Very Happy to discover my digitone 2, a great gear for sound design !
I’m presently completely disappointed with the euclidian sequencer.
I’m coming from SQUARP gear ( Pyramid and Hapax ) and it is quite impossible to have an exact polyrythmic sequence with the digitone as it is so easy with the pyramid.
For example, if want to create a samba like rythm based on a 5 over 4 rythmic; I did not yet find the way to do it with the elektron sequencer.
When you define a number of steps in the euclidian sequencer that are not exactly on the time grid, then the time interval between the steps may be not regular and the result is not exact as if the microtiming is not sufficiently accurate.
It could have been possible to compensate by changing accurately the tempo by track as it is possible in the Hapax, but infortunately, it seems not to be possible on the digitone.
May be I do something wrong as I’m a new user of the Digitone.
The elektron sequencer is not built for this, but it is a much-requested feature to add polyrhythms. Try using the arpeggiator on one track to create an opposing rhythm to your other 4/4 track by way of the arpeggiator’s odd time division.
I think it’s best to be happy with what it is rather than to focus on what it isn’t, but I understand your feelings.
You could also try using this information compiled by another member, but the answer is that there is no “easy button” approach to polyrhythms or odd time signatures with elektron gear.
You can always add a feature request to the digitone 2 feature request thread as well.
It’s not using micro-timing, nor trying to … they’re adopting the Euclidean algorithm as is (see second graphical example here) … it’s working as expected at an integer level … you can’t conflate Euclidean with polyrhythmic here … irrespective of how other makers do things
The best thing imho is to establish how things work and see how best you can use them … this isn’t an oversight, it’s a choice … you don’t need to like the choice, but you have to work with it !
In any case - two systems which offer two different approaches sounds like a win situation
Elektron do offer a (small) selection of possibilities to achieve Polyrhythms via the Tempo multipliers on the track page setup
you can play tracks against each other with one at 1x tempo and one at 3/4 tempo - so that only spreads 3 within 4 for a triplet vibe
The current euclidean implementation makes more sense when viewed within the whole elektron sequencer paradigm … but nobody is doubting the appeal in being able to somehow dial up more complex polyrhythms through any means . .maybe including exploiting the microtiming which will for most purposes be doable (even without using euclidean) but it will be a chore to program manually
HI shigginpit,
Many thanks for your fast answer.
Hope one day Elektron will set a new polyrythmic function.
May be a Simple way could be to set the tempo very accurately by track…
Euclidean Sequencer does something completely else (it’s actually the point of Euclidean Sequencing that the amount of notes snap into the grind instead of becoming Tuplets, thus figures and not subdivisions are created). However, about Quintuplets (and other Tuplets) …
Polyrhythmic vs. polymetric is the dilemma. Would be cool if that could be determined somehow in the euclidean menu in the future but I’m not holding my breath.
Elektron gear is great for polymetric, no doubt; but polyrythmic possibilities are limited as mentioned in the previous messages with the different possibilities offered by the elektron sequencer.
If interested, you can listen to a trial with 5 over 4 polyrythmic patterns I have done many years ago with a true polyrythmic sequencer SQUARP Pyramid (infortunately this product is discontinued today )
It tooks me some minutes to arrive there and it was pure improvisation with my keyboard with some MIDI instruments played by the Kawai MP7 keyboard.
I would be very happy to do this with elektron sounds that are so great…
As you can see, you can specify the number of steps in the bar and the steps played and their location in the bar ( one circle is a complete bar ).
Imagine for example to have one track of one bar with 13 steps along another with 7 steps in the same bar. The result is amazing and you will enter the african rythms…
Can we dream to have one day such function in the Elktron gears ?
You may have misunderstood me, or we all have misunderstood each other. The Dilemma is the problem of communication when everybody uses the same words in different meanings.
About the “Euclid” in Pyramid, I never used that and I don’t know what it does. If it has the option to not sieve the steps into a grid, then it is the same as tuplets, and the same as polyrhythms. If not, then it is not the same as tuplet, and not the same as polyrhythm.
Either way, if Elektrons had tuplets, I’d tuplet the sh_t out of my music.
I’m still too lazy for workarounds, which is sad.
In my compositions, I can just put a “5” or a “7” into my score, and people will play it as such.
Yeah. The only non-ridiculous sounding term I could come up with would be to call polymetric stuff “dotted-septuplets” “dotted-quintuplets” and so on. That would at least imply that it’s a metric shift instead of rhythmic, idk
The best is to show it in a drawing, but I’m super busy right now [I’m only replying now because I am so personally invested in the theme! ], can do l8r
], can do l8r