Can you fake the rhythms (not the FM sounds) of the Double Knot on the DT with samples and lots of retrigs etc?
Can you give an example? That way someone can give you a better answer to your question.
Sorry thought I’d put a link in the OP…
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Are you talking about something like what’s shown in the demo?
I don’t think you can replicate the randomness of the intermodulation (like how the different voltage sources impact each other), but I think that you could fake some of it using multiple tracks with some trig locked random LFO pointed at things like pitch and resonance. Probably set up different scale length on at least one of them to create some randomness in polyrhythms but setting the probability on a lot of those trigs low so that it’s not completely predictable and noticeable as a fixed pattern.
Using enough tracks with low enough fire conditions to keep it actually feeling random, using retrigs and maybe a fill section, possibly experimenting with a round robin, I think you could make a sequence that felt random enough that unless a person was really listening for something to repeat that it will probably be pretty convincing.
So, while fundamentally you could randomly set this up and hope for the best, in order to really dial in the modulation of pitch and interplay of rhythms to sound like any of those examples I’m afraid it will take a bunch of work. If you just want some randomness and you aren’t terribly concerned with how closely it mirrors the patches in the video, then I don’t think you’d have to put in as much work.
If you only want the randomness of the rhythmic variations, setting up a few tracks with different scale lengths and even slightly different bpms with random patterns and using the low fire trig conditions would be the shortest route (in my opinion, someone else might do it differently).
Double knot has a really random intermodulation though, like I don’t know if you’ve seen Liquid Foam, but it has a similar gate step sequencer which produces random madness but is sort of more like a 303 on drugs in it’s sound palette (although it can do droplets and drippy sounds) but it doesn’t have the same interwoven feel as double knot.
check out the timestamped link for example of liquid foam doing this:
Don’t know if that’s helpful but that’s what I think at least.
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Thanks for your detailed answer.
What I really like about the Double Knot (from watching the demo videos anyway) is when you find a stable pattern that is interesting enough in itself and that just repeats without variation.
The randomness of the machine for me lies in getting to that rhythm, plugging a clip here or there and seeing what happens (which would be cool if I had one!). But the rhythm itself, once I hear something I like, I would prefer to stay the same and repeat endlessly without variation (which hopefully the DT can mimic).
So I guess if you take any one snippet of a rhythm from the videos above, with all of the the lovely flam/repeat type characteristics, can you replicate that in the DT?
Some of the retrigs that happen Double Knot in those videos are super quick. Can the DT mimic that? Maybe I’d have to set tempo really high?
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I’d be more apt to record the sessions on my zoom recorder (or daw if you prefer) so that if there IS a moment where I’m like “that’s the sound!” I have it and would just resample it back into the DT and slice it in a grid if I feel like I wanted to be able to mute it on the fly.
You can create stable randomness with digitakt but it’s not a product of intermodulation the way patching cables and turning knobs is, with DT you have to know what you’re doing and how to do it (premeditated).
Of course you can play around more and more until you get close, but these little devices like double knot and liquid foam are producing sounds that are “unscripted” such as it were. I mean even if you have a pretty good idea of how each of those parameter outs impact each other, there’s no indication other than your ears to tell you when you’ve gotten there.
You would probably use an LFO with a high BPM multiplier to achieve that flutter you’re describing. You could set a high tempo but it’s going to lead to predictability and lack of variety. By using different LFO settings locked to conditional trigs you can create some pretty good variety.
But unless you want super wonky, I wouldn’t set the LFO too deep.
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Or another idea… if I bought a Double Knot… is there a way to use it to trigger 2 sounds/tracks on the DT instead of the internal synths with some sort of CV to MIDI converter?
I don’t have any other modular or semi modular gear. And I don’t really want to get into all of that.
All I have is the DT (plus the Double Knot, if I bought one).
To make sure I understand, using the generative function of double knot to trigger dt tracks? The easy answer is no. Most CV to midi converters are doing like, note data I think. And from what I understand you can establish notes on a volt per octave basis pretty easily (for basic cv to midi conversion), but it’s the values inbetween that are more complicated.
The complicated answer is probably, maybe using something like befaco cv thing, but it would require some kind of calibration and a more in depth knowledge of setting up such things than I could give you a detailed answer on.
but I’m guessing you would only be able to do one track, or maybe with more than one of something you could do multiple tracks. More than one double knot or more than one converter taking split output from the og double knot? I just don’t know.
CV isn’t in “steps” like midi, cv (and gate) is analog. So, basically when I’m talking about the intermodulation, it’s because different voltages are feeding each other and triggering gates within the device. It’s a sequencer I guess but not a traditional sequencer, and the unique patterns are generated by those voltages caused by interaction of the analog parameters. A basic 16th note cv sequencer would just send a pulse that triggers to a tempo controlled by an electical current/wave, as the frequency changes the speed changes.
Just wanted to expand on that because I know it’s not always clear why one technology works by itself but not with another seemingly similar implementation of technology.
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