Synchronizing Mimetic Digitwolis
Mimetic Digitwolis features a wide variety of ways to integrate with your system and other gear in your studio. In this post, we’ll explore a number of different types of signals that can be used to synchronize Mimetic Digitwolis with other sequencers – and how to use it independently with its own internal clock, too.
Direct triggering
Mimetic Digitwolis’s trigger inputs can be mapped directly to sequencer lane advance and reset parameters, so many patches won’t require transport at all. Just set Xport to Mode: None if that’s the case.
You can also use direct trigger mappings AND transport. Just remember, direct mappings won’t respond if external transport is in a stopped state.
Enabling transport
Mimetic Digitwolis’s transport system is an optional setting that can be enabled for synchronizing with things like DIN sync, MIDI, or a few other synchronization schemes.
To enable transport, navigate to the global Configs menu and select the top Xport section. By default, Xport will be set to None. Changing this to a different setting will enable the whole transport system, making the module behave slightly differently.
Transport controls clock, reset, and the play or stop state of the entire module. For example, if we’re using DIN sync as the Xport source, the module can only advance when the run gate is high and the clock is running. The lanes will all reset when the DIN sync source starts, too, keeping everything in phase.
The module also can’t change state if the transport source is stopped. This means that, for example, if one of your lanes is a quantizer, it can’t change its output until the transport source is started.
The Stop/Edit/Run switch will behave the same way as always, no matter the Xport setting.
Assigning transport triggers
Once transport is enabled, not much will happen until we change the mappings of some of our lanes.
As a simple example, let’s create an X/Y sequence that advances the X axis every 16th note, and the Y axis every measure. In the Step menu for lane 1, set Dims to 4x4, XAdv to Xprt16, and YAdv to Xprt1.
Transport clock sources are listed in musical divisions, so XPrt 1 is a whole note, XPrt 2 is a half note, XPrt 4 is a quarter note, etc.
Now all we need is a transport source that makes sense for our system.
Internal clock and MIDI
Internal clock is an easy one to use. Just set the Xport Mode field to Clock, then choose your BPM.
MIDI clock is also simple: set Xport Mode to MIDI, then patch a MIDI clock source to the MIDI In type A jack. Start your MIDI transport, and Mimetic Digitwolis will follow along.
MIDI transport is a great choice if you’re using something like an Elektron Octatrack or other MIDI-capable sequencer.
Analog clock
There are also three analog transport options: DIN, Gate, and Trig. They’re all simple to use, but also require a bit of configuration.
DIN is DIN Sync: it requires a run gate and a 24 PPQN clock. If you’ve selected the DIN Xport Mode, fields for Run and Clk will appear, and you can choose which inputs will be used for the two signals. In DIN mode, the run gate will control transport: when the gate goes high, all lanes reset, and while the gate remains high, the lanes can play. When the gate goes low, the sequencer will stop. If you have a device that has an analog DIN sync output on a DIN jack, you can use a breakout cable (like this one) to convert it to Eurorack-compatible cabling.
The Gate and Trig settings also use analog clock signals, but are designed to work with clock signals that you’ll commonly find in Eurorack.
Gate has inputs for Run, Clk, and Rst. Run acts similarly to a DIN sync run gate, but it won’t reset the sequencer when it goes high – that’s what the Rst mapping is for. Clk expects a 4 PPQN (16th note) clock signal.
Trig works the same way as Gate, but playback is toggled: the Run input expects a trigger signal instead of a gate. It will start playback on the first trigger, then pause playback on the next, then resume playback again on the next.
Gate and Trig are fun transport sources for creative sequencing. For example, I like to use Trig mode with analog clock and reset signals and a trigger sequencer like Numeric Repetitor patched to the Run input, to start and pause playback in rhythmic and interesting ways.
Get moving
Mimetic Digitwolis has features that will work with any gear you want to use, whether it’s external MIDI sequencers, drum machines, or Eurorack trigger and clock sources – just change the settings to fit your patch.
In our final post in this series, we’ll dive deeper into external gear integration: MIDI opens up many sequencing possibilities, for both controlling external gear and enabling different workflows on Mimetic Digitwolis.
