I guess it's a nice tip, but I found it funny that you explained why you might need this method due to not having time to just set the start of the loop at a later step in the sequencer, when that method was so much faster than the other LFO approach. 😂
not on the DT directly im afraid. i would check it out in Live; see if the Warp is able to detect the Tempo. If you cant do that, only way would be to place a trig for the whole loop and adjusting the tempo of the Digitakt while having a simple Kick Pattern running (a better metronome so to say). since the Digi doesnt timestretch, the loop should not change tempo when you play, but the kick pattern does. however: dont take my word for that, i havent had such a situation yet. so im just guessing - i dunno how the DT behaves exactly when you do this.
The workarounds you present suggest that there isn't either a mute sample section nor a insert silence with a defined time feature. I can hardly believe, these features aren't there... Also, I wanted to mention that sticking to displayed BPM values does not warrant a tight loop, because the BPM values are not necessarily correct, but can differ for some tenths of a BPM, at least with older machines. Not to forget - thank you for your hands-on tutorials, keep it up.
youre welcome. nope, there is no "insert silence" or anything similar on the Digitakt. you could offset a loop which with the step's themselve and microtiming if they do not fit properly, but if you wanna have it tight you need to "ping" the recorder with something in the beginning of that pattern - if there isnt some actual sound on step number 1. the timing on the Digitakt is perfect. If you work self-contained it's always spot on. if you work with midi it could drift. but this is then indicated in the screen, which shows you 123.05 or 123.01 and the like. so you always know when the clock is drifting and how much.
umonox Thank you for quick reply and the explanation. To be able to mute or set volume levels for a particular sample section or to "glue" samples together / insert silence would have been a nice addition and does not seem too exotic.
of course there's sample start and length parameters. just record longer samples with several sounds/loops inside and p-lock the sample start on a per step basis. together with various play- and loop modes (along with a loop position parameter) this gives you plenty of options to work with samples in a myriad of different ways. i really dont see where an insert silence option would make sense on the Digitakt tbh ;-)
umonox Why don't you use a delayed playback start then, instead of fiddling around with attack envelopes or even LFOs? Insert silence, why? Let's say the short percussive sound coming from the Volca is on on step 3 of 16. But DT records it, as it was on step 1. When you had the feature, you could now insert 2/16 steps of silence at your current DT's BPM and your percussive sound is again on step 3 of 16, as desired. Of course, you could also use your pocket calculator and calculate the time that correspond to 2 steps at 125 BPM. :)
Rather than tie up an lfo, can you manually start recording, trig the loop on the first beat then alter the sample start position till it is in time? Also, is there no option to MIDI trigger record start. If not, that is a huge oversight.
yep, P-Locking the Volume in the very beginning would also be a great method to achieve this. I dunno why i've chosen the LFO but i guess i did it because - i can! :-D MIDI recorder Trigging is not available. At least its not available according to the Manual and i havent found such an option either. Dont forget that Elektron has not discontinued the Octatrack yet and i guess that they dont want the DT to be too close in terms of functionality ;-) The OT has what you are looking for. This is called Recorder Trigs and allows you to start recording if an appropriate Trig was entered in the Recorder Mode.
and in regards to your first question: yes, you could manually record and then only adjust the start position to make it perfect. thanks to the zoom this is very easy too. but if you have more complicated stuff going on, it might be a tedious task to find that right spot you know. using a click in the beginning simply makes sure that everything fits. so it could be more hassle free in the end. depending on your source material of course.
was auch funktioniern wuerde ist den Volca via midi starten lassen und gleichzeitig die aufnahme starten also FN + yes und play triggern. Drei buttons auf einmal dureeckn mit etwas Uebung klappt das.
Am I missing something or could volume automation be easily used to cut the unwanted sound instead of LFO? Record it manualy or parameter lock the first two trigs.
the Digitakt has no Pitchshifting/Timestretching Engine! You can pitch the Loop and speed it up or slow it down that way. But you cant change the BPM and keep the Loop intact. It has to fit to the Tempo of the Digitakt! The Octatrack can do Pitchshifting/Timestretching as you would expect it.
