Hello there, I’m having issues when recording 4 note chords from Logic into my Digitakt II. Digitakt seems to only record one note and not the other 3 when receiving MIDI from the MIDI track, but when receiving notes from the controller it sometimes records chords OK.
Setup goes like this:
MIDI track in Logic set to output through Channel 10, the auto channel set in Digitakt.
MIDI goes from MIDI out DIN-5 on a Scarlet 6i6, to MIDI In DIN-5 on Digitakt.
I have tried: Quantizing chords so that the note on and note off MIDI messages coincide (MIDI Monitor log screenshot attached), set all notes to same velocity, same length, removing non notes midi messages and nothing seems to work.
I’m attaching a screenshot of a part of the sequence I’d like to record into Digitakt, and a Screenshot of the midi monitor of how my interface outputs MIDI data when playing a chord thats quantized with fixed length and velocity.
In Digitakt i tried live recording pressing and holding record button and pressing play, to start recording and then pressing play in Logic to send the midi data.
Digitatk always records the Note (on the trig page) but not2, not3 and not4 always remain empty…
Am I missing something? Is there a proper way to record a complex MIDI sequence from the DAW to the Digitakt?
If it works when playing chords with the controller (sometimes) then I would probably monitor the midi coming out of the controller and compare the events to the data which you monitored from the logic track which isn’t working. If they appear identical, I might then halve the bpm on both your logic track and the digitakt and see if recording at a slower tempo does anything.
If that doesn’t work, then I might keep the quantization tight but then space out the second, third, and fourth notes (slightly) in an equidistant manner from the first “key press” since we know it’s picking up that first note, and usually when we play chords on a midi controller all keys are not pressed 100% simultaneously. I think that as long as the first note is pressed first and held down while the others are then pressed and held, then perhaps fanning them out by a very small amount will help the digitakt in detecting the presence of multiple key presses.
Should it be that complicated? Probably not. Do you want it to work? Yes, so give it a try.
I’m just guessing here, therefore you’ll have to experiment with it and in reality, there might be another factor at play which we aren’t seeing, or it simply may not work the way it’s supposed to, and in which case you could check the bug reports thread for similar issues and file a bug report if necessary.
Your best bet in these situations (if you can’t make it work, that is), is to file a ticket with elektron support and see if they have a clear answer or a workaround for you.
Any reason why you’re avoiding the more direct USB MIDI?
I can’t test MIDI DIN-5 here, but USB MIDI from Ableton to DT2 records the 4-note chords fine (no overlapping notes) with Auto Channel 10. But these are not ‘complex’ clips - not sure what you mean by that.
Thee’s no screenshot of the sequence, only the MIDI Monitor…
So, I’ve been testing and I think I figured it out, there seems to be something with the sustain pedal CC. It’s as if when receiving the sustain pedal CC, that track, stops recording midi polyphony even when the sequence is cleared.
I grabbed the same sequence, quantized note on messages, fixed length and removed all the sustain pedal automation. And, on a new pattern, I tested and was able to reproduce the same behaviour:
When sending the sequence without any CC only midi notes on and of, everything is recorded correctly. Then clearing the track and sending the same sequence but with the sustain pedal CC, only one note gets recorded per step, as before. Even when clearing the sequence on the same track, and trying to record the clean sequence without CCs, it didn’t record it right. Maybe something with sustain pedal message 0 and 127 messages remaining and interfering?
yes, your midi data is comparatively lightweight as opposed to sending a ton of CC’s through but it’s still only 8 bits allowed per byte via DIN vs USB midi which while it still uses 7 bit values to represent data, it’s instead sent in USB packets which due to the exponentially higher bandwidth allows more data to go through at once. It’s not invincible but it doesn’t create so much of an opportunity for a bottleneck.
I don’t think that it should be a problem as a matter of opinion, but if it is a problem, then there may be ways to assess that and then work around it as simply being disappointed is not much of a solution.
My only thought was that if it’s not processing the multiple key strikes (in this case “note on” messages) then there must be a reason for that and all you can do is figure out why, so that’s one additional thing that I would check out beyond the stuff I mentioned earlier. Just to clear suspicion so you don’t go around in circles looking for the culprit.
Just by looking at your midi notes I can see there will be problems … based on the notes per step ( how it would end up being recorded on digitakt) … depending on tempo ( how many steps are available to record your notes on )
Eg . If you double the tempo on midi track you’ll get 2x step resolution so you’re more likely to get some of the intermediate notes . It’ll be a bit like doubling the resolution on a picture - it’ll allow finer detail.
To Understand it better , try to program it directly on the device … you’ll learn the fine nuances of the restrictions. …. Notes per step , note length , fine tuning the timing , what each note can / cannot have in terms of unique parameters.
From what I understand Digitone 2 midi sequencer would be much better as it works differently ( obviously it’s irrelevant if you don’t have one )
Here it goes.
