Immediately change Pattern in DT from a Program change sent from a clip in Ableton

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

Hi guys,

I’m trying to integrate the DT into my Ableton setup and I’m a little confused about how the program changes are used to change patterns on the DT.

Is there a way to imediatly change the pattern on the DT from a from a Program change sent from a clip in Ableton?

I’ve been trying to do this but if for example one of the tracks has a step longer than 16, for example 64, than triggering the clip in live that changes the pattern on the DT (via PC or using midi notes on CH 16) will only be sent after the full 64 steps have played.

So if for instance I try to change the pattern after the first 16 steps it will delay it until the full pattern as finished playing which to my knowledge doesn’t make sense in an Ableton workflow context .

How are you guys doing it? Is there a config in the DT to change how the pattern changes work so that they are changed according to the global quantization set in Live and not to the lenght of the whole sequence in DT?

I think I’ve read somewhere here on the forum that the A4 and Rythm have an option on the sequencer that changes the behaviour on the sequencer to do precisely this.

How are you guys setting this up to work alongside with Ableton while using Overbridge?

Thanks

#2

if you are in session view you can set the clip quantise to none and as soon as you press it,
it will receive the program change…
@Airyck has made a max 4 live device that can send the pc early in arrangement view
called pattern clips that might be what you are after… or you just have to place the clips a bit early

#3

Hi DanJamesAUS! Thanks for the reply :slight_smile: I can send program changes what i was wondering is how to make them change independently of the lenght of the full pattern.

Was reading now about the CH.LEN option in the scale menu but i can only test this later when i get home.

#4

Oh ok I’m not exactly sure what you mean, but you can set CH.length to 16 and have the pattern length 64 and it will change after 16 if you use overbridge channel 16 and use notes to change pattens…

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#5

there’s no pattern ‘direct change’ on the DT.
it exists on the A4/AK, probably the AR and OT too, so maybe there’s hope of the DT/DN getting it at some point…

#6

Oh ok! I don’t know why it doesn’t have it but i find it a very important issue missing specially when working with Ableton and sending PC. I’ll try to change the CH.LEN in the scale options to see if at least i can have it change pattenr at the end of the first 16 steps so that it changes in sync with the global quantization of 1Bar in Ableton.

Anyway the clips that send the PC to OB still must be set to none in the clip quantization right?

#7

If you’re using ob it may be easier to change patterns using midi notes sent on channel 16, not pc. Section 8 page 30 of the ob manual.

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#8

Yap that’s how I’m doing it right now although I would prefer to use PC since I use a maxforlive device to change presets on VSTis so in order to have some coherence i would prefer the option of using PC instead but I haven’t found a way of doing it while using overbridge.

Is it possible? Do I have to set a channel in the DT to receive Program changes? Yesterday I was trying to do it but it wasn’t working at least in channel 16.

#9

Good news!

Found the reason why it wasn’t working in first place.
For anyone who might come across this problem the answer in the “CH.LEN” value set in the Scale option.
If you set it to the minimum value allowed which is “2” it means that it will change the pattern after only 2 steps.

This means that it will follow the global quantization in Ableton so you can leave the clip’s quantization set to global too instead of none, which is great because now both the pattern in the DT and the clip in Ableton will start at the same time.

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#10

Hey! Where I can find the Scale option on the DT?! I have your same issue…