Get the Ableton Project as well as the Digitone&Digitakt project files on my Patreon: www.patreon.com/mileskvndra Thank you all so much for your support! 💚
@@SKRDyaheard Hey SKRD, all project files of this set (Ableton, Digitone and Digitakt) are included in Level 4. You will also find my Ableton template in this level which I use for all my sets. Many thanks for considering! :)
I wish my brain worked as well as your live set flow. So clear, so calm, pure vibes. Thanks for starting my day off with this!! I’ll go and look at my Digitakt in disgust for a while. 😁
Haha thank you for the great feedback! I've to admit it took me a while to get there - and since then my setup evolved quite a bit so it's not like that anymore. But pretty sure you'll find a great setup for you too!!
@@MilesKvndra Always has to evolve! I'm enjoying DJing a lot more (helped by a new mixer purchase!) but now wondering if I can bring my Digitakt into that or maybe an Eventide H9, which I'd like to control with a midi controller (current rabbit hole) 🙂 Appreciate your well produced and super interesting content
Hey Matt, thanks a lot for stoping by and the nice words! Really appreciate your work and your music - hope to see you soon (maybe at Superbooth?)! Cheers buddy 💚
I sort of feel like the Digitakt is just making this more complicated. Ableton does just as good job with samples, especially since you made ableton FX mirroring the Digitakts - I just don't see the value in the Digitakt other than using the fill on the sequencer. I love these Elektron boxes but when you bring Push and Ableton into the mix it does feel like a bit of a false economy using Digitakt. I can see why you'd want the Digitone, it is quite unique and more accessible/hands on than Operator, and the Mother 32 has a quality worth including. Both being sequenced by Ableton make sense too, but the Digitakt just throws it all off and adds very little. If you left out the Digitakt all the mutes, and sequencing would be done on the Push with no flipping between Push scenes and Digitakt patterns/mutes.
That actually is a very good point which I’ve been thinking about as well. And yes, for the send FX controls and loops I could be using Ableton + for example the push 2 for the sends. But as you say it the main main reason is the fill trigs. I haven’t found a way of performing something similar within Ableton and it is really important for me as I use them for transitions within patterns quite a lot. Implementing those samples like for example the swooshs as fixed loops in Ableton would take away a lot of flexibility. And yeah the Digitakt is the most unstable piece in the chain (causing sync issues from time to time) but I haven’t really found a good alternative for what it adds to the setup yet. But like I said I see a lot of potential for this so while it keeps growing over time I’m pretty sure I will change/rearrange things. :)
@@MilesKvndra I think what I would do is make a drum track that was specifically my fill and then just unmute it when I want to hear the fill. I'm waiting for my Push 2, and as much as I love my Digitakt I feel like it will be redundant if the Push fits into my hybrid workflow. I'd actually like to see what sequencing my Syntakt as the drums with Push would be like. I feel like Syntakt brings some percussion and sound design that would be tedious to rebuild in Ableton, whereas Digitakt is easily replaced.
@@bloopbleepnothinghere Hi. I have push 2 and wanted to get away from ableton and go dawless a bit and have my eyes and ears on the digitakt, love the sounds and sequencing and lot more....but now reading this it would be viser to get a syntakt?
@@matan2903 Depends on what you want really. I personally use the Digitakt very little in my dawless setup, and would not go to the hassle of integrating it with Ableton. I just don't love samplers, I prefer the sound design of drum synths to browsing thousands of samples. That said when I have used the Digitakt it's been a lot of fun, and very creative, especially with the updates. I think if I owned one Digi box, if I am honest, it would be the Digitakt as it's so versatile. But I have lots of other synths, so I can synthesize the vast amount of stuff I'd be using samples for otherwise.
nice way of getting a hybrid set including elektron boxes and ableton. I will give it a try to built my own. Being DAWles with elektron only bringing less sound design options and shorten pattern length. Very inspiring. Thumbs up
Cheers Wechselzahn! Yeah that was exactly my reason - I wanted to be more flexible in terms of sounddesign, mixing, amount of tracks and pattern length. Happy to take all the latency stuff on for that which (the more I work on it) keeps getting better and better.
The Digitakt and Digitone will listen to program change MIDI messages and change patterns based on them. Ableton can send program changes from clips. So, putting those together, if you wanted to, you could get Ableton set up to change the patterns on your Digi boxes automatically when you trigger scenes. One less thing to worry about during the set. This video was really informative. Thanks!
Hey, thanks a bunch for the tip! I already tried that but always got some MIDI issues with that. Also I sometimes had the case that the program change on the Digis was one Bar later than in Ableton. So in theory this would be a dream but I couldn’t get it to work properly unfortunately. :(
@@MilesKvndrai’ve just found a solution for that! On the MIDI clip from Ableton where you send the MIDI program change to the Digitakt you have to select the global quantize on “none”. I had the same issue, sometimes the Digitakt was changing the pattern one bar later but now it’s working properly!
@@MilesKvndra You can use the Max for Live device "Pattern Clips". There you have the choice to select either switching patterns over Overbridgde or per MIDI program change. It worked well for me because it triggers the pattern switch before the next pattern happens.
