I can relate to that and with this topic in general. As amazing Elektron devices are for jamming (and I enjoy them a lot this way), my brain is not wired (as you say) to take that jam to the next level and finish a song in device as I would really enjoy. I’m considering other gear or even finding the way to make DAW work for me again (I enjoyed Ableton when I didn’t spend +10h day in from of a computer working).
I have to recognize I feel stupid each time I’m performing a track from start, doing all the hand dancing in order to get a result I could get much more easily with some other gear/workflow. I click with the Elektron brain/programmer mindset but at some point of the process it falls short and I stop enjoying.
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I have no idea how likely we are to get a song mode on the digis, but honestly I’d settle for an auto-chain mode where every pattern in a bank just plays through in order. That’s got to be a reasonable ask I’d presume, although I have zero clue about the programing side of things.
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tbh I don’t think we’re getting anything new at all regarding this. I think this is a by-design decision and the interface and hardware design of these devices already reflects that.
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I agree. Whatever Elektron’s got cooking, it’ll be in new boxes, not the ones we’ve already seen.
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I think just adding a button combo to copy/paste all parameter settings in a pattern, would not kill of the original idea, but enhance it. It would also not eat into the revenue for other boxes which have kits imo.
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Adding kits, and a tracker like pattern chain with mutes, would for sure not kill the vibe.
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No it would not for us, but it would for Elektron’s business plan :))
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Nah. Don’t underestimate the influence of a product manager that just can’t get the job done. They’re everywhere, after all 
I’m sure Elektron has a clown or two that just can’t get their shit together.
After an era of these debates, it should be clear even to rudimentary lifeforms now, that we need at least something on the digi boxes, which could offer an easier way of making songs.
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I could also see a possibel additonal trig page where clips / i.e sequencer lines are stored, which are triggerd with sequencer followup trigs. It would be the same thing, with song mode. You would simply set the sequencer to variation 2,3,4 etc to edit , and set trigless trig to que a variation. Maybe even with a transpose option. A note repeat over several sequencer lines …the current hardware /interface would allow such tricks … without breaking anything, old projects will still be compatible.
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He had ideas on how to implement a song mode, but he wasn’t able to save them. The next day when he came in to work he forgot his ideas and had to start from scratch. That has been happening everyday now since.
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I reckon they picked him up late one evening. And the goverment denies any involvment to this day.
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The song modes in the old boxes, particularly the Octatrack and MM/MD could be used very creatively. I haven’t been in touch with the DT etc and why they don’t have song modes, but it’s a real shame. I’m sure Elektron have their reasons though.
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I’m sure they have their reasons, but I question if those are good reasons.
Almost every groovebox/drum computer I own has a song mode or pattern chain that can be saved.
- Korg Volca Sample
- Zoom SBS-246
- Zoom AR-48
- Zoom AR-96
Those were all a lot cheaper than the Digi’s.
It’s much easier to find a groovebox with song mode than one without.
Every tracker in history had a song mode, and those ran on CPU’s far less capable than what’s in the Digi’s.
The artificial limitations of the Digi’s cause them getting beat on some functionality by several cheaper devices. Some examples:
- sample pitch range (limited on DT, OT)
- sample ping-pong playback (not on DT, OT)
- portamento (not on DT, OT, ST)
- MIDI pitch & mod wheel pass through (not on DT, DN, ST)
- MIDI parameter request (not on any except OT)
- ‘pattern lock’/‘disable auto save’ for returning patterns to their saved state on load (not on any).
- overdub
And then there is the whole pattern change paradigm being incompatible with other devices, even causing problems with their own devices.
Some of these functions you would just expect to be there and are pretty basic, some would make them much easier to combine with other instruments.
Seriously, who maps out every possible parameter in their device - with 14bit NRPN even -, and then doesn’t make a function to request those parameters or send them out on a pattern change. 
Same for the pattern chains, the functionality is there but you can’t save it. 
I think they’re missing out on a lot of customers that don’t click with their whole ever-evolving live performance thing and want a more traditional or linear workflow.
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I gave up on Elektron implementing a song mode on the Digitakt and Digitone years ago, and the trend has carried forward to the Syntakt. It is apparent the lack of song mode is a design decision. Honestly, I think it is odd for a drum machine or groovebox not to have a song mode, and have avoided buying any of the aforementioned products based similar experiences.
I remember when I bought the TR-8S, and realized afterwards that a song mode was not implement. It never crossed my mind to check because every drum machine I owned since the early 90’s had a song mode. I still own TR-8S, but it is not used as much as other drum machine options. Every time I set it up in the studio, I become frustrated and swap it out within a week. Also, have the same issue with the SQUID.
When it comes to drum machines or grooveboxes, I find a song mode is essential to my workflow. But, I understand for others that it is not an issue.
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