Wouldn't it be faster if you record a loop 2 times and than adjust the beginning of sample. The length of the sample is easy. You only set the end before the same note of the beginning. And than you move the beginning. I think if you move the beginning, than the end ist automatically moved too, so you have the length of exact one loop. Al last try if the position is ok and let play the sequenzer if not, move the beginning until it is perfect.
nope, this doesnt work. The Digitakt has no Pitchshifting/Timestretching Engine. If you change Tempo, the Loop will be out of Sync again and if you change Pitch to compensate for that, it will be pitched higher or lower (depending on the Direction you go). Check out the Octatrack if you wanna do things like this. It has proper Pitch/Time Shifting and does the Job very well.
Agh, I see, I don't really like the octatrack workflow :( I'm not sure why they wouldn't include something like this, it would be pretty trivial to implement since its not a runtime operation. Any chance the OS is open source? haha
:-D i wouldnt want it to be Open Source, hehe. Its working very well and although limitations are big - its an amazing machine! i dont miss proper Pitch/Time Shifting tbh. Its great to fiddle around and come up with new Ideas. The way how sampling and resampling works on the DT is exactly what i was looking for. Its fast, intuitive and combines the best of the good old Sampling Capabilities from the Machinedrum paired with some things that makes the Octatrack so great. Simplyfiying it and there you go - instant sampling, everytime, no matter what :-) This is great fun mate. Just try it out if you can. You wont be disappointed ;-)
Already sold on this thing, I'm just waiting for my pre-order :P I was just wondering if it might be possible to get into some weird DJ stuff with this haha Nothing wrong with open source, the official build would still be the one everyone uses and I could write in whatever I want at my own risk. Mutable Instruments does this with their modular gear and some of the Custom Firmware is actually better than the official one. + Theres is very little business risk in this for Elektron since the software is so dependent on the box and more people talking about/developing the box is good for business.
Fair enough. But i think you forgot one thing: Overbridge! And Elektron is a company which does not want to risk anything. I mean, consider this: Someone built a firmware for the Digitakt with great Features. Due to whatever circumstances though, the FW causes crashes or has Bugs which cannot be resolved. People would talk about that on the Internet, would show this on Video and stuff ... and those watching the Videos (the ones which DONT get that this is custom FW, trust me: Lots of those people exist!!!), yeah those watching this would assume: Elektron is crap! People are so "simple" - a lot of times. And Elektron will not risk to have others scratch on their reputation. Its just in the recent couple of years that Elektron became a name in the Business. They had a long way getting there. Nope, they wont risk this :-)
sure, you can. But this doesnt solve the Problem in terms of recording that Loop. There is no synchronized Recording available on the DT. At least not yet - but i wont count for an Update adding this feature tbh. It would be too close to the OT then ;-)
Hey there just got my digitakt today but my aux cable doesnt fit into the headohone jack :/ Im curios to know what that gold plated thing is between your headphone plug in and your headphone cord? Could possibly use one of those, thankd!
Finde ich nicht gut die Lösung. Also dein Video ist super, aber ich würde gerne in einer laufenden Performance einen oder zwei oder auch vier Takte sampeln können, die dann sofort automatisch abgespielt werden. Alles mit nur einem Tastendruck! Da gibt es eigentlich nur ein geeignets Gerät bisher, was genau das kann. SoundBITE Pro von Redsound. Octatracks Pickup Recording könnte das vielleicht auch. Bin ich aber leider nicht sicher. Do you understand german? Your accent sounds like that. Would have been too complicated for me to explain that in english.
ja, ich versteh dich, bin Deutscher ;-) Was du vor hast wird mit dem Digitakt nicht funktionieren. Da hast du dir das falsche Gerät ausgesucht ;-) Die Pickup-Machines des Octatracks können das, da hast du Recht. Der Looper auf der MPC-Live kann das auch. Aber der Digitakt nicht. Meine hier gezeigte Methode ist schon das "einfachste" was ich gefunden habe. Anders ginge es nur mit Manual Recording, dann nimmst auf, stoppst die Aufnahme und passt den Startpunkt des Loops an, bis er passt. Das macht am Ende noch mehr Arbeit.
