Elektron Digitakt

[sweepstakes]

for what it's worth I got an OT MkI lady winter

OG lady winter is the best OT!

[TubularCorporation]

 

for what it's worth I got an OT MkI lady winter

OG lady winter is the best OT!

 

 

Hats off to autocorrect for that one.

[Braintree]

Saw an Octatrack for $800 last night. Torn on that and the Digitakt.

[TRiP]

Only a few days into exploring the beast. Took me by surprise how different the layout, and to a lesser extenent the workflow, was from my experience with the MD UW. But I guess one just has to treat it as it's own unique instrument

 

The main thing i'm scratching my head about is the saving workflow - can't seem to see any 'kit' selecting function, only saving kits to a particular sequence/bank - thw work around would be to just open the sequence you want with the particualr kit, change to a free bank and just clear the sequence, but a bit of a silly method, i'd prefer to just be able to select various kits i've put together rather than hoping around banks looking for a nice sounding kit, or making a fresh one everytime.

 

Also, the control + all feature - the button combo to 'reset' is pretty awkwardly possitioned and very easy to hit the wrong key, which results in saving the kit, the opposite thing you would want to happen in a live situation

 

any users out there with some tips, tricks or thoughts to share?

[sweepstakes]

Parts are your kits on the OT. You get 4 parts per bank and there's keys for quickly switching parts. Save often because when you're first learning the OT it's super easy to hit the part reload button by accident and lose all your beautiful tweaks.

If 4 parts per bank seems limiting, don't forget there are also 16 scenes per part that you can assign to the crossfader and morph the crap out of everything.

Edited October 9, 2017 by sweepstakes

[TRiP]

Parts are your kits on the OT. You get 4 parts per bank and there's keys for quickly switching parts. Save often because when you're first learning the OT it's super easy to hit the part reload button by accident and lose all your beautiful tweaks.

If 4 parts per bank seems limiting, don't forget there are also 16 scenes per part that you can assign to the crossfader and morph the crap out of everything.

 

apologies, I was talking about the Digitakt

 

should have made that clearer

[sweepstakes]

 

Parts are your kits on the OT. You get 4 parts per bank and there's keys for quickly switching parts. Save often because when you're first learning the OT it's super easy to hit the part reload button by accident and lose all your beautiful tweaks.

If 4 parts per bank seems limiting, don't forget there are also 16 scenes per part that you can assign to the crossfader and morph the crap out of everything.

 

apologies, I was talking about the Digitakt

 

should have made that clearer

 

Oh lol. Sorry, can't help you with that one :P

[Guest]

my first app for the Digitakt is out now:

https://www.elektronauts.com/t/out-now-src-sample-transfer-for-ios/42940?u=void

 

get it if you wanna send files from iOS to your DT :D

[drukqs]

I've gotten pretty annoyed with the sampling/sequencing methods on the OP-1. Would someone recommend the DT over the OT if I'm looking for a supplement/replacement?

[modey]

If you want polyphony, no. But it definitely beats the OP-1 in terms of sequencing.

[TRiP]

I've gotten pretty annoyed with the sampling/sequencing methods on the OP-1. Would someone recommend the DT over the OT if I'm looking for a supplement/replacement?

 

No experience with the OP-1 so cant really compare, but i'm really loving the DT so far - it's basically a DAW in your hands

[drukqs]

no polyphony, eh? But there is polyphony when using the tracks separately, right? Because on videos it seems as though you can have a long samples playing on one track and short samples playing on others and they aren't cutting each other off. I suppose that's not technical polyphony.

 

Also, I'm going to take deep look at both of the manuals, but if anyone can answer quickly how deep is the song writing potential of each box? I've heard Digitakt does not have a song writing mode in the way that the Octa track does. I'm also curious about the potential for setting different sequence lengths for each individual track. Say, I want a 12 step sequence to be layered with a 16 step sequence, is that easily done?

 

And how good is it with polyrhythms? Say I want a 4/4 drum beat with triplet hi hats, or a 6 step triplet rhythm running with a 12 step 16th note rhythm?

 

The Octa track seems like a deeper machine in general I'm just wondering if it's really worth the price difference.

Edited November 29, 2017 by drukqs

[Guest Chesney]

yeah, no polyphony on a single track so samples will cut off on the same track, I think that's a good thing to be honest. Lots more scope, if you want polyphony on a single sample, load it again on a seperate track.

[TRiP]

no polyphony, eh? But there is polyphony when using the tracks separately, right? Because on videos it seems as though you can have a long samples playing on one track and short samples playing on others and they aren't cutting each other off. I suppose that's not technical polyphony.

 

Also, I'm going to take deep look at both of the manuals, but if anyone can answer quickly how deep is the song writing potential of each box? I've heard Digitakt does not have a song writing mode in the way that the Octa track does. I'm also curious about the potential for setting different sequence lengths for each individual track. Say, I want a 12 step sequence to be layered with a 16 step sequence, is that easily done?

