DigiChain - web app for making sample chains

[brian3kb]

Not sure I’m following?

By default, slice data is embedded in the generated sample chains, so if you drag a chain that DigiChain made back in, then goto the slice panel, choose the number button that has the DC red icon on it, and then your slices are there (spaced or not), along with the file name of the file the slice came from, so slicing back to individual samples, will restore that slices sample name. (This is of course provided that you don’t have the embed slice data option disabled in the app settings!).

For the save/load session, its more to keep the contents of the list in a session file, rather than just those in the chain that got generated, along with the sample-rate, bit depth, container info for that saved session.

[thejewk]

brian3kb, thanks for the great utility.

Any chance someone could ‘check my work’ for me? I have a Digitakt in a cupboard somewhere out of reach for a few weeks until I hit the big 40, but wanted to get a head start making some sample chains of drum kits from the Samples from Mars everything pack I grabbed on sale.

I think I have done the right thing, but with no way to check on the device, I don’t want to repeat the procedure another 50 times only to find I messed it up and have to do it all again.

I loaded up 16 samples from a 909 kit, shortened any that had a long silence on the tail, ordered them, selected 16 in the top right of the page, and then clicked the ‘1 Spaced Chain’ button.

Have I missed anything? Anything I should think about doing differently?

Many thanks

[brian3kb]

This looks good to me.

I’d just double check no one sample is significantly longer than the others as when creating a spaced chain, each ‘slice’ is padded with silence, which increases file size.

You can use the ‘selected actions’ button to apply sample edits to all the selected items, e.g. ‘trim right’ to remove tail slience for all samples at once.

[thejewk]

Thanks!

Are the chains that are not spaced equally for a different device? My understanding was that slices on the Digitakt had to be equally spaced to work cleanly, but am I wrong about this?

[brian3kb]

Yes, those are for Octatrack, Dirtywave M8, OP-Z, OP-1 Field depending on the export settings.

The Digitakt doesn’t read slice/cue markers, so needs the equally spaced chains. Assuming you want to use the slice machine that is!

[Phurniture]

@bibenu

I think it was this thread (possibly) where someone mentioned the technique of ‘back-to-back’ samples (my terminology, sorry) where the first half of the sample is normal, and the second half is a related sample, a variation of the first, but reversed. The idea being, on a sample trig lock, you can lock it to reverse for the variation (and set the sample playback length to half) ?

Was it this thread, and if so, does DigiChain support this technique ?

I had mentioned this technique here. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work on a Digitakt, although it’s much more convenient having a dedicated Reverse button on the Model:Samples:

M:S Wizards & Pros - I’m looking for your advice

Another crazy thing I did once was create samples where it was an 808 drum sound followed by the equivalent 909 drum sound, but reversed. So the 808 kick followed by reversed 909 kick, 808 snare with reversed 909 snare, etc. This way you can instantly change from one sound to another with the press of the reverse button. You just need to make sure you’re always at 50% sample length. Using Control All you can swap the entire kit instantly as well.

[brian3kb]

I have implemented a “back-to-back” mode setting that will be in the next 1.4.10 release; I have a few extra enhancements I want to get into this before it goes out, probably end of this weekend depending on how much free time I get, as I’ve had to setup a new laptop after my OS ssd went wonky, so a little behind getting stuff finished up.

[gekkonier]

If you make a sample chain for octatrack, and want to play the slices with the trigs while the sequencer is running you need to go to aed->attr->quantized trig and set that there to direct.
Otherwise it will not trigger at the moment you press the trig. I don’t know if this is stored in the ot file.

[brian3kb]

The quantize value is stored in the .ot file, and is set to 255 = Direct in the .ot DigiChain generates.

[gekkonier]

In my case ot files created with digichain are set to pat.len.
Dunno, perhaps I misconfigured somewhere.

[brian3kb]

I’ll check my chains later, that value has always been 255, and isn’t exposed for changing in the UI, for pattern length it would need to be set to 0.

[brian3kb]

Did some checking on this, and it looks like I changed this a couple of versions ago when I rewrote some of the .ot file generation logic to calculate tempo/bars. I’ve fixed that regression and it will be corrected in the next release to default to ‘direct’ again.

