I’ve read most of the threads here but and still running into MIDI problems. So far this set up below accomplishes everything I need minus the ability to have patterns synchronized between the DT and DN. Overall, it’s great and I feel I’m almost there to a perfect setup.
I was using the Digitakt as the main clock, going into the keystep (I set this to MIDI THRU in the software recently too, to no avail) to be able to use arp. From there, the keystep thru/out goes into the Digitone. All of this syncs up nicely- when I press play on the Digitakt, the arp on the keystep in the transport on the Digitone start simultaneously. I even found that if I use the DN MIDI THRU (instead of the out) I can change my auto channel on the KS to easily switch between Digitakt and Digitone. I love this!
My only problem is patterns are not changing simultaneously. In the settings/sync menu is this what’s referred to as program change? I see clock, transport and program change. I have the Digtakt set to send and the Digitone set to receive only.
Is what I need not capable of being passed through the KS? I had a previous set up with the digitone set is the main where patterns were synchronized but I lost it. I wanted the Digitakt as the main.
Maybe it’s as simple as sending MIDI from the DN to the DT to the KS? Thanks for any tips.
Your problem might be that Digitone has the option for the Change Length ( how much steps will it play before changin patterns) I don’t own a Digitone but i have to set my Model Cycles Chg parameter to LEN ( so it will change after the full length of the pattern plays to be in sync with my Digitakt ( Digitakt doesn’t have the Change Length option)
Thanks! This may have been it. I redid the whole setup today, and after a few glitches and restarts, got it going. I did eventually notice the pattern length on the DN (slave) getting held up in limbo sometimes and changing them fixed it.
For other reading, this setup works- Digitakt out to Keystep, KS set to MIDI THRU to Digitone IN, Digitone THRU to Digitakt IN.
Something else that may have fixed it was changing program change from auto to channel 16. Send from Digitakt, Receive on Digitone. Then because of the MIDI THRU on the DN to DT, I can switch between devices on the active track. I set DN to ch15 and DT to ch14. I hold shift on the KS and it plays the active track.
When I hit start on the DT it sends the transport to play the KS sequencer which is great. I just have to remember sometimes when I record in a sequence to stop the transport on the KS so that I’m not hearing an echo or wondering what is playing.
Take the Digitone audio out to DT in, and the external mixer is where I bring it in. Everything comes in under that nice DT compressor.
Yeah, I’m stoked! Hopefully this helps anyone running into problems see a viable way to get them all going. I’ve seen this setup before but the channel settings and pattern length hung me up I think.
If anyone knows if the Digitakt MIDI Tracks 9-16 can be sent through the KS THRU I haven’t had a chance to try it yet. Still figuring out how it works exactly but mostly I want to use the extra LFOs to control the Digitone. Not sure if I need a splitter or merger to still use my KS with it.
Great news! Now that I understand the rest of the device I’m ready to add in MIDI tracks. Going to read the manual but it’s really super helpful to start from that place of “Ok this can work, so all I need to do is get it going”. Thanks.
I quick question, does the keystep accept prgram change msg. To follow patterns?
It could be that I want to send it from my OT or I might also want to send it from the keystep.
So that all my elektron machines follow the same pattern, and so should the keystep.
I did get my setup going but I might not be the best to answer this. As are as I know there’s no program change on the KS. There probably is if you look at the mega version, the KS PRO. Honestly, I love mine I could have gone with that version and been happy to I think.
For now, I just use my KS to change channels so I can use it to send piano keys or seq/arp to either the DK, DT or VSTs through my interface. Makes it kind of the tactile hub. I was having issues with getting the sync messages to be sent through, but a MIDI Merge box and a MIDI THRU box fixed my issues. I’m sure there’s other ways to do it but once I had this set I’m happy to leave it.