Resolution to Two Decimal Places!

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#1

Maybe it is just me, but I find the two decimal place resolution of the DN’s encoders to be slightly annoying.

For example I cannot for the life of me understand why the Input L/R values on the Master page would need such high resolution.

The high resolution parameters also make it extremely difficult to live record parameter changes.

To me it would make more sense if simply turning the encoders gave you standard resolution and when/if you ever needed higher resolution this could be achieved by holding down the shift button whilst turning an encoder.

#2

How so? To me the higher resolution makes everything a little smoother and especially avoids the typical zipper noises or “staircase” filter sweeps.

2 Likes
#3

If you can’t audibly tell the difference between 10.20 and 10.3 ( for example )then why worry about it / find it annoying.

#4

Don’t know the DN, but i agree that’s an odd place to have that. The A4 has 14bit parameters and it is crucial to its sound design, i think those parameters are equally crucial when dialing in ratios etc on the DN and also to mask stepping

The decimal values are likely (as with the A4) an approximation of the 7 bits of resolution after the decimal point (the least significant bits) so there’s actually 127 values between the larger MSB steps, it’s just that these are bundled together to give potentiometer type resolution feel rather than the 7bit steppiness of standard midi parameters on most gear

Perhaps the DN uses the higher res parameters globally, it would be a surprise, but yes, perhaps odd to have that resolution on input levels - honestly, i’d be surprised if your suggestion was adopted, but imho it wouldn’t hurt anyone to lose that resolution on external input levels

embrace the resolution, it’s your friend, sorely missed on some of the AR params imho !

#5

The difficulty arises if you want to sweep a parameter from min to max within say the length of half a bar. The high encoder resolution makes it less responsive (i.e. it takes more time to move the encoder from min to max).

With regard to staircase sweeps, don’t Elektron sequencers always step sequence whether you live record or Plok record parameter changes?

#6

Surely if there is no audible difference then there is no requirement to have such high resolution in the first place?

1 Like
#7

Ah I see what you mean! Although I wouldn’t credit the weirdly “slow” value changes to the fact that there are decimal places, but rather to how the encoders themselves translate angular velocity into the parameters.
It’s still possible to have a really non-intuitive sweep like you described without any decimal places, haha.

And I was referring to manual sweeps – these are much smoother. If you record a sequence, there’s still steps based on the grid.