Let’s say you’ve set up your step sequencer to the tempo and the note division that you want. However as your song progresses, you find you want to add trills and note flurries that are shorter than the chosen division, yet you don’t want to adjust the clock speed or note division. Making this sort of “subdivision” adjustment is called “ratcheting” and is a well-known trick in classic electronic music.
It used to be you needed to wire the CV gate outputs to multiple sequencers. But these days, many DAWs, such as Ableton Live and Propellerhead Reason have note-repeat MIDI plug-ins, and MIDI controllers such as Akai MPC-style controllers have note-repeat buttons. These functions let you achieve ratcheting-style effects by repeating finer note values than the default value of the sequencer with every trigger. It’s a great way to vary your sequence while maintaining that classic “old school” electronic vibe!