Any Digitakt owners got any tips for Model:Samples?

Elektron Gear Model:Samples
#1

Hello,

New Model:Samples owner here, my first piece of Elektron gear. So far i’m loving it…simple workflow, very fun. Seems to work better with melodic one shots, but as a hip hop head i would really like to use longer samples from tunes i source on youtube etc. I know we can’t chop samples, but using sample start and p-locking can give a similar feel. I’m sure i will get my head around it in time!

Anyways i digress! I was just wondering if any of you have any tips from experience with the digitakt that we could use for the M:S? For example on the digitakt board i found a little tip around humanizing hi hats. I suppose the area i am most struggling to understand is the lfo and how to get the most out out it.

Gotta say, coming from the Novation Circuit which had a fantastic community i was a little worried. But the community on Elektronauts is also really helpful and fantastic!

Keep on making music. Peace.

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#2

Have you seen this trick for simulating time stretching using a ramp wave LFO to modulate the Start point? Pretty cool idea.
https://medium.com/callumhowkins/the-elektron-digitakt-timestretching-trick-and-how-it-works-bf5722832a83

Other than that, I mostly use the LFO’s random waveform to just remove a bit of the machine-like repetition that all drum machines have. I’ll assign it to filter cutoff on a snare, or start point on a hi-hat to make things slightly random. Just a little bit goes a long way. A slow ramp waveform modulating Pitch on short percussive stuff sounds cool too.

Also, since Sample Start is my favorite destination for things, you can use it to emulate the sample locks that the Digitakt lets you do. Just load in a single sample that contains two sounds separated by a bit of space - closed and open hi-hat for example. A normal trig will start the sample at the beginning (closed hat), then you can lock Sample Start on a different step to the point where the open hat sound occurs within your sample. It just takes a bit of pre-planning but it works great.

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#3

Yeah, the LFOs if set to retrigger on each hit become envelopes effectively. This can be really useful. I like using them on Pitch to get vibrato on the tail end of melodic hits, for example.

If you find that you’re using a longer sample, and the lack of chops/timestretching is making it difficult to get it synced how you want, don’t be afraid to add another trigger with a different sample start point. It’s often easier/more natural sounding than trying to find the precise BPM to fit your loop, or repitching the loop precisely to fit.

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#4

When u are satisfied with a chop, lay down a trig and slightly move the sample start point so that it is parameterlocked on that trig. Now you can search for the next chop by hitting the button and adjusting the global sample start parameter without losing the first chop.

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#5

Hello,

Thanks all for these tips, i’ll definitely be looking to utilize some of these.

#6

Quoting myself here - has anyone gotten this to work on the M:S?
You can’t lock the LFO Reset parameter on the M:S so instead you have to just use the LFO speed multipliers and find the correct speed for your tempo. I haven’t been able to get mine just right yet, it seems to always be a little off, like the ramp wave either will start the cycle over again before the end of my pattern, or it will run into the beginning of the next first beat.

#7

Func+LFO opens the LFO setup page, where you can decide if you want to reset the LFO at every trig. I use it all the time with melodic samples to have some control over the envelope. Hope that helps!

#8

Right, but that is only on/off for every trig. It isn’t p-lockable per step. To achieve what I was trying to do I needed to reset the LFO on step 1, but not steps 2-16.

#9

mmmmh I see. A workaround could be to have your LFO reset on, then your can set LFO speed per trig, setting it to 0 where you don’t want the LFO to reset. This will either give you LFO reset on a given trig or no LFO at all. Not sure that’s what you want! Another way could be to duplicate the track (if you are not already using all 6 of them) and set another LFO on it, while retaining all the other parameters.