Elektron Digitakt

[modey]

I'd bet that most people who feel like they need more aren't taking full advantage of p-locks. In some cases even one or two tracks is enough.

ha, yup, I keep forgetting that I'm kinda lucky in a way, having grown up using trackers and becoming accustomed to some degree of channel economy (not as much as amiga composers using 4 track MODs, but similar).. I'm at the point with the octatrack where I often can't use more than 3 or 4 tracks without things sounding cluttered lol.. which is fine by me since I can essentially use a neighbour track for each thru/flex track.

[TubularCorporation]

Well, me and someone I used to work with both independently badgered a mutual friend (who had already approached me about a collaboration when he moves back in a few weeks) about this as an alternative to the OP-1 he was saving for and he's sold on it, so by the end of summer I'll have ad a chance to mess with one without having to actually spend any money. 

[TubularCorporation]

 

I'd bet that most people who feel like they need more aren't taking full advantage of p-locks. In some cases even one or two tracks is enough.

ha, yup, I keep forgetting that I'm kinda lucky in a way, having grown up using trackers and becoming accustomed to some degree of channel economy (not as much as amiga composers using 4 track MODs, but similar).. I'm at the point with the octatrack where I often can't use more than 3 or 4 tracks without things sounding cluttered lol.. which is fine by me since I can essentially use a neighbour track for each thru/flex track.

 

 

Yeah, the only way the track count has affected me so far is my old MPC habit of building up drum parts as a bunch of different tracks and then using mutes, so I'm used to having kick, snare and hi hats spread across 2-4 tracks each with a few more for percussion and then using a single pattern for almost everything and bringing in different layers of drum complexity with mutes.  As far as other instruments went, even my densest mixes would rarely have more than 3 or 4 tracks at once so it's really only the approach to drums that's an adjustment, and I can always use the MPC as a pure drum machine alongside the OT if I feel like working that way. In fact my first thought when the real Digitakt demos started dropping was that it would b a really good pair with the OT for that kind of setup - all of your percussion on the Digitakt and everything else on the OT.  I wouldn't be surprised if that was one of he use-cases they had in mind, to be honest.

 

My first experience with sampling was also trackers, and looking at the site Impulse Tracker apparently has 64 channels but I don't remember ever seeing more than 8.

[modey]

Ah yeah, that's one thing I've noticed when working with nanoloop especially—most of my channels are made up of several different sounds crammed in, and muting a channel can mute not only a kick but also a bass and fragments of the lead. Having said that though, with nanoloop it's easy to just create a variation and switch to it instantly, instead of using mutes.

 

I really wish there was a 'mute step' function on the octatrack.. unless there is and nobody has told me about it? I wonder if one exists on the digitakt?

 

And yeah, I think the default in IT/FT2 was 8, but then more could be added. If I remember correctly FT2 allowed up to 32, but nobody really used that many, except maybe some of the more lush composers like Elwood.. even then a lot of the channels were used simply for delays lol

[sweepstakes]

This is kinda hokey but I think you can just plug the OT's MIDI output back into its input, assign the MIDI output channels to the same as the audio channels, and then mute the MIDI tracks. You lose p-locks that way (unless you lock the MIDI CCs) but at least you can have some mutable steps. This also lets you run tracks of varying lengths on the same audio channel.

[sweepstakes]

You can also just do variations with parts/scenes instead of layers. Especially with custom LFO shapes, there's a lot of possibilities there. It's just a different way of thinking.

[modey]

Yeah, I've been doing a bit of that with scenes. If the digitakt had scenes as well I probably would have held out for one.. having said that though the ctrl all + reload kit feature is almost like that anyway. Not quite, but close.

I've been mostly treating parts as kits though, not really changing them up mid-pattern.. but after seeing what Cenk did in that volca bass/beats video I think I may have to work on a new technique!

[sweepstakes]

after seeing what Cenk did in that volca bass/beats video I think I may have to work on a new technique!

Ha, I was thinking the same thing :) I saw it when it first came out but watching it again this weekend, it seems so magical all of a sudden.  

[TubularCorporation]

You can also just do variations with parts/scenes instead of layers. Especially with custom LFO shapes, there's a lot of possibilities there. It's just a different way of thinking.

 

Yeah, parts and scenes were my first thought.  Looping MIDI back into it is something I haven't gotten around to yet but I'd never even thought of it for step muting.

 

And now I'm thinking about the potential of lopping it back through the MIDIpal and playing around with MIDI delay and the arpeggiator and the scale quantizer and even the dispatch would be pretty cool for routing different notes from chords on a MIDI track to different audio tracks and changing the routing in real time. 

 

So that's something I'll have to try soon.

 

 

I wish I'd picked up an OT back in 2013, last time I could have afforded one.

