Trying to wrap my head around NEI trig conditions

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#1

Hi everyone!
I’m trying to figure out what are NEI and (not)NEI trig conditions and how to use them.
The documentation is pretty slim and I could not understand the logic behind the TRUE or FALSE evaluations and how they’re applied.
I’m not sure if that’s what they intended for but in my perception I thought that they could be used to either trigger same trig from two tracks or to avoid each other.

For example, I’ve tried to set up a simple test with two tracks: T1 and T2.
I’ve set the page length on T1 to 4 steps and on T2 to 3 steps and activated first trigs on T1 and T2.
On the T2 trig I’ve set the condition to (not)NEI and in my mind what should’ve happened is that once the T1 and T2 trigs overlapping the T2 should not be triggered, but that’s not what happens and I cannot understand what exactly happens and how should I set them up in order to achieve “not playing” T2 trig if overlapping with the T1 trig.

Not sure if that’s possible at all and if that’s the function of the NEI conditions or am I completely missing the point…

any advice is appreciated, I’m really confused about these…

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Conditional trig across track
#2

It should actually be the opposite.
Let’s make it really simple:
T1 has 2 trigs and 2 steps long
Same for T2 but with the first one being NEI and the second one being /NEI.
Then you would always here only the first trig from T2.
NEI means the trig WILL play, only if the same trig on previous track plays.
/NEI means the trig will play, only if the same trig on previous track DOESN’T play

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#3

Of course if your tracks length are different, it might not be the same exact trig, but more the one playing at the same time.

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#4

ah, I think I get it now… so it’s not like I thought and I cannot achieve “avoiding” trigs from neighbor track… thanks for clarifying!

#5

I don’t personally use them. I try to keep things a bit simple.
I did understand them years ago … but the knowledge fell out of my head.

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#6

you can avoid trigs from neighbouring tracks, you just need to remember that the NEI condition will ONLY “listen” for trig conditions on other tracks, not regular trigs without conditions.

so for it to work, you need to use any condition on one track’s trig, and a NEI condition on the next track.

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#7

That hurts my brain stem.

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#8

I’ve tried multiple conditions like probability and fills but eventually I could not get T2 trigs avoid T1 trigs, from @Protopia explanation and example I understand that T2 trigs can only play WITH T1 trigs or when T1 trigs are NOT happening…

For example, if I want to make a kick on T1, and I have a 4 steps, and put a trig on the 1st step with 100% probability, on T2 I want to make a bass sound, 3 steps and one trig (also on first step), I cannot make the bass trig avoid the kick trig, I can only make it play WITH the kick by using NEI or play it when the kick is not playing by using (not)NEI.

seems that I cannot make the bass “avoid” the kick… which is fine, I just thought that it would be possible using “neighbor tracks” but the logic is a bit different…

#9

Sorry missed the different track lengths bit.
In that case you’ll need to use FILL trigs on the Kick track:

Track 1 Kick: Lock the first trig to 100%, next three to FILL trigs (so they have conditions but do not play).
Track 2 Bass: All three trigs to –NEI

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#10

holy cow I think that’s the one! the fill trigs works perfect! I need to remember that, thanks a bunch!

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#11

:thup:

#12

Elektron HQ -
”Song mode? Way too complicated. No one will ever understand that. Now, where are we on the NEI trig conditions? Oh, they’re live? Splendid.”

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#13

Did they ever say Song Mode was too complicated? It’s on several of their devices and seems to work ok.

#14

I mean, thanks to @garf I made it work, but do I fully understand what just happened? not so much…

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#15

me neither

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#16

:sweat_smile:

#17

The nuances of your issue may be lost in this nugget for you - but fwiw a NEI condition does not need to be concurrent with a Trig Condition on the ‘upper’ track - the NEI condition on Track X uses whatever the last condition evaluated from the Track (X-1) was

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#18

I think I get it, you need an active trig on the “parent” track to make the evaluation happen for the neighbor track.

not sure that I’m going to use these conditions much, perhaps for some applications…

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