Forgive me please, I’m very new to this and my brain is literally scrambled from an open craniotomy that was performed on me in order to remove brain cancer. I used to dj in the late 90s and very early 2000s, but that was with simple analog turntables. A lot has changed.
A family member of mine passed away about a year ago, and to make a long story short, I ended up with some gear. I have a Digitakt, a Digitone, a NI Maschine (controller + software) and an Akai APC Key 25 MKII controller. I also have a desktop PC and a PC laptop, Ableton Live, NI Komplete, and several other misc. VSTs, sample banks and packs, etc.
I know very little about audio production, I have dabbled with it several times over the past nearly 30 years but have never been consistent with it at all. I know that I have a lot of reading and watching tutorials ahead of me. The thing is though, that I do not even know what is the correct way to connect my hardware and controllers to my PC. I have been looking for concrete answers for several days and I just keep running into tons of contradictory information. Maybe I am just not looking in the correct places.
I think that the way to go about this is to:
Connect the Digitakt, Digitone, Maschine and APC Key to a MTT enabled powered USB 3.0 hub using 3.0 USB cables.
Connect the USB hub to a USB 3.0 port in my PC.
Download and install Overbridge, Transfer, etc.
Configure everything in Ableton.
Are these steps correct?
Sounds simple, but as I said, I’ve been seeing a lot of contradictory info. Also, does anyone have a link to a good powered MTT hub? I appreciate any answers that anyone can provide me with.
You’re on the right track but you might be better off picking one device from that admirable collection and learning it in some detail and then adding them one at a time. It’s tough to learn a load of new gear at the same
Time you just end up using surface level features on each.
Thanks! I know how to use the Maschine and the APC Key II actually. The two Elektrons are what are really throwing me off though, as I have no experience at all using hardware with a DAW. I only really have experience with controllers and software. I just want to make sure that I am doing the correct things! But yes, that is a fair point that I hadn’t considered before.
Don’t use them with the DAW, just sync them to the DAW and program in the devices. Those two are particularly fun to use and are great first Elektrons to have.
If you want to learn more look for Cuckoo or EZbot on YT, they do great tutorials on Elektron devices. Once you get to grips with the sequencer (won’t take long) you’ll be flying. Then you could bring over bridge in later.
But pick one and sit down with it and get to grips with it as a standalone. It’ll be worth the time
Investment.
The way you described the USB connections sounds about right to me. I also second what StuB mentioned, that adding one new instrument at a time would be easier for learning.
May I ask, what your audio routing would be? Do you have a mixing desk or DJ mixer to which you connect everything?
I don’t believe that any of the devices which you mentioned are capable of USB 3.0 transfer speeds so no need to spend the extra money on USB 3.0 cables. An MTT capable, powered USB hub is a good investment for your purposes.
I would tend to agree that learning one device at a time will be easier and more immediately rewarding. For example, learning how to navigate the Digitakt will teach you a lot about how to navigate the Digitone and any other Elektron machine.
I would invest in a good quality, comfortable set of middle-of-the-road studio headphones and consider your monitoring situation. If desktop space is limited, a lot of people are very happy with the IK multimedia iLoud micro desktop monitors which are relatively inexpensive and very compact but are still reputed to sound pretty good for intermediate level desktop production.
The problem with wearing headphones for long periods of time is you can really fatigue your ears and if the process is taxing, you’re more likely to get tired of working on something so I think that it’s important to be able to choose how you want to work and also be able to adjust situationally (i.e. if the house is quiet you need headphones).
Other than that, just take your time and pick your battles. Fatigue and frustration are motivation killers so just be patient and approach it one problem at a time, and as you solve them you can move towards a more advanced workflow, but there’s nothing which says you can’t just work in one box at a time as a workflow if that turns out to be the most comfortable and productive for you.