Thank you for the very detailed explanation! I never thought of using a DIgitakt MIDI track just to use the DT as a controller for Live. I tend to use the DT's sequencer to drive my other mono synths but I can see some advantages to using the Push instead.Lots of ideas to play around with. Really enjoyed the live set BTW.
Dude! Excelent video!! I've always been a huge fan of your educational videos. I appreciate that your music is dope as well, makes your content much more enjoyable!! Thank you for your knowledge 🙌🏻
Thanks for the tutorial and a great overview of the setup. Really creative way to use digitakt. Just a small clarification, is it so that you have main kick and bass elements programmed in Ableton in the first group and only use digitakt to add percussive samples. Or do you actually run a sequence for kick and bass group in digitakt as well as additional percussive elements? And another question, by grouping kick and bass elements together, it sort of creates a limitation of stopping kick, but letting bass play along. I guess it is ok, when bass is not driving any melody and serves more as a comp element, but if you were to play more bass driven house/techno music, would you then group bass elements into a separate group?
Thank you! Regarding your questions: correct, in this setup the Kick and bass are directly in Ableton Live, the DT only adds percussive elements. And great observation on your 2nd question, I stumbled across this issue too. The cool thing is that you can just open the group in Ableton Live and this way have access to the Kick and bass clips separately. I meanwhile progressed from this setup and this is how I do it now
This is just the video I needed to find! I recently added a digitakt to my ableton live/push 2 set up and was worried I just made an impulse buy with the digi. I love how you had your push 2 very "clean" with your 8 tracks and used the digi as a percussive extension of it all. I love the performance abilities of the digitakt but was worried it was simply superfluous with push 2 as well. My setup is similar to yours except I have a hydrasynth deluxe as my main hardware synthesizer. Thank you so much for the great video. I would also love to see what is contained within your groups in you ableton clips. For example, do you just have multiple hihat tracks all grouped together? Why do you need a group if you are launching the group and not whatever individual tracks are contained within that group? I hope that question makes sense!
Great to hear! I’ve already further evolved this setup and further slimmed it down: now I use Ableton Live with Push 3 + Moog Sub 25 + Digitone. All sampling and performance FX I handle now directly with Live and Push. Regarding your question: yes, there are various tracks within the groups eg hihat tracks in the hihat group. The main reason for me is that I want to have a total of 8 tracks groups to keep the triggering of clips as simple as possible when playing live as Ableton Push 3 just can show 8 tracks in session view at once.
Great vid!! Interesting how you stick to 7 scenes per song. Great tip, I'm going to give this a go. Do you find it limiting just 7 scenes for one song? Im used to having lots more but i can see how it can make things simpler so each song is contained in the 8x8 grid. Thanks again for the amazing content, its inspired me to get my own live sets going, thanks again!! :-)
Usually I’m sticking to it but I’ve also already broken this rule a few times. Really depends on the song. But usually I stick to it and instead try to make the individual scenes more varied. Works pretty well for me!
Hi Miles. Great ideas and execution here. Just wondering how you’re handling Live’s latency and timing issues when running a hybrid setup? I have a DT2, DN, Subsequent37 and a Virus, which all work great together - until I try to include MIDI and plugins in Live - at which point it all falls apart timing-wise. What’s your approach?
Hey, I totally feel you there - this really is a pain and was honestly one of the main reasons why I removed the Digitone from my live performance setup because every time I was starting Ableton Live, Overbridge was having another latency time so I couldn't really compensate that. However with classical midi connections I found everything to be way more reliable and it works good for me. I touch on this in this video where I go through my setup: th-cam.com/video/LrzGmoa-jic/w-d-xo.htmlsi=bfCguorkSEsCVbzl
A fellow producer here who didnt make music for 15 years Looking to get back into it. Lucky I found you in my first search to see what people are using HW wise these days cuz your taste of prod reminds of me of mine :) If you dont mind me asking, cant I just use the 8 rotaries in the push to do what you are doing with the two digi elements. Assuming these can be mapped to anything. Also maybe add another controller to control a moog VST/plugin and accomplish the same? Not exactly the same but you know what I mean.
Hey Leonard, welcome back 2 the machines! Great to hear that you find the videos useful. And to your question: Since this video I actually further improved my setup and did exactly what you said: I removed the Digitakt to keep it compact and now use the Push's macros to control send FX and transitions. I think I will do another video soon to speak through how I mapped my macros and make use of different tools within Ableton Live to be very flexible in terms of controlling the live performance.
Nice video and thank youbto show us how you set it up. ❤ do you have problems with sync digitakt with ableton? Do you use overbridge for digitakt and digitone?
