Digitakt external sequencer weirdness

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

I’m using a squarp pyramid as a master clock & sequencer for synths. I like sequencing the digitakt on the box so I planned on just sending program change from the pyramid to change patterns. However I’ve encountered some weirdness.

Firstly, I directly linked the pyramid midi out to the DT midi in. And set the DT set to receive clock and program change. When I press start on the pyramid, the DT sequencer starts as well and plays the selected pattern.

Here is the weird part: when pressing start on the pyramid, about 50% of the time the DT will not play trigs that occur on the first beat. Once the pattern loops the trigs play fine, but not during the initial start.

All of the note data is on the DT sequencer. However, the first trigs will play normally on the first beat if I send them from the pyramid instead of the internal DT sequencer.

Also, when switching patterns remotely via program changes, the pattern will not change if the message is sent too close to the end of the pattern, and won’t happen anyway until the end of the pattern, whereas other instruments sequenced with the pyramid will change patterns instantly (even mid bar) and will play a different part while the DT loops back.

I spent some time isolating this problem of DT skipping the first step by directly linking and sequencing very simple patterns with the default kit - nothing crazy.

Edit: I am running the beta firmware on the DT

#2

Missing the first step is a known issue. The most common suggested workaround is to micro time the first step slightly to the right. Hopefully they fix it soon.

4 Likes
#3

About program change, the dt only plays patterns in sequential mode meaning no instant pattern change.

#4

Yeah, so the Digitone does this too. That’s annoying. No problems when linking DT/DN so at least there is that. I could use the DT as master clock which would solve it too but slightly awkward to start/stop sequences on the DT and do everything else on Pyramid

#5

I have these problems too.

I bought a Squarp Pyramid recently to replace the DT midi sequencer which is too limited for me.

However, when synced up, the DT (slave) frequently misses the first trig.

But the worst issue I have is Pyramid program changes at the start of a pattern not being actioned by the DT until the next DT pattern starts. This makes the DT very difficult to work with and I’m thinking about selling it because of this bug.

I’ve seen various reports of workarounds eg CH.LEN but this didn’t work for me.

It seems Elektron have no plans to address these issues?

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