 

And how good is it with polyrhythms? Say I want a 4/4 drum beat with triplet hi hats, or a 6 step triplet rhythm running with a 12 step 16th note rhythm?

 

The Octa track seems like a deeper machine in general I'm just wondering if it's really worth the price difference.

 

There's a reason the prices are so different - the Octa is for sure a deeper machine, however personally I prefer limitations and immediacy over menu diving and having too much potential options. Just depends what you are looking for from it? Is it going to be your master/brain or just another instrument?

 

In terms of the polyrhtyms and seperate track lengths - pretty sure Digi can do those fairly simply

 

song mode - non on the Digi as far as i'm aware, but that doesn't stop you from just changing patterns on the fly, or potentially sending CC messages to change them. never really saw much use for song mode myself

[sweepstakes]

Digitakt also only plays mono samples. This is generally better for mixing but some people get their feathers ruffled about that.

[TubularCorporation]

Stereo samples are important if you're using field recordings.

[drukqs]

 

no polyphony, eh? But there is polyphony when using the tracks separately, right? Because on videos it seems as though you can have a long samples playing on one track and short samples playing on others and they aren't cutting each other off. I suppose that's not technical polyphony.

 

Also, I'm going to take deep look at both of the manuals, but if anyone can answer quickly how deep is the song writing potential of each box? I've heard Digitakt does not have a song writing mode in the way that the Octa track does. I'm also curious about the potential for setting different sequence lengths for each individual track. Say, I want a 12 step sequence to be layered with a 16 step sequence, is that easily done?

 

And how good is it with polyrhythms? Say I want a 4/4 drum beat with triplet hi hats, or a 6 step triplet rhythm running with a 12 step 16th note rhythm?

 

The Octa track seems like a deeper machine in general I'm just wondering if it's really worth the price difference.

There's a reason the prices are so different - the Octa is for sure a deeper machine, however personally I prefer limitations and immediacy over menu diving and having too much potential options. Just depends what you are looking for from it? Is it going to be your master/brain or just another instrument?

 

In terms of the polyrhtyms and seperate track lengths - pretty sure Digi can do those fairly simply

 

song mode - non on the Digi as far as i'm aware, but that doesn't stop you from just changing patterns on the fly, or potentially sending CC messages to change them. never really saw much use for song mode myself

Yeah, right now I've been playing rhythm section via samples with some guitarist friends, making up song progressions and whatnot. The OP-1 is good for this but I think the step-based editing (parameter locks?) could open a some good possibilities for working with real musicians as it allows for more flexibility in a sequence and how the rhythm feels as it goes, and I don't have to awkwardly deconstruct and reconstruct a sequence to keep the rhythm from going stale.

 

I also look into it as it seems like a nice semi-closed loop sample editing system. The OP-1 is a nice jack of all trades, but by no means a beast of sampling due to the bad microphone and the shallow sequencer engines

[YEK]

could be good by itself and a multitrack though...

still interests me, i like toys too

[sweepstakes]

Stereo samples are important if you're using field recordings.

Yup, I figured someone would bring that up. To each their own. My 3 cents:

- It's supposed to be basically a one-shot drum sampler. So its design (memory limitations, etc.) are geared toward that, and field recording to me is going against the grain there a bit. 

- The OT is still available for a bit more cash and can even stream multiple hours-long field recordings from flash storage at a time which is kinda ridiculous... and isn't the MKi pretty cheap by now?

- If you want field recordings that bad, you can use tricks to overcome the DT's limitations, such as splitting stereo into mono L and R, using a track for each, and hard-panning them, or just resampling at double speed and playing back at half speed. 

[TubularCorporation]

 

Stereo samples are important if you're using field recordings.

Yup, I figured someone would bring that up. To each their own. My 3 cents:

- It's supposed to be basically a one-shot drum sampler. So its design (memory limitations, etc.) are geared toward that, and field recording to me is going against the grain there a bit. 

- The OT is still available for a bit more cash and can even stream multiple hours-long field recordings from flash storage at a time which is kinda ridiculous... and isn't the MKi pretty cheap by now?

- If you want field recordings that bad, you can use tricks to overcome the DT's limitations, such as splitting stereo into mono L and R, using a track for each, and hard-panning them, or just resampling at double speed and playing back at half speed. 

 

 

Totally agree, I haven't used one myself so I don't really know but the Digitakt seems like it's squarely in the "really good sampling drum machine" zone. 

 

I wouldn't want to use field recordings much if at all in the DT, I was more responding to the general "mono is better for mixing" statement (which is true except when it isn't, but in a sampling drum machine it usually is).  It seems like a really nice instrument.

 

EDIT: basically I was just being contrarian because contrarianism is my jam.