Hey Luka, yes I use Overbridge and had some latency issues when using the Digitakt’s internal sequencer. But when sequencing in Ableton everything works quite smooth
Hello Miles, how are you ? I have all this equipment, but I have no idea how to configure and assemble my live set. Does your project help me come up with an idea so I can proceed? Thank you very much and congratulations on your work. Incredible
Hey Fabio, it depends on what you’re looking for. The templates eg for Ableton Live I have on my Patreon give you all the details on how I build up my sets in Ableton Live, which devices are on the tracks, etc. but they don’t say how the hardware is connected
Hi Miles, thanks a lot for this video, it really helps to understand how we can combine our hardware equipment to build more versatile and unique performances. However, there are still some things that I don't understand and I hope you could provide some clarity on. First, and most importantly, I still do not understand how can someone change the instrument that is being played in a certain channel, when changing scenes. Since you are using only 8 channels, but you are transitioning from one track to another, and I assume that your lead synth in on track is not the same as to the next one, how do you make this change? Second, can you please explain from a connectivity point of view how did you midi map ableton send channels to Digitakt's midi channel 9 knobs? Thank you :)
Hi Christos, that's great to hear! Regarding your questions: The 8 channels I'm using are group channels, so they contain several individual tracks for every song (eg Kick+bass group channel holds the individual kick+bass tracks from all of the songs in the set). The group channels then just really help to keep everything tidy and apply the different performance FX to all the different tracks. This way I can transition between tracks and have the lead sound of track 1 play with the lead of track 2 eg. And regarding your 2nd question I actually just used Ableton Live's MIDI mapping feature which is very straight forward to MIDI map external gear. :)
Hey Joey, yes I’m happy to do that! A video like that is already planned but don’t know when I can make it as I first have some other projects coming up. But it will come. :)
Ableton Live really is the way to play it. Hint: it is called "Live" for a reason. Anyway, thanks for the detailed breakdown! Maybe we'll be seeing you on Cercle one day... :D I'm curious - do you prototype/compose your sequences on Digitone before recording them as clips in Ableton Live? Also, what soft synths did you use?
Wow thank you - Cercle would actually be a dream! 💚 I sometimes do that but mostly I use the push to play the Digitone so that I can directly record it in Ableton if I found something nice. And as software synths I’m using Ableton Wavetable a lot as well as Native Instruments Monark. Love both :)
Oh that’s a good question. Depends on what you want to do - Analog 4 sounds way warmer as it’s an analogue synth and Digitone has the nice glassyness of an FM synth and is als great for percussion. I think both would pair well with the M-32
Really cool dude. Been thinking a lot about a similar setup, especially the layering of additional loops on top, hadn’t thought about my Digitakt for that as it seemed like overkill but makes a ton of sense to keep your ableton tracks super focused to 8 groups and use the performance features of the DT. How long did it take you to compose all of the parts for the set? Do you also arrange in this kind of way by live jamming from the session view? This is what I mostly want to achieve from a set up like this.
Hey Diego, thanks a lot! It took me quite some time to set everything up, the most time was figuring out what would be the best way to set everything up in an optimal way. The tricky part was that I had some songs that existed in this new setup but also some DAWless songs which I needed to integrate in this setup. This took me all in all a couple of weeks to bring everything together and then also work on transitions and everything. But this part of the process was a ton of fun!
Sehr gutes Video und super detailliert. Danke dafür ! Gibt es einen Grund warum du die Main Drums in Ableton live spielst und nicht direkt vom Digitakt ? Wie sind deine Erfahrungen damit? Ist wie unten im Post der Pattern Wechsel das Problem oder geht es eher um Latency issues? Wie kommst du mit der Synchronisation von Overbridge und Ableton zu recht? Beim Live Einsatz stoße ich wegen der Latenz (8ms) immer wieder an Grenzen.
Moin moin, vielen Dank dir, auhc nochmal für den Tipp mit dem Pattern Clips Device. So konnte ich jetzt tatsächlich alles so einrichten, dass Patterns wechseln, wenn ich im Liveset den Song wechsel - ein Problem weniger! :) Zu deinen Fragen: Der Hauptgrund war eigentlich, dass ich mehr mit Ableton machen wollte, um mehr Mixing Möglichkeiten direkt im Set zu haben. Nutze z.B. auf Hihats sehr gerne Abletons Vocoder Effekt oder generell den EQ8 auf Kicks und Snares, da ist der Digitakt dann doch etwas limitiert. Außerdem nutze ich gerne den Fill mode vom Digitakt, um Vatiation in die Pattern zu bringen und Bfür Build Ups. Dazu kommt, dass ich (genau wie du) auch immer wieder mit Latenzproblemen zu kämpfen habe. Daher lasse ich die Drums hauptsächlich in Ableton und nutze den Digitakt für zusätzliche Perc loops und build ups.
Thank you Bryn! I have different ways, for the external synths I’m using the latency compensation of Ableton’s external synth plugin, for the Digis I’m routing the audio of the Overbridge track to a different audio track and have a latency compensation directly on that track. Once set up both ways work very nicely. :)
That sound very very convenient. Although it seems to me that u are criminally underestimating the digitakt and digitone performance workflow, Wich I know I know how powerful they are(I've seen ur other stuff 😅😅)
Oh, I'd never underestimate the power of Elektron Boxes in a live setup! They are pretty insane but I found them for me working better in a DAWless scenario which is how I'm using them now in my studio. But they are amazing for live!
@MilesKvndra that's true.. although Im trying to use them like they are together and then use Ableton for the return tracks like expression sliders. Do u think U can explore a set up like that?
