Change pattern with midi notes (working)

Hi to everyone, I’m new to the forum and to elektron machine. I’ve just bought a digitakt and I’m quite happy with it.

today I was trying to change pattern from a DAW (Ableton) with program change with no luck. Unintentionally I’ve send some midi notes to midi track 16, that is the track that I’ve selected to receive program changes on the digitakt, and this made the pattern change, with this logic

  • note C-2 bank 1 pattern 1
  • note C#-2 bank 1 pattern 2
  • ecc…

this was totally unexpected, because I was thinking to do it with program change, not with notes. It works quite well BTW, but you have to send the notes in advance prior to the end of the pattern (no big problem)

maybe I’m just late at the party, but I haven’t found anything on that around. Is it a documented feature?

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This shouldn’t happen. The lowest octave is mapped to play the track sounds of track 1-8.

From the manual:

Note numbers 0–8 correspond to notes C0 through to G0, the leftmost octave (which is sometimes called C-2–G-2 in certain applications). These notes will trigger the Sound of track 1 through track 8, respectively (provided they are set to their default channels 1-8). These notes values map to each of the eight tracks, regardless of which track is active.

Are you really sure it switches patterns or that there isn’t some transformation ongoing in the DAW?

Yes I’m quite sure that the pattern change is directly caused by the midi notes. Changing the notes will change the pattern.

A note about the configuration: I have a midi track with overbridge and I’m sending midi notes from another track to this track on midi channel 16. So maybe overbridge is in someway involved?

Ah - you are using Overbridge. That’s a completely different area, because the MIDI part of Overbridge doesn’t seem to work as standard MIDI connection to the device.

10.2 PATTERN CHANGE
You can send MIDI notes to the plugin on Channel 16 to request pattern changes on the Elektron device.

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Oh thanks! Is this from the overbridge manual?

Seems a nice option, I was hoping to make it working better with track delay compensation to -100 ms to avoid anticipating midi notes but it doesn’t work as I’ve thoughts

Maybe is it also possible to send track mute with overbridge?

Yes.

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Hey, I am trying to recreate what you have achieved with no success.

could you please provide details on how you performed this?

I am sending on CH 16 lowest notes, but Patterns are not changing.

Thanks. Marcelo.

I made a free Max for Live device that helps solve the pattern delay issue. It currently only works in Session View but I have a plan to make it work in Arrangement view as well.

You just name the clip in Ableton to what pattern you want it to switch to and it sends the program change (or note in Overbridge mode) as soon as the clip becomes “active” to change.

https://www.elektronauts.com/uploads/short-url/lBtxFmJy0HHwz7G990fhqLUzsVT.amxd
https://www.maxforlive.com/library/device.php?id=5710

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How does it help with the delay? Do you still have to set the clips quantise to none?
I can get it to work by setting it to none just normally without your max device…
the one issue is the clips change instantly so on my push 2 it doesn’t flash then change when global quantise like other audio clips and is showing clips that are not playing yet…
if you understand what I mean visually it’s not correct…

You don’t need to set the quantize to none.

Best use would be to set the quantize of the clip to the same length of your pattern on your Elektron device.

It works by detecting if the Clip has been activated to play (play button is flashing on the clip). As soon as the clip is “armed” to play, the Max device sends the associated program change (or note in Overbridge mode) to your Elektron device. In essence, arming a clip in Ableton also “arms” the Elektron device to change patterns. You can also leave the quantize alone and just arm a scene or clip a little before the patterns changes (by ear and knowing your pattern length)

If your quantize is the same as your pattern, the clip will start playing at the same time that your Elektron device changes patterns.

The idea is that you can trigger a whole scene and everything from audio clips, MIDI clips, and multiple Elektron devices will change together with no delay (due to the early sending of the program change).

This was actually the initial sole purpose of the device. To make patterns change on time with other Ableton Live clips.

The clip naming thing was just an idea I came up with to make it easier to choose which pattern was associated with a clip. To make it more “human” without having to do a bunch of math or reference a manual.

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Oh ok cool, I was just testing your device and it does make the clips change correctly!
Nice work :+1:

just 1 issue I’ve found is when starting from completely stopped it doesn’t change the clip instantly but I’ve put a short note on the corresponding pattern and
it switches to it instantly from stopped

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Glad it’s working for you and I appreciated the feedback!

I didn’t think about starting from the stop position. I’ll think about some ways to deal with that and add it to a new release. Might ask for some feedback about the ideas I come up with to deal with it.

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No worries again nice work. Putting a short note at the start works good for now…
I use both ableton and elektron gear together if you figure out a way to be able to place these clips in arrangement and be able to rearrange them would be brilliant…
yeah if you need feedback just let me know…

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Thank you!

I’m already working on an arrangement mode. It’s already kind of working but I’m still working out some kinks and trying to cover all use possibilities. Lots to take into consideration to make it work seamlessly.

I have lots of other ideas that I hope to implement as well. Gotta find time to focus (kids only allow short bursts of work on projects right now).

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