Thanks for catching this, and apologies if it has caused any issues for you!

[gekkonier]

Hi!
You didn’t caused issues. You made an excellent app! Thank you!

[brian3kb]

v1.4.10 is now live on the main url

• .xrns file contents parsing (useful for getting the samples out of a Renoise project file).
• Parse the Renoise song data from within project files and extract slice markers.
• When slicing from OP-1 Field tape.json, prevent the ot slice loop point CSS class being applied.
• Drag-out single file from list (Chrome).
• Option in settings to reverse all even samples in an exported chain (back-to-back mode).
• Snap to zero-crossing toggle option on selections on edit panel.
• Visual zero-crossing indicator on edit panel selection start and end points.
• Surface tempo detection method to the edit panel to detect from the currently selected section of the waveform.
• Fixed regression on .ot file generation not correctly setting the quantize value default to ‘direct’ instead of ‘pattern length’.
• Fixed bug when setting slice-grid options from the audio settings panel.
• Added keyboard shortcuts info pop-up (Shift + ? / Shift + K).

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The new setting, 'Reverse all even samples in a chain", in the Settings panel will apply the ‘back-to-back’ operation to all chains created when set to ‘Yes’.

e.g., with this turned on, a chain of 8 kicks shows the even numbered slices reversed.

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There is a new ‘Snap to Zero’ toggle button in the edit panel which toggles the start/end point selecting to snap to zero, zero crossing selections get a little indicator square on the selection lines.

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A few bug fixes, and the keyboard shortcuts list can now be viewed from inside the app in a pop-up modal with the Shift + K or Shift + ? shortcuts.

And Renoise project files can be dropped in to get the audio files out of them along with any slice data that was created with the Renoise sample editor slicer.

DigiChain

[gekkonier]

Thank you!
I hope my time allows to test the renoise functionality. It might come super handy!

[Humanprogram]

Just saying thanks again for this amazing tool!

Digitakt SCWs: noting for other users that the free Adventure Kid single-cycle waveforms collection work really nicely in chains from the DigiChain app. For Digitakt users, the subfolder that’s formatted for MonoMachine (GitHub - KristofferKarlAxelEkstrand/AKWF-FREE: Adventure Kid Wave Forms are a collection of sampled one cycle waveforms for use in synthesizers or similar sound generators. ) puts things into smaller folders of up to 64 samples, and the sound quality for Digitakt (48k 16 bit mono), so it’s generally easy to drag and drop them one at a time into DigiChain to make 64-SCW chains, or to pick and choose even groups from the smaller folders.

[Editing to add: these are tuned to D2 and a few cents off; on Digitakt, the upward range is limited. To tune these up an octave or two, and toward C4 if desired, you can do that in DigiChain after chaining them together (it won’t allow changing pitch on the scws alone.) This has given my Digitakt-as-synth a whole new life, they sound great.]

[brian3kb]

Thanks!

If you’re going for some random chains, set the chain length to 64 then drop the folder(s) of samples into DigiChain while holding down the Shift key to get a random selection.

[taro]

Thank you. Great tool.

Digichain is very useful for Wavetable conversion as well as for samples.
By changing the octave of wavetables, they can be used with a variety of synths.

For example, Wavetables(one frame - 2048samples) exported from Vital can be batch exported to Wavetables(one frame - 1024samples) for Ableton.

• OFF : 2048 samples per one frame
• 1 octave up : 1024 samples per one frame - Suitable for Ableton Wavetable
• 2 octave up : 512 samples per one frame
• 3 octave up : 256 samples per one frame

[thoughtstarZ]

I haven’t been using DigiChain since you put it out, but I just started getting into the editing part. This is unreal. I’m impressed and it’s got me experimenting with taking bits out of samples I have laying around n getting cutty. Making drones into pads with the fade in. Cutting voices up. Alll the stuff I’m into, it’s perfect for. The added normalize. Wow. Thanks again.

[prydal]

Yes i use digichain even for normalizing other bunches of samoles i use in other gear, just because its so easy and quick to use and save em all.

Great tool.

Whats the reverse even samples feature good for?