Great as always, thanks! How do you connect Digis into the Live, with Overbridge? Do you use multitrack or just master? And it would be nice to see the routing and processing in Live overall, thanks
Thank you Nook! Yes exactly, I use Overbridge for that. For the Digitone I'm using multitrack (as it is sequenced by Ableton) and for the Digitakt I'm using the master as I also like to use some of the DT's effects on the sound.
@@MilesKvndra yeah, I saw that in your video as well! I have the similar workaround, but I think it still adds some more delay to general project latency. That being said, I am not really playing piano live or something similar, so can live with it haha
@@OtoMeskhy with my Moog it works as well, I have a global latency of around 6ms which is okay. But still it all is a little wonky with the whole latency
Hey Miles, was wondering if you've run into audio dropouts when using Ableton to send midi to Digitone or Digitakt. I can't seem to find the problem, but when it happens, if I change the sample rate in Ableton and hit play, it will work again. No idea what's going on, but it makes me nervous to try a live set with this config. Any thoughts?
Hey Carlos, hmm that’s strange. I haven’t experienced such issue. I sometimes experience the Digitakt being out of sync when starting Ableton. But then I restart the Takt and all stays in sync. But no audio dropouts here. Maybe raise that question on Elektronauts?
Hey, really cool video ! Just a quick question, how do you get your LFO clock so precise on the mother 32 ? Is the lfo set on the global clock or is it just an effect on ableton ?
Hey Corentin, not sure what exactly you mean: I’m not using the M-32s LFO in this set and dialling in all parameters of the synth by hand. It’s only getting some software FX from Ableton and a side chain modulation to decrease volume when the kick hits. Do you mean that?
@@MilesKvndra Ok so it was the sidechain I was talking about, I thought you've found a way to do it with the LFO ! Glad to see it was simply from ableton
Interesting point but for me the Push makes the perfect combination of mappable knobs and clip launch matrix, whereas the midi fighter twister doesn’t have a clip launch matrix.
Hey man would you say have an ableton push and maschine be beneficiary or redundant and overkill? I also am wondering if ableton push makes more sense then maschine if im using ableton alot. I love the NI software but still. I dont have a push 2 but wondering if i should get one.
Hey Joey, depends on what you want to do but in general I would say one Midi Controller for the Start is sufficient. I’ve never had a Maschine but heard good things about it. But in terms of Ableton integration the Push 2 is just king and hard to beat as it is a native integration.
@@MilesKvndra oh hey thabks man. Ya i just got a deluge to use for sampling and such so i may wait on the ableton but should have went thst route. I love the maschine workflow though i wont lie. Its very easy to use and being able to record ideas in real time i have not been able to find another software that competes. Correct me if im wrong.
Get the Ableton Project as well as the Digitone&Digitakt project files on my Patreon: www.patreon.com/mileskvndra
Thank you all so much for your support! 💚
What level would I need to grab the project file? Thanks!
@@SKRDyaheard Hey SKRD, all project files of this set (Ableton, Digitone and Digitakt) are included in Level 4. You will also find my Ableton template in this level which I use for all my sets. Many thanks for considering! :)
@@MilesKvndra nice; is it updated to use PAttern Clips?
@@SKRDyaheard not yet unfortunately I just added that after the set was completed. In this set I did all the pattern changes by hand.
@@SKRDyaheard it's the exact Ableton template from the set of this video (just removed some samples due to copyright)
I wish my brain worked as well as your live set flow. So clear, so calm, pure vibes. Thanks for starting my day off with this!! I’ll go and look at my Digitakt in disgust for a while. 😁
Haha thank you for the great feedback! I've to admit it took me a while to get there - and since then my setup evolved quite a bit so it's not like that anymore. But pretty sure you'll find a great setup for you too!!
@@MilesKvndra Always has to evolve! I'm enjoying DJing a lot more (helped by a new mixer purchase!) but now wondering if I can bring my Digitakt into that or maybe an Eventide H9, which I'd like to control with a midi controller (current rabbit hole) 🙂 Appreciate your well produced and super interesting content
@ that sounds awesome! Keep going with it :)
Thanks for making an incredibly COMPLEX workflow into something i can almost wrap my brain around. :0)
Great video BTW!
Thank you so much! Very happy to hear that 😍
Very interesting use of the Digitakt, and great insight into how to organize such a set!
Thank you! Happy to hear that you dig the insights 🙏🏻
Love your setup! You just inspired me. i am totally feeling this...ARmk2+A4+tb03+zaq+push2
Thanks a bunch Andy! And that sounds like an interesting setup - let me know how it goes and happy new year!
Excellent video, thanks for sharing MIles
Hey Matt, thanks a lot for stoping by and the nice words! Really appreciate your work and your music - hope to see you soon (maybe at Superbooth?)! Cheers buddy 💚
@@MilesKvndra thank you, I appreciate yours too. You’re an excellent musician
Just watched this vid on the Patreon early release. Very cool! A really smart setup and very well explained! Nice work!
Hey Spookyzoo, this is awesome to hear! Many thanks for the great feedback, really appreciate that. 🙏🏻💚
Awesome. Thanks for sharing. 🙂👍
You’re welcome Andrew! Cheers 🙌🏻
Beautiful video as always! Appreciate the information, I can really see you in a future with an Analog Four or Rhythm
Cheers Federico! For now I’m happy with the setup as it is but I tried the Rytm at a friends studio and really loved it. Really nice drum machine
I agree! I myself have the Digitone, Digitakt, the Push and the Vermona PerFourmer.
