So when I’m choosing samples to populate the RAM drive slots, I’d like to add them like this:
1-10 - kicks
11-29 - empty
30-50 - hats
51 - 60 - empty
61-70 - snares
71-80 - empty
etc
I can only seem to do this individually by going to an empty slot in SRC, pressing FUNC & YES and then browsing to the sample I want. Then repeat the whole process one by one. This wouldn’t be so bad if the browser remembered the sample folder I was in but it doesn’t.
The reason I want the samples laid out with gaps in the slots like this is so I can keep similar style sounds together if and when I decide to add more samples to the slots later.
I can’t do it in the Transfer app nor can I use Elkherd cos I’m on the latest OS.
Is there another way?
Cheers
Use this, it’ll make your life a thousand times easier: DigiChain - web app for making sample chains - #336 by brian3kb
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big time. chains 4 lyfe.
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Yeah agreed. use sample chains. :). Using the sample slots like you propose will eventually mess up your flow as sooner or later you’re going to run out of slots for a type of sound and you’re limiting something further that is already limited. You also have to wonder how many hihats / snares etc one needs given the fact that you can use sound design to alter samples completely.
Sample chains only take up 1 slot so it gives much more freedom to populate the sample slots in random order and not worry about it too much 
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That being said, if you want to solve your original problem, I recall that you can move samples around more easily within the Digitakt overbridge app, but I don’t have it next to me to check!
Ah thanks very much everyone. Clearly sample chains are the way to go. Not sure why but i’ve always ignored them, seemed like too much faff. I didn’t make the connection between the new DT slice mode and how that makes using sample chains dead easy. Doh
Lets go!
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I was the same, thought they seemed like loads of hassle for years. I’ll never go back now 
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Can someone please help me understand, (as an M:S user potentially upgrading to digitakt) why chains + slice mode is the answer to this problem ?
All the video demos I’ve seen of slice mode involve chopping up a loop to make another (perhaps randomised) loop … if there’s a video that shows this use case (sample chains varying one instrument) I’d love to know about it.
Or if it’s simple enough someone can explain simply here ? For instance, can you easily with a sample chain of hats, switch all the hats in a pattern to a new variation from the chain ? Or does it involve p-locking every trig ? Or is there something else I missed ?
On M:S (a very different beast in this regard) I’ve abandoned trying anything with sample chains as it’s easier to manage sample locks.
Since the latest DT OS update the DT has 4 new modes in the SRC page, one of which is SLICE.
I’ve just used the webapp suggested by @Mister_Wood earlier in this thread to make a ‘equally spaced’ file containing 16 kick drums which I dumped in RAM slot 1. Switch on SLICE mode, set the grid to 16 and individual kicks / slices can be chosen for that slot using the SLICE knob.
Total workflow game changer! Dunno why I didn’t do it earlier, I’ve had the new OS for flippin ages 
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I should say - I’m probably doing it very inefficiently at this point
FYI it was possible even before the update (in what is now called one-shot machine). And the “old” way has some advantages, namely more control over the individual sample start/length/loop +lfo.
Just create a sample in a daw (or the chains tool) and space the samples out evenly across the timeline. The sample start parameter has a max value of 120. So if you use 10 samples in a chain for example, sample start values 0, 12, 24 etc are the start of the samples in the chain. You can press an encoder and scroll in increments of 4.
Cheers
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Ah of course! I can see the advantage of having more control over the start / end points. Good to know, cheers Dave!
Struggling to see the advantages over sample locking (not having access to a Digitakt, only M:S)
I’ve tried that on the M:S and there it’s easier to manage, particularly to understand again a week later, to use sample locks.
Thanks for the info both … hope I’m not seen as whinging here, if there’s an advantage, I’m really interested to know it.
Another advantage I haven’t seen mentioned: using chains means a collection 64 kick drums, snares, or hats each only takes one sample slot within the RAM. Load all 3 and you’ve got more sounds than were possible to sound lock or slot in (assuming the alternative is sample-per-slot),
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You have a limited number of samples per project (127) so loading one sample with a chain of 16 sounds is preferable to loading 16 individual samples.
It’s easier to lock the slice position than scrolling through a potentially-unorganized list of samples.
If you’re wanting to randomize or step through samples with an LFO, it is much easier to be using slice position than the sample slot, because you’ll always get a sound from your chain, rather than having to make sure all the samples you want to step through are loaded next to each other.
And you can easily swap out one sample chain for another, while keeping the slice position locks and other tweaks.
It should also be noted that it’s pretty easy to create sample chains on-device, rather than having to use a utility for this on a computer (though that does make it easier to do in bulk).
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It’s less about advantages and more a completely different way of working.
I can’t speak for M:S but on DT:
1: It makes the sample choice phase much quicker and avoids indecision.
2: it opens up the available samples from 128 to as many as you want.
3: It’s very quickly and directly controllable.
4: Combined with resampling, it’s a deep and endless source of fresh sounds
5: It allows one-pattern improvisation in ways that aren’t otherwise possible.
6: DigiChainer can do some very clever things, including making random chains from your sample collection, which is very fun.
You really need to get in and use it to truly understand how useful it is. I’ve messed around with M:S some but even from that, it’s a different instrument to Digitakt, it’s not just a cut-down version.
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If using digichain for the M:S, choose the Model:Samples from the ‘Common Configurations’ options in the Audio Settings panel to get M:S friendly chain length options:
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Interestingly, on M:S this problem is much less of a problem not a problem, because you can, when organising your project at the start (on digitakt, the time you’d build your sample chain) put all your hats (to take an example) in one sub-folder. Then when you want to select a different hat, you hit the sample button and then you can simply scroll through all the named hats, and select. I’m guessing this is the kind of ease of selection you’re both referring to on DT, except on M:S I have sample names to choose from, instead of slice numbers.
Seems I might be making some interesting trade-offs when/if i move to DT.