There are topics around how good or bad the time stretch machine is here and I don’t just want to post another rant, I’m just wondering if anyone really uses this and if yes, how?
I tested a lot of sample material, small and big time differences, percussive and melodic elements, I never get something usefull out of this machine and always end up prepering my samples in Ableton.
Maybe I’m missing something or I’m not in the right Genres but for me I can’t make it usefull at all.
Stretch is not the only machine I have issues with. I was very hyped when machines first came with DT1 but I still can’t find any good use for anything else but oneshots…
Personally, I’m still using the old one-shot mode 99% of the time despite fully understanding how the new machines work. It’s a combination of them feeling impractical IRL, not sounding so great, and being a bit inflexible. I’m curious to hear more real-world examples as well for these reasons.
Load in a cymbal, reverse it, set the bar length to the desired length, and set a trig down the same distance as the bar length you set for the machine.
Save whatever kick you are using as a sound in the stretch machine. Now place that sound randomly on your one shot kick track. Set the trig condition to a percentage and adjust SSR, BRR, and OD to taste. Viola, you have a random blownout stretched kick on your kick track that is gated by your regular kick.
Slice Machine took the DT to the next level, it’s insane how much fun it is, especially with random locks. Breakbeat chopping paradise. Get a bunch of breaks in your sample pool, pop down some locks and get the LFO to modulate the slice number and/or the break sample itself for endless fun. Or get a sample chain of 8/16/32/64 notes of an instrument/synth in a scale and let the Slice Machine come up with unique melodies.
Earnest question: how are you doing this effectively with breakbeats that aren’t perfectly quantized (AKA almost every single one played by a human, which is what I’m using)?
The grid machine feels nearly useless for anything that isn’t perfectly on a grid, since the slices cannot be nudged.
Got it - that’s not suitable for me, as it loses the entire groove I’m seeking in the first place. This is why I tend to fall back to using one shot mode almost exclusively.
See it works for me because a lot of the saved breaks in my library are quantised to quarter notes with Ableton Live - it’s not so rigid that it lacks groove as you get all the swing between the quarter notes but it means the loops work nicely with the Slice Machine. I find it an effective compromise. Having cut my teeth with hip-hop made on the MPC 1000 and SP-404 I know the struggle of preserving the human-feel which can be easily lost.
I’m probably being dense but that went right over my head - what’s this about microtiming to velocity events?
Actually it gives you more control over the groove. Once your loop is “straighten” you can apply swing setting from the Digitakt as needed or use micro timing.
I’m not sure you understand - I don’t want uniform swing at all. I want to retain the groove the drummer played. The only way I can do this now is using one shot mode, which is fine I suppose, but it would be nice to have a “nudge” parameter per slice somehow to push or pull each evenly divided slice’s start time, even if it has to be set manually in the beginning.
I just avoid using it altogether if I’m using naturally groovy breakbeats.
I understand very well, just saying you get a lot more creative control this way, including the flexibility to recreate the original groove. You have micro timing, you don’t have to have uniform swing.
I want to retain the groove the drummer played. The only way I can do this now is using one shot mode
Not gonna argue about this; trying to recreate an original groove after you’ve already manually quantized pieces of it is an exercise in insanity. Time stretch sounds like garbage (as noted by many), so that’s not really an option either. I generally believe a poor craftsman blames the tools, but I also strongly believe all three newer machines (werp / stretch / slice) weren’t exactly well-planned or used IRL scenarios, at least not without perfectly quantized source material. Just my 2c.
Again, I’m fine chopping breaks tediously using one-shot mode (I do p locks on each step as necessary) - it’s just a damn shame we can’t manually choose a start index for each portion in the slice machine so that it’s repeatable without copy/paste etc.
trying to recreate an original groove after you’ve already manually quantized pieces of it is an exercise in insanity.
30 years of sampling, I could tell you about insanity but sometimes it’s also how you get nice results…
Time stretch sounds like garbage
it’s just a damn shame we can’t manually choose a start index for each portion in the slice machine so that it’s repeatable without copy/paste etc.
What is often not understood about Digitakt machines is that they are just sample start point/stop tricks, including its timestretch feature. Before these machines we used to do timestretch and slicing using various techniques, including LFOs modulating start point (this forum must still have these tricks somewhere). What we have now is “just” an easy way to achieve this, not a proper timestretch algo such as what you get in DAWs (I’m a big fan of all the stretch algos in Bitwig and how it’s easy to manipulate time). I wouldn’t be surprised if Elektron people had seen us performing those tricks and thought “hey, they have good ideas and it doesn’t involve too much computing power, let’s make this a little easier for them”. It is what it is, but I doubt it will change in DT 1. Maybe in a DT2 update, given the beefier CPU…
Another thing not always well understood is that DT doesn’t have sample-accurate start/stop point, it’s always relative to its length, not absolute. So even if you’d have a way to choose a start index for each portion in the slice machine, you could very well miss a transient and still get a not-so-good result.
Again, I’m fine chopping breaks tediously using one-shot mode
Way to go then… no standalone machine has it all anyway.
)
but sometimes it’s also how you get nice results…