Oh wow, that sounds like an awesome setup too! The PerFourmer caught my attention too, lovely machine 💚
Great Tutorial, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience!
Thanks a bunch for watching Anian! Great to hear that you dig it 🙏🏻
Thanks a lot for the explanation! Great video as always my friend.
Hey Alfredo, thanks a lot, much appreciated. Cheers!
@@MilesKvndra I asked you in another vid if you could one day explain how everything works together. Thanks for the video!
Great format, thanks for the vidéo !
Thanks a lot Ralph! I’m planning more videos on hybrid setups soon :)
I sort of feel like the Digitakt is just making this more complicated. Ableton does just as good job with samples, especially since you made ableton FX mirroring the Digitakts - I just don't see the value in the Digitakt other than using the fill on the sequencer. I love these Elektron boxes but when you bring Push and Ableton into the mix it does feel like a bit of a false economy using Digitakt. I can see why you'd want the Digitone, it is quite unique and more accessible/hands on than Operator, and the Mother 32 has a quality worth including. Both being sequenced by Ableton make sense too, but the Digitakt just throws it all off and adds very little. If you left out the Digitakt all the mutes, and sequencing would be done on the Push with no flipping between Push scenes and Digitakt patterns/mutes.
That actually is a very good point which I’ve been thinking about as well. And yes, for the send FX controls and loops I could be using Ableton + for example the push 2 for the sends. But as you say it the main main reason is the fill trigs. I haven’t found a way of performing something similar within Ableton and it is really important for me as I use them for transitions within patterns quite a lot. Implementing those samples like for example the swooshs as fixed loops in Ableton would take away a lot of flexibility. And yeah the Digitakt is the most unstable piece in the chain (causing sync issues from time to time) but I haven’t really found a good alternative for what it adds to the setup yet. But like I said I see a lot of potential for this so while it keeps growing over time I’m pretty sure I will change/rearrange things. :)
@@MilesKvndra I think what I would do is make a drum track that was specifically my fill and then just unmute it when I want to hear the fill. I'm waiting for my Push 2, and as much as I love my Digitakt I feel like it will be redundant if the Push fits into my hybrid workflow. I'd actually like to see what sequencing my Syntakt as the drums with Push would be like. I feel like Syntakt brings some percussion and sound design that would be tedious to rebuild in Ableton, whereas Digitakt is easily replaced.
@@bloopbleepnothinghere good to hear and good idea! If you find a good workaround I would be happy to hear.
@@bloopbleepnothinghere Hi. I have push 2 and wanted to get away from ableton and go dawless a bit and have my eyes and ears on the digitakt, love the sounds and sequencing and lot more....but now reading this it would be viser to get a syntakt?
@@matan2903 Depends on what you want really. I personally use the Digitakt very little in my dawless setup, and would not go to the hassle of integrating it with Ableton.
I just don't love samplers, I prefer the sound design of drum synths to browsing thousands of samples.
That said when I have used the Digitakt it's been a lot of fun, and very creative, especially with the updates.
I think if I owned one Digi box, if I am honest, it would be the Digitakt as it's so versatile. But I have lots of other synths, so I can synthesize the vast amount of stuff I'd be using samples for otherwise.
I can't wait for this...
Cheers Levi 🙏🏻
Very informative, thank you very much
Thanks for watching and the feedback! 🙏🏻
Great video thanks, I'm just creating a very similar set up but with Akai force instead of ableton
Thanks a lot! Hope it is helpful:)
nice way of getting a hybrid set including elektron boxes and ableton. I will give it a try to built my own. Being DAWles with elektron only bringing less sound design options and shorten pattern length. Very inspiring. Thumbs up
Cheers Wechselzahn! Yeah that was exactly my reason - I wanted to be more flexible in terms of sounddesign, mixing, amount of tracks and pattern length. Happy to take all the latency stuff on for that which (the more I work on it) keeps getting better and better.
How do you deal with latency?
very helpful ty. Synth sounds great
Thank you! Very happy to hear that :)
Awesome 😊 Thank you so much to your all videos, ideas and experiences. Thanks 💫 GOOD LUCK ! 🍀🌸
Thanks so much Cti! Hope you are doing well :)
The Digitakt and Digitone will listen to program change MIDI messages and change patterns based on them. Ableton can send program changes from clips. So, putting those together, if you wanted to, you could get Ableton set up to change the patterns on your Digi boxes automatically when you trigger scenes. One less thing to worry about during the set.
This video was really informative. Thanks!
Hey, thanks a bunch for the tip! I already tried that but always got some MIDI issues with that. Also I sometimes had the case that the program change on the Digis was one Bar later than in Ableton. So in theory this would be a dream but I couldn’t get it to work properly unfortunately. :(
@@MilesKvndra Aww bummer.
@@MilesKvndrai’ve just found a solution for that! On the MIDI clip from Ableton where you send the MIDI program change to the Digitakt you have to select the global quantize on “none”. I had the same issue, sometimes the Digitakt was changing the pattern one bar later but now it’s working properly!
