I use a very simple setup, one midi keyboard = Alesis Micron + Digitakt.
I’m used to playing short phrases on the keyboard in it’s internal sequencer then spitting them out into Reaper for further adjustment, playing them back from Reaper and then adding mod wheel and other tweaks with the Micron and recording this again with Reaper.
I was hoping to replace my PC and Reaper with a Digitakt but this is far from the case and at the mo’ does not suit my (work) flo’.
So I guess I’ll just have to wait…
How long…
Who knows…
I’m still getting to know this little box and as an 8 track sampler it’s quite versatile but the midi implementation is somewhat crippled, excessively so I’d say and mainly due to marketing hype (lag) / future feature implementation, that should have been there in the first place, Yes I know it’s a DRUM box but if it does midi it should DO midi.
Thing is we’ll never know whether it will ever record mod wheel and pitch bend info, fingers crossed I suppose.
I still haven’t got it recording live midi (notes only) either but that’s my bad and do believe it will…
Yeah… shitty box i’d say, overpriced, and false-advertised.
The best solution for recording midi is for now Pyramid or MPCs
Even cheap MPC1000 can record chords/PB/MW… and there is no pattern length limitation…
Indeed an MPC1000 (with JJOS of course) was my first box, went over to Maschine & Komplete but wanted something a bit more fun and hands on.
Manufacturers rush to sell their unfinished products and slowly add features whilst trying to keep a loyal fanbase.
I can see the OB issue has annoyed many and I’m not surprised.
I manufacture and sell product too, not crippled in any way, it works simple as and wouldn’t sell it any other way. Sure I will improve it but that’s another product MK2, MK3 etc, however it’s mainly hardware driven.
Using ‘modern’ hardware with fast DSP, ARM chips, FPGA’s etc you can build a solid hardware product fairly simply and by modifying software are able to change the hardware functionality to a great degree.
This is the method chosen for most products these days and we (the consumer) have to pander to that.
Main issue for Elektron is that the cheaper (Digitakt) can’t be allowed to compete with the more expensive OT etc product(s) so it has to be crippled with muffled promises of great things in the near (distant) future.
It’s a bit of fun for me, nothing more, I’m no serious Muso, if I was I wouldn’t be using this.
We will ALL have to wait and see how many useful feature will eventually get implemented.
I got digitakt for midi sequencing, drum sampler, kind of ‘heart’ of my jams, along with virus ti and keystep.
First problems I encountered were right the same ones as here… Why the hell my mod wheel doesn’t work when I’ve set midi out to digitakt midi in…
I thought elektron is top tier in this kind of stuff… their sequencer is pretty awesome with parameter locks but I don’t really give a damn about that if its crippled like this otherwise… what is the point of making a product like this to have midi capabilities if its made only halfway capable… these are pretty basic functions too. Like, you can’t have even quantization modes like 16+triplets for example, 1/8…
I understood the sequencer is able to record polyphonic for midi?
What happens when I try to record bass notes, and harmonic lead on top of that it erases the bass note, I’d have to use two tracks for that. makes no sense for me.
Anybody know about that?
Ps. when I read the manual (bought it week ago) there was part something like this: digitakt seamlessly integrates with overbridge … etc…
what is that all about? I get that there is no overbridge yet? and its supposed to help with daw sync? because this thing doesn’t really sync up well with usb in Ableton for me at least.
I think its even illegal to market things as a feature that isn’t available, In Europe at least.
Overall I really like this product but god, why isn’t it properly functional in these small, but so crucial bits?
I still could return it but what would I get instead? I’d need control for at least 5 simultaneous midi tracks, but more obviously better for layering and such.