 

EDIT 2: I just had a look and New-in-box MKI Octatracks are a little cheaper but not that much different than when I got mine just shy of a  year ago.  I paid $1199 USD with free shipping in mid December 2016 for one, and checking eBay the prices for an unopened one right now are between around $999 and $1099, and used is only slightly less.  Definitely much, much cheaper than the MKII but not actually that much cheaper than the pre MKII prices. For anyone considering an OT I think getting a new MKI while you still can is definitely the best way to go, given the price difference, and I feel like if you can afford a Digitakt you can probably afford a MKI Octatrack if you wait for your next payheck, so it should really be a choice of which fits your needs more than price.

Edited November 30, 2017 by RSP

[sweepstakes]

I wouldn't want to use field recordings much if at all in the DT, I was more responding to the general "mono is better for mixing" statement (which is true except when it isn't, but in a sampling drum machine it usually is). It seems like a really nice instrument.

 

EDIT: basically I was just being contrarian because contrarianism is my jam.

Lol all good, it's often my jam too. I just feel like people really exaggerate the need for stereo. Working with mono signals is just fine and dandy and even ideal 95% of the time.

[TubularCorporation]

 

I wouldn't want to use field recordings much if at all in the DT, I was more responding to the general "mono is better for mixing" statement (which is true except when it isn't, but in a sampling drum machine it usually is). It seems like a really nice instrument.

 

EDIT: basically I was just being contrarian because contrarianism is my jam.

Lol all good, it's often my jam too. I just feel like people really exaggerate the need for stereo. Working with mono signals is just fine and dandy and even ideal 95% of the time.

 

 

 

Most of the samples I have in the OT right now are center-panned stereo (the dumbest format) because I spent a bunch of time sampling a bunch of short sounds from my other hardware into a DAW and then forgot to set it to render mono files.  So almost everything was sampled mono and then rendered stereo.

Edited November 30, 2017 by RSP

[sweepstakes]

 

 

I wouldn't want to use field recordings much if at all in the DT, I was more responding to the general "mono is better for mixing" statement (which is true except when it isn't, but in a sampling drum machine it usually is). It seems like a really nice instrument.

 

EDIT: basically I was just being contrarian because contrarianism is my jam.

Lol all good, it's often my jam too. I just feel like people really exaggerate the need for stereo. Working with mono signals is just fine and dandy and even ideal 95% of the time.

 

Most of the samples I have in the OT right now are center-panned stereo (the dumbest format) because I spent a bunch of time sampling a bunch of short sounds from my other hardware into a DAW and then forgot to set it to render mono files. So almost everything was sampled mono and then rendered stereo.

I think that's pretty common and the same goes for me!

 

Embracing mono opens up some cool tricks within the stereo paradigm. Like treating stereo as a mono pair for parallel processing. Or speaking of the OT, using the spatial processor to crossfade between 2 samples with modulation.

[TubularCorporation]

 

 

 

I wouldn't want to use field recordings much if at all in the DT, I was more responding to the general "mono is better for mixing" statement (which is true except when it isn't, but in a sampling drum machine it usually is). It seems like a really nice instrument.

 

EDIT: basically I was just being contrarian because contrarianism is my jam.

Lol all good, it's often my jam too. I just feel like people really exaggerate the need for stereo. Working with mono signals is just fine and dandy and even ideal 95% of the time.

 

Most of the samples I have in the OT right now are center-panned stereo (the dumbest format) because I spent a bunch of time sampling a bunch of short sounds from my other hardware into a DAW and then forgot to set it to render mono files. So almost everything was sampled mono and then rendered stereo.

I think that's pretty common and the same goes for me!

 

Embracing mono opens up some cool tricks within the stereo paradigm. Like treating stereo as a mono pair for parallel processing. Or speaking of the OT, using the spatial processor to crossfade between 2 samples with modulation.

 

 

I really need to take the two minutes necessary to definitively figure out if the OT converts mono samples to stereo when it loads them into RAM, because if it doesn't then I could free up some space by converting all that stuff to mono files.  I'm pretty sure it does, though, and I've only filled up about 3 gigs of a 64 gig CF card so far, so if it doesn't save RAM I'm not concerned.

[drukqs]

Does either the OT or DT have per-step effects? As in, oh, I want to parameter lock a reverb on one particular step on one particular track, is that possible?

 

Couldn't quite find an answer for this on google. It's not that big of a deal to but it would be cool. There are ways to imitate the effect though.

 

Leaning toward the OT for the long samples and stereo capabilities. How is the DT's stereo widener? Is it pretty nice or gimmicky?

 

It just looks like a more complete machine, better as a standalone unit, like you could use it by itself to make deep, fully-fledged tracks. Unless anyone finds that they use the DT in this way without problems...

 

Also, I'm a little confused about how patterns and kits seem to be linked on the DT? How tedious/annoying does this prove to be?

Edited December 2, 2017 by drukqs