Is the overdrive on the DT actually an overdrive or is it just a gain control? It doesn’t sound like it’s overdriving the signal to me, just increasing the volume. I’m a bit underwhelmed to be honest.
Edit: i just tried it with a kick drum and it is definitely overdriving. Was using it on a bass sample before I couldn’t really notice it apart from increase in volume. Must have been the harmonics of the sample
Try increasing the resonance on a filter and sweeping back and forth into it, it should distort quite a bit more.
Will try thanks
The Overdrive both increases the volume and adds harmonic saturation. I mean if you saturate a signal harmonically (either odd harmonics ie. 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th or evens i.e. 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th etc) you add volume so it makes sense that both the volume increases and the signal changes. I think its something like on drums the even frequencies work better while on harmonically rich content (chords) odd harmonics work better (since they will be in key)
hey guys,
currently testing out a digitakt as well, and i am also very underwhelmed with the overdrive and/or the gain staging of the DT
only on very few of the factory samples i am able to get something that resembles an actual overdrive. it’s mostly like a very subtle saturation.
yes, i read up everything about the DT gain staging and several points where i can boost the levels. but even with the trigger velocity and SRC sample level cranked all the way up, i barely ever get my kick drums do overdrive the way i imagine it. i’m comparing it to a novation circuit rhythm and the tr6s which both also feature digital overdrives, and with both it is super easy to really crack the samples up, to go into gnarly OVERDRIVE territory as opposed to slightly warming/crunching up a sample.
is this what it is? are there any workaround? i really dont understand the logic behind this. why not give people the option to add another 12-24db gain before the drive?
are there ways to normalize/gain the actual samples maybe? i am wondering what headroom the factory samples have and will try next with some custom samples that are guaranteed to peak close to 0dbfs.
i really really like the DT and want to keep it but this (for my use case) somewhat unusable/pointless overdrive is kind of a deal breaker…
I love overdriven and fuzzy drums and I’m satisfied with the dirt I can get out of the digitakt. If cranking the overdrive doesn’t get me there I dial in the bit rate reduction combined with a resonant LPF or one of the new parametric eq curves.
You can always resample as well, although I don’t really consider that a solution to any of the DT’s flaws
yeah thank you. i understand it might be enough for a lot of people, ie. you and i am happy for you. but on the other hand, i am not satisfied with the current implementation. i simply don’t understand why elektron wouldn’t give users the freedom to crank it to 150/200% of what it is currently. as i said, bit reduction is really quite different from what i am trying to achieve. and mostly i was trying to see if there’s a workaround/way to get higher levels with the current firmware.
i am not trying to split terminology hairs here but this isn’t really an “overdrive” in the classical sense, much more a saturation/boost kind of effect. i also own the analog heat and that one is actually capable of overdrives.
does anybody have info on headroom levels of the raw factory sample files? are they normalized?
Buy an Analog Heat, pair with the Digitakt. It’s what I did! You can sample your sounds back in with any style of distortion you like. It’s a very very nice solution, trust me.
as i wrote above, i own an analog heat. i could do what you described or as well just add samples with whatever overdrive already applied, but that’s completely besides the point of having the overdrive integrated in the synth/sample-playback engine of a unique track within a 8 track pattern. way different workflow, way different possibilities and results.
on top, to me it’s not an efficient/inspiring workflow at all having to resample a sound before even writing a beat in order to get some overdrive. the parameter i want is right there on the digitakt, it just needs an extended range.
or a workaround, again, that’s what i really came here hoping for. some secret FUNC-twist that allows me to boost the sample more pre-overdrive.
Sounds like you and the DT aren’t meant for each other.
Are the samples you‘re trying to distort having their waveform go fully peak to peak most of the time? Could be that you‘re only really getting the Digitakt‘s distortion on the transients of a kick or whatever, but it barely reaches the tail. Had that happen on a few cases
Overall I‘d agree though, it‘s rather used – and to be thought of? – as a warming up saturation than actual teeth in flesh distortion. If you want more, bitcrush, filter, layer, resample, but that seems to be the workaround for everything, like @Eak said
In my experience, the DT’s overdrive is pretty gentle. I think that normalizing samples will help get the most out of the overdrive, but even at max values it won’t go into harsh, fuzzy territory. I find it useful for adding a bit of flavor and for mixing though, for what it’s worth!
yes, of course the subtle warming it currently does can also be very nice in a lot of use cases! i was never doubting that. i will investigate the headroom of the factory samples since nobody could answer this yet, and also try with some of my own samples that will definately be normalized.
thanks @Lauli and @Eaves for some actual insight and constructive answers, i was worried reality is even worse than the extreme fanboyism i already knew from a lot of elektron owners. the first three responses unfortunately were all along the lines of “there’s nothing from with the overdrive, if you want something else, you are wrong” or worse “just buy something else”. what were you trying to say or even accomplish with your reply, @davestasiuk? what about constructive criticism, feature requests, or even the simple search for an answer of samples headroom levels… i can’t have questions/issues with this instrument and still like and use it? it’s all black and white? if you’re buying an elektron device you’re not allowed to speak up anymore?
i still think adding 6-24dB of upwards range to the SRC pre-gain level knob would add a lot of functionality without affecting anybody negatively.
digital distortion is very rarely nice, anyway. it does indeed suck on the digitakt, i used it rarely and only to fatten up a sound a bit, not to distort it.
it sounds great on the novation circuit, on the tr6s and on a plethora of great distortion plugins, so that argument does not make much sense, sorry. plus, i am asking for heavier overdrive as opposed to full blown distortion.
same difference? overdrive is distortion. the distinction comes from how much you crank it.
Sounds great on the digitone.
@weasel the overdrive is indeed a bit mild, though it is dependent on the sample as well. Samples with low end will get affected more obvious as well as samples with a lot of harmonic content like synth pads etc. The factory samples are pretty much all normalized as far as I rember. It’s easy to see, if the waveform is nearing the edges of the display on the SRC page, the sample is normalized.
Setting velocity and src volume to max in addition to normalized samples will help push it through louder. But still it’s very dependent on the source material indeed. A cymbal won’t saturate much even at very high settings for instance.
A workaround, which is not a quick one I should add, is to layer a very low pure sine wave below a sample. Run it through the overdrive hard, then use the base/width filter to remove the fundamental frequency (the sine wave).
By the way: the filters are located after the overdrive in the signal path so pushing the filter resonance won’t help. If you hear distortion because of high resonance it is clipping distortion which is not good and won’t sound very nice in most cases.
Eh, digital doesn’t do distortion well. It’s too predictable and clean, even when cranked up. Same with spring reverb.
Eh , still sounds great on the digitone. 
(Not comparing it with a culture vulture of course)
Also digital modeling in software is at a point where it is hardly distinguisheable from analog anymore. Certainly with dedicated DSP. Not saying the DN overdrive is at that level, but it still sounds pretty nice.
That might be true for a lot of things, like synthesis but distortion isn’t yet one of them. Or a spring reverb. There’s so many random variables that it’s really hard to model accurately.