@@sabinbadea94 wow Sabin that sounds promising! How did you setup the midi config in Ableton and on the Digitone?
@@MilesKvndra You can use the Max for Live device "Pattern Clips". There you have the choice to select either switching patterns over Overbridgde or per MIDI program change. It worked well for me because it triggers the pattern switch before the next pattern happens.
Thank you for the very detailed explanation! I never thought of using a DIgitakt MIDI track just to use the DT as a controller for Live. I tend to use the DT's sequencer to drive my other mono synths but I can see some advantages to using the Push instead.Lots of ideas to play around with. Really enjoyed the live set BTW.
Thanks a lot! Yeah it really has some advantages although I have the feeling that I am not fully there yet will refine it further. :)
Loved your liveset sooo much! ❤
♥️♥️
Dude!
Excelent video!!
I've always been a huge fan of your educational videos.
I appreciate that your music is dope as well, makes your content much more enjoyable!!
Thank you for your knowledge 🙌🏻
Hey Gabriel, so great to see you here! And that’s awesome to hear, very happy to read that. Keep it up buddy 🙌🏻
very nice video and music! Thanks for inspire!
Cheers Looprana! Happy to hear that it inspires you. 🙌🏻
Thanks for the tutorial and a great overview of the setup. Really creative way to use digitakt. Just a small clarification, is it so that you have main kick and bass elements programmed in Ableton in the first group and only use digitakt to add percussive samples. Or do you actually run a sequence for kick and bass group in digitakt as well as additional percussive elements? And another question, by grouping kick and bass elements together, it sort of creates a limitation of stopping kick, but letting bass play along. I guess it is ok, when bass is not driving any melody and serves more as a comp element, but if you were to play more bass driven house/techno music, would you then group bass elements into a separate group?
Thank you! Regarding your questions: correct, in this setup the Kick and bass are directly in Ableton Live, the DT only adds percussive elements. And great observation on your 2nd question, I stumbled across this issue too. The cool thing is that you can just open the group in Ableton Live and this way have access to the Kick and bass clips separately. I meanwhile progressed from this setup and this is how I do it now
This is just the video I needed to find! I recently added a digitakt to my ableton live/push 2 set up and was worried I just made an impulse buy with the digi. I love how you had your push 2 very "clean" with your 8 tracks and used the digi as a percussive extension of it all. I love the performance abilities of the digitakt but was worried it was simply superfluous with push 2 as well.
My setup is similar to yours except I have a hydrasynth deluxe as my main hardware synthesizer. Thank you so much for the great video.
I would also love to see what is contained within your groups in you ableton clips. For example, do you just have multiple hihat tracks all grouped together? Why do you need a group if you are launching the group and not whatever individual tracks are contained within that group? I hope that question makes sense!
Great to hear! I’ve already further evolved this setup and further slimmed it down: now I use Ableton Live with Push 3 + Moog Sub 25 + Digitone. All sampling and performance FX I handle now directly with Live and Push. Regarding your question: yes, there are various tracks within the groups eg hihat tracks in the hihat group. The main reason for me is that I want to have a total of 8 tracks groups to keep the triggering of clips as simple as possible when playing live as Ableton Push 3 just can show 8 tracks in session view at once.
Great vid!! Interesting how you stick to 7 scenes per song. Great tip, I'm going to give this a go. Do you find it limiting just 7 scenes for one song? Im used to having lots more but i can see how it can make things simpler so each song is contained in the 8x8 grid. Thanks again for the amazing content, its inspired me to get my own live sets going, thanks again!! :-)
Usually I’m sticking to it but I’ve also already broken this rule a few times. Really depends on the song. But usually I stick to it and instead try to make the individual scenes more varied. Works pretty well for me!
Hi Miles. Great ideas and execution here. Just wondering how you’re handling Live’s latency and timing issues when running a hybrid setup? I have a DT2, DN, Subsequent37 and a Virus, which all work great together - until I try to include MIDI and plugins in Live - at which point it all falls apart timing-wise. What’s your approach?
Hey, I totally feel you there - this really is a pain and was honestly one of the main reasons why I removed the Digitone from my live performance setup because every time I was starting Ableton Live, Overbridge was having another latency time so I couldn't really compensate that. However with classical midi connections I found everything to be way more reliable and it works good for me. I touch on this in this video where I go through my setup: th-cam.com/video/LrzGmoa-jic/w-d-xo.htmlsi=bfCguorkSEsCVbzl
A fellow producer here who didnt make music for 15 years Looking to get back into it. Lucky I found you in my first search to see what people are using HW wise these days cuz your taste of prod reminds of me of mine :) If you dont mind me asking, cant I just use the 8 rotaries in the push to do what you are doing with the two digi elements. Assuming these can be mapped to anything. Also maybe add another controller to control a moog VST/plugin and accomplish the same? Not exactly the same but you know what I mean.
Hey Leonard, welcome back 2 the machines! Great to hear that you find the videos useful. And to your question: Since this video I actually further improved my setup and did exactly what you said: I removed the Digitakt to keep it compact and now use the Push's macros to control send FX and transitions. I think I will do another video soon to speak through how I mapped my macros and make use of different tools within Ableton Live to be very flexible in terms of controlling the live performance.