No, I don’t have a mixer. I think I’m just going to have to control the mix virtually in Ableton. I do have some Sennheiser headphones which attempt to follow the harman target curve, and some okay desktop speakers as well.
That’s my plan as of now at least. I’m open to suggestions and I know there are other ways to go about it.
Welcome again. I agree with all the advice so far, just adding a +1. There is a lot of fun hidden in those devices and it’s there for the picking as long as you don’t get overwhelmed by all the new things. The elektron boxes are great standalone so you only need a computer to record and maybe later arrange the composition. Once you have set up ableton to record a device you can leave it as a glorified tape recorder if you want fewer things to think about.
Thank you for that amazing, detailed and helpful answer, as well as the rest of the advice! I have speakers as well as headphones, so I guess I’m on my way!
Nothing wrong with mixing in Ableton nor with your plan. I just assumed, since you mentioned that you used to DJ, that you still have a DJ mixer maybe.
In that case I would have suggested that you could - at least to get familiar with the Digitakt and Digitone - connect the DT and DN to the DJ mixer and treat them like turntables, you know?
Make patterns on both of them and switch between them. One plays while you get ready on the other one and mix elements etc.
Might be interesting if you don’t want to use a computer at times. And later you could still use Ableton/Overbridge to record such a “DJ set.”
Thanks for the advice! I’m very anxious and excited to get up and running with one of these machines, as they both seem incredible and the more I read, the more amazing they seem!
I Think the most important piece of advice is to add devices one by one, not to overwhelm yourself with a lot of new features you need to learn to use.
If your elektrons are the new devices, I’d say pick one of those (maybe the DT for immediate results), do the minimum to connect to your computer if needed (e.g. to load your own samples) then plug headphones into the device, and learn it standalone. Only then think about connecting it up to the world via a hub. That’s a whole other set of things to deal with.
Another advice maybe if you’re new into production or getting back to making music:
There are endless possibilities and plenty of features - don’t get smashed by them.
You will develop your own unique workflow soon enough.
There might be some using DT/DN with Overbridge like a VST plugin. Others are more comfortable with working inside the hardware and record the results. And others might use those boxes simply as a sound generator and sequence recorded stems and sounds in Ableton.
You’ll discover what works best for you. Try different approaches and don’t get blocked by thinking that you have to do it this or that way, because it works for someone else.
Hi and welcome. I joined this forum when I first got an elektron box and hung around because there’s a bundle of helpful people on it.
Just wanted to echo what others have said, you have a really nice collection of kit there and you don’t need to use it in any particular way. You might find it easiest to learn the elektron boxes as standalone units in the first instance, to really get to know them.
For example - My usual way to work is to create some loops and sketches on the digis and use usb midi to sync to my DAW only when I want to export them as audio - I almost never use overbridge.
The digitakt and digitone are both really powerful on their own. The digitakt was my first elektron device and when I first got it I didn’t even use anything other than the factory samples for the first month or 2!
I subsequently bought a digitone, I love it too, and when I wanted to learn that I put the digitakt away for a bit.
The great thing is there are loads of real power users here who can help with any query!
Hello I too foundmyself I s a similar situation I found out I have a brain tumor just before Christmas and was I n pprocesof building ga new studio space …I also bought loads of new gear toneverkalsortrs best advice is one thing at a time don’t rush it all becomes clearevery body will help on here there brilliant ilive in burnley lyes
Yes, though as said above you don’t need USB3 since all this gear is a few years old. But I would avoid trying to get everything operating together at once of you’ll get horribly overwhelmed.
Pick one thing you find appealing at first and spend some time working just with that. The DN/DT might be ideal because you can also unplug from the computer and just go play it on the sofa with a pair of headphones as well as at the computer. When I want to stay focused I often start a new project in Ableton, don’t bother to sync anything up, and just record audio in the arrange view like a tape recorder.
Looks like we more or less unanimously recommend focusing on one box first. Let us know which one you go for and what you think. There are no wrong answers.
