Crazy sequencing idea - would this work?

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#1

If this idea works, I’d probably definitely get the DO today.

So the DO is 8 voices, and you can have 2 different sounds playing at the same time on a track (I’d assume) with soundlocks.

Example: Trig 1 hits a pad, and trig 2 is soundlocked to a different pad, but both will play overlapped. I assume that’s how this would work and they won’t cut each other off since it’s only 2 voices.

So… what if you had Lead 1 and Lead 2 in the soundpool. You set track 1’s main sound to Lead 1, but you program a melody on it using soundlocks with Lead 2 for the entire track. Then you take a MIDI cable and go from the Out of the DO back to the in of the DO and set MIDI track 1 to trigger Track 1. Then, couldn’t you program a melody on MIDI track 1 that would play Lead 1 on the same channel as the soundlocked Lead 2? Could you do that for all 4 tracks, essentially giving you 8 sequenced tracks with 8 monophonic sounds?

If someone can try this out, that’d be awesome.

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#2

Not sure but that may work, I will definitely try that next time I use my DN!

One thing to consider : on a track, you can’t play the same note twice if they overlap (even with soundlocks), the second note cuts off the first.

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#3

By same note you mean same actually musical note? Like trig 1 couldn’t play 2 notes of C, but you could play C and D? That makes sense.

#4

Exactly.

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#5

Interesting. See no reason why this shouldn’t work

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#6

I agree. In theory, it should work. It would be interesting to hear what it would sound like. I feel like it could become a cacophony before too long. Or it could be some crazy 64 layer wall of ambience? If someone does it before me, post up a clip, I’d love to hear it.

#7

I just ordered a DO from sweetwater. Figure the $90 off was enticing enough to spring for one new. I’ll def. be trying it out!

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#8

Hi @slicetwo

This will work as you described.
But please beware of some midi loopback errors… especially if you hit the stop button twice.

I would suggest to @Ess to make internal routing of the midi tracks possible, because this would open up a world of new possibilities.

Have fun with your new Digitone… it’s really awesome.

Kind regards, Sander

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#9

What are the MIDI loopback issues?

Pretty badass that this will work!

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#10

Double stop sends an all-off type of message that gets passed on over midi. So the DN sends it to itself… and thereby sends another one… and another… and you get an infinite feedback loop of “off” messages that you have to break the midi connection to stop.

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#11

Well hot shit. That’s pretty funny. A never ending loop of stops. Does this only happen with stop? There’s no “play” loop?

#12

Not normal stop - double stop. When you hit stop twice. On Elektron gear double stop shuts off all the voices, effects etc.

Single play/stop transport is no issue. But you might get other midi loopback problems as well. All part of the fun of experimenting…

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#13

Oh oh. I see. I missed the part about hitting stop twice vs. hitting once.

#14

So I tried this out today with a buddy’s DO and it didn’t work. It ended up basically freezing the machine for some reason. Oh well.

#15

too bad… this could have been a nice one! (by the way …the ‘official forum’ abbreviation for Digitone is DN and for Digitakt DT)

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#16

maybe worth checking which MIDI options were enabled on the DN and try just having MIDI notes out? (unless you did that already)

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#17

Right right. Forgot. Dunno why I kept saying DO.

#18

Turns out, this can work! As long as under the MIDI sync settings you have everything turned off, you can do loopback MIDI control.

  1. Loaded a synth on track 1 (input channel 11)
  2. Sound locked a kick drum sequenced on track 1
  3. Programmed the melody into MIDI track 1 on channel 11.
  4. SUCCESS!

This means that you could essentially have 8 monophonic synth sounds playing at once with 8 different sequences, making the DN almost an 8 track synthesizer. Now we just need MIDI arp and we’re set!

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#19

that’s nice…more fun around the corner :smile: