I have a manther db01 and Dr A!
The manther and db01 are both amazing. I like the raw sound, build quality and speed of use of the db01 more.
I love that the manther has the built in delay, that it has such a powerful motion recorder for basically everything, and a morph knob. And those three things take it to places the db01 just can’t go on its own.
I think they’re both special machines, and one doesn’t really replace the other IMO. I hope that’s somewhat helpful!
I appreciate this, thank you.
The difficult truth I sort of expected 
Good and fair question. I think it’s wonderful in a vacuum/used in isolation or with its own sequencer. I think that the way that I primarily use it is where some of the cracks start to show a little: basically as a sound module, sequencing externally.
When clocked externally I find the faders either sluggish or slightly unresponsive, implementation of CCs has been mentioned and then not followed-up-on, it doesn’t seem to respond to program changes either and generally it’s launch and support since seems a bit odd, like Malekko don’t know what to do with it?
I completely accept that most of these are minor issues, and specific to this use case but sequencing from Octatrack leaves me frustrated: partly because it’s a really cool instrument that just doesn’t feel quite right. So yeah, I either accept it’s better served in other applications and use it differently or tag something comparable in.
Is there a way to tie notes together on the DB-01’s sequencer?
If you set the gate on a step to the maximum amount and program the next step at the same pitch, you will have the effect of a tied note. It’s not the most convenient, but it can be done. [Edit: incorrect, see below]
Thanks. Doesn’t work quite as well as I hoped. For example, if you wanted a note to sustain over the range of 6 steps (out of the 16), you can’t really do it in any convincing way. Adding other notes of the same pitch just retrigger. I was thinking that cranking up the VCA ENV higher would be a solution, but then all notes are equally long.
I can do it by using the DB-01 as a sound module triggered via MIDI. That is a fine solution, although I’m trying to figure out how I can them apply a slide. Is there a MIDI CC# for the Slide feature?
Sorry, I should have fired mine up to confirm. I got it confused with the Norand Mono (which also has a better way to enter a longer note). The fixed envelope is one of the frustrations with the DB-01. I have only used a MIDI keyboard with it, but I believe slide is an internal sequencer feature only. The MIDI implementation is fairly minimal. I don’t think it even handles program changes.
They only retrigger if their GATE is less than 100. If you set the gate of contiguous steps to 100 and watch the red light above VCA ENV and the yellow one above VCF ENV, you’ll see that they hold steady over all the “tied” steps.
So, for example, open a blank pattern, click the first 6 steps to turn them on, then hold the first 5 and rotate the “SELECT/GATE” knob clockwise until the screen reads “100”. Then press play, and note that the ENVs are only trigged for the first step.
Note that they don’t even have to have the same note value. As long as their gates are 100, their envelopes should not retrig. Though the notes won’t “slur” unless you also mark them as SLIDE steps in the slide mode.
I just got around to trying this out and it works perfectly. I do also see it in the manual now, but my eyes must be getting old since I missed it.
Thanks for this. It really opens up the internal sequencer’s possibilities even more for me now. I especially love the fact that the notes don’t even need to be the same.
You’re not alone, I didn’t spot the gate parameter or realise how it important it was for a long time. 
Missed that one! What a vast improvement!! 
People, tell me please, db-01 can work with external midi sequencer or only sequencer with cv/gate and internal? Thnx)
It has MIDI in. The MIDI implementation is pretty limited but basic note and transport functionality works.
But, midi notes sent from external sequencer only when key mode on?
when I send via cv from an external sequencer, everything works, but when I want to send via midi from external sequencer, it only works when the key mode is on.
or something in my settings wrong?
Yes, key mode must be on for it to play MIDI notes.
Anybody used the DB-01 sequencer to drive another synth? Works as expected?
So it seems this doesn’t work when using the sequencer midi out to drive another synth. Could somebody else confirm this?
I’ve never tried it, but it looks like it should. From the manual:
What have you tried? What are you seeing instead?
If I place a trig on steps 1-5 with gate length 100 the note is triggered 5 times rather than a single long note. Maybe I’m dumb and doing it wrong…
There’s no “doing it wrong” on bass synths. Only happy accidents 
I can see how what you describe would be the case, though. The gate of the sequencer controls trig of the built in ENVs of the DB-01, not the timing of any NOTE OFF messages sent over MIDI. To put it another way, the MIDI OUT seems much more akin to CV OUT rather than GATE OUT.
In fact, the manual makes no mention of NOTE OFFs being sent at all that I can see. So if you want a “sustained” MIDI note, maybe try just off steps 2–4?
I’m away from the studio for another week, so I can’t experiment myself. But if someone doesn’t beat me to it, I’ll see what I can find then.