I use my DT as a hub now. The 8 internal tracks and all 8 Midi tracks. 9/10 got to Streichfett, 11-14 go to Analog 4, 15 to a System 1 and 16 to an SE-02. I have a 7 octave midi controller and all is good. I often record two tracks for the A4, one on the DT and one on A4s own channels, allowing me to switch them for variation…the big issue I have though is in live mode when doing solos or slow ambient work, I cannot get Pitch Bend or modulation to either be recorded onto the DT or even for now use it live? Why is this? Am I missing an obvious setting? Cheers in advance
I don’t believe pitch or modwheel is applicable to the DT since it is technically a drum machine. They may add this feature later on but for right now there is no way of recording it.
i think if you use the midi thru it should work, but it won’t be recorded onto the digitakt. to maintain the ability to record straight to midi track on the digitakt (without pitch bend) and still use pitch bend while performing live, you could try midi merging the midi out and midi thru from the digitakt and then tale that merged signal and run it through your synths (your usual midi chain).
Thanks Habib - I will have to try that, although I already use both out ports to pass to other gear, but perhaps a merged one will work for now - wont that double up on live midi though? Will have to try it, now to dig out my merge box!
are y’all sure this isn’t user error (misunderstanding) - it’s sorta doable on OT afaicr, you just need to enable a control for the parameters you want to capture, recorded PB will only be 7bit though and it’ll be quantized of course - as for pass through when not recording I can’t recall, should be fine though
from the manual
5.3.2 THE MIDI TRACKS
The Digitakt has eight dedicated MIDI tracks. They are used to control external, MIDI equipped, gear. Each MIDI track can trigger a chord of up to four notes with adjustable parameters such as velocity and length, control pitch bend and aftertouch, as well as eight freely assignable MIDI control change parameters (MIDI CCs). For more information, please see “12. MIDI TRACK PARAMETERS” on page 43.
I tested everything again. I couldn’t find a MIDI option to allow the mod wheel or the pitch bend input of my Arturia Keystep to pass unfiltered through the Digitakt (except, I assume, through the MIDI THRU port, which would only do half the job because it wouldn’t play notes from the sequencer, hence the need of a MIDI Merger).
There are MIDI PB and MW parameters on the MIDI pages of the Digitakt and they work as intended (they send a PB or MW value) but they are not linked to an external synth PB and MW. You can only customize the default value or the value per step.
I tried setting up the MW of my Keystep to CC 22 (because the documentation says it’s the external control change for the Loop parameter, which corresponds to the MW parameter for a MIDI track). No luck.
The only CC the Digitakt receives are documented on the 70th page of the manual, and are not linked to any MIDI functionality (so no possible remapping).
I think maybe letting the MW and PB value through the MIDI OUT port unfiltered would be nice (and being able to record them too, but one thing at a time).
A MIDI Merger costs 70€, plus it’s even more clutter on my desk.
That’s not the midi side though - if you set the arturia to the auto channel and enable the PB does it record the PB - it won’t be passed through unless the midi channel and PB are enabled and midi track selected (requires a push on encoder on OT, may not be same ) - it only spies on parameters you’ve told it to explicitly - everything else is ignored ( will appear at thru anyway)
On the Digitakt my MIDI track is selected with PB and MW activated (via the encoder push), and the Arturia is set up to play that track via its auto channel (say, channel 9 set up via shift + 9 on the Arturia, which plays MIDI track A, which is set up to play on MIDI channel 1)
Note that your comment made me wonder if the fact that the Digitakt was set up to play MIDI channel 1 on it’s track 9 receiving MIDI channel 9 wasn’t the reason the MW and PB were filtered (because they would be somehow linked to channel 9 and not able to do anything on channel 1). So I reconfigured my project to have: input on MIDI CH9 on TRK 9 > output on MIDI CH9.
But the issue persists. I think the Digitakt just discards everything that is not a note msg.
I ended up buying the Midi solutions Merger just because of this issue. It works fine for live performance when my Keysteps and BS2 are sending aftertouch and wheel out to the main chain - expensive solution just to have live expression BUT for some reason everything apart from sustain is sent through the merger?! A main reason for wanting it … grrr
