Record Midi from Audio Tracks in DT

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

Hi there guys,

So I’ve read some past post about this issue but no update whatsoever.

As far as I’m concern DT doesn’t output midi on its audio channels, but with overbridge I see this might be possible, since it looks like through USB it receives midi data to show what Track is being played.

Any one has managed to record midi from audio tracks at all?

I want to record that midi to be able to arrange my songs, so later on I can make a Project to perform those songs live. How do you guys come around this? I mean, how do you prepare a live set for the digitakt? ATM I’m ‘‘copying’’ manually my drum patterns and then recording them back in DT but it is really time consuming…

Hope I’m clear enough.

Thank you

Overbridge feature requests thread
#2

Up!

#3

If I understand that you mean tracks 1-8, yes this is possible and I’ve done it with, and without Overbridge.

You can play midi to the DT and record it, and you can play sequenced midi from the DT to your DAW.

EDIT: I just confirmed that you can NOT record midi from tracks 1-8. Thanks for the correction jefjones.
What I did was record from track 9, and route the notes to track 1.

Best regards,

Gino

#4

that is super useful just now for me, thanks!

#5

Actually what I mean is record midi data from audio channels on DT while running the sequencer.

I can see midi incoming to mu DAW when pressing the PAD, but not when the sound is triggered by the sequencer.

Do you recieve midi while the sequencer is running ?

#6

It is not possible to receive midi from the audio tracks sequencer.

#7

That’s what I read all over the place, but I can see that tracks in OB are getting light up when the sequencer was playing so I thought maybe with OB there was a way.

Anyway, how do you guys come around building a live set within a project If you have songs all over other projects within DT?

#8

If I’m remembering correctly, you can copy tracks from one project to another. Banks too. You’ll have to re-load sample slots, though. I might be totally mis-remembering this.

#9

Hmmm… I’ll reconfirm this tonight.
If I’m mistaken, I’ll also edit my posts (to not spread misinformation).

Maybe I only did this for the midi tracks 9-16, as I did have some percussion on those.

EDIT: I just confirmed that you can NOT record midi from tracks 1-8. Thanks for the correction jefjones.
What I did was record from track 9, and route the notes to track 1.

Best regards,

Gino

#10

You will find various topics on the board which this has already been discussed. I once was like you and thought it was possible. But the elektron internal sequencer is not built on midi so there is not midi data to output. Trigs and encoders will output midi when pressed or turned when the box is set to int+ext or ext. but the sequencer itself will not output recordable midi data.

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#11

I don’t think you can copy banks :confused:

#12

But patterns can be copied from one Project to another, thought memory was emptied once you moved to another project… interesting

Hell of a work though…

Maybe thorugh sysex its easier?

#13

This is best way I have found for copying a pattern from one project to another.

I’m hoping they can make it easier in a future update.
(and a way that handles trigs that use the sample pool and sound pool)

Best regards,

Gino

#14

Good advice!

Actually I just tried copy pattern, open new project, paste pattern. All trigs, sounds and sequences were pasted into new project.

#15

Yes - if they have the same kit / track sounds this works great (same kick, snare, etc).

If you have different track sounds, it’s more steps.

Best regards,

Gino

#16

Thanks for these answers ! I was precisely looking for a solution to record MIDI from tracks 1-8 of the DT sequencer into DAW. And I’m quite disappointed that it’s not possible.

Would be very interesting for backup purpose, or “transfer” DT patterns into your DAW (when you want to use the DT as a draft machine then working on your DAW), or even record complex sequence made out of trig conditions (not as simple to do in a DAW without using specific midi effects such as some M4L devices in Live).

+1 to see this feature in a future update.
Even if the internal sequencer is not working directly with MIDI data, i guess it would be fairly easy to implement, as Overbridge already receives trigs and all other recorded parameters from the DT.
I’m not even asking for a general MIDI output from the DT sequencer but only through Overbridge, so it may not even need a DT firmware update, but “only” an Overbridge update.

#17

I don’t think so. There is a reason why all Elektron devices won’t output MIDI from their audio tracks. The Elektron sequencer provides features which cannot be “translated” into plain MIDI like trig conditions.

What you can do (to get at least the midi notes from a pattern):

You can copy the data of an audio track into a midi track and record it from there into your DAW. But I guess you will soon find that the real magic isn’t in the plain notes …

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Digitakt : record trigs to MIDI notes from USB?
#18

Of course I don’t expect to keep all info from the sequencer (especially not the trigger conditions - even if there is trig conditions in the midi sequencer - they’re rules for generating the midi partition, but not part of the partition itself), but a least a simple midi mapping of the following informations : note, duration/lenght, and velocity. Not even talking about pitchbend, retrig, swing, automated changes using an LFO or so.

I still dont get why it seems so easy to copy an audio track’s data to a midi track then record its output into the DAW, while it’s not possible to get a similar midi output directly from the sequencer. Yes you will loose some magic (and maybe Elektron thinks that this loss of magic might be seen as an incomplete/messy feature, and that your workaround is enough for the few people who want to do what this topic is about), but it would be a big time saver AND an interesting feature as well (such as triggering external devices when notes of an audio track is played), even with this loss of information.

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