Nice video and thank youbto show us how you set it up. ❤ do you have problems with sync digitakt with ableton? Do you use overbridge for digitakt and digitone?
Hey Luka, yes I use Overbridge and had some latency issues when using the Digitakt’s internal sequencer. But when sequencing in Ableton everything works quite smooth
Thank you for the video. What model macbook?
It’s an 2021 MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro
Hello Miles, how are you ?
I have all this equipment, but I have no idea how to configure and assemble my live set. Does your project help me come up with an idea so I can proceed?
Thank you very much and congratulations on your work. Incredible
Hey Fabio, it depends on what you’re looking for. The templates eg for Ableton Live I have on my Patreon give you all the details on how I build up my sets in Ableton Live, which devices are on the tracks, etc. but they don’t say how the hardware is connected
Hi Miles, thanks a lot for this video, it really helps to understand how we can combine our hardware equipment to build more versatile and unique performances. However, there are still some things that I don't understand and I hope you could provide some clarity on.
First, and most importantly, I still do not understand how can someone change the instrument that is being played in a certain channel, when changing scenes. Since you are using only 8 channels, but you are transitioning from one track to another, and I assume that your lead synth in on track is not the same as to the next one, how do you make this change?
Second, can you please explain from a connectivity point of view how did you midi map ableton send channels to Digitakt's midi channel 9 knobs?
Thank you :)
Hi Christos, that's great to hear! Regarding your questions: The 8 channels I'm using are group channels, so they contain several individual tracks for every song (eg Kick+bass group channel holds the individual kick+bass tracks from all of the songs in the set). The group channels then just really help to keep everything tidy and apply the different performance FX to all the different tracks. This way I can transition between tracks and have the lead sound of track 1 play with the lead of track 2 eg. And regarding your 2nd question I actually just used Ableton Live's MIDI mapping feature which is very straight forward to MIDI map external gear. :)
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Are you able to show how your configurations are set up for digitone/ digitakt to control abelton?
Hey Joey, yes I’m happy to do that! A video like that is already planned but don’t know when I can make it as I first have some other projects coming up. But it will come. :)
That would be huge thank you so much :)
Ableton Live really is the way to play it. Hint: it is called "Live" for a reason. Anyway, thanks for the detailed breakdown! Maybe we'll be seeing you on Cercle one day... :D
I'm curious - do you prototype/compose your sequences on Digitone before recording them as clips in Ableton Live? Also, what soft synths did you use?
Wow thank you - Cercle would actually be a dream! 💚 I sometimes do that but mostly I use the push to play the Digitone so that I can directly record it in Ableton if I found something nice. And as software synths I’m using Ableton Wavetable a lot as well as Native Instruments Monark. Love both :)
Thank you so much for this. I can start with Digitone + Mother-32? Or is it better to go for Analog 4 + Mother-32? Thanks!
Oh that’s a good question. Depends on what you want to do - Analog 4 sounds way warmer as it’s an analogue synth and Digitone has the nice glassyness of an FM synth and is als great for percussion. I think both would pair well with the M-32
Really cool dude. Been thinking a lot about a similar setup, especially the layering of additional loops on top, hadn’t thought about my Digitakt for that as it seemed like overkill but makes a ton of sense to keep your ableton tracks super focused to 8 groups and use the performance features of the DT. How long did it take you to compose all of the parts for the set? Do you also arrange in this kind of way by live jamming from the session view? This is what I mostly want to achieve from a set up like this.
Hey Diego, thanks a lot! It took me quite some time to set everything up, the most time was figuring out what would be the best way to set everything up in an optimal way. The tricky part was that I had some songs that existed in this new setup but also some DAWless songs which I needed to integrate in this setup. This took me all in all a couple of weeks to bring everything together and then also work on transitions and everything. But this part of the process was a ton of fun!
@@MilesKvndra Awesome stuff, really inspiring!
Sehr gutes Video und super detailliert. Danke dafür ! Gibt es einen Grund warum du die Main Drums in Ableton live spielst und nicht direkt vom Digitakt ? Wie sind deine Erfahrungen damit? Ist wie unten im Post der Pattern Wechsel das Problem oder geht es eher um Latency issues? Wie kommst du mit der Synchronisation von Overbridge und Ableton zu recht? Beim Live Einsatz stoße ich wegen der Latenz (8ms) immer wieder an Grenzen.
Moin moin, vielen Dank dir, auhc nochmal für den Tipp mit dem Pattern Clips Device. So konnte ich jetzt tatsächlich alles so einrichten, dass Patterns wechseln, wenn ich im Liveset den Song wechsel - ein Problem weniger! :)
Zu deinen Fragen: Der Hauptgrund war eigentlich, dass ich mehr mit Ableton machen wollte, um mehr Mixing Möglichkeiten direkt im Set zu haben. Nutze z.B. auf Hihats sehr gerne Abletons Vocoder Effekt oder generell den EQ8 auf Kicks und Snares, da ist der Digitakt dann doch etwas limitiert. Außerdem nutze ich gerne den Fill mode vom Digitakt, um Vatiation in die Pattern zu bringen und Bfür Build Ups. Dazu kommt, dass ich (genau wie du) auch immer wieder mit Latenzproblemen zu kämpfen habe. Daher lasse ich die Drums hauptsächlich in Ableton und nutze den Digitakt für zusätzliche Perc loops und build ups.
