Get a cheap lap for the sole purpose of sequencing the patterns. Or a pyramid? I dunno much about those. I dunno if they have prog change sequencers.
I was on a quest for a few months to make the DT + DN + Guitar = Song situation work but came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the right toolset for my needs. I considered a few options:
- Get an Octo (sure), learn the Octo (well…)
- Sequence PC’s from Ableton/Pyramid/etc.
- Sell the DT and fill that void with something else
I ended up selling the DT and picking up a 1010 BlackBox. It does well enough as a drum sampler/sequencer for my needs and the DT stands well on its own as a synth module. I usually sketch out ideas on the DT sequencer and then flesh out the arrangement on the BlackBox song mode.
It’s turned out to be just the right balance of flexibility and limitation for my process.
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It does but it was unclear to me whether the Digi boxes would respond to them in time. Unclear enough that I never dropped the money to find out for sure.
The thing is. You can make pattern chains on the DT and DN!
The problem and which they just need to fix! Is the ability to save your created pattern chains within your project. So now every time you power cycle, the pattern chain is completely lost! 
This would solve the problem for a lot of people. It definitely would for me. 
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I never saw the lack of saved chains as a “problem” personally, it’s just not a feature.
Still, it would have been nice to experiment with when I had the DT + DN together.
so long as you put the prog change on the bar before it changes…it werks. but mind your pattern lengths 
What’s the state-of-the-art for this?
I remember someone had an application for saving and sending chains?
If I’m connected via USB for recording, I’d use that
There is a Max4Life plugin for Ableton as far as I know. If I wanted to use a “song” mode I would just sequence it from the pyramid. Makes it easier to adjust parameters aswel on the digis.
Do like all the musicians with any instruments, learn your song and play it.
Did I dream of this small Mac application? Somewhat vertical layout, window wider than tall…
What if you’re already playing guitar, drums, horns, bass, etc? Most people only have two hands. Songmode exists for many reasons.
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make a band
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Add a Polyend Tracker?
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GitHub - mcjlnrtwcz/digitakt-song-mode: Song mode for Elektron Digitakt is what I was thinking of.
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I do make bands, but I also do solo stuff. I don’t like when my gear impedes my progress.
Strong is the tree that bends.
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Can you use the tracker to send program changes? Anyone tried this.
Sorry to exhume an old thread. I’ve read through it and most of the conversation is about whether these boxes should have a song mode built in - worthwhile conversation but not an answer to the question really.
The question is - what’s a good bit of kit to add a song mode. Only real answer seems to be Pyramid… for me the better bit of kit would also do something other than sequencing, and the boxes sequencers are what make them great. Or a pc… but many of us don’t want to be clicking around with a mouse. Or octatrack - obvs!
Any thoughts?
Octatrack. Ridiculous though that you need to add an expensive device for song mode.