Digitakt - what's the magic?

[uhstevenk]

oooooh I’ll tell you the magic, but first you must answer these questions three…

question the first… what is the number of your credit card with the most room on it…

[djst]

Yes, that does sound like what I mean with magic! I’d love to hear more about what happens that you didn’t expect?

[astricii]

I think when comparing to the Octatrack at least. The DT has a lot more tools for “glue”

Every track has saturation and bit reduction.

They all are sent to send effects (sure ot has effects per track but that can just mud up or crowd a mix) there’s a lot to be said for putting things in the same “space”.

The DSP used to make the bus effects are def of a higher quality as there only needs to be one instance of each on the device. Specialization can sometimes be better than choice.

That said the OT can also sound great but takes discretion to get there. I kind of like the really focused approach they took on the digi line it’s instant inspiration.

[vasidudu]

@Claid

Eighthly (this is getting ridiculous), in a word, HEADROOM. I had no idea how important it is to be able to have loads of sounds playing at once and not get clipping, but now I see the light! I have never experienced clipping/dodgy gain staging on the Digitakt, even when smashing the compressor. It always sounds smooth and professional.

Ninethly, the COMPRESSOR. Good lord, this is useful. I currently use it as a gentle limiter to trim the peaks off the audio but in my lo-fi hip-hop days I used it as a tool of destruction, fucking the best to the kick and making everything bounce. It’s versatile and beautifully musical

This.
And the ability to sequence 8 MIDI tracks of external hardware synths

[captain8]

what would Bill Bixby do?

[djst]

Thanks everyone for all your input! I ended up buying a Digitakt today.

[rtme]

With all these utterly positive posts in this thread it was almost impossible NOT to buy one Good luck with the digitakt!

[RickeyE]

My favorite pieces of gear are the ones that do their jobs perfectly and simply, but also offer enough complexity that I can always discover new things about them or new workflows to spice things up.

This sums up the DT for me.
Also, the master compressor is badass, DT just sounds good, punchy and direct.

I think in terms of gear design and intention, it’s a perfect product.

[HoldMyBeer]

The magic is in your own heart. You get the gear that you want to give you that flutter-puff-muffin-pass-potato-gills-plantain-skeeter, and then…magic.

[teknokarhu]

It’s just the amazing Elektron sequencer in a sampler without being as difficult to use as the Octatrack. Also, how many other samplers have eight polyphonic MIDI tracks with an LFO each and eight parameter-lockable MIDI CCs per step?

To me the “Elektron magic” comes from the sense of fun and occasional awe I get from stumbling upon something slightly unexpected when trying out different parameter locks.

[Choopy]

My vision of digitakt overlaps a lot of all your magical comments!
Mono, Normalization, robust and plug in play (10 sec and you can start !!!)
One of the reasons for the magic, too, is that on the digitakt you can spend 1 hour (with pleasure) bringing only 16 steps to life;)
Who takes the lead as much on ableton, mpc or maschine (maybe with lock control etc).
Music is variation, it is surely the secret, digitakt allows an idea to come to life and not just to freeze it.

[avistaline]

Here’s a little Magic.

Sketch: Digitakt Abstract Glitch

[rockpapergoat]

not sure if it’s magic or what, but last night i picked up the digitakt after leaving it on the desk for awhile and just jammed out on the couch. the immediacy and ease of getting good sounding stuff out of it is a huge selling point. it took very little time to get a good base for a track, and then i spent awhile messing with sample starts via lfo and tweaking things here and there. very satisfying…

[johnbitwig]

The magic is definitely the ON switch

[Roger]

@mleaf

wish the DT had a 4gb or 8gb internal memory.

I haven’t even filled up the 2.5MB on my MD UW … can’t imagine ever filling 1GB! Is it mostly standby sounds?

[plusn]

First of all, take the Digitakt not as a kind of Sampler-Synth. The main concept is that it is a drum machine focused on samples.

Now the magic starts how Elektron utilized it. Elaborate sequencer, that you already know from the Digitone, plus some really clever sample shaping options that seem first vanilla but when used fully open up a lot of capabilities.

But keep in mind, it is mainly conceptually a drum machine.

[mleaf]

Yeah, as above. I wish the DT was an OT mini, but it ain’t.

[ghostbuddy]

@plusn

But keep in mind, it is mainly conceptually a drum machine.

IMO this is actually false, it’s conceptually a beat machine. No song mode means it can’t be just a drum machine, as people don’t really “play” a drum machine. Conceptually you’re meant to operate it, it’s very hands on and thus capable of playing both the drums, the basses and the leads, even pads. Groovebox or beat machine, not just a drum machine.

[Cepheid]

Lfo random to sample slot. Nuff said

[plusn]

@ghostbuddy

IMO this is actually false, it’s conceptually a beat machine. No song mode means it can’t be just a drum machine

Oh. Kay.