Auto Pattern Transition & Swap: Feature requests for Digitakt, Digitone and Syntakt

[andytlr]

Hello! I’m new here. I have these three machines and love how familiar and transferrable the workflow is across them. I’m not really left wanting much but have a couple ideas for features that I think could be great across the family.

Automated pattern transition

What if patterns had a “transition time” parameter, that could be set in fractions of a bar. So if you transition from A01 to A02; and A02’s transition time was set to 1/2; all parameter values would transition linearly* over that time.

A basic example like ramping up or down filter frequency, could be achieved with an LFO. But what I’m imagining is a lot more like control-all, where any value difference for matching parameters is transitioned.

This would be sick on the digitone where the parameters are the same on all tracks—imagine the wild transitions between two very different patches. On the Syntakt and Digitakt I imagine this could be scoped to tracks that use the same machine or sample across patterns.

It could apply to master effects across all tracks too. E.g. compressor values on the Digitakt or filter values on the Syntakt.

*By default, would be dope to have a few easing curves to chose from.

Swap

Copy and paste works well most of the time, but for note arrangement and track/pattern organization, I think a swap feature would be extremely useful.

• Hold down two tracks, then hit page to swap their sound AND note information.
• Hold down two notes, then hit page to swap them.
• Hold down two patterns, then hit page to swap them.

[shigginpit]

Welcome to the forum! I don’t really understand the need for a swap feature, or see the benefit in it unless you’re auditioning arrangements for a song, but song mode already sort of has that covered if you like doing it that way.

If you prefer the way you’re stating it, seems like pattern chaining is the way to go because you can make the pattern chain in any order you want and then try it with another chained arrangement until you’re committed to something. Or maybe I’m not understanding the function of swap as you envision it?

Automated pattern transition sounds pretty cool! It’s a bit like a patch morph feature that you find on various other synths from a few other manufacturers and the duration of the morph is set by the patten length except instead of morphing between patches you’re automating parameter morphing between pattern transitions.

That could be good if you were feeling like you couldn’t handle doing a smooth motion recording and would probably be a more reliable way of getting from A to B where parameters are concerned, especially if there were a few preset curves. I’d be interested to see how that idea would work in practice, especially on digitone.

I don’t think Elektron employees generally look for feature suggestions where you’re posting this so it’s unlikely the idea will be conveyed in any meaningful way but there is a feature requests thread which I’m pretty sure they do check from time to time if you want to share this here:

for all machines

Feature Requests for all Elektron Machines

Hi all, I talked to Cuckoo (those who don’t know him, do a search - it’ll make you happy) about what seems to be an easy update: the ability to focus on one page in a 32/48/64 step sequence. It is very frustrating to focus on for example step 18, and have to wait for the sequence to do it’s full cycle again just to hear what you are changing. A work around Cuckoo came up with is to copy a page to another pattern (make it 16 steps) and then do your changes there, copy it back and voila. But it …

or here for syntakt

The Syntakt Feature Request Thread

My only feature request, make the retrigger able to be quantized to the sequencer! I really love the model cycles and I really want to make off the cuff drum fills that are quantized to the sequence that is playing, like how the arpeggiator works on the digitone. I have heard from EZBOT that the retrigger function works the same on the Syntakt as on the Cycles when it comes to quantization. I would really love an option in that menu to keep things quantized. Sorry if this thread is a bit prematu…

or here for digitone

Digitone feature requests!

Allow audio sent into the inputs to be incorporated into the synthesis, it would be nice to be able have external audio to FM the operators, modulate the filter, trigger the LFOs and envelopes and so on, the V-Synth XT could do some of this and it was a great feature. Individual note lengths and velocities for chords. Feedback for other operators, more algorithms. Use track buttons to mute operators. Portamento with rate and time will fit nicely on those 2 blank squares on trig parameters pa…

or here for digitakt

The Digitakt Feature Request Thread

Some feature requests. Add yours Limit sample amount to megabyte (64MB) instead of 128 fixed sample slots to allow more samples Time stretching Compress external input Additional Bandpass filter like on Digitone: It would allow to place all the drum sounds better in the mix Naming MIDI CCs on the MIDI tracks. I just dont wanna remember what each CC is doing for all my connected MIDI hardware. Could be a global project setting or savable like sounds. MIDI retrigger MIDI Auto lear…

And you’re absolutely correct that one of the great things about these machines is how well they play together, but it’s always great to find ways to make them more awesome individually or together! Let’s hope we can get some of this stuff in the future.

Oh, and there’s also a direct email address if you want to send in feature requests that way which is feature-request@elektron.se so you could try that if you want to pass it along directly, just so you have that resource as well.

[andytlr]

Thank you @shigginpit! Appreciate the welcome and detailed response

Swap

Or maybe I’m not understanding the function of swap as you envision it?

Yeah, sorry if it wasn’t clear. This is purely a utility/time saving suggestion and has nothing to do with playback.

Say (for organization purposes) you want to move the sound and note data from track 4 to track 1. It’s currently several steps:

1. Select T4
2. Copy T4 sound
3. Select T1
4. Paste T4 sound over T1 sound
5. Select T4
6. Hit record
7. Copy T4 notes
8. Select T1
9. Paste T4 notes over T1 notes

If you wanted to also keep the sound or note data on T1, you’d first have to store that somewhere else and repeat the whole thing twice.

Swapping these in a single action would be so much easier. And you could swap patterns or notes the same way.

Automated transitions

Completely agree with your assessment.

Even if you can record a perfect knob turn with p-locks, or get an LFO setup perfectly to change a value over N bars, it still means you need a pattern just for the transition. And if you tweak a sound on one pattern, your transition is messed up.

Plus lots of parameters all transitioning at the same time (like control all) could sound great (or terrible lol).

Could also imagine it being a song mode feature, where for each step you choose if it should transition or hard cut from the previous step.

Resources

Thanks so much for sharing these! The email sounds like my best bet if employees aren’t in the forums much.