So, I have just gotten a used Digitakt and I’m trying to figure out the limitations of Slice mode.
Can someone tell me if, when chopping 1bar/2bar drum loops, do these need to be the exact same bpm as the project if they are to loop properly on Digitakt 1 (or Digitakt 2?)?
The section in the manual on the slice machine does not say.
Are the Werp and Repitch machines the one 2x that will auto change sample length to match project bpm?
I am coming from Octatrack world so used to that. I know the DT is more a 1 shot player than loop chopper, but just trying to find out for sure what is possible.
I had planned to us the Digitakt to chop loops to accompany drum 1 shots. Sometimes while playing live I’ll change the BPM of my tunes mid-track as the set goes on. If this change in bpm will send chops out of whack then I’ll need to think of something else.
Yes. I think the best way to think of it is that slice length on the digitakt slice machine is dictated by the overall sample length. Slices are evenly cut out of the total file based around your grid settings. There is no time stretch in that regard.
Werp does work to fit loops to your project tempo and will work best with drum loops but if you aren’t picky can be used for other stuff.
I believe that digitakt 2 has addressed the grid type slicing and has implemented a more user definable slice length paradigm, but digitakt 1 has some limitations and for your purposes of tempo change mid song, there are some tutorials on how to use LFO for timestretch but on an OG digitakt the results are a bit coarse.
Not sure if that answers your question but the file length dictates slice length, not project tempo.
Couple of videos to get you started if you’re working with DT1.
Thank you @shigginpit. Very well explained answer. I appreciate the clarity on Digitakt 1. I will take a look at these videos. I appreciate it.
I don’t know how much processing this requires, but I just assumed that slices would stay in time with project bpm on Digitakt 1. Perhaps it is deliberate so as not to step on the octatrack’s toes.
I assume the same slice behavior will be evident on Digitakt 2? That is, despite the improved ways to slice, the slices will still not stay in time with your project of you change BPM?
Thanks guys. Understood now. Digitakt 2 will have same behavior. Only workaround is to align loop and project bpm if you want to slice using the slice machine.
That is a nifty workaround using the LFO to pseudo slice and keep sections in time @shigginpit. Thanks for sharing!
To be frank with you, I import most samples. I’m not a fan of the normalization algorithm on the sound of the audio which you get from sampling via the inputs and so if it’s a loop, I’ve already mostly addressed timing so that if I slice it up it will mostly play in time.
There’s a recording feature in the sample recorder which allows you to monitor audio coming from the input and use a gate to trigger the recorder. The recorder itself can be set to take exactly 16 steps (or whatever you choose) worth of audio and that will give you a “perfect” loop length, but the input level bounces a bit so you can’t set the threshold to 0, therefore in order to use the gate you might miss the opening transient and whether that matters really depends on the audio but with drums, it can.
When I use the inputs for sampling and if I’ll be slicing it, as in your scenario, I ride the sample start button while triggering the audio source and try to time it between the two hands to get the best possible start so there isn’t much air at the beginning but enough to catch the transient. You can tell if you were too slow or too eager on triggering the recording if it cuts the end off or if it loops funny.
It’s not much of a trick, but to prepare loops for the digitakt off the box, a helpful “trick” is to record yourself a few bars of the metronome externally and align your sample with that in the DAW and then import that. It should be correct to the project tempo because all devices will have some slight difference in BPM over time as hardware all runs on it’s own clock and we rely on midi etc. to get them on the same clock.
Precise tempo is more of an illusion, or maybe more of a reference point, when you look at it under a microscope. Anyway, if you have some other questions let me know.
Also there’s some issue or feature, not sure, with digitakt 2 where when you use the gated recording mentioned above, people tend to be like .01ms out of sync so not sure what the current status of that is, but digitakt 1 doesn’t seem to do that.
I think you can do just that with DT1 slice mode (same as DT2 grid mode) provided that
you slice on 1/16th notes of the original loop
you only change BPM UP from the original loop
If you do that and create linear locks, you should stay in tempo and sound reasonable (unless the drummer is playing triplets divisions of 1/8th notes or is applying lots of swing).
EDIT: and if you find you can do that, there should be no need for
I don’t disagree that you can do it, but the result depends on the drum loops. With breakbeats you’ll often still get clicking because old samples / samples taken from old recordings might have a higher noise floor than DAW prepared drum loops made out of one shots. It all depends on the context. Noisy samples will be a problem, clean samples where the hits fall dead center of the step, I think that will work.
One technique I like on DT2 for time stretched slices is to use the retrig keyboard mode to tap and hold trigs into the sequencer (ofc with the time stretch LFO set up)
That way you can match your taps and retrig density to the samples contents - more retrigs is more robotic but preserves transients better, slow retrigs is like a small looping buffer.
You don’t choose the slices explicitly, but it’s almost better than fixed slices because they’re always in time and when you place the trig and release it determines the start and end point of the slice.
I should make a vid on this but I’m preoccupied making my own timestretch engine from scratch and haven’t been too pleased w DT2 overall to make a vid on it. Anyways hope that makes sense.
On DT1 you could only add retrigs after the fact but on DT2 retrigs are “live” so you can play them into the sequencer. Would be cool if there was a way to randomize retrig lengths to be more “cloudy”