I’m thinking of buying digitone keys. Does the sequencer record pitch bend /mod wheel into tracks?
No, they are considered “performance” controls, and not recorded.
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Bummer
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Yep.
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It’s bad enough that the Digitone (and Digitakt) can’t record pitch bend from wheels. But then Elektron are almost taking the mickey out of us to go and design the Digitone Keys WITH a pitch bend wheel (and mod wheel) without enabling the recording of them into the sequencer. Which is, of course, the most natural and logical thing to want to do on such an instrument! Boggles the mind and is deeply frustrating.
I can’t imagine what Elektron were thinking and all the flack they get for this is well deserved and actually I’m surprised they don’t get more here - such an oversight. And obviously it’s just a really basic function that you’d expect on all three machines. I really hope they finally address this soon for the DT, DN and DNK.
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Yes , I guess I could record pitch knob. but that’s not quite the same.
Yes it doesn’t feel the same at all I find - very hard to be expressive with it and get the bend you’re after. Trial and error and unmusical!
And Elektron should know that you want to buy their instrument but it missing such an essential (and normal!) feature is putting you off. Hope they realise at some point and do the right thing for their instruments.
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Exactly what I’m thinking.
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Sometimes I haven’t a clear clue what Elektron are thinking.
oblique. at times .
I feel they need to change.
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What kind of resolution does the sequencer have? I don’t think they could reasonably implement this when the sequencer has other goals, and does’t act like a “piano roll” like in a daw. Right? I could be wrong.
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True it’s what I do with Model Cycles and kind of wonky to to add a lock trig of zero before next note plays.
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it’s basically a step sequencer ain’t it but more advanced.
into the realms per step like a tracker
But to release a ‘traditional’ keyboard instrument and cripple it to not take advantage of the performance/sequencer blend is odd and shortsighted.
Love my Digitone Keys though. Amazing instrument.
I really hope they focus on it a bit more.
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So if I use an external midi controller the digitone will not record pitch bend?
Correct.
Wow , thanks I am now leaning towards digitone. This must be something that an update cant fix.
It’s imperfect because of the resolution, like you say.
But the point is that you can record pitch bend and mod wheel from the DT/DN (though the lack of wheels make it next to useless musically) but not from controllers. So all we’re asking is for that to be enabled; the functionality is already there.
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The weirdest thing for me is the controls on the midi tracks.
On the ‘source/synth’ page you can assign PitchBend, AfterTouch, ModWheel and Breath Control but it doesn’t react to any of those if you send them from a controller. Yet, they can be assigned to the LFO.
But the controls on the ‘filter’ page have their own dedicated midi CC’s?!
That doesn’t seem like an oversight as much as it seems like completely backwards thinking.
The messages for PB, AT, MW and BC are just completely ignored by the Digi and it’s not like they used up those controls for something usefull.
They should at the very least be passed on to external instruments.
Even with limited sequencer steps, slide trigs would make those controls at least a lot more usable than they are now.
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Yeah, this feels pretty insane when you have to deal with it. The digitone can take modwheel/aftertouch/pitchbend, and it can send them out on the midi tracks, but there’s no way to record/sequence them at all. It’s probably much more frustrating for Digitone Keys users.
I can kinda see the Elektron perspective, though. If you record the modwheel, then what should happen when you also use it during sequence playback?
- Does it overwrite what’s recorded in the sequence, complete with massive parameter jumps? (But when wouldn’t it take priority? When is the sequence used?)
- Does the sequence override the actual position of the physical wheel? (But this just disables a major performance-control element?)
- Does it blend with the sequence? (But how to mix them, and won’t this lead to unintuitive halfway-there behaviour?)
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So, I just realized that I can’t record the PB and MW movements from this keystep into the Digitone’s sequencer. I thought I must be doing something wrong.
Guess I’m just the next person to finally realize this and express the frustration.
From what I can tell, movement of the macro controls in the dedicated MW PB etc pages are not lockable either!
So I am clear: those pages are just for performance, for performing live with the digitone. There is no way to record this info into the sequencer?
wt(actual)f?!