Digitakt Beginners

[Saturn10]

Hello,

At the risk of being a little embarrassed, I thought I’d start this thread for any other folks out there who just got a Digitakt and are as new to this area as I am. I’ll ask questions here and be happy to read other’s.
I am a lifelong musician who is just now enjoying the amazing options of advanced electronic computer hardware for recording and performance. In the past, all of this has been reserved to guitar electronics for me.
I got a Digitakt after I’d shopped online, sought a rhythm unit to be the center of any electronic drum work I’d be employing. This machine ~looks and seems to sound~ cool… but I am completely lost, lol.

The videos on YouTube (even from fun-seeming, well-intentioned people like Cookoo) quickly devolve into muuuch too fast, ‘advanced’ terminology and tangents… and have nothing to do with for instance, “how to open a new file and create a beat from scratch” …Although I may next subscribe to the macprovideo.com courses, I thought I’d post up here.

Excuse me any pros! The good news is that you don’t need to bother with any of this thread unless here to educate!

Thanks all

S10

[Markel]

Congrats on the Digitakt, it’s a beast of a sampler/sequencer! But it might be a bit daunting at first. The manual helps, but I also feel it’s more immediate to watch someone use it and learn from them. I’ve had mine for 3 months now and I’m starting to get the hang of it, it is my first elektron machine ever.

[Saturn10]

Hey Markel,
Thanks for the reply and encouragement. I’m just now sitting on Bank C’s 01, tapping out the sounds. As an indicator of where I’m at, I don’t even know where to find the sounds included in this ‘pallet’. I looked at the +Drive Library and only see 1-64 samples there and none of them sound like the acoustic kit basis on here… Alas, I’ll keep posting and tapping away… Might look into those courses!

[andreasroman]

Actually, digging through the samples are a lot more challenging than just sampling.

So if you wanna get something going quickly with the Digitakt, and you got any sound source outside the box that you like, just sample that. Recording a sample and applying it to a track, is straight-forward and direct. Digging into Elektron’s sound structure, auditioning and finding stuff you like, understanding where it goes and when and how to maintain consistency, is not.

So approach it like a sampler, if you can. And sample what you got. Not a lot. And get to know the Digitakt, that way.

[Markel]

The sample/sound libraries were a bit confusing to me as well.

You can load samples on your audio channels 1-8, I usually do this from settings -> samples. There you can find the ‘factory’ folder with all the samples your Digitakt came with, and if you have transferred more from your computer, there will be there in a folder named with the date you transferred them. If you have recorded and saved any samples into the Digitakt, they will be in the folder named ‘recording’ (which might not exist if you have not recorded anything yet). To load samples onto your current project, navigate to them, press ‘yes’, and a tick will show up next to them. Then press ‘>’, and select ‘load samples’.

What elektron calls ‘sounds’ are a different thing, think of them as an instance of a sample that has been tweaked, for example tuned to a different pitch and filtered. These can be loaded from the ‘manage sounds’ menu if I recall correctly. You can also label these sounds with tags like FX, snare, synth, etc, which makes searching for them a bit easier.

Sounds and samples have their own different libraries. I find myself using samples all the time and tweaking them on the fly, and hardly ever reaching for sounds to be honest. But this might change as I get to know the machine a bit better!

[Saturn10]

Thank you Markel,

I may as well spit this question out for the good of any other raw beginners, before I turn in… This is directed right at Digitakt staff and anyone else who would like the challenge:

If I am sitting here looking at for instance, Digitakt’s Bank C’s C01 (since banks A and B are all filled with presets despite what I hear about the Digitakt supposedly coming blank after Bank A’s through pattern A9), How can a person simply go from this pattern(?) (C01) listed as “Untitled” and right away, program a simple drumbeat? I swear; ~nowhere~ on YouTube has ~anyone~ (inc. Digitakt) posted a step-by-step video this rudimentary, lol. I mean, there’s got to be thousands of people like me out there who are experienced musicians who wish to invest in a somewhat advanced pieces of gear to ‘learn their way into’.

If any replies from me here are slow after this, it is because I must attend to other aspects of life and music work…

Thanks

[Grim_Erland]

Settings > samples > find a sample u like on the list (func + yes to hear the sound) > press right arrow when sample highlighted > «load into project» > yes > press trig 1 > assign menu> top right encoder > choose sample > press record button > add triggers to sequence…looks like alot, but really isnt…good luck!

[tnussb]

Have you really viewed Cuckoo’s videos like his Digitakt Mega Tutorial?

Because this one really covers almost all basics …

Additionally fetch the latest user manual for the Digitakt from the Elektron Digitakt Support Page, read it slowly and try stuff while reading (or while viewing the video).

Afterwards when you have more specific questions than “please explain me all the basics” come back and post them.

[anokah]

You don’t need to go into bank c or whatever. Just replace the samples that are in whichever pattern you are in. Use the samp menu on the src page and switch them out. Then program or play your beat, melody. If I misunderstood what you meant, I’m sorry. If you don’t understand what I mean, I have to say you need to peruse the manual a bit more That’s not to say you can’t find help here, but understanding the basic stuff should be done by reading the manual, videos and trial and error. Or in my experience it won’t stick, and you won’t understand the basic premise of your instrument.

Edit: Because me not smart

[jefones]

Start a new project. Do not work in the factory preset project.

[anokah]

Ahh, so that is what he means, he’s not just working with the standard kit, but he’s got the factory sequences as well?

[Ryan]

2 things.

Copy/Pasting patterns will copy everything. Clearing a pattern will only clear the sequences. A useful process for if you want patterns to work similar to kits.

Also, a thing I’ve been doing- iStrobeSoft tuner app on my phone. cable running from headphone out to adapter going into phone. Tune the samples to match a C for chromatic mode. Useful for getting different samples to play nicely with other samples/instruments.

(1 more thing)

Drum up different kits by Copy/Pasting different results from control all.

The Digitakt is REALLY simple to operate. The challenge lies in exploring the deep potentials of the box!

Enjoy!

[jefones]

Second or third post the person mentions the factory content filling up banks until c. This probably means the factory project is the active one.

[anokah]

Yeah, I didn’t think about that. Always just initiated a new project. Well spotted

[Saturn10]

Hi Tnussb,
Again, as a beginner, I sat through much of that video. If you watch it again imagining yourself not knowing the rudiments of the device and sequencers, you might start to get the picture of where I’m coming from.
Further, I have the paper and online manual and have been looking into them. Please read the first part of this thread referring to beginners and experienced users and if you feel this tests your knowledge too much, move along.

[Saturn10]

Thank you to anyone posting as help- I’ll study these replies and get back.
S10

[darenager]

Just take your time and work through, do as others have suggested create a new project, then just experiment with things, an afternoon of messing around should help more than anything else.

Keep the manual at hand whilst doing so.

[Saturn10]

Thank you Anoka, got it.

[Saturn10]

Thank you Grim_Erland.

[Saturn10]

Thanks Jefones!