Chart for arpeggiator equivalents between the Digitone and Octatrack

Elektron Gear
#1

The lack of MIDI Arp Out on the Digitone is really starting to grind my gears. The list below was born out of a project I was working on yesterday. I sequenced this great arp line on the DN and wanted to record the actual MIDI notes into my DAW so that I could use the same arp pattern on another hardware synth. Since the DN doesn’t have MIDI out, I ended up recording the audio and throwing it in Ableton’s Audio-to-MIDI tool. Of course, the OT has a killer arp on the MIDI side, so I realized today that I could have just transferred the settings over to the OT and used that. Buuuuut… the OT and DN don’t have the same damn arp SPEED values! Good lord, Elektron.

So I made a chart that matches up as many of the SPEED values between each unit. There are a few SPEED values on the DN that don’t match up with values on the OT, and there are a LOT on the OT that don’t match up with the DN due to it having a lot more options. There are also some SPEEDS on the DN that do not seem to be obtainable on the OT at the same BPM (mainly, anything with a denominator of 5).

It really seems crazy that the arp SPEED values are so different, but I guess that’s the Elektron way!

Anyways, hopefully this will help some of you. I think I got them all correct. Sorry for the long rant before the “recipe”, I know how annoying it is when you’re cooking and someone gives you their life story about how their grandma made this recipe one day during a tornado-snow storm-drought and it brings back comforting memories of your teddy bear, FluffyPants.

Octatrack Digitone
x1 1/96
x2 1/48
x3 1/32
x4 1/24
x6 1/16
x8 1/12
x12 1/8
x16 1/6
x24 1/4
x32 1/3
x48 1/2
x96 1/1
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#2

So from this, are you saying OT has more variations and ‘inbetweens’ (because that’s been my experience so far)? The OT midi arp is a killer feature imo. I’ve used it on DN many times because it’s better imo and has a random arp too!

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#3

Thanks so much for this. Totally with you on the DN MIDI gripes.

  • Not possible to arpeggiate MIDI tracks
  • Not possible to pass through Mod, Aftertouch etc from MIDI IN to MIDI tracks via the auto channel

Please Elektron, if you happen to see this, adding this functionality would be such a boon to the DN. @Ess - are you aware of any physical/processing limitations that would make this beyond the capabilities of the DN with a firmware update down the line?

We love the DN, and the ARP, with its random modes and super playability - we just want to share that love with our modulars/korgs/moogs/casios :smiley:

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#4

DN doesn’t have random, just True, Up, Down and Cycle, which is why the OT midi arp is better imo

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#5

ah yes, my bad! I do the MIDI sequencing on the DN cos it stores the tempos per pattern and it’s easier to quickly flick between tunes when all I have to hand is one box. I’m not in front of any of them at the moment :frowning:

Do you know - does the Octatrack pass through aftertouch and mod wheel to its MIDI track outs, from a connected controller keyboard?

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#6

No worries, just clarifying it for anyone else reading. On the other questions, I have absolutely no idea. Never tried it. @sezare56, any ideas?

#7

Do you know - does the Octatrack pass through aftertouch and mod wheel to its MIDI track outs, from a connected controller keyboard?

It should, probably have to activate them with Function+Knob.

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#8

In addition to those mentioned above, it appears I can’t use the expression pedal to send out midi?? Actually had been in the market for a controller with expression input when I replaced the DN with the DNK, as I wanted to control a wah effect while playing guitar. The lack of DN midi pass through for basic options combined with have an expression pedal input on a synth with a dedicated midi controller feature that doesn’t allow for use of the expression pedal on anything external really bummed me out. Even if I bought a solution, I’d have to constantly switch the pedal? @Ess is there any chance we will see these in another wonderful future update? :slight_smile:

#9

Yeah, but there are some settings on the DN that I can’t replicate on the OT, like the 1/5, 1/10, 1/20, etc.

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#10

@slicetwo I have some doubts with OT x8. Shouldn’t it be 9,18,36,72? (from memory)

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#11

You may be right. I had to fix some and may have missed that.

#12

I’m not sure. Maybe 8 is ternary, 9 dotted…
Can’t test, I have a virus (TI).

#13

That’s it apparently 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 for triplets
9 18 36 72 for dotted. @slicetwo your values should correspond to DN.

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#14

Nice! I’ll need to update my list with the dotted at least for the OT.

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#15

Just checked it out on the OT and DT. x8 and 1/12 are the same.

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