Are you a sound saver?

I was reading some thread here and a poster or so said that they think saving sounds is a waste of time and that they just load up samples, copy patterns to start new projects etc. Is this a common opinion here?

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Not really, I do save the field recordings or whatever that I record with my zoom but as far as synth sounds go no, I always like to make new sounds for each project or session.

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Hmm, donā€™t you sometimes tweak something into a great kick or whatever and want to use it on other projects or maybe have a project of great sounds youā€™ve labored over that donā€™t work together but might with something else in the near future?

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Hmm, I guess I donā€™t really hear the finer details that well with kicks and whatnot? I just make stuff and put in a kick with minimal fiddling, then fine tune it later to fit the whole better.

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I guess I am worried I will lose track of something I worked hard on and like the sound of buried in some pattern that goes nowhereā€¦ although when I listen back to my saved sounds 75% or so are crap. Although, Iā€™m not as bad as with my synths which I end of saving 10 variations of some crap patch.

I made this sound last night, I donā€™t have any idea how I did it but I swear it sounds so much like the annoying bass in Seinfeld and just had to save it for posterityā€¦

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Whenever I came up with something I liked I usually just sort-of remember the audio engineering concepts (?) behind it and then fiddle it up again when I need it once more. Maybe Iā€™ll discover something new in another context.

If itā€™s a variation of the same pattern, I usually just copy the whole pattern with all the sounds already layed out.

Rarely do I ever switch around whole projects. Might be a good way to save something, quicker and more time efficient, sure. But Iā€™m not doing this as a profession, so thereā€™s no need for efficiency :man_shrugging:

edit: the Digitaktā€™s audio generator architecture (?) is kinda easy to understand though, maybe Iā€™d think differently about some FM synth or whatever.

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Thatā€™s a great sound! Completely unusable probably but valuable in itā€™s own right.

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I often just make patch, arrangement, record in one go. Barely I save some of that for later use. Just the ā€œstemsā€ for mixing afterwards.

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Sound management on Digitakt is a chore so I never did it. If there was a tool for creating sounds on computer, then maybe I wouldā€™ve considered it. But the majority of interesting sounds I came up with were created semi-randomly and always adhered to the atmosphere of the track (which made them unsuitable in others).

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I save everything, lol. Itā€™s like an obsession, I kinda hate it. I takes time, I usually do everything from scratch anyway (faster for me than looking for samples/presets that might fit, because Iā€™m used to it), but still go through painstakingly saving, archiving and backups.

Heck, these days even Windows is so reliable, I probaply wonā€™t need a backup ever.

Idk, maybe some things are just habitsā€¦and it is a nice closing ritual after the session/day - making sure everything is savedā€¦
Harmonize the mind.

Also Iā€™m quite sure, if Iā€™d stop now, it wouldnā€™t take long until Iā€™d need to recover some projects. There seems to be some weird equilibrium type of force in play. :wink:

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I used to save a lot of unusual Sounds but found when reusing them in new projects they often didnā€™t have the same effect, this is down to the master fx not being part of the saved Sound leading to lots of ā€œwhy did I save that!ā€ moments when surfing through them.

The DT is the Elektron box I do the least amount of sound saving on. In fact, I think I may only have at most 2 dozen sounds saved. On the DN and ST, I have over 600 sounds saved between the 2 of them. I think, overall, the DT is the weakest of the Elektron boxes (minus the Models) when it comes to sound design and need to save sounds.

I never save sounds. I donā€™t really see the point on the Digitakt. Now if I could save MIDI settings as something like a sound, Iā€™d be into that.

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yeah I really want this too!

I do save sounds, not sure why exactly, but in the moment ā€˜ooh this is a cool sound! I better save it!ā€™

Maybe it comes from using A4 kits and wanting to save all the time to prevent messing up something goodā€¦

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I should of probably done more reading about sample management before I started sampling en masse as quickly hit the floor on my memory. I sample rather long snippets from synth patches of synths which I donā€™t keep out and go back and use various snippets from the same patch. I didnā€™t realize, unless I mistakenly read, that my sounds will go poof! once I delete the sample so I have these files which 50% or more of that arenā€™t ever being used when I do use the sample as a sample or as a sound I saved. So, I guess this has something to do with why I got into the habit of saving sounds. Anywaysā€¦

It all depends on your sound/work flow I guess?
I liked to save my best one-shots from and for the AR mkII. And then my best 16 & 64 beat loops for the OT.
The samples never really sounded like the OG though as you would always have an extra opportunity to mangle or modulate.

One example of not long samples: I sampled most the sounds on my 501 Pro and then tweaked them a little to add extra life and can see using them on a variety of things. Would this be seen as a practical use case for saving? I donā€™t use any of the DT factory content so this is my foundation for a conventional drum kit.

I wind up saving template patterns (with external synth settings, sampling and effects utilities in midi + audio tracks) often, and keep a few baseline samples with sound settings in those, but have never found a use for the Sounds feature of the DT.Interested to see what uses folks have for them hereā€¦

Everybody should do what they want, but personally I also havenā€™t saved any sound on my Digitakt so far.

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Absolutely but understanding what others (with more experience do) can sometimes help one better understand what they doā€¦

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