Cool, dass du mich verstehst! ;-D Ich bin ja noch auf der Suche nach dem passenden Gerät. Also du sagst die Pickups Machines können das? Du bist nicht zufällig Besitzer eines Octatracks und würdest dazu mal ein How-To machen? ;-)) MPC-Live auch, das hatte ich leider noch nicht herausbekommen können. Gut zu wissen! Dein Quasi Workaround ist schon vermutlich die beste Lösung. Aber Live noch zu umständlich denke ich mal. Aber danke erstmal für deine Antwort! Damit und mit deinem Video bin ich wieder ein Stück schlauer geworden.
awesome! That'll be a great combo, for sure! Formfactor fits, Sound fits - perfect! :-) Have a look at my Analog Heat Videos if you wanna get an Idea what you can do with this thing :-) Its a beast on its own already, but combined with the DT - this will be a dream team :-)
umonox I am into really loud Hardcore Gabber kind of music.. Screaming kicks and gringing snare drums. I hope I can succeed with these toys even further
umonox I have a problem updating the heat involving overbridge. I can't get the file transferred to the heat from the windows pc. In the heat it's waiting for a file transfer but I don't know how to get it there properly from the pc
Great explanation. As a last step I would recommend to resample the track to free the LFO again.
Hey, do you know if there is a repeat function when pushing a button (8th, 16th, ...) like on a push 2?
I guess it's a nice tip, but I found it funny that you explained why you might need this method due to not having time to just set the start of the loop at a later step in the sequencer, when that method was so much faster than the other LFO approach. 😂
Is it a sample pack on the volca? Which one in that case ?
threshold down so you get silent in the beginning, start DT, rec, then adjust the starting point ... is my way to go
Do you have any tips for syncing to a loop where you don't know the exact bpm?
So that you can add trigs that are in time afterwards?
not on the DT directly im afraid. i would check it out in Live; see if the Warp is able to detect the Tempo. If you cant do that, only way would be to place a trig for the whole loop and adjusting the tempo of the Digitakt while having a simple Kick Pattern running (a better metronome so to say). since the Digi doesnt timestretch, the loop should not change tempo when you play, but the kick pattern does. however: dont take my word for that, i havent had such a situation yet. so im just guessing - i dunno how the DT behaves exactly when you do this.
umonox Thanks. I am also trying to play with this function.
The workarounds you present suggest that there isn't either a mute sample section nor a insert silence with a defined time feature. I can hardly believe, these features aren't there...
Also, I wanted to mention that sticking to displayed BPM values does not warrant a tight loop, because the BPM values are not necessarily correct, but can differ for some tenths of a BPM, at least with older machines.
Not to forget - thank you for your hands-on tutorials, keep it up.
youre welcome. nope, there is no "insert silence" or anything similar on the Digitakt. you could offset a loop which with the step's themselve and microtiming if they do not fit properly, but if you wanna have it tight you need to "ping" the recorder with something in the beginning of that pattern - if there isnt some actual sound on step number 1. the timing on the Digitakt is perfect. If you work self-contained it's always spot on. if you work with midi it could drift. but this is then indicated in the screen, which shows you 123.05 or 123.01 and the like. so you always know when the clock is drifting and how much.
umonox Thank you for quick reply and the explanation. To be able to mute or set volume levels for a particular sample section or to "glue" samples together / insert silence would have been a nice addition and does not seem too exotic.
Or a delay sample start parameter...
of course there's sample start and length parameters. just record longer samples with several sounds/loops inside and p-lock the sample start on a per step basis. together with various play- and loop modes (along with a loop position parameter) this gives you plenty of options to work with samples in a myriad of different ways. i really dont see where an insert silence option would make sense on the Digitakt tbh ;-)
umonox Why don't you use a delayed playback start then, instead of fiddling around with attack envelopes or even LFOs?
Insert silence, why? Let's say the short percussive sound coming from the Volca is on on step 3 of 16. But DT records it, as it was on step 1. When you had the feature, you could now insert 2/16 steps of silence at your current DT's BPM and your percussive sound is again on step 3 of 16, as desired. Of course, you could also use your pocket calculator and calculate the time that correspond to 2 steps at 125 BPM. :)
Rather than tie up an lfo, can you manually start recording, trig the loop on the first beat then alter the sample start position till it is in time? Also, is there no option to MIDI trigger record start. If not, that is a huge oversight.
