Most of my pads and melodies are all 8 bars long, what can I do?
Half time that BPM if you’re not needing 16th notes as much? If you’re live recording without quantization, the DT will utilize the micro timing.
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Another option, if you want to maintain 16th notes, would be to program in, or live record the first half (4 bars) of the phrase, then go in and put conditional triggers on those to only play 1:2 (unless you want some of those notes to play in both halves of the phrase, then leave them without any condition)
Then manually add in the notes you want in the second half (bars 5-8) of the phrase, with a conditional trigger of 2:2. I wouldn’t live record them because they’ll likely overwrite the other stuff you already put in. If they are notes that you envision landing on the same time spot as a note in the first four bars, then you can put the note right next to the pre-existing one and adjust the microtiming so it essentially falls on the same time slot. It won’t be exact, but it’s super close, I don’t think anyone can really tell the difference. It works pretty well for making longer phrases within smaller patterns.
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use two tracks per part, conditional trigs 1:2 and 2:2
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Pray and hope we get time signatures per track. It seems weird to me the only box having this now is the OT. Giving time signatures per track to their only other sampler shouldn’t cannibalise OT sales.
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This is my favorite answer. 
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very nice
Two more options, not the best ones but should be mentioned:
-Set global scale to 1/2
-Chain two patterns
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Seriously it is definitely needed. I, just last night, had to reprogram a pattern for to double speed my percussion meanwhile keeping the melodic parts at the same rate.
Doubts though.
Nice one, makes it live-recordable too
It’s a little cumbersome having to go through each trig on every page and set conditions but gets the job done.
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I think its a bit crap that you have to so this. Every decent midi sequencer lets you set time signatures per track.
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Well, as soon as I stopped viewing the DT as a decent MIDI sequencer it stopped bothering me. It’s a drum machine/w sampler and a 64-step sequencer, that just happens to be able to control 8 tracks of MIDI. Not a replacement for a proper MIDI sequencer. I use a DAW to do heavy lifting in the sequencing department.
You won’t need it then! 
But for those of us who’re unable to grow an extra pair of arms and use the Digitakt as center of the setup in the studio or on stage stuff like song mode and tempo divisions per track would make a big, big difference. And for those who don’t need it; don’t use it.
Not really interested in the “Song Mode” war tbh. It’s pretty clear to me that it seems to be against Elektron’s ethos to offer that kind of thing - so I’ve moved on.
The DT can only act like a “brain” if your compositions are relatively unsophisticated. It was never marketed as a full-fledged MIDI sequencer - and it says it clear as day on the front panel: “Drum Computer”.
I would actually use a “song mode” (hate that term) if DT had one. But it doesn’t, so I move on with my life. Sorry if I sound condescending, I just don’t want others to be stressed about things outside their control.
I’ve said it a dozen times here - all Elektron needs to do is have the DT switch patterns immediately upon receiving PC messages and the DT will be infinitely sequence-able from any proper MIDI Sequencer, whether that be a DAW, Squarp or some vintage job.
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sample the melodies at twice speed/higher pitch and play them back over 4 bars at half speed with the trig being 1:2
You can also turn that around and say that it was never marketed to be a basic midi sequencer. They only state it has dedicated tracks to control external midi gear. Doesn’t say anything about how fledged it is 
TRUE
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Appreciate this thread. My model cycles has been with me for less than 24 hours and I hit this issue with the first thing I recorded… I never considered how short 4 bars/64 steps was for a melody… now I have plenty of things to experiment with.
All of the Elektron boxes now at least have scale per track, which lets you create longer phrases at a lower resolution (1/2 scale allows up to to 8 bars using 8th notes, 1/4 scale allows up to 16 bars using 1/4 notes). Add in conditional trigs and micro timing, and it’s possible to make very long phrases.
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