a computer in my live setup, just use it for pattern change (my workaround so far).

#9

Just to be sure, do you use OT MIDI > SYNC > Prog change Send ? It is supposed to be sent at the end of the current pattern.
Midi Tracks Prg Change are sent at the beginning of the next pattern.

Instead of a computer, can’t use a midi processor to convert a CC message to a prog change?

#10

what do you mean by additional midi-hardware? could you please give an example?

#11

Just above. :wink:

#12

yes im using the former.
jeah that might be possible but its so hacky. and i wouldnt know a proper fast way of sending these cc from octa itself. maybe from something like a launchpad. but then the launchpad needs a midi usb thingy…

#13

It can be a midi note.

#14

If you get around to it try with A4 in advanced track scale mode with high len and reasonable chng…
To go deeper try messing with OT master length, per track mode, different tempo multipliers on both units, etc…
If you want… :grin:

3 Likes
#15

ok makes sense. but then i would go to midi tracks, select my pattern change midi track, go to chromatic layout, press the rright midi note to change the other machines, and then change the octas pattern itself within the same loop, so they all change together :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Using Octatrack with Digitone
#16

I’m having this issue too. Octa as master and Digitone and Rytm Mk2 slave, Rytm works flawlessly but Digitone change the pattern late, and worst, play it late also, out of sync :frowning:

This problem basically make the Digitone useless for me, as i’m unable to use it in a live situation.

1 Like
#17

Had this working with no issues last night. The main thing I noticed is that the patterns need to be the same length. If they are the same length then they always change on time.

#18

what do you mean with same lenght? did you use different pattern lenghts on one of the machines ? like one track on 16 and one at 64? or all the same?

#19

That’s what I understood.

Only by night? :smile:
And seriously, what machines?
(I hope it is not SP303 :wink:)

#20

Wow, that’s a bad bug!