Edited May 31, 2017 by RSP

[Guest]

 

I like that you can manipulate parameters of all samples at the same time, but afaics - are there only 8 sample parts/pads possible at the same time, or can you also use the bottom row (reserved for midi tracks in above video) to load in samples? Looks like a fun jam machine for live stuff, but 712 euro's here? Too much imo, 499 I'd consider buying :) .

[modey]

Yeah, it's expensive, but it's also Elektron. Despite the 8 sample track "limit", it looks like there's plenty of other stuff to make it worth the money.

[TubularCorporation]

The limited track count, limited MIDI capability and lack of polyphony all seemed like dealbreakers on the OT to me on paper, too, and it was actually pickup machines that finally sold me on it.  Actually using it, none of the things I expected to be limitations have actually been problems so far, and I pretty much don't use pickup machines at all yet.

 

I know it's a cliche and just a couple f months ago I was not convinced, but it really is less about the specs and more about how everything interacts and the whole workflow with these things.

 

Definitely not casual purchase pricing by a long shot,at leastnot for me and probably not for most people, but I bet it's a nice piece of equipment.

[Guest Chesney]

what cenk vid with the beats? link?

[modey]

It's a work of art

[acid1]

I'm not really a fan of switching recording/playback with parts like that. I prefer switching back and forth between a record and play pattern instead.

Edited May 31, 2017 by acid1

[auxien]

A friend of mine got a Digitakt over the weekend, I went and hung out with him while he was working on it, hooking it up to his Virus TI and to Ableton...it froze up over a dozen times. Sometimes while not doing anything other than it was in the middle of playing, nothing changing at all. Freeze. Reset. Over and over and over. Lol.

 

Other than that, it seems like a fun little machine if it fills the right spot in your needs. Very appealing little box, though I've got no personal want or need for it.

[modey]

It does seem like it was perhaps a bit rushed, in terms of the OS version. I'm guessing there will be a ton of bugfixes soon.. as well as a bunch of new features

[Guest]

ye, made a bunch of pattern using it as a polyrhythmic polysynth, actually close to something like a song and I liked it. Then it crashed and all was lost - in a wait for OS paste before diving in again..

[Guest]

it's pretty slick for synth sounds btw, especially plucked string kinda things.. it's not exactly Karplus Strong synthesis, but cycling a microloop on any sample is a dece oscillator.. adjust timbre with bit reduction, Overdrive, and sample position of course.. sweeping the sample position sounds glitchy lush.. then filter + envelopes.. it's good!

[kausto]

Some of demos give an impression that there is some zero crossing detection in sampler engine. Is it just an impression?

[TubularCorporation]

Some of demos give an impression that there is some zero crossing detection in sampler engine. Is it just an impression?

 

OT has it so I'd be surprised if the Digitakt didn't, but I don't actually know.

[modey]

so many people bitching about this on the elektronauts forum.. people wanting a fully polyphonic sampler with slices, unlimited recording time, stereo samples, velocity sensitive pads, track choking etc.. just get a fkn mpc if you want to make wonky hiphop from vinyl and leave the digitakt and octatrack to people who know how to exploit/play off the limitations :P

Edited June 9, 2017 by modey

[TubularCorporation]

so many people bitching about this on the elektronauts forum.. people wanting a fully polyphonic sampler with slices, unlimited recording time, stereo samples, velocity sensitive pads, track choking etc.. just get a fkn mpc if you want to make wonky hiphop from vinyl and leave the digitakt and octatrack to people who know how to exploit/play off the limitations :P

 

Obviously the answer is get both.

 

EDIT: for a community dedicated specifically to Elektron gear they sure do have a lot of complaints about Elektron gear over there.

Edited June 9, 2017 by RSP

[Guest Chesney]

Fuck those entitled people. If something does not meet your needs then don't buy it, simple. Elektron are one of the few companies that listen and implement as much as they can for the users.

If it had everything then it would be another 1k+ machine and not differ enough from the other boxes to warrant being itself.

 

Some people aye?

[TubularCorporation]

Fuck those entitled people. If something does not meet your needs then don't buy it, simple. Elektron are one of the few companies that listen and implement as much as they can for the users.

If it had everything then it would be another 1k+ machine and not differ enough from the other boxes to warrant being itself.

 

Some people aye?

 

I just figured out that you can use the OT's spatialzer to center pan the left and right inputs of a stereo pair (m/s on, phase off, send at full, MID at full SIDE at zero, WIDTH at zero) so you can send more than one input through a single thru machine without having them hard panned. And on the way I found a bunch of interesting, vaguely chorus-like sounds that aren't at all like what I'd normally use the spatializer for. Which is what makes this thing so fun.