Hast du dich mit dem Iphone gefilmt? - wieso nicht die Iso und Focus auf manuell gestellt?
Abgesehen davon - tolles Video!
Danke dir, hab’s mit meiner Kamera via USB in OBS gefilmt, da war die Quali nie wirklich spot on.
Great vid. How are you managing latency between OB, Live racks and external synths?
Thank you Bryn! I have different ways, for the external synths I’m using the latency compensation of Ableton’s external synth plugin, for the Digis I’m routing the audio of the Overbridge track to a different audio track and have a latency compensation directly on that track. Once set up both ways work very nicely. :)
Cool. Will this video come early to Patreon?
Yes, I just released it on Patreon alongside with the Ableton, Digitone and Digitakt project files. Enjoy! :)
@@MilesKvndra Good stuff! Cheers.
Cool video, but there is a really high frequency noise in this video.
Thank you and weird - is the noise always there or just at a specific time? I’m trying to isolate where it might come from
That sound very very convenient.
Although it seems to me that u are criminally underestimating the digitakt and digitone performance workflow, Wich I know I know how powerful they are(I've seen ur other stuff 😅😅)
Oh, I'd never underestimate the power of Elektron Boxes in a live setup! They are pretty insane but I found them for me working better in a DAWless scenario which is how I'm using them now in my studio. But they are amazing for live!
@MilesKvndra that's true.. although Im trying to use them like they are together and then use Ableton for the return tracks like expression sliders. Do u think U can explore a set up like that?
@ hmm interesting! For now I’m quite happy with the setup I found but I’m constantly looking for improvements and additions :)
Great as always, thanks! How do you connect Digis into the Live, with Overbridge? Do you use multitrack or just master? And it would be nice to see the routing and processing in Live overall, thanks
Thank you Nook! Yes exactly, I use Overbridge for that. For the Digitone I'm using multitrack (as it is sequenced by Ableton) and for the Digitakt I'm using the master as I also like to use some of the DT's effects on the sound.
@@MilesKvndra what latency are you having with the overbridge and with sample rate? I am getting more than 35ms constantly and it's tad annoying :(
@@OtoMeskhy yeah same with overvridge. But I moved the midi tracks of the Digitone 39ms forward to compensate and now it works great
@@MilesKvndra yeah, I saw that in your video as well! I have the similar workaround, but I think it still adds some more delay to general project latency. That being said, I am not really playing piano live or something similar, so can live with it haha
@@OtoMeskhy with my Moog it works as well, I have a global latency of around 6ms which is okay. But still it all is a little wonky with the whole latency
Hey Miles, was wondering if you've run into audio dropouts when using Ableton to send midi to Digitone or Digitakt. I can't seem to find the problem, but when it happens, if I change the sample rate in Ableton and hit play, it will work again. No idea what's going on, but it makes me nervous to try a live set with this config. Any thoughts?
Hey Carlos, hmm that’s strange. I haven’t experienced such issue. I sometimes experience the Digitakt being out of sync when starting Ableton. But then I restart the Takt and all stays in sync. But no audio dropouts here. Maybe raise that question on Elektronauts?
Hey, really cool video ! Just a quick question, how do you get your LFO clock so precise on the mother 32 ? Is the lfo set on the global clock or is it just an effect on ableton ?
Hey Corentin, not sure what exactly you mean: I’m not using the M-32s LFO in this set and dialling in all parameters of the synth by hand. It’s only getting some software FX from Ableton and a side chain modulation to decrease volume when the kick hits. Do you mean that?
@@MilesKvndra Ok so it was the sidechain I was talking about, I thought you've found a way to do it with the LFO ! Glad to see it was simply from ableton
Which audio interface are you using?
Hey Philip, I’m using the Arturia Audiofuse Studio and can highly recommend it! :)
being honest i dont know why peoples make set like this with the push 2, you can easily use a midi fighter twister and thats is more than done but ok
Interesting point but for me the Push makes the perfect combination of mappable knobs and clip launch matrix, whereas the midi fighter twister doesn’t have a clip launch matrix.
@@MilesKvndra It make more sense, thanks for clarification
Hey man would you say have an ableton push and maschine be beneficiary or redundant and overkill? I also am wondering if ableton push makes more sense then maschine if im using ableton alot. I love the NI software but still. I dont have a push 2 but wondering if i should get one.
Hey Joey, depends on what you want to do but in general I would say one Midi Controller for the Start is sufficient. I’ve never had a Maschine but heard good things about it. But in terms of Ableton integration the Push 2 is just king and hard to beat as it is a native integration.
@@MilesKvndra oh hey thabks man. Ya i just got a deluge to use for sampling and such so i may wait on the ableton but should have went thst route. I love the maschine workflow though i wont lie. Its very easy to use and being able to record ideas in real time i have not been able to find another software that competes. Correct me if im wrong.