Tip to record an already playing loop with FX tails from an external machine with sequencer (I used Syntakt).
Allows you to record a loop with quantize after a cycle.
Set DT2 as master
Set PREROLL value corresponding to external gear pattern length (up to 16 bars)
Metronome On
Set REC START = PLAY
Set REC Length
ARM
Press Rec+Play
The preroll starts, and the external gear too. Recording starts at the end of preroll, and you have fx tails in the loop.
EDIT : Preroll values are bars, up to 16. So you can record a specific bar if you wishā¦
Can be used for other cases, like a compressor sounding too loud at the beginning, record only fx tailsā¦if you have suggestionsā¦
Oh - this is huge for me and actually sort of solves my first request from Digitakt II Feature Requests - #283 by mbillz (altho I would still love more record trigger modes implemented). Thanks for sharing!
edit: ah - missed the dt2 as master part of it. definitely a nice workaround, but hoping for a native record āprerollā implementation at some point.
This should be a pretty basic ātrickā but couldnāt get it to work (bug?). Tried chopping a loop, then live recording octave shifts but holding func + tune, but wouldnāt record so had to add in as parameter locks, which is much more laborious.
Retrig Page as an additional (latchable) fill or pattern variation
As the retrigs have their own dedicated page on the DT2 with an on/off switch, this can be used to pre-configure fills or pattern variations which can be jumped between using the retrig on/off switch (also for multiple tracks with CTRL all). This is independent from the fill conditional trig and provides another layer of fills or additional variations, and can be switched on and off per track.
Example setup: Put down trigs on a hihat track at every second step, a simple 8th notes pattern. On the retrig page set the length parameter to 2 and the retrig rate to 16th notes. Now you can easily jump between these two variations with the on/off dial. Go ahead an p-lock different retrig rates and velocity curves for each step, for a more exciting pattern variation. This can be done for several tracks and combined with CTRL all, just be sure to dial in the lowest setting on the length and retrig rate for tracks you do not want to go brrrr (or exclude them from CTRL all).
Set up some velocity macros (and disable velocity to volume) and go nuts with your own scatter FX, customizable per track/preset.
I havenāt tried it in combination with the euclidean sequencer fill trick yet, but this makes for at least three layers of fills/pattern variations within a single pattern. Very nice.
For clarity - do you mean take a sequence as SRC:SAMP by choosing different SRC:SAMP for each step? OR using an LFO to modulate SRC:SAMP / random LFO to select a new SAMP each trig?
Or do you mean to record the sequence into a sample of N steps using the sampler, and then hash it with Machine=GRID?
I get interesting results both ways, just curious what you meant exactly. Thanks man!
Just a quick note on how Iām settling to using the DT2. Iāve heard people say that theyāre so accustomed to using 8 tracks and are now unsure what to do with the 16
Iām thinking about the 16 tracks like columns or sections. And my banks align with those columns and sections. This below layout helps me stay organized from project to project as well as offers me the opportunity to build countermelodies and that sort of thing.
Example:
Tracks 1 and 9 are my kick and bass. Kick on track 1 and bass on track 9
Tracks 2, 3, 10, and 11 are my high-end percussion like hats, shakers, claps, and rides
Tracks 4 and 12 are my mid to low percussion elements
Tracks 5 and 13 are my synth hooks - one track is the rhythm and the other is a call and response hook
Tracks 6 and 14 are my vocals
Tracks 7, 8, 15 and 16 are my sound FXs, foley, weird noises, strings, etc
I import my samples to the appropriate banks that line up with the track columns above -
Bank A: Kicks and basses
Bank B and C: Hats, claps, rides, shakers
Bank D: Percussion
Bank E: Synth shots/loops
Bank E: Vocal loops, stabs, hooks, adlibs
Bank F - H: FX, foley, noises, glitches, thingsā¦
Just thought Iād share if anyone was looking for a starting point to organize their stuff. Iām also open to refinements to the approach.
Nice, simplifying, approach. Not sure Iād divvy things up into the exact same 8, but the approach of lining up the banks of samples with pairs of tracks is a great idea.
i wonder how these wavetables avoid popping, because no matter what i do, the wavetables (or even longer sample chains that each āsliceā is seamlessly looping) i create myself have pops
iāll experiment with this soon but i had an extra idea to do this while still saving the 3rd LFO for sound design: using midi loopback and a MIDI track (e.g: 15), utilizing its LFO(s) for the āfade outā for multiple tracks. One LFO can fade out the level, and another one perhaps increase/decrease base or width of the base-width filter for a fancier transition
If youāve got loopback or a midi controller another way to go is the sound macros (MW/AT/BC in setup menu), every āfillā track can turn on , filter in, whatever, up to 4 parameters, and every normal track can fade out, all with 1 control, magic.
Iāve had great results in grid mode with the factory wavetables. I looked and they are 64-slice tables, but they waves suggest theyāre not cutting at zero crossings in slice mode. The Echo Soundworks wavetables I have work about half the time, but are of various lengthsābreaking up a couple with DigiChain helped a lot, but I havenāt had time to get a sense of what works vs what doesnāt and why.
The factory wavetables do sound great to me, and the slewed random for LFOs is nice for sound design. I was just stacking some to make pads:
A couple more examples, lead and bass from factory tables:
And a vocal/formant wavetable from Echo sound works:
When you choose WAVE=RAND for your LFO, encoder F no more controls Start Phase (SPH) but a SLEW parameter (already available on OG DT, I believe).
What it does is smoothing transitions between random values.
If you choose DEST=SRC:TUNE youāll have a portamento.
I think this destination is a good one to get the sense of it and adjust parameters such as SPD, MULT and SLEW.
The bigger the SLEW value, the longer the transition time.
As @Humanprogram underlined it, in the case of a looped Wavetable sample chain with a random LFO on SRC:SLICE, SLEW parameter offers to smoothly transition from a wave to another
Load Factory > 5-Oscillators > Wavetables > WT Dxyz for instance
Set Machine to GRID
In SRC menu, set GRID=64, SLICE=32, PLAY=FWD.L
Set AMP:REL to max.
In LFO menu, set WAVE=RAND, SLEW=127, MODE=FREE, DEP=32, DEST=SRC:SLICE, MULT=BPM 1 and SPD=8.
