Hi!
Digitakt has chain mode and it doesn’t have song mode. But A4 have.
Can the A4 throught midi send CC messege to change pattern number in Digitakt, and be master in song mode to make full song in A4 and Digitakt together?
The Analog Four can send MIDI Program Change messages to the Digitakt to tell it to change patterns, so that the same pattern number (for example, A05 or D12) plays on both instruments at the same time.
In this way the AF’s Song Mode can control the change of patterns on the DT.
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Thanks. it was important for me to find out before buying A4
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The A4 can and does send Program (Pattern) Change messages to the Digitakt (and other Elektron boxes) but it’s honestly very sketchy and unreliable.
None of the Elektron units I’ve got are 100% reliable when slaved… safest bet is to manually change your patterns.
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Thank you for the warning!
I’ve never experienced any sketchy behaviour with pattern chaining Elektron gear together?
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It’s quite well documented on this forum without me going into it here, but the minute any 2 units aren’t perfectly aligned with each other in terms of pattern/track lengths you’re in trouble. Even with identical settings they’re not stable, it’s easy for one to slip a bar out with the other and throw everything off.
It would almost be too perfect if they sync’d well with each other… being able to have different track and pattern lengths/polyrhythms, etc, and being sure that a Pattern/Program change would quantise at the end of 1 or 2 bars would be amazing…
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I’ve never tried to slave the Digitakt to my A4, but trying to get it to change patterns from a DAW was a fvcking nightmare.
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sad problem. Now I know, thanks!
I have already connected and configured. Everything works perfectly. Patterns switch automatically, they are synchronized and the pattern in A4 = pattern in the Digitakt
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I’m changing my A4 and DT patterns with clip program change in Ableton with no issues. It requires an adjustment to the Ableton clip quantisation tho (1/16 to be safe) otherwise Elektron machines will trigger pattern change after second clip play
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I’m sorry but I have to disagree with @CCMP I had 5 Elektron boxes running in sync changing patterns together for well over 2 years, it works completely fine when using the same master length on each device…
I’ve made complete songs this way and basically used it this way every day,
There is only problems if you use the inf and Chng setting,
As @PeterHanes said it uses program changes to change patterns and is designed to do this
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Same here, no issues at all with A4K changing patches on Rytm, DT and DN … for years…
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@ANTONIM I genuinely hope it works for you, but make sure you report back if/when it doesn’t…
@DanJamesAUS it’s not really a disagreement, you’re working with it in a restrictive manner and it’s working for you.
I’ve just given up on it, it’s too annoying and stops the flow too often.
I’m not alone in having tried it both ways, tried to settle on keeping everything EXACTLY the same (A4/AR and A4/AR/DN).
The best outcome I had was creating new projects on them all from scratch, making sure all settings matched and then building out the patterns… I managed to get a couple of tracks recorded like this, but still had to periodically stop and reboot them when they’d drift by a bar.
If I want to use them collectively these days I’ll sequence them from my MPC and treat them as sound modules, or I’ll record the Elektron parts into Ableton and mix from there to get the consistency. The latter also takes away the shackles of not being able to use polyrhythmic tracks/parts.
I don’t mean to sound overly negative about them, this is just the biggest flaw in the Elektron boxes for me, otherwise I’m a very happy Elektron camper. 
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Thanks for your attention. I will try, I hope everything will work out. There are always many variables. Each case is different. I hope I succeed. I’ll write the results here.
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My A4 kept perfect pattern chaining with the Digitone. Pattern per Pattern. Song mode on A4 and sent pattern changes to Digitone.
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That’s great
Anytime I tried from my DAW, I had to move the program change several beats before the bar I wanted to change on. Never really worked and I gave up on it.
All that being said, in my workflow, it’s not a priority.
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