MIDI track trig does not send NOT2-4 and NOT1 is incorrect

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

tl;dr The Digitakt only sends NOT1 of a trig, does not appear to be sending chords over MIDI.

Background

I have an Arturia MicroFreak with an arpeggiator. I can send a chord from Ableton to the MicroFreak via USB MIDI and the arp will play the chord. Thus, the MicroFreak is configured correctly and is capable of this.

Hardware

MicroFreak MIDI IN is plugged into Digitakt MIDI OUT.

Digitakt Configuration

  • OS 1.11
  • MIDI Track A has Chan set to 1 on the SRC page.
  • MIDI Track A has NOT1 and NOT2 set on the TRIG page.
  • MIDI Track A has no other settings, LFO is disabled etc
  • Clock send is enabled.
  • Out port func is set to MIDI.
  • Output to is set to MIDI.
  • Output ch is set to AUTO CH.
  • Track 1 Channel is set to 1.

Expected Behaviour

Both NOT1 and NOT2 are sent to MicroFreak when trigged. MicroFreak thus would play an arp with the two notes.

Actual Behaviour

  • Only NOT1/root note is sent.
  • If I have MIDI Track B play another NOT1, then trigging both A and B will play an arp on the MicroFreak successfully.
  • EDIT: Using MIDI Monitor I have confirmed that even with NOT2 sent, the Digitakt only sends NOTE ON for the root note. Furthermore, the note is wrong. I have NOT1 set to D3 and it sends D1. If I set to E3 then it sends E1. Chromatic mode does seem to send the correct notes.

Am I misunderstanding how NOT2-4 works on the DT?

2 Likes
#2

Try live recording the two notes at the same time in keyboard mode instead of using the additional note feature. I seem to recall it’s not the same thing.

#3

You’re right, recording in chromatic mode will then properly send the chords. As far as the TRIG page reflects, this is doing the same thing as manually setting NOT1-4 with the data entry knobs. I wonder what the discrepancy is?

#4

I can’t remember the reason behind it. The manual might shed some light?

Glad it’s working for you now though.

#5

The only problem is I’d really rather have it work by pressing a trig button, or grid recording. I don’t see anything in the manual, the MIDI section is fairly sparse though.

1 Like
#6

I’m having the same issue and just noticed it tonight and it’s driving me nuts. I would also expect the chromatic keyboard mode to play a chord per key. (Not0 is the key, the rest are stacked.)

I also had a wrong note issue and that i think turned out to be the Int+Ext trig key dest setting but that still doesn’t make sense because nowhere should have been sending an C1 or whatever it was. Setting it to Int made the ghost note go away.

If this is an intended function of the [Trig] midi keys then im not really getting it. It’s pretty much just identifying the device at that point when instead it could be used also in performance to send the intended chord as a one hit.

I think it’s a bug. I’m also surprised it’s not getting more attention. How are you guys previewing what a chord sounds like if you have to go into playback mode to hear the stack of notes?

1 Like
#7

I emailed support a while ago but haven’t gotten a reply. I still think it’s a bug.

#8

Yea coming from the Digitone this is driving me nuts. I guess it’s time to consider something else unfortunately

#9

So the Digitone behaves correctly here?

#10

It has a way to record chords per step. It has a little button on the left side to enter the mode (hold down the step and the note button and you enter the mode and can preview/assign).

I haven’t tried with an external midi device but I don’t see why it would behave differently as long as you are in the same mode.

I was really struggling to figure out how to get this to work with Chromatic mode on the Digitakt but it doesn’t seem to work. There’s another thread floating around and people have sent support tickets about previewing/utilizing chromatic mode per trig but they haven’t gotten any responses either unfortunately

#11

Check if your midi track (A-H) on the Digitakt is not accidentally muted. And clear all the unused parameters (Func+Press on encoder) to set them to X.

#12

The notes are not the wrong ones, but what you need to understand is that octave numbering was never standardized in the first place. So octave numbers of notes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer (hardware as well as software). Some manufacturers vary octave numbering even between different devices (like Elektron).

Some further explanations:

Update:

Oooops … I’ll guess this response comes somewhat late … :rofl:

1 Like