hahaha, thats what Ive been doing… Now I feel like Im complaining about something really stupid hahahaha. 
Do you mean Pattern per Track instead of all Tracks follows Pattern?
Yeah, sort of, you can see it that way.
A track variation is a completely different version of a track that’s stored inside a single pattern. Each track has one active variation at the moment and a number of inactive ones (16 in poleynd Play, but I think 8 is more than sufficient).
So you can have three variiations of a bass track, two variations of a kick track, five variations of a snare track, but all other tracks could have no variations at all except one that’s by default. So there’s already 3 x 2 x 5 = 30 unique variation combinations stored inside the same pattern.
It’s like Session View in Ableton Live and Clip Laucnher in Bitwig, where you can run clip 1 on track 1, clip 2 on track 2, clip 4 on track 3 and so forth.
You can create, copy/paste, modify, delete variations. You can switch to a variation while performing live instantly or after the active variation completes to the end.
I used variations a lot with Polyend Play in the composing stage. I always worked with one pattern. I could record multiple different versions of the main melody. I could copy a snare sequence to a new variation but change the snare sample in it. At the end, I had several variations of each track. There were variations with increased density. Than in the arrangement phase, I could copy the pattern multiple times and on each copy I could activate different variations that sound better together. Then the pattern chain becomes the final arrangement of the song.
WIth the Elektrons, I’d prefer if it was possible to save active variations on a song mode row level similarly to how mutes work. This way there would be even no need to copy pattern.
So you’d have just one pattern.
In song row 1, track 1 plays variation 1, track 2 plays variation 1.
In song row 2, track 1 plays variation 1, track 2 plays variation 2.
In song row 3, track 1 plays variation 2, track 2 plays variation 1.
Etc
From the Polyend Play manual
While patterns in themselves cover all 8 tracks, it is also possible to create
and store variations of each track. This is useful in creating arrangements
but also a great performance tool. Up to 16 variation slots are available for
each track.
A variation is an alternative version of a track that can be created and then
selected manually either to change an arrangement or used to add variety
during on-the-fly and live performances.
Variations of tracks can be created and stored in up to 16 variation slots,
represented by the grid pads in variation mode. Typically the main track can
be duplicated before adjusting the steps and parameters to create a
variation.
3 Likes
I don’t think something like that will ever happen for elektron boxes.
1 Like
It’s sad if that’s the case. Well, at least I tried.
Seriously, I think this thing would raise the arrangement and live performance capabilities of Elektron devices to an unattainable level.
Certainly unlikely as firmware update. It’s a whole new layer. For it to make sense to anyone using it you would need a variation button surely ?
Pretty sure there are unused key combos left 
Like [TRK] + [PAGE] to enter variations mode. There trig buttons represent variations of the current track. You can copy/paste/delete variations with [TRIG] + [COPY]/[PASTE]/[CLEAR]. Press and release a trig button to activate the corresponding variation. Press and release multiple buttons to chain variations for playback.
2 Likes
Same here! Since I got Seqtrack, I find that the variations offer such flexibility when you want to play like I do, a “pseudo live perf just for me”. Pure fun
It’s the same on the Play/Play+.
It’s so much more fun and less static than those patterns you have to chain together (even though there is a page loop).
Maybe when you’re on a track TRK+bank+[1-16]?
Please Elektron !
2 Likes
Feature request: grid-aligned / quantized sampling on Digitakt
Hi everyone,
I wanted to add a request that I’ve seen mentioned in different ways before, but not very clearly defined.
It would be extremely useful if Digitakt could start recording samples in sync with the sequencer / downbeat, instead of only via manual start or threshold detection.
Right now:
- Manual recording is never perfectly on the grid
- Threshold recording is unreliable for musical loops
- Recording a clean 1-bar or 2-bar loop always requires trimming
- There’s no way to arm recording and have it start exactly on step 1
Something like:
- “Record on next pattern start”
- Or “record for X steps starting on next downbeat”
- Or even a simple record trig
would make Digitakt much more powerful for live sampling, looping, and resampling workflows.
I’m not asking for full Octatrack functionality — just a way to capture tempo-locked loops without post-editing.
It feels like this would fit very naturally with Digitakt’s workflow and sequencer philosophy, and it would make it far more usable as a live sampling instrument.
Curious if others feel the same.
3 Likes
To develop more creative use of the RGB leds on the devices. I think it started with Octatrack MK2 which can do a variety of colours but for backward compatibility and/or other reasons, they are not put to good use. Across the devices, we could use more colours to help with UI.
Add an option in settings to enable ctrl-all for midi tracks. Currently it does not work at all (on Digitone 2 at least).
1 Like
The removal of the modulation menu closing in few seconds if no selection has been made. It’s a constant PITA when you set the lfo depth or the velocity or cv mod depth first and then start scanning the destinations to see what sounds cool. It completely ruins the whole workflow. It’s not useful at all, ever.
10 Likes
They actually did remove it for DN2. It was very annoying indeed.
3 Likes
Nice! That’s awesome and brings some hope that they’ll remove it from the other devices as well.
Such a bummer of a function.
It would also be cool if the track volume encoder would be active when in the cv-assign menu.
That would make performing with it a lot easier.
About odd time signatures:
Since it is very unlikely that they will implement the ‘step-per-page’ mode, we will still have to make the most of trig conditions in order to obtain complex and evolving patterns out of short patterns.
The addition of the new ‘non-A:B’ trig conditions on every single Elektron device would be more than appreciated so that we don’t have to waste precious steps when creating breaks and variations on a pattern. For me, that would be the easiest and most appreciated improvement.
Microtonal scales, scala import, microtonal scaaaaaallleeesss, scala imporrrrtttt
Per track BPM
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AMP Envelope Pre-Delay Parameter
I would love to see a pre-delay parameter on the AMP page so that the point in time when the ATK phase actually triggers can be modulated/automated/manually set (for example by holding FUNC and turning the A rotary/ATK parameter).
This will be especially useful when layering sounds, particularly on devices that have the track layering feature, like the Digitone II.
Basically the DNII filter’s DEL parameter but on the AMP section instead.
(FWIW: I am aware this can be worked around using the sequencer but this doesn’t feel right)
2 Likes
I want this more than anything.
1 Like
this has probably been mentioned before but it would be great if when you changed the name of a preset, its name would show up on the mixer page instead of the track number
also please please please step length per page!
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