Hello there,
Learning Digitakt and Digitone… . Plus MInilogue XD.
I have setup the DT as master, it receives audio from the DN on left input and audio from the Minilogue XD on the right input.
Do you set the Digitone and Minilogue to max volume and set the mix volume in the Digitakt master? Or do you set the DN and Minilogue to a lower volume and leave the DT master on max?
Are there any advantages to either method? Does it matter?
Regards,
Thomas.
Gain staging can be a little bit of a point of confusion when nothing seems to be audibly clipping. The ideal way would be to use your DAW or other method of accurately measuring output and use a test tone to set a consistent level between the 2 peripheral devices on their own volume pots, then input that into the DT and control mix volume from the DT as the master mixer. If you don’t have a way to measure volume, you could either wing it and try to determine a similar level using the parts you’ve already played, you could create a test tone of comparable pitch and timbre and play it with each again using your ears to calibrate, or you could leave it as is and do all mixing from the DT mixer.
If you leave it to the DT mixer exclusively, you will potentially run into problems later if you run out of room before you redline. Generally even digital equipment will sound different the closer it gets to redline because it’s driving the opamps harder. If you want consistency of sound, try and volume match them beforehand using one of the standard methods or devise your own. Either way, the impact on your final recording should be the same if you leave enough headroom to adjust and later mix to taste.
If you want you can search here or on google for “gain staging” and there are lots of people who can say it better or more completely than I can, but that’s the basic concepts as far as I can convey them.
One disadvantage to the left/right method that you’re using is you lose any stereo data coming out of the DN and minilogue, you might want to consider a small stereo mixer or routing the minilogue through the DN and then sending the L/R of both through the DT and just use the small mixer (moukey or other if you can afford a better one) for leveling before the DT mix.
To me, that would be a more ideal usage unless you are only running audio into the DT to sample those other devices, because in that case it won’t matter either way (being that DT sums to mono regardless). I’m sure there’s more ways to do it but that’s what I’m thinking at least. Anyways welcome to the forum and good luck.
I’ll second Shiggy’s recommendation to Daisy chain the audio to keep the stereo image. Word of caution is that you will have to tinker with the levels across the three machines to get the mix right.
Mini >> Digitone >> Digitakt >> DAW/speaker
If I’m running one machine into a Digi* box, I’ll set input levels to 35-40, then raise the volume of the source to sound good. A recommendation from a guitar buddy was to send a hot signal when you go to amp it, otherwise you wind up turning up the speaker and amplifying line noise and artifacts.
For your particular application, I’d get the levels right on the Mini since it’s at the beginning of the chain. Then I’d bring in the Digitone, then last the Takt. And piece of general mixing advice: if you want X to be louder, don’t turn up X (that just turns into a loudness war). Turn down the things around X. Leave yourself room. You’ll have to do a dance to get it right across three boxes
Turning anything to max sounds like a bad idea (especially the box at the end of the chain) unless you want to accidentally give yourself tinnitus. Be super careful when switching patches/patterns so that you don’t blow out your eardrums if things aren’t level matched.
This is good advice.
This is very true.
Also in doing this, you get to use the Digitone effects which are a pretty stellar addition to anything else, so there’s that which I didn’t mention earlier because I didn’t want to confuse the issue but I’ll put it out there now, I really like using digitone as a basic effects processor sometimes.
This 100%. The DN’s Chorus on your Minilogue will make you very happy indeed.
Additionally, the DN has a Master Overdrive that applies to all the tracks and the inputs, which could provide some lovely color to both your DN and Minilogue, and gluing them together before hitting your DT’s compressor.
Daisy-chaining Digis as 2-in mixers/effects processors is one of their superpowers.
Keep in mind that the master output potentiometer on DN/DT (and probably Minilogue) are attenuators. That means that the level on max is the unity gain level from the opamps after the D/A converter. So with the volume pot at max you should have the best signal/noise ratio. However the inputs in the DT/DN can attenuate they have plentora of additional gain for weak levels because there’s a pre amp there. I won’t recommend to amplify a signal that doesn’t need amplification (except in analog domains where you want saturation/clipping or overdrive) but instread to bring the signal down within the input mixer settings of the DT/DN so it matches the overall volume of the internally summed mix. In practice that means the input level setting is going to be set low with line level equipment otherwise you end up eating all internal headroom.
Thank you so much for your comments and detailed explanations!
I will try a setup with the the Minilogue going into the DN and then into the DT.
Best regards,
Thomas.
does this mean that you would give a certain level to minilogue, then check that the levels match the ones of DN tracks, then put the volume to max in DN to send the signal (of both minilogue and DN) to the DT and then adjust the input levels in there??
Because that is how I do it (generally putting the input levels around 28 because I read somewhere that around that point the DN (and DT too) is not leveling up nor down the input signal. I hope I am doing it right.
Usually, Synths that goes in the Digis at max volume and the Digis internal mixer at around 32.
Sorry for resurrecting this seemingly solved question.
Running tests with ST going into DT, if I have the input at 32 and the ST physical pot to the max, the ST doesnt interact with the compressor as pronounced as the internal DT tracks do. Only after setting the input volume to 100 and adjusting the ST’s physical pot to match the DT, I hear both machines on par when it comes to the compressor. To me, it seems like you need a match between the internal tracks of the DT (i usually set the track volume to 100) and the volume of the audio input (also now set on 100) so they feed equally loud the comp internally. I also made some tests with a kick drum from ST and sampling the same kick on the DT and running into a meter to compare the loudness and match the physical pot of the ST accordingly. I know there is normalization when sampling but still…
I’d really appreciate sharing your experience, I can upload photos of my current settings a bit later… It would be amazing if someone from @Elektron could enlighten us 
I have the opposite setup. Everything goes in the ST.
My chain with 3 or (4) Elektrons is :
(AR) > DN > DT > ST > AH+FX > Twin Track Pro Compressor > BBE 882i
It works fine like this. I use the DT Compressor only slighty. Great observation, though.
Thanks for the input! I hope others can also pitch in sharing what their workflow is and how to tickle that DT compressor just the right way
Bumping this one, in case someone has anything to share
Bump 
I do it the same way as you
Thanks for pitching in, good to know I’m not the only one:) maybe the lower levels make sense otherwise, but for the compressor, there’s definietly a need for more volume. I’ve been really pleased by how I made it sound since I did it that way.