Translating OT note length values into step lengths (definitive list for DN, DT, ST, AR, A4)

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

Edit: This has been solved, see the complete lists that help you translate OT length into step lengths, like digis, AR or A4 display them. Thank to @sezare56 and @Schnork.

Hey, note length values on AF are displayed differently than on OT. E.g. how would you translate a note length of 1/64 or .375 to OT? Is a 1 on OT always 1/64? Does OT even have the possibility to go as granular as .375? I am trying to translate trigs to a MIDI track on OT and don’t want to go through the process of making the AF track a MIDI track to then record it on OT.

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Still struggling with this, can’t find any explanation in the manual.

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Really, no one? Am I missing something obvious? On every other Elektron, length means step length, so 36 would be 36 steps. On OT though, it’s a totally different number, often decimals.

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OT, MD, MnM are not like every other Elektron.

Some values are explicit, others not a all. I’d love an update for steps values. And go up to 128 steps like newer Elektrons.

Well, you can make a sheet !
It is possible to mesure lengths recording them on OT.

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Thanks, @sezare56! So I’m not crazy. I guess I could record each note length up to 127 on OT and make a sheet, I just assumed this already existed. And the reason I’m asking is because when recording from other Elektrons into OT, notes sometimes seem different (mostly shorter) compared to the original.

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Didn’t practice, not sure if it would suit you, but theoretically you should be able to stop notes with trigless trigs, LEN=0

It would be interesting to make a step values sheet, for sure. Probably easy with some maths.

(Didn’t you change your avatar recently ?)

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Recording from A4 to a midi track on OT (or vice versa) is easy and you’ll get a perfect recording. Probably faster than going through each note by hand, too!

I’ll try to make a small cheat sheet with note lengths later.

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That’s how I repeatedly stumbled upon this issue, as some notes were off and I tried to just correct the value on OT, but didn’t understand the cryptic values. I would really appreciate your notes, the community surely as well. I can’t be the only one who’s struggling with this.

@sezare56: Hehe, yes, changed my avatar and hesitated since I find it confusing when others do.

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Quantized recording ? There is also a problem with OT quantization, recorded notes aren’t quantized to closest step as on Digis, but to following step even if it is just 1 microtiming value after…

Not sure about note end quantization…

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Some maths…
An OT LEN value seems to correspond to 1/6 = 0.166 steps.

1 STEP = 6 LEN

One bar (1/1) = 16 steps = 16x6 = 96 LEN

I won’t use excel tonight, so that is a start. If someone is motivated to continue and correct me, feel free to do so !
Btw I am not sure if the 2 last values given by Elektron are good ! Anyone can check ?(brackets with :sketchy: at the end)

Last value of the line is in steps.

0
1 = 0.16
2 = 0.33
3 (1/32) = 0.5
4 = 0.66
5 = 0.83
6 (1/16) = 1
7 = 1.16
8 = 1.33
9 (3/32) = 1.5
10 = 1.66
11 = 1.83
12 (1/8) = 2
13
14
15 (5/32) = 2.5
16
17
18 (3/16) = 3
19
20
21 (7/32) = 3.5
22
23
24 (1/4) = 4
25
26
27 (9/32) = 4.5
28
29
30 (5/16) = 5
31
32
33
34
35
36 (3/8) = 6
37
38
39
40
41
42 (7/16) = 7
43
44
45
46
47
48 (1/2) = 8
49
50
51
52
53
54 (9/16) = 9
55
56
57
58
59
60 (5/8) 10
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72 (3/4) = 12
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84 (7/8) 14
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96 1/1 (16)
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108 (9/8) 18
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120 (11/8=22? :sketchy:) = 20?
121
122
123
124
125
126 (6/3=24? :sketchy:) = 22?
127 INF

