Switch patterns in real time.
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would be great if it was more easily acheivable tho. i think someone on this thread said that technically its possible but only through a very convoluted process.
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You can already save sound to sound pool right ? Something like imp/exp - manage - view pool - export
Assign a pattern as ‘fill’ pattern. (allowing you to program an entire pattern and trigger it with the ‘fill’ button)
Parameter lockable ARP speed !!! (pls & ty <3)
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So someone asked me which one I would pick if I could only pick the Digitakt OR the Digitone -both of which I love- and I chose the Digitakt for a few reasons, all of them relating to how it is to perform on.
If it was possible to mute both synth tracks and midi tracks at the same time as on the Digitakt, it would be a lot easier to perform on. Also, if you could select tracks by pressing MIDI+TRIG, you could do all the muting and track selection with your left hand, leaving your right hand entirely free to turn knobs and press the fill button.
For those who are interested, Here’s my ranty answer to the question:
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The DT has 8 sample tracks and 8 midi tracks, as opposed to the DN’s 4 synth tracks and 4 midi tracks. It’s a lot easier to spread a song across 8 tracks and make interesting changes by muting them. 4 tracks works, but you’ll have to make some hard decisions about how to structure stuff. For example, on the DT I can have one track with a drum loop on it and another with only hihats, then mute whichever I don’t want. On the DN, doing that takes up half the available tracks. What you can do instead is make a whole drum pattern in 1 track, then give the kicks the negative fill condition so you can “mute” the kicks by holding the fill button. Doable, but tedious.
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All audio tracks and midi tracks can be selected and muted on the same page. I’m usually in mute mode when performing, and it’s really handy to have all the track buttons so close to each other. On the DN, there are 4 dedicated track buttons, but to select or mute midi tracks, you have to toggle midi mode. You can’t access both synth and midi tracks at the same time, you have to toggle between them. So no octopus-finger-muting 8 synth and 8 midi tracks at the same time
And you can’t select the tracks on the same page either, you have to toggle between synth mode and midi mode. So no quickly switching to a midi track to tweak stuff and instantly switch back to a synth track and tweak something there. There’s a tedious button toggle inbetween. -
On the DT, you can easily select tracks while in mute mode. To select a track, press TRK+trig to select whatever number track you want. On the DN, the TRK button has been replaced with the MIDI button, which toggles midi mode. If you’re in mute mode, the only way to select a track is to toggle out of mute mode. I still make the mistake of hitting the MIDI+TRACK buttons to select a track, but what happens instead is that it switches to midi mode and then mutes that track. Ooops. Now I can’t rely on muscle memory and have to spend my precious attention on undoing my mistake and get back to where I was, but at that point it might be too late and I missed the sickest transition
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On the DT, you can select most tracks easily with the left hand. It’s hard to select tracks all the way to the right though. However on the DN, you can’t easily select any track, because the track buttons are all the way to the right, while the mute toggle buttons are all the way to the left. On the DT I usually have my right hand on the encoders and slowly tweaking stuff while I use my left hand to select different tracks. On the DN, not only do I have to toggle in and out of mute mode to select tracks, but I have to either move my left hand all the way across the DN to the mute buttons, or stop tweaking parameters so I can select or mute the tracks with my right hand.
I’m actually thinking of making a feature request video where I basically showcase how I’d use the DN if you could select and mute tracks like on the DT
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This is just a small thing, but on the DT, the track buttons blink whenever a trig plays. In normal mode they blink super bright, and in mute mode they blink just enough to see what’s going on. On the DN, the track buttons do nothing in normal mode, and only blink in mute mode. So if I’m playing a pattern, I can’t see which track is playing the arp or bass without holding the FUNC button or toggling into mute mode. Not a big deal, but it’s one extra step needed just to check something that simple
And… yeah, those are the ways I think the DT is easier to make full tracks on than the DN
But wait, there’s more!
The DT has a lot less menus than the DN. That makes the DT simpler and faster than the more complex and slower DN. I think it would be impossible to make the DN with less menus without losing out on a lot of important stuff though. On the DT, you have 5 buttons each taking you to a page of stuff to tweak. Some of them have a double function; press FUNC+page button to access the delay, reverb and compressor settings. On the DN, not only do you have that, but also double-pressing buttons to access a third menu per page. This makes it so that while performing, say I want to add some delay to a synth track, so I press the AMP button twice to access the send settings, but before I realize it I’m just on the normal AMP page, not the send settings page.
