I don’t understand, I thought I read in the manual that you can add a trigless lock to a step that already has a note lock? Is this tip for adding even more trigless locks or did I read wrong and it is not possible to add a trigless lock to a note trig? As in could you do this trick all on the same track or do you have to use the two tracks? Are you just using two tracks for more trigless options?
Lovely!! very cool!
1 Like
Good question.
Well, to avoid confusion, I’d better stick to the terms our main man @eangman has used in the Digitone literature.
Note Lock
Trig Lock
So, If you place a note on a sequencer step, that’s a Note Trig…and it actually contains 3 locked parameters, automatically;
- Note (C#3, for example)
- Velocity (e.g. 127)
- Length (e.g. 1 step)
By holding down that same step key, on which you’ve already placed a Note Trig, you can add additional parameter locks, like Env Decay, Filter Cutoff, etc. Those are not “trigless locks”, that’s just adding more parameter locks to an existing trig.
Conversely, by holding Function and then tapping an empty step key in a sequence, you can add parameter locks to that step, without triggering a note. I guess the DN literature calls this a Lock Trig…I’ve been calling it a trigless lock.
Anyway, at the risk of beating a dead horse, you don’t add “trigless locks”, per se, to an already existing note trig, you add “additional parameter locks” to an existing note trig–and the purpose of this trick that I posted is to have note trigs on one track, and lock trigs on 2 separate track, but both are affecting the same sound coming out of the machine, for greater control.
6 Likes
In the manual, page 28 (the sequencer) in 10.2.2 number 3 it says “to add a lock trig press FUNC and TRIG. You can add lock trigs to any sequencer step including ones that contain note trigs” . Also defines lock trigs as triggering parameter locks without triggering notes . I have an a4 but dont use trigless locks much but after seeing this it has sparked my interest. So am I confused?
EDIT now that I think about it what would be the use in adding a trig lock to a locked note trig anyway? What parameters could you change with a trigless lock that you couldn’t just lock to that note trig? Or does it all have to do with envelope?
Can’t believe the title of this topic 
4 Likes
Yeah, this bears some additional research, because in NON-Digitone products, there are distinct ways of re-triggering envelopes and LFOs without triggering notes, thus several different types of trigs, esp on Octatrack and Monomachine.
So I think for now, it’s safe to assume that on DN, you can lay down a Note Trig and then add parameter locks on top of it–or just lay down Lock Trigs on empty steps. If I had my machine in front of me I’d dig in and see if I can retrig an envelope or LFO without trigging a note.
1 Like
I’ll try on a4 tonight but it deff says in manual for a4 and digitone too. But like I said, anyone who knows, what would be the advantages to adding a trigless lock on top of a note trig anyway if you can do it? But it deff says in the manual you can. I feel like I’ve done it on my octatrack, hit function and trig on top of a note trig i placed and turned its light yellow and then just hitting the trigger again turned it back to red
Just to quote myself from an earlier thread when it comes the relatively new (from Digitakt and onward) term “Lock trigs”:
“As I mentioned earlier, trigless lock is not a very good description. Trigs are basically event markers at a specific time in the sequencer. They signal the sequencer to perform an action. So it makes more sense to call both of our versions of trigs for …trigs. A lock is an action that is performed on a trig event, not the event itself. Calling a trig for a lock is just not very accurate.”
So we have Note trigs that trigger Notes and Lock trigs that trigger (parameter) locks. Makes more sense I think 
And yes, I know that this will take a while (maybe forever) before this new terminology takes hold but I’m not giving up yet
5 Likes
Hmm - “trigless lock” seems quite logical to me - a parameter locked step without a note trigger.
“Lock trig” implies a trig - as in note trig, with parameter locks. Maybe “step lock” would be more appropriate as it does not imply that a note will be triggered, but that a step will be parameter locked.
If « trig » is seen as a event in the general sense, not just as note trig, then @eangman explanation makes perfectly sense.
It will indeed take some time for OT users to abandon trigless trigs.
Still, I do remember the initial confusion when I encountered the term at first…
A good thing IMO that some coherence is brought to this terminology.
I guess my logic is that we are placing events on steps, not necessarily on trigs, and on steps we can place trigs and/or locks.
Either way, a nice simple description in the manual will help new users to understand the terminology, so as long as that is the case I guess it doesn’t matter.
1 Like
So can you confirm? Manual says you can place a lock trig (FUNC + trig) on the same step as a note trig. In this thread they are saying you cant. Are you saying (FUNC + trig) is a different operation on digitone than say OT? I was just curious as to why use two tracks to layer trigs if you can put them on top of each other and I am just trying to confirm if that’s true or not, manual says yes, thread says no…and if it is true why would someone want to put a lock trig on top of a note trig , what advantage would that have to just p locking values to your note trig? Thanks
It has historically been so that we had two kind of trigs. Note trigs and trigless locks (well three if you count the trigless trigs on the OT)
Anyway, they are both trigs (event markets on the sequencers timeline) and I just want them to be called with something with trig in the name since thats what they are. As i said before Trigs and Locks are different things and I thought it would only make the confusion worse to call one kind of trig for lock. Hmm even explaining it gets confusing 
You can have both a Note trig and Lock trig on the same step in the sequencer. Just that you dont have to put the Lock trig separately if you already have a Note trig on the step. Just press the trig key that has the Note trig and turn the parameter knobs to create the parameter locks.
1 Like
Thank you for confirming , that is what Devon thought earlier
But without the autocorrect on yo of course!Yes indeed! I mean, how can you not love a concept called trigless trigs
7 Likes
I’d like to see lockless locks, they’d go great with trigless trigs and my dawless daw.
Pimp my trig!
3 Likes
1 Like