From what I can tell based on my search I don’t think anyone’s already asked this — does anyone have tips for programming legato into sequences with the MIDI tracks on the DT II? Trying to do note slides with my external synths (and yes I have legato glide enabled on the synths I’ve tested this on), and it doesn’t seem to work when I parameter lock note length per step.
If this is possible by some other means, what’s the best way to do it?
What is your external gear ?
Does it just need an overlap between notes to engage legato ?
I can test with a TD3, not sure if I already did it with a Digi…
I’m not sure midi has implementation for slides it’s something that happens on your synths side like sezare56 says you need overlapping notes usually.
I might try it with 2 midi tracks set to the same midi channel and despite the fact that DT’s midi tracks are polyphonic, instead have the notes from the 2 individual sequencer lanes overlap (or just even fire consecutively from 2 tracks) rather than trying to lock the note change over the top of the note which was already triggered on the same track.
If you can get your synth’s legato to work that way, you may still need to see if there’s another sneakier way to make it work using just one midi track but then at least you’ll have confirmation both of the legato functioning and also a workaround in the event that the polyphony of midi tracks is somehow not sufficient to trigger the legato effect on your synths.
I’m just brainstorming here, really can’t say if either method is correct but it’s at least something you can try. I do know that some analog synths with portamento turned up will glide up to the next note despite the keys being pressed in succession rather than overlapping, but to trigger it by midi sequencing (or if you were writing it in a daw, or an MPC) sometimes you do need overlapping notes to get the legato effect, and I’ve had that happen to me (just not with DT2 specifically).
I’ve been testing it with my eurorack case via a MIDI-CV converter with glide activated on the converter. Glide usually works in this scenario when I use my OXI One sequencer instead of the Digitakt. I’ve also been testing it with TAL-Bassline 101 in Ableton Live.
After a lot of tweaking I’ve gotten it to work for TAL Bassline 101 by parameter locking the note length on the DT, but I’ve discovered I have to get it to a particular spot, requires much fine-tuning. Before this I was assuming I was best off just locking the note length to max for the step that I wanted to slide into the next, but that seems to mess it up.
With this knowledge I’ll test again with my eurorack voice.
EDIT: I’ve realized just now that the MIDI tracks on the DT/DT II are polyphonic, so this explains why the note length has to be fine-tuned carefully to get glides to sound right. I’m noticing I have to lock the note length differently depending on the spacing of the notes relative to one another. Helps to remember that the notes are being sent polyphonically and picture the sequence on a piano roll. Would be great it if were possible to set a MIDI track to work monophonically.
I wonder if it could also be due to the conversion from midi to CV (pulse triggers). I would assume the midi to cv converter would take care of that but not entirely sure, from what you said though it sounds like the note off needs to be perceived before the glide will occur.
Would it work with D2 to Atlantix via Midi 1U?