External gear to record patterns, DT to play them back?

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

Hi!

I’ve gone through the manual and can’t seem to find any info on this.

Is it possible to have a synth send midi note values to the Digitakt to record a pattern, but then have the Digitakt send that data back to the synth to play it?

According to page 28 of the manual

You can use an external MIDI controller such as a keyboard to input NOTE and TRIG
VELOCITY data when you are in GRID RECORDING mode. Just press and hold a [TRIG]
key, and then play a note on the external keyboard. On MIDI tracks, you can add up to a
four note chord to every trig. The first note sets the TRIG VELOCITY value for all notes
on the trig.

However, when I do this, nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?

For the record, my Digitakt is at the start of the midi chain (going through a Roland Juno-106, then through to a Sub 37, then out to a Strymon Timeline). I’ve also got another chain going out from the Juno into the Digitakt.

#2

Digitakt records on the auto-channel

Set the synth to send on that midi channel

When sending midi from the track you recorded to, you have to enable midi by pressing the first encoder, holding shift. Set the midi channel of the track to the receive channel of your synth.

3 Likes
#3

Hi TBN!

Thanks for your response.

Sorry I don’t think my initial post was as clear as it could have been.

My midi chain looks like this:
Digitakt -> Juno-106 -> Sub 37 -> Focusrite -> back into the Digitakt.

I have no problem getting the Digitakt to send midi data (notes) out to either synth. The thing is that I would also like to use them as controllers so that I can play chords into the Digitakt (without having to use the “chromatic” feature of the Digitakt… which is nice when you have no other choice but a pain if you have a bunch of keyboards sitting around).

Is what I’m trying to achieve even possible?

#4

hmmmm, what is “focusrite” in your chain?
What have you connected as outputs “MIDI OUT” or “MIDI THRU”?

I recomend the following connections when disregarding focusrite:

Digitakt midi out - Juno midi in
Juno midi thru - sun37 midi in
Sub-37 midi out - digitakt midi in

  • Configure your sub-37 to send midi on the auto channel of the digitakt (see midi config)
  • Turn local on/off OFF on sub 37; I believe you can do that for keyboard only
  • Make sure “record notes” is turned on in the digitakt

now the digi should record to any track that is currently selected , assuming live record is enabled, from the keyboard of your sub37, without affecting what the sub37 is currently playing from the midi sent to it from a digitakt track.

I’m not completely sure if digitakt supports recording chords in live record mode; let us know!

2 Likes
#5

Check to make sure the MIDI track on the DT isn’t muted as well. I was recording notes onto a MIDI track on my DN and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t triggering my synth even though notes were clearly recording and playing the trigs in chromatic mode was playing the synth. I think they’re muted by default.

#7

The focusrite is my audio interface. I’m using it to record audio and midi coming from the devices into my DAW.

That being said the whole reason I got the Digitakt was to be able to go DAWless at gigs (I don’t have a laptop and I don’t really want one on stage).

Overbridge doesn’t play nice with my computer. I’ve submitted a ticket for that already.

Getting back to the topic :
Turning off the keyboard of the sub37 isn’t an option either because I’d like to manually play it sometimes. I just can’t play both keyboards at the same time (I only have two hands!).

I don’t see a “record notes” option in the Digitakt, but “receive notes” is turned on (and already was).

Any other ideas?

#8

I’d see that by pressing function and bank simultaneously? If so, the tracks are definitely all there and unmuted.

#9

So I finally got around to trying this with the focusrite removed.

If I follow the chain as you said, I can get the Moog to play back but not the Juno.

My Juno is on channel 9, my Moog is on channel 10.

Am I right to think that I can use the Digitakt as a live sequencer for more than one keyboard?

#10

DT has 8 MIDI tracks with independent channel selection so it can sequence 8 MIDI synths at a time and with a pattern switch could be configured to sequence another group of 8 as MIDI has 16 channels… Basically any pattern can control any 8 out of 16 connected synths…

#11

I guess I’ll add that you can also have multiple midi tracks assigned to the same synth channel and use them as variations within the pattern and if it works like OT you can send different combinations of multiple tracks to the same synth at once for interesting mash ups…

#12

Hi Mike,

Thanks for answering.

