Digitakt - Limiting?

Yeah that’s a good way of putting it. I’ve only had my DT a couple of days (after years of using an OT) and already it’s a breath of fresh air: everything is where it should be, everything is quick and easy and fun. My only gripe is the single LFO, but then again I guess that keeps you focused on making music rather than getting lost in bonkers science experiments, which is where most of my OT sessions ended up.

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Digitakt Limiiting?

Sure, many users like this nice little unit: :smile:
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Are you bummed you can’t splice loops on it? I like to sample 15 seconds drum loops or so and think it would be great to be able to split them and don’t wanna do it on another device. Yarg, I’m leaning back and forth between them. Thanks though I’ll check this out

The Digi series is the ideal machine for any ADD inflicted people- is ideas/inspiration hits you constantly- you need the Digitakt

The Digitakt is like writing poems, while the Octatrack is like writing full stories

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By splice do you mean slice?

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Here’s our latest adventures in live OT slicing, might be of interest…

The digitakt, digitone and octatrack are the third, fourth and fifth elektron boxes I’ve owned, and the three I have at the moment, with the OT having arrived earlier this week. With the little boxes, I’ve been immediately up and running, making some highly complex pieces with all kinds of spice, and time with the manual has been supplemental at most.

The OT is like a spaceship. I know I will get to a point where I understand it well enough to templatize and flow on it, but it’s gonna take months, and so far I spend more time setting the thing up than jamming. I’m very excited by the potential, as I fully understand how much power I’m dealing with there, but if I’d bought it as my first Elektron I might be too pissed to ever buy another one. Very low ADD Gratification Index.

I feel like I’ve gotten further than a lot of people with the ol Octatrack but I feel like I’m still unraveling it and have a long way to go. It hasn’t frustrated me in a long time and I understand what I’m doing with it and it works, but I keep learning new stuff all the time and it’s been three years, it’s awesome really…

I just told Ryan the other day when you look at it you would never imagine the things that’s it capable of. It has an odd way of capabilities almost “hiding” and totally non apparent, and then one day your like, wait a minute if I set this parameter to this and this toggle to that, then this happens! No way!
It’s still happening to me years later…

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I have no doubt that it’s going to open up for me if I remain patient with it. I’ve been reading with interest your thread about hacking up the live pickup machine tracks.

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I’m telling you man I think I’m only running it at 5 to 10 percent of what it’s capable of… :smile:

I don’t doubt it. I liked the cabcurio vid that suggested you focus on one of its capabilities at a time, which is what you seem to be doing, and what I’m trying to do. It’s stupid easy to go down a rabbit hole of throwing the kitchen sink at everything you run through it.

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I’m also really enjoying your writeups about your OT-adventures, but just 5-10 percent? Is there any dark matter hidden within nobody has every seen yet? :wink:

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Yes, I believe so…
I can’t speak of it right now, I’ve written about it before. It all adds up, I’ve never seen or done anything close to what I’ve grokked… Think 8 midi tracks with different track lengths, arps, lfos, etc. sequencing synths coming back in and why not mixed with some vocals or something with a mixer back into the four inputs and then a chain of sampling/resampling/realtime warping with multiple flex tracks, where again the recording and playing tracks have different legths than the incoming sequence. Sequences and sampling/remix programmed to harmonize and work but ever evolving because of all the track length differences. Tons of different recorder trigs and combinations of what is being sampled and what is being played per step x 8. Thru track or two with Lfos on input selection. Tons of plocks everywhere, 24 lfo’s going on the audio side and the midi side. Possible midi loopback or other external midi coming in and modulating the arp, lfos, and other parameters. Conditional trigs all over the place. 2 fx on every track, master track with sequenced plocks. The arranger changing mutes, scenes, patterns/parts on a basis of step lengths, arranged in intricate ways… Scenes. Scenes… The fader. The fader…
Tons of patterns and combinations of these, 64 parts, the arrangers jumps wherever it wants when it wants!
It just keeps going really, I wonder if it would explode if you tried to do it?
All taken slowly one by one so it actually works.

Press play…

I guess I spoke of it… Haha!
I’m sure I missed some stuff… Modes, delay control, live recording, retrig, etc…

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The OT has 8 recorder tracks that can record any combination of the 4 inputs and or tracks per step on each recorder track. The flex playback tracks using sample locks can play any one of these recordings per step on any track. Think about that for a second…

The per step play trigs can have any amount plocks from all the edit pages and fx, and it can target just a slice of any of the 8 recordings. Most of the playback of the recordings happens as they’re being recorded as long as you don’t tell the OT to play a part of the recording that hasn’t happened yet or its resampling. It’s rediculous.

You also can have streams of sample–>flex warp+fx–>resample–flex warp+fx further–>resample etc., with combos of other tracks and fresh samples or slices being added to the recordings… It goes on and on the combinations…

There’s other areas too that have a lot of possibilities when you look into them, that’s just the recorders…
And then on top of any idea there’s always scenes, haha…

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I know what you mean.

… and the real art is to keep all that stuff from becoming just a great plain cacophony (this is where it almost ever ends when mixing too much randomness/unpredictability at once) :wink:

think of the post-acquisition regret…

what’s worse or more likely? Getting the OT and a short while later hankering after a DT instead, or vice versa?

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Oh it’d be kind of like an insane math problem to make to make it all work rythmicly and harmoniously, and you could just go on and on for a long time figuring it out really.
I’m happy with my 5-10% proximation or whatever it is.

If I could stop time and not need to eat or sleep and somehow had endless OT programming motivation, I’d give it whirl, and of course post the results…

Edit: I was just referring to how I feel I’m only pushing the OT like %10, not how skilled you’d have to be to employ the remaining percent in a musical way. The possibility exists for some super deep “algorithm funk” :smiley:

Haha. Nice one. Sounds romantic

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I wonder what it sounds like after doing all the things you described. Maybe it will blow up :slight_smile:

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Depends on whether you’re the type of person to always be lusting after something better. If you are, then it’s probably better to try the OT first, realise that it’s too much for you, then make a conscious and happy move to the DT.

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