Elk-herd 3.0 public alpha

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

UPDATE Oct. 11th: Beta 1 is here: Elk-herd 3.0 beta: Project Import at last!

Hey, brave Elektronauts:

Use a Digitakt? Would you like to…

  • see all the patterns, samples, and sounds loaded into a project at once…
  • reorder patterns, and the sample pool…
  • find unused sample pool entries…
  • rename patterns and sounds…
  • find what patterns use a sample…
  • read/write project files…

But before I give you the link, first things first:

  • This is alpha software, and may have bugs.

  • Please please please, back up your projects. Either use Digitakt’s SysEx Dump menu and dump them to C6 or your favorite SysEx librarian; or use elk-herd itself to fetch the project, and then use Write Project File. It should save exactly the same data that the backup menu save.

  • You can ask questions here.

  • You can report bugs here, or if you have a github account in the elk-herd-project repo.

  • Project management features are only enabled for Digitakt OS 1.11 (the latest). 1.11beta6 doesn’t count. Upgrade to 1.11.

Known Issues

  • There is no help content yet… see the video below for a quick overview of all features.
  • Pattern and sound import from a 2nd project file will come at beta.
  • Be aware of LFO Dest set to Sample Slot (in the track or plock’d): If you rearrange the sample pool, you have to know which samples need to be kept next to each other.
  • There’s no “local only” build yet.

Short video “manual”

And now…

elk-herd 3.0 alpha: https://electric.kitchen/crunch/elk-herd/alpha/

— Mark

74 Likes
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#2

Wow!!! Phenomenal!!! Thank you! Wil play with this today!!!

2 Likes
#3

I don’t have too much time to play with this tonight but I did visit the site and confirm that it interacts with my Digitakt just fine. It can see my projects, sample, etc… I think this will be really useful! Thanks for doing putting this together!

Also, I went to your GitHub because I curious about the code… no code there and I understand why. Then viewed the source (curiosity) and it is uglified beyond recognition :slight_smile: So I’ll be happy just to use it and not even think about how it works…

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#4

You fucking rule Mark. #1 user on the forum by a pretty huge margin.

9 Likes
#5

Thanks a Lot! Beers will be sent! Cheers!

1 Like
#6

WoW
Thanks a lot for this.
Will try and see how this goes today.
Thank you for your time.
Really appreciated,
V

1 Like
#7

Just gave it a brief test, and it’s great. Very easy to rename patterns, and add samples. I also made a backup.

One possible glitch. One of my tracks had a different sample assigned to it. But this may have been user error. I shall try to replicate.

But this is fantastic. Really, really nice.

2 Likes
#8

Very cool. I actually saw first your video on youtube and was wondering if you released it, then went to the page: https://electric.kitchen/crunch/elk-herd/ and thought that there has not been any update, so I thought it wasn’t ready yet. Now that I checked this Forum I realised that there is another site for it!
It is very nice. I am trying still. Only a couple of things:
-I receive the message:

Fetching project from Digitakt, could not load the project:
Project dump does not have all the patterns.

I guess this is because I haven’t saved the project in the digitakt before fetching it to the app, right?

-And the other thing, maybe it is because I am not an english native speaker, but the “read project file” and “write project file” titles are kind of confusing for me. I had to watch the video every time I wanted to make a backup, not to mess things up. It would be nice to have “back up file from DT” instead of “write project file” maybe? Like, for me it is not clear where this writing is going to take place, in the digitakt from my computer or viceversa?
But I am super super happy that this is out there :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:
Thank you a lot!

3 Likes
#9

I too was confused by the read/write terminology. I wasn’t sure whether this was for writing the project to the Digitakt.

Might I suggest “back up” and “import” as alternatives?

3 Likes
#10

Bravo !

Pattern + sound import between projects is the big one.

Thinking of backup functions like “Backup all projects + samples” or “Backup project + samples” - where you get a folder per project containing project data + samples.

Can this be made to work with older OS versions ?

Standalone version for offline machines ? (+ non chrome folks)

:space_invader::space_invader::space_invader:

:sparkling_heart:

3 Likes
#11

I installed Chrome just for this, and blocked it from accessing all other sites!

4 Likes
#12

elk-herd only fetches the project loaded into the Digitakt memory, and it shouldn’t matter if it has been saved or not.

That message indicates something is wrong - because I believe the Digitakt always sends all 128 patterns on a dump request, even the empty ones. Can you see if this happens repeatedly, and if so, please file a bug or IM the details of your setup and steps you take to make this happen.

1 Like
#13

I guess I need to make those icons better! :smiley:

I don’t want to use back up because that implies to me a “click it and your DT is backed up”, but it is really just saving what is loaded into elk-herd. And Import will be used for moving patterns from one file to another.

How about Open and Save, like in the File menu of most applications?

2 Likes
#14

Agreed! This is actually the whole reason I wrote this: Because I have pieces scattered in projects, and then I want to be able to pull together some for a live set.

Perhaps after import - there seems to be interest in it. Note that the factory sounds are not downloadable, so they won’t make it into such a backup. However, they should “hook back up” correctly when such a project is loaded.

Older Digitkat OS? Which ones? I see that about 10% of elk-herd users in the last 30 days are on 1.10 or earlier. Saddly, each one take s a fair bit of effort to support because the data structures change as new OS features are added. But if there is a big swell of people on 1.08 and 1.10 I could put in the effort to support those.

I will build and release an off-line version soon - but you still need a WebMIDI browser to run it. WebMIDI is in Chrome, Opera (but not mini), and soon Edge (the Chromium based version, in “Insider Channel” preview builds now). A true stand-alone version would need to be built with electron and that is a lot of work, without much benefit over the off-line version.

4 Likes
#15

Scattered… Like my brain :slight_smile:
Indeed the fact I am going to be able to:

  1. Open new project
  2. Retrieve Pattern 7 from bankC in project Y
  3. Retrieve Pattern 4 from bank H in project K
  4. 4 to the floor I am in business :slight_smile:

BIG thanks indeed,
V

2 Likes
#16

Outstanding work, as always!
Digitone support when?? :,-D

12 Likes
#17

Thank you!

I guess it was just my error but make sure, you have usb-midi enabled and not Overbrigde mode in the digitakt settings, otherwise it won’t work. Other than that, it works great!

I did hope for more unused files in my projects though, it seems I really like to use a lot of different samples :wink:

1 Like
#18

On OS X, with the latest Overbridge drivers (2.0.19.2 beta), it works either way, though the name of the port changes from “Elektron Digitakt” to “Digitakt Elektron” for some bizarre reason. I don’t think it worked with earlier versions of Overbridge… and I have no idea on Windows.

#19

I don’t think he have a digitone

2 Likes
#20

Perfect.

3 Likes