I have recorded a series of sequences containing the same notes. I want to randomly trigger them on different tracks so they interact with each other in different ways. Is there some way of having the DT ignore any triggers that fire whilst any given sample is playing so the samples always play in their entirety? Right now when a track hits a trigger the sample starts again before finishing. I have read the manual and can’t find anything like this. Thought I’d try here as a long shot. Thanks in advance 
Is there some way of forcing Digitakt 1 to finish playing a sample before it can be triggered again?
Its a drum machine. You’re looking for choke groups.
Does digitakt have that? Cant remember.
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Thanks for replying. Actually it’s the opposite of a choke group. By default a track chokes itself (stops playing as it restarts playing). I want the track to ignore trigs until the sample finishes playing.
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Yep. Thats correct.
Each track is monophonic.
You said you wanted per track behavior? so that would be choking.
If you want per trig behaviour, eg: try using trig conditions such as PRE or -PRE
Wouldn’t it be reverse choking, if that’s even a thing, as a track already chokes itself by default?
Regarding trig locks, I don’t think that’ll work as the condition is ‘track playing’ and there isn’t a lock for that. Using pre and -pre would work for a specific trigger but not for a bunch of random triggers. I want everything free running.
Oh well, it was worth a try.
You can try a combination of probability trigs, and conditional trigs to get close to what you want. But yes, the digitakt has monophonic tracks.
Choke groups are something else, avoid confusion.
Will Neighbour trigs get close to want you want? There’s 2 I think NEI and NEI(underlined) . Not sure they do exactly what you want and don’t ask me to explain what they do because I don’t understand them at all. Plenty of other threads on neighbour tracks.
A midi processor like RK002, Blokas Midihub, etc, can play samples on different tracks, in a round robin way. (Polyphonic).
Or record with track trigs and alternate them.
I can think of a way to do this but it’s a pain in the ass to set it up for more than just the main sequence and one alternate sequence. For only one alternate sequence you could use fill mode and use the trig condition of fill with the line for the sequencer events you don’t want to come back in until the sample stops (basically have them not play while fill is active).
For any more than one alternate sequence (random triggering as you want to do), I think you’ll have to resample your alternate sequences in their entirety by recording them to a daw, cut them to the correct length for the bpm and them import them with transfer as long wav files. Dedicate a track to them and then add an LFO with a random waveform pointed at sample slot. Place a trig on the first sequencer step with infinite trig length and every time it fires off, it will automatically select one of your sampled note sequences at random, playing the entire sample.
Keep that track muted until you’re ready to use it then mute the track with the main sequence and unmute the track with the random alternate sequences. At the end of it, toggle the mutes again to get back to the other track with your main sequence. Assuming that your sequences start on the one and are not triggered at random in the middle of a pattern, this should work. But it will be truly random, selected by the LFO, not like “I want to choose the random order of which and when the sequences play.”
I think that’s the best that I got though. Probably more work than I would do, however I don’t know, I’ve done some pretty tedious shit to get some pretty minimal results so maybe I would do it if I was really invested in the idea.
As far as I know, fill with a line is the only way you can exclude sequencer events intentionally and on demand (not premeditated). You MIGHT be able to set a trig condition in the fill to randomize which sample will play within a fixed range of samples (like the resampled audio of your alternate sequences) but I’m not positive of how to calculate specifically which sample slots are targeted, I think it would randomly pull from all samples loaded to the track which is why I don’t know how to direct you in using fill to randomize the resampled alternate sequences.
Suppose you already know how to pinpoint the range of slots the LFO will pull from and can randomize (random wave) from within that part of the sample pool, so like only the last 4 samples in the sample pool or whatever, then you could do all this on your current existing track, otherwise I think it will require a dedicated track and the mute/unmute tapdance as I was saying before.
Are you basically wanting to replicate ‘solo’ behaviour but automated?
Wow, it’s gonna take a whole to unpack all of that. Even if I don’t do it twice I’ll no doubt learn something from the process. Thanks
Not really. I just want to block a tracks triggers whilst a sample is playing on that track. My goal is KLF style soundscapes with long samples that are triggered randomly and wash over and into each other. It seems the DT is not the sampler to do it. I also have a squid salmpler in eurorack that won’t do this either. If a random trigger goes off part way through a sample it kills the vibe I’m trying to create. It may be a job for Ableton. Onward and upward. Thanks for your reply.
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How many alternate sequences using the same notes do you currently have in addition to the main one? And do you have an audio track freed up already on DT?
I’ll happily dedicate all 8 tracks to this. One track for each of 8 sampled sequences. I plan to have a 16 step sequence on each track with all the trig set to a low % to fire. If don’t like the pace I can change bpm and % to taste. The problem is if a trig goes off whilst a sample is still playing it kills the vibe. I’m still in proof of concept stage. Once I get it running on whatever box or DAW I want to mess about with spoken word samples, found sounds or any other kind of sample for that matter. The clincher is that the samples play to the end every time and that the triggering is random. This is one of those ideas where it seemed simple when I thought it, but seeming it’s not.
If I understand right: On the SP 404 mk2 this is called one shot mode (Shift + Gate).
The sample is played all the way through and cannot be retriggered. Usefull if you want to play a longer background track while working on a pattern with other samples.
But that would still need another sequencer for the randomness you want I guess.
Ah I get you now. Probably not what you want but don’t start the sequencer. Just press the buttons? I think if you put the samples on loop play they will loop even with the sequencer not started.
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How many patterns, in elektron terms, do you want this to extend (approx)?
So, if it’s 64 bars for your pattern and your samples are 64 bars long, and you want them to play in their entirety, is the issue that the pattern loops and it retriggers because you have long trigs in the middle of the sequence which are longer than the remainder of the pattern, and that’s what you want to avoid is the limitation of the sequencer? I don’t think you can do that.
If you knew in advance that you wanted a sample to play through into the next pattern you could cut it to be 2 parts ending at the 4 and beginning at the 1 of the next and have it seem as though it was seamless, but I don’t think you could do it randomly.
I really want it to be super simple. Samples of whatever length and type that have a slowish attack and decay so they blend nicely assigned to each of 8 tracks with a 16 step sequence. A low % trig on each step. The samples don’t retrigger unless they have finished playing.
It sounds like the answer is no. DT can’t do this. I can get one channel on my squid sampler to do exactly this. But it requires the sample end trigger and there is only one unfortunately, not to mention the number of modules and cables needed to patch all eight tracks. I will try Ableton. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, much appreciated.
I think follow actions in Ableton session view will allow you to do what you want.
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Not quite what you asked, but I think Koala (iPad app) can do this. Certainly worth the experiment if you’ve already got it.