Program change skips the first beat (Digitone to Drumbrute Impact)

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#1

Simple setup: Digitone (Keys) MIDI out to Drumbrute Impact

I want each pattern on the DN to match with a pattern on the Drumbrute. I’m doing this by placing a trig lock on Step 1 of each DN pattern, which sends the program change message to the Drumbrute.

The problem is: by the time Step 1 executes on the DN, the first beat of the song has already “happened” and so the Drumbrute doesn’t play Step 1 of the pattern on its own sequencer. This causes the Drumbrute to miss whatever sound was on Step 1.

Other ways that I could set this up, and why they aren’t optimal:

  • Program the Drumbrute using the DN sequencer instead of the Drumbrute sequencer. This isn’t optimal, because I would lose the performance features of Drumbrute (touch strip, pad solos, pad mutes).

  • Put the pattern-change trig on the last step of the previous DN pattern. This isn’t optimal because it prevents me from rearranging the patterns (for example, the trig to change to Pattern B drums would need to be at the end of DN Pattern A, instead of self-contained in DN Pattern B).

Has anyone come up with a good solution for when/how to send pattern change messages from DN to an external device such as Drumbrute?

#2

You could set the Digitone to send a program change messages according to the current pattern it’s on.
That messages is sent before the start of the new pattern so it will be in time.

The downside to this is that you can’t combine different pattern numbers cause they’ll always be in sync. I don’t know if that’s any better than your second solution, it might be even worse. :confused:

Other solutions would require external hardware.

#3

One way to deal with it perhaps is to have your PC on step 1, then use step 2 for your first step and use microtiming to dial back as close as you can to step 1 so that it works. You do have to sacrifice step 2 for this though.

#4

You’re right, that does work – but I’m hoping to avoid the 1:1 mapping between DN program numbers and Drumbrute program numbers, since Drumbrute has only 4 banks.

I’m pretty new to MIDI. In your experience, what is the “typical” way to control external devices? Am I doing something strange by trying to control the Drumbrute’s sequencer from the DN sequencer?

#5

My 2c, you’re better to sequence the Drumbrute from the Digitone.
The patterns will then live inside your Digitone project, and be loaded with it, and backed up in .syx etc

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#6

I think the typical way with grooveboxes and drum machines is sending them clock and program changes from the main sequencer, which is what you’re doing already.

You just got a bit unlucky with the sequencer you’re using.

The same sort of thing happens with a lot of synths, on the first step of a new pattern it receives a ‘Note’ message from the Digitone and then the ‘Bank’ and ‘Program Change’ followed by the CC’s you assigned on the filter page.
A lot of synths glitch out when presented with messages in that order, resulting in an unrecognisable sound or just the wrong patch on that first note.

To send the program change in time, it has to be sent in the pattern before it.
The only reliable way to do that with the Digitone is to program it in the sequencer like your second example, or to translate the pattern specific ‘Program Change’ with external hardware/software and remap them to the patterns you want.

You could always use the Digitone sequencer like johnl suggested.
The downsides I see with this is having only 4 mutes for 8 tracks, and that your patterns would reside in the Digitone only (which could be either a blessing or a curse). The streamlined loading and backing up seems attractive though.

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#7

Thanks DreamXcape, Kosmology, and johnl for the info and advice. Sounds like the best approach with this hardware is to sequence the Drumbrute from the Digitone. Thanks again!

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