Sorry I think my question wasn’t clear.

I know the DT can sequence 8 Midi synths. What I want to know is if I can use these same synths to input notes into the DT and then have the DT play those notes back.

For example, my Juno-106 is on midi channel 9 and I input notes into the DT while on live record mode. For some reason, the DT is not receiving these notes. However, if I play on my Moog Sub 37 (which is on channel 10 but in the same midi chain) the notes will show up on whatever track is selected in the DT (1-16).

Except I don’t really want to use my Sub 37 that way, at least not at the moment. I’d like for the Sub 37’s keybed to only affect track 10 and the Juno-106’s keybed to only affect track 9.

Is that possible?

#13

Well, I’m an Octatracker so can’t test or say for sure, but there’s a lot of similar functionality across Elektron machines so I’ll say what I can say and someone else can correct me if DT doesn’t operate the same or you can just try it.

Sounds like you’ve got the autochannel set to channel 10, using the autochannel controls the selected track so you can use one main keyboard to play and it will control whatever synth is assigned to the selected track’s channel. The master controller synth must be on local off and receive midi on a different channel than the autochannel so you can play itself by selecting a midi track assigned to that channel.

Sending midi on channel 9 shouldn’t interfere with the autochannel behavior as long as that track is set to channel 9 if it works like Octatrack. Also on OT by not using the autochannel and instead sending on the configured midi channels of the tracks, I can live record them independently from their own keyboards just fine. Maybe you need to disable autochannel for DT to work like that or maybe you have to use the autochannel on DT I don’t know. I can’t remember if OT will live record multiple synths at once without the track selected but I think it can, it definitely passes through any incoming midi that a midi track is assigned a channel for to its midi out on the same channel.

#14

In the case that DT only records using the autochannel, what you can do is set both synths to send on the autochannel but receive on separate channels. Say autochannel is channel 10 and both synths send on that, but the Sub receives on 11 and the Juno receives on 12. Now have two DT midi tracks set to channels 11 and 12, and by selecting the tracks you can live record from the synths independently as you want to. Again make sure the synths are on “local off”…

1 Like
#15

Hi folks,

Don’t want to interrupt but I think my question is along the same lines as the topic. Is it possible to MIDI out from a basic controller (Arturia beatsep) into digitakt MIDI in or THRU, MIDI out from Digitakt to synth module (Waldorf Rocket) and have the Digitakt record the note entry from the controller in a sequence thereby sequencing the synth module with live recording? Running through channel 1, with auto channel set to 1, all devices on channel 1. Thanks for any help!! :pray:t3:

#16

Yes.
Beatstep MIDI Out to Digitakt MIDI In.
Digitakt MIDI Out to Rocket MIDI In.

1 Like
#17

Hey thanks so much! That’s actually how I had it set up, but no luck! DT won’t receive and play back note entry generated by the beatstep passed to DT sequencer and then sent to the synth. I always had an easy and fun time sequencing my virus and other assorted drum machines with an Akai MPC2000 so that method is kind of imprinted on my brain. I’ve got everything on channel 1, out from beatstep into DT in, DT out into Rocket in. I have to imagine that it’s doable, seems like it would be, notes coming from controller passes through DT into target synth. Thanks again!

#18

If you set the beatstep to the autochannel it will record to whatever track you have selected on the dt. And then you set the midi output channel of the track to the same as the synth you want to control. So in your current setup you would

Beatstep out to dt in, dt out to rocket in. Example midi channel setting

Beatstep midi channel 10
DT Auto channel 10
DT midi track A set midi channel 1
Rocket midi channel 1

Then you should be able to record to the dt and have it play the rocket.

1 Like
#19

Thank you very much I think I got it by accident last night, but your way makes more sense and is actually simpler than I thought. Right on!