I’ve done a ton of similar mistakes because of the double-press to access another submenu thing, and a lot of the time I’m simply too late by the time I get to the correct page. It takes a split second to realize you’re on the wrong page, then another split second to find the right page, but you also have to make sure that that page is the correct one too. Did you single press or double press it? These things are minor, but having to give attention to it makes it a lot slower than on the DT where each page only has one menu and you can rely on mucle memory.
But that’s enough ranting from me, I hope that was insightful @fulltang . Both are awesome, but DT is easier to perform on.
23 Likes
So I sent the feature request to Elektron now:
Here’s a little video demonstration of what I have in mind:
https://youtu.be/bCZl4xlYVrsThe idea is to make both synth tracks and midi tracks selectable and muteable at the same time by using the TRIGS, like on the Digitakt.
If it was possible to mute both synth tracks and midi tracks at the same time, as well as select tracks by pressing MIDI+TRIG, it would make it easier to perform live in the following ways:
If your workflow involves staying in mute mode, you no longer have to toggle in and out of mute mode to select tracks.
You no longer have to toggle in and out of MIDI mode to select or mute MIDI tracks.
You can select and mute both synth tracks AND MIDI tracks with the left hand with minimal hand movement. Right now you have to either select/mute tracks with the right hand, or you would have to press FUNC+BANK -which is on the left side of the Digitone- all the way to the right, where the track buttons are.
Since your left hand can do all muting and selecting, your right hand is completely free to tweak parameters, switch pages and press the FILL button.
These are the main reasons I always choose the Digitakt over the Digitone to sequence midi. I imagine there could be an option called “Mute/Select with TRIGS” that defaults to “off” so this change doesn’t catch anyone by surprise. The Digitakt’s mute mode is excellent, and I think it would be an amazing fit on the Digitone, too.
11 Likes
PANORAMA FOR THE METRONOME
Hello,
I bought recently the digitone for my pedalboard and it would be fantastic, if I can route the metronome to one side of the output. So I can play the synth side on one output and hear the click on the other output.
thanks
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Thanks for that and for sending it. I share the wish, having both as well. I love the Digitone, and muting/selecting tracks as on the Digitakt would make it such a more insteresting instrument to jam with. I’d say, not only for jamming, even when just creating something, I find the means of muting and selecting tracks annoying and prone to errors.
That said, I love the digitone 
and feel gratitude for the work of the good people at Elektron!
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This. The Digitakt and Digitone are both indispensable to me, but the Digitakt handles mutes and track selection better, in my experience. 
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I guess you could kind of do this by setting Attack and Decay = 0 so that the overall envelope level is exactly the same as the end level apart from a really small click at the start, which you can get rid of by slightly increasing the Amp Attack time. Not ideal but should do the trick
I think the digitone only needs a couple things done to fix the mutes to make them easier…
firstly change the global mutes to green instead of red,
and then be able to hit function while in mute mode to select tracks…
But the example you have made does make it look easier like the digitakt .
Then the track buttons could be just for selecting tracks…
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I would love to be able to press func to switch tracks in mute mode, its really the only feature I miss as I use the digitakt to do any sequencing.
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Being able to hold FUNC or MIDI + TRACK button to select a track while in mute mode would be awesome. If anything, I hope at least that gets implemented. But it wouldn’t solve the problem of having to toggle between MIDI mode and normal mode to select/mute the midi tracks.
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adding the function + track to select a track in mute mode would definitely be a nice addition…
and I agree with your earlier post the lack of flashing lights in track select mode makes it hard to tell which track is playing when not in mute mode… i would like that added as a feature as well.
my last request would be to make the selected track red like all the other Elektrons and have the mute mode green and leave everything else as is… it just seems opposite to me, i can live with red mutes its just im so used to seeing green as global mutes
These are my request but I would be happy if just got track select while in mute mode as you said.
and its completely up to Elektron if they want to change anything or leave it in the end.
we can put in feature requests at least
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It would be cool if maybe the volume control in the amp page could be set to only effect the original loaded sound and not sounds from the sound pool that are plocked. So load a kick sound and then add hats and snares or whatever and then use that sound volume dial on the amp page to mute the kicks (or whatever the original sound is)
Couldn’t you do this by plocking the volume of each snare/hat hit?
I’m thinking in a performative context it would be a fast way to do it. Having to p lock and figure out which steps turn down On four pages of trigs wouldn’t really help. This would be manageable if the sequence was only 16 steps, but in that case I’d probably just erase them and lay them down again. Unless you know of a trick to temporarily enable / disable plock states, which would actually be super cool, like parts on the OT.
If you’re not using fills for anything, you could give all your kicks the negative fill in so you can mute them by holding the fill/page button. I do it in practically every track that had a kick in it.
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That’s a great tip! Nice one
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