PS. It would also be possible by setting track volume to zero then raising it after the initial,unwanted, hit.
yep, P-Locking the Volume in the very beginning would also be a great method to achieve this. I dunno why i've chosen the LFO but i guess i did it because - i can! :-D MIDI recorder Trigging is not available. At least its not available according to the Manual and i havent found such an option either. Dont forget that Elektron has not discontinued the Octatrack yet and i guess that they dont want the DT to be too close in terms of functionality ;-) The OT has what you are looking for. This is called Recorder Trigs and allows you to start recording if an appropriate Trig was entered in the Recorder Mode.
and in regards to your first question: yes, you could manually record and then only adjust the start position to make it perfect. thanks to the zoom this is very easy too. but if you have more complicated stuff going on, it might be a tedious task to find that right spot you know. using a click in the beginning simply makes sure that everything fits. so it could be more hassle free in the end. depending on your source material of course.
was auch funktioniern wuerde ist den Volca via midi starten lassen und gleichzeitig die aufnahme starten also FN + yes und play triggern. Drei buttons auf einmal dureeckn mit etwas Uebung klappt das.
Thanks for the vid. Can you not use recorder trigs like on the Octatrack?
Nope, you cant. The DT doesnt have Recorder Trigs.
Am I missing something or could volume automation be easily used to cut the unwanted sound instead of LFO? Record it manualy or parameter lock the first two trigs.
p-lock volume, of course
why not use the midi from the Digitakt to start the playback of the Volca?
because he's trying to ilustrate how to do this without midi. You could sample from anywhere , say, a CDJ or even iPhone.
does it respond to transport control ?
The Digitakt? Yes!
This tutorials are great man.
Surely will be coming back to them as soon as I get my Digitakt
Cheers
thank you mate! hope your wait is over soon. the digi is amazing! :-)
is it possible to lock a loop to a 16/16 pattern so you can change the bpm later?
the Digitakt has no Pitchshifting/Timestretching Engine! You can pitch the Loop and speed it up or slow it down that way. But you cant change the BPM and keep the Loop intact. It has to fit to the Tempo of the Digitakt! The Octatrack can do Pitchshifting/Timestretching as you would expect it.
Can you do a full loop more than 16 ?
33s
Wouldn't it be faster if you record a loop 2 times and than adjust the beginning of sample.
The length of the sample is easy. You only set the end before the same note of the beginning.
And than you move the beginning. I think if you move the beginning, than the end ist automatically moved too,
so you have the length of exact one loop.
Al last try if the position is ok and let play the sequenzer if not, move the beginning until it is perfect.
Once you have that perfect loop, if I change the master bpm, will the machine pitch/time shift the sample to keep it in time?
nope, this doesnt work. The Digitakt has no Pitchshifting/Timestretching Engine. If you change Tempo, the Loop will be out of Sync again and if you change Pitch to compensate for that, it will be pitched higher or lower (depending on the Direction you go). Check out the Octatrack if you wanna do things like this. It has proper Pitch/Time Shifting and does the Job very well.
Agh, I see, I don't really like the octatrack workflow :( I'm not sure why they wouldn't include something like this, it would be pretty trivial to implement since its not a runtime operation. Any chance the OS is open source? haha
:-D i wouldnt want it to be Open Source, hehe. Its working very well and although limitations are big - its an amazing machine! i dont miss proper Pitch/Time Shifting tbh. Its great to fiddle around and come up with new Ideas. The way how sampling and resampling works on the DT is exactly what i was looking for. Its fast, intuitive and combines the best of the good old Sampling Capabilities from the Machinedrum paired with some things that makes the Octatrack so great. Simplyfiying it and there you go - instant sampling, everytime, no matter what :-) This is great fun mate. Just try it out if you can. You wont be disappointed ;-)
Already sold on this thing, I'm just waiting for my pre-order :P I was just wondering if it might be possible to get into some weird DJ stuff with this haha
Nothing wrong with open source, the official build would still be the one everyone uses and I could write in whatever I want at my own risk. Mutable Instruments does this with their modular gear and some of the Custom Firmware is actually better than the official one. + Theres is very little business risk in this for Elektron since the software is so dependent on the box and more people talking about/developing the box is good for business.