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OT Len 1=A4 Len 0.188
OT Len 2=A4 Len 0.313
OT Len 1/32=A4 Len 1/32
OT Len 4=A4 Len 0.688
OT Len 1/16 = A4 Len 1/16
OT Len 7=A4 Len 1.19
OT Len 8=A4 Len 1.31
OT Len 3/32=A4 Len 1.50
OT Len 10=A4 Len 1.69
OT Len 11=A4 Len 1.81
OT Len 1/8=A4 Len 1/8
OT Len 13=A4 Len 2.13
OT Len 14=A4 Len 2.38
OT Len 5/32=A4 Len 2.50
OT Len 16=A4 Len 2.63
OT Len 17=A4 Len 2.88
OT Len 3/16=A4 Len 3
OT Len 19=A4 Len 3.13
OT Len 20=A4 Len 3.38
OT Len 7/32=A4 Len 3.50
OT Len 22=A4 Len 3.63
OT Len 23=A4 Len 3.88
OT Len 1/4=A4 Len 1/4
OT Len 25=A4 Len 4.25
OT Len 26=A4 Len 4.25
OT Len 9/23=A4 Len 4.5
OT Len 28=A4 Len 4.75
OT Len 29=A4 Len 4.75
OT Len 5/16=A4 Len 5.00
OT Len 31=A4 Len 5.25
OT Len 32=A4 Len 5.25
OT Len 33=A4 Len 5.50
OT Len 34=A4 Len 5.75
OT Len 35=A4 Len 5.75
OT Len 3/8=A4 Len 6.00
OT Len 37=A4 Len 6.25
OT Len 38=A4 Len 6.25
OT Len 39=A4 Len 6.50
OT Len 40=A4 Len 6.75
OT Len 41=A4 Len 6.75
OT Len 7/16=A4 Len 7.00
OT Len 43=A4 Len 7.25
OT Len 44=A4 Len 7.25
OT Len 45=A4 Len 7.50
OT Len 46=A4 Len 7.75
OT Len 47=A4 Len 7.75
OT Len 1/2=A4 Len 1/2
OT Len 49=A4 Len 1/2
OT Len 50=A4 Len 8.50
OT Len 51=A4 Len 8.50
OT Len 52=A4 Len 8.50
OT Len 53=A4 Len 9.00
OT Len 9/16=A4 Len 9.00
OT Len 55=A4 Len 9.00
OT Len 56=A4 Len 9.50
OT Len 57=A4 Len 9.50
OT Len 58=A4 Len 9.50
OT Len 59=A4 Len 10.0
OT Len 5/8=A4 Len 10.0
OT Len 62=A4 Len 10.5
OT Len 63=A4 Len 10.5
OT Len 64=A4 Len 10.5
OT Len 65=A4 Len 11.0
OT Len 66=A4 Len 11.0
OT Len 67= A4 Len 11.0
OT Len 68= A4 Len 11.5
OT Len 69= A4 Len 11.5
OT Len 70= A4 Len 11.5
OT Len 71= A4 Len 12.0
OT Len 3/4= A4 Len 12.0
OT Len 73= A4 Len 12.0
OT Len 74= A4 Len 12.5
OT Len 75= A4 Len 12.5
OT Len 76= A4 Len 12.5
OT Len 77= A4 Len 13.0
OT Len 78= A4 Len 13.0
OT Len 79= A4 Len 13.0
OT Len 80= A4 Len 13.5
OT Len 81= A4 Len 13.5
OT Len 82= A4 Len 13.5
OT Len 83= A4 Len 14.0
OT Len 7/6= A4 Len 14.0
OT Len 85= A4 Len 14.0
OT Len 86= A4 Len 14.5
OT Len 87= A4 Len 14.5
OT Len 88= A4 Len 14.5
OT Len 89= A4 Len 15.0
OT Len 90= A4 Len 15.0
OT Len 91= A4 Len 15.0
OT Len 92= A4 Len 15.5
OT Len 93= A4 Len 15.5
OT Len 94= A4 Len 15.5
OT Len 95= A4 Len 16.0
OT Len 1/1= A4 Len 16.0
OT Len 97= A4 Len 16.0
OT Len 98= A4 Len 16.0
OT Len 99= A4 Len 17.0
OT Len 100= A4 Len 17.0
OT Len 101= A4 Len 17.0
OT Len 102= A4 Len 17.0
OT Len 103= A4 Len 17.0
OT Len 104= A4 Len 17.0
OT Len 105= A4 Len 18.0
OT Len 106= A4 Len 18.0
OT Len 107= A4 Len 18.0
OT Len 9/8= A4 Len 18.0
OT Len 108= A4 Len 18.0
OT Len 109= A4 Len 18.0
OT Len 110= A4 Len 18.0
OT Len 111= A4 Len 19.0
OT Len 112= A4 Len 19.0
OT Len 113= A4 Len 19.0
OT Len 114= A4 Len 19.0
OT Len 115= A4 Len 19.0
OT Len 116= A4 Len 19.0
OT Len 117= A4 Len 19.0
OT Len 118= A4 Len 20.0
OT Len 119= A4 Len 20.0
OT Len 11/8= A4 Len 20.0
OT Len 121= A4 Len 20.0
OT Len 122= A4 Len 20.0
OT Len 123= A4 Len 21.0
OT Len 124= A4 Len 21.0
OT Len 125= A4 Len 21.0
OT Len 6/3= A4 Len 21.0

