i have always found the MIDI sequencer of the OT to be somehow below the average for a machine on this range
one of the most annoying things about it is : let’s say you start a realtime MIDI recording of some external polysynth using your synth’s own keyboard and using the OT purely as a MIDI sequencer
let’s say you want to play a chord, C major for instance, consisting in 3 simple notes : C4 + E4 + G4
if you record them all at once on the same beat , no problem
but when you want to play C4 on beat 1 and WHILE HOLDING C4 you want to record E4 on beat 2, thesustain of the
previous note will be cut
any other sequencer records various types of data for each note but the basic types are : the note on event, the gate time (or in some cases the note off event) and the velocity
it seems the OT is incapable of handling the polyphonic events as such, and instead it handles them as monophonic triggers
if a note you play is supposed to last for 64 beats, but in the middle you record another note (eg @ beat 32) the previous note stops sounding
yep, but :
1- no more realtime live recording, you have to “dismember” a chord and play one note each time
2- using 3 tracks to sequence a 3 note chord does not seem too practical
you can do it of course, but it kills the magic
yes, the sequencer tracks are not polyphonic. You can play chords where the note on and off events happen at the same time. I guess that would be called paraphonic? It is a limitation if you want to record complex polyphonic or piano type stuff. But, with the OT there is always the option of actually playing the part live and sampling the audio.
it is a drag when working with polysynths. maybe there could be a sustain trig or something like that for MIDI tracks. another partial solution would be if you could trig MIDI tracks the same way you can audio tracks in the default trig mode. then you could set a few tracks to different notes and get rhythms in for one chord at least.
Ultimately this is what keeps me from getting the OT and pushes me towards an MPC-based setup. I use polys a lot and would miss the ability to easily make fragmented chords etc. I can sequence monophonic stuff just as easily with the MM or MD. MM mostly because of the arp options.
Could someone confirm whether this is still the OT’s behaviour after 8 years?
Or perhaps it was updated / fixed in some firmware update - especially given the fact it works well on DT & DN (i.e. you can have notes with different lenghts on different trigs / steps and they don’t cut each other)
Thanks
This is still how it works. You need to use multiple tracks on the same channel if you want to break up your chords over time (or play in realtime and make a sample).
Not sure if I fully understand the question - but this is how I understand it’s working (on DT/DN)
on a single step / trigger you can have multiple notes (4 or 8), but with the limitation they all have the same velocity / starting point (so no ‘strumming’ within 1 step) / length
but if you put a note on step 1 with a length of 8 steps, and then it will ‘hang’ / play for half bar and in the meantime you can put additional notes on following steps (and it will not ‘cut’ / stop the note from step 1 - which would be the case for OT as I understand, and a huge blocker for me personally)
But thanks for sharing!