Fair enough. But i think you forgot one thing: Overbridge! And Elektron is a company which does not want to risk anything. I mean, consider this: Someone built a firmware for the Digitakt with great Features. Due to whatever circumstances though, the FW causes crashes or has Bugs which cannot be resolved. People would talk about that on the Internet, would show this on Video and stuff ... and those watching the Videos (the ones which DONT get that this is custom FW, trust me: Lots of those people exist!!!), yeah those watching this would assume: Elektron is crap! People are so "simple" - a lot of times. And Elektron will not risk to have others scratch on their reputation. Its just in the recent couple of years that Elektron became a name in the Business. They had a long way getting there. Nope, they wont risk this :-)
Someday this could save me a lot of time thx 🙏
For the 2nd part, can't you just midi sync it?
sure, you can. But this doesnt solve the Problem in terms of recording that Loop. There is no synchronized Recording available on the DT. At least not yet - but i wont count for an Update adding this feature tbh. It would be too close to the OT then ;-)
Hey there just got my digitakt today but my aux cable doesnt fit into the headohone jack :/ Im curios to know what that gold plated thing is between your headphone plug in and your headphone cord? Could possibly use one of those, thankd!
Very useful indeed, thanks.
youre welcome ;-) glad it helped you!
Finde ich nicht gut die Lösung. Also dein Video ist super, aber ich würde gerne in einer laufenden Performance einen oder zwei oder auch vier Takte sampeln können, die dann sofort automatisch abgespielt werden. Alles mit nur einem Tastendruck! Da gibt es eigentlich nur ein geeignets Gerät bisher, was genau das kann. SoundBITE Pro von Redsound.
Octatracks Pickup Recording könnte das vielleicht auch. Bin ich aber leider nicht sicher.
Do you understand german? Your accent sounds like that. Would have been too complicated for me to explain that in english.
ja, ich versteh dich, bin Deutscher ;-) Was du vor hast wird mit dem Digitakt nicht funktionieren. Da hast du dir das falsche Gerät ausgesucht ;-) Die Pickup-Machines des Octatracks können das, da hast du Recht. Der Looper auf der MPC-Live kann das auch. Aber der Digitakt nicht. Meine hier gezeigte Methode ist schon das "einfachste" was ich gefunden habe. Anders ginge es nur mit Manual Recording, dann nimmst auf, stoppst die Aufnahme und passt den Startpunkt des Loops an, bis er passt. Das macht am Ende noch mehr Arbeit.
Cool, dass du mich verstehst! ;-D
Ich bin ja noch auf der Suche nach dem passenden Gerät. Also du sagst die Pickups Machines können das? Du bist nicht zufällig Besitzer eines Octatracks und würdest dazu mal ein How-To machen? ;-))
MPC-Live auch, das hatte ich leider noch nicht herausbekommen können. Gut zu wissen!
Dein Quasi Workaround ist schon vermutlich die beste Lösung. Aber Live noch zu umständlich denke ich mal.
Aber danke erstmal für deine Antwort! Damit und mit deinem Video bin ich wieder ein Stück schlauer geworden.
The question now is : how to get a perfect end loop ?
great usage
thank you!
Top !
So good this! Thanks a lot
np, your welcome!
umonox I don't have mine, yet. I do finally get the analog heat tomorrow and after that the digitakt is first on my list. :)
awesome! That'll be a great combo, for sure! Formfactor fits, Sound fits - perfect! :-) Have a look at my Analog Heat Videos if you wanna get an Idea what you can do with this thing :-) Its a beast on its own already, but combined with the DT - this will be a dream team :-)
umonox I am into really loud Hardcore Gabber kind of music.. Screaming kicks and gringing snare drums. I hope I can succeed with these toys even further
umonox I have a problem updating the heat involving overbridge. I can't get the file transferred to the heat from the windows pc. In the heat it's waiting for a file transfer but I don't know how to get it there properly from the pc
nice tip using the lfo for click , thanks
youre welcome ;-)
Ist das immer noch so umständlich oder hat sich in den Jahren was getan?
Thanks
youre welcome