Some obervations,

OT Len 25 and 26 are recorded as 4.25 on the A4.
OT Len 28 and 29 as 4.75
OT Len 31 and 32 as 5.25
OT Len 34 and 35 as 5.75
OT Len 37 and 38 as 6.25
OT Len 40 and 41 as 6.75
OT Len 43 and 44 as 7.25
OT Len 46 and 47 as 7.75
OT Len 1/2 and 49 as 1/2
OT Len 50, 51 and 52 as 8.50
OT Len 53, 9/16 and 54 as 9.00
OT Len 56, 57 and 58 as 9.50
OT Len 59 and 1/2 as 10.0
OT Len 62, 63 and 64 as 10.5
OT Len 65, 66 and 67 as 11.0
OT Len 68, 69 and 70 as 11.5
OT Len 71, 3/4 and 73 as 12.0
OT Len 74, 75 and 76 as 12.5
OT Len 77, 78, 79 as 13.0
OT Len 80, 82 and 82 as 13.5
OT Len 83, 7/8 and 85 as 14.0
OT Len 86, 87 and 88 as 14.5
OT Len 89, 90 and 91 as 15.0
OT Len 92, 93 and 94 as 15.5
OT Len 95, 1/1, 97 and 98 as 16.0
OT Len 99, 100, 101, 102 103 and 104 as 17.0
OT Len 105, 106, 107, 9/8, 108, 109 as 18.0
OT Len 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116 and 117 as 19.0
OT Len 118, 119, 11/8, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125 and 6/3 as 21.0

I‘m wondering if there’s a difference between Mk1s and Mk2s…Might be my test is only relevant for Mk1s and Analog Keys…?

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@Schnork, thanks for tests !
So it seems to correspond to my draft above, isn’t it ?
One OT value seems to correspond to 1/6 step…

1 STEP = 6 LEN

(At first I wrote 2/3, wrong, it was 4 times less)

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List complete.

What I find interesting is, that with longer note length on OT it seem to lose resolution.

For instance OT Len 28 and 29 are recorded as 4.75 on A4, OT Len 71, 3/4 and 73 as 12.0, but 118, 119, 11/8, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125 and 6/3 are all recorded as 21.0

Full list above.

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So it seems to correspond. But apparently there are 2 mistakes from Elektron :

Instead of value 120, it is written 11/8, corresponding to 22 steps; it should be 20 steps (120/6=20), or 5/4…

Also instead of value 126, it is written 6/3, witch corresponds to 24 steps; it should be 22 steps (126/6=22), or 11/8.

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on the OT length is more or less actually midi ticks. Makes sense as the machine is meant to sequence midi clock and therefor almost any “time” relative value is bound to tempo which in midi is not a number but continuous ticks. So we have 24 Pulses Per Quarter note, which leads to 384 ticks for 64steps. 384/6 = 64steps. See the 6? Thats your base unit all length are relative to. It is also the minimum amount of ticks expected to express a tempo with midi clock.
And there is microtiming which is 6 ticks from -24 to 24 which comes down to 6/48.
Now the values should make more sense. cheers.

in tracker software 6 is typical default TPS (ticks per step)

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Still not practical. Tics aren’t our usual musical référence.
Imho it should be displayed in steps, even with decimals, instead of a few unusual reduced equations…

OT is 96 PPQN and yeah, it is related to ticks.
1 LEN value = +4 microtiming,

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I don’t own an AF, though I really want one, but this is such an amazing gift to this forum thank you for sharing your efforts with us :beers:

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This! Thank you so much, @sezare56 and @Schnork!

@aarb420: These translated values should be the same for the digis and AR. So you don’t need an A4 to find use.

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In my test it was 20.0

Im my test it was 21.0

The 100% work for Rytm Mk1, Analog Four Mk1 and Keys, I’d expect they also work for Mk2s and Digis, but I can’t test.

I can do a pdf and upload to media section here, wouldn’t be much work and then everyone can easily download it.

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I would be extremely thankful for that :heart::pray::heart:!

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