Favorite way to approach sound design on the Digitone

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#21

After another year of using DN more, i disagree with my original post.
I cant really explain it, but its becoming second nature, navigating FM.
Searching for sounds between sounds.

madman ramblings:

Algorythm is like a mystery plant seed.
All other parameters, they dont adjust how plant looks directly, but rather, how it will grow.

Each time you adjust a parameter, time passes, plant changes.
If you go too fast, weeks go by and it gets crushed by its surroundings.
As if there is another dimension you have to account for, that you cant see.

Right now my favorite way to design sounds is to just use everything.
Dream machine. Love getting lost in it.

10 Likes
#22

I now mostly use the filter as an EQ to boost bass (HP mode with low frequency and high resonance to target specific bass frequencies) or the highs. It would be amazing to have notch eq options on filter (as on Syntakt).

6 Likes
#23

I actually like the filters in the Digitone. Theyā€™re boring in a way. Not much character, which I think is suitable for the DN. I wouldnā€™t want filters that induce a lot of character on the sound. In this context I prefer them to be neutral shaping tools.

Yes, a notch filter would be great.

4 Likes
#24

Product of the parts over the sum of the parts. Start with the most generic sounds, create the harmonic, melodic and rhythmic backbone of the piece. If it doesnā€™t have any redeeming qualities at this point, any attempts to improve it will be turd polish. Then apply sound design decisions solely through the lens of clarifying each part in the overall mix. If adding character to one sound creates a zero-sum game with another sound, then Iā€™m doing it wrong.

3 Likes
#25

i also use filters for post processing rather than sound design.
boosting or taming frequencies. notch and shelf would be great.

3 Likes
#26

<- this this this @.@

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#27

For me the exception to this is when I am making plucks or percussive/staccato sounds, and the filter envelope becomes really useful.

4 Likes
#28

The best thing to use is HARMONIX, an iOS app that offers instant awesome sounddesign possibilities for the digitone.

Canā€™t recommend it enough.

2 Likes
#29

Sounds interesting, will give it a look :slight_smile:

#30

Iā€™ve started an exploration series on the Digitoneā€™s eight different algorithms.
Just sitting down and starting from init sounds to build up a meditative ambient piece.
Not sure if itā€™ll bring me closer to finding distinct sonic characters of each algorithm but itā€™s a nice calming practice anyways.

2 Likes
#31
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#32

Absolutely! Definitely my desert island synth.
I have no problem with the filter and love the fact that itā€™s there along with the Width/Base filters. I do hope weā€™ll see more filters and a notch/peak EQ on the 2nd page.

For sound design I just try a lot of diffent things and use my ears as guide until I find intersting timbres. Using Control All often create new sounds which is then easily copied or saved.
Iā€™m quite surprised to continually find great and very usable percussion sounds. Iā€™m often considering getting a second Digitone just for drums/percussion (again!)

3 Likes
#33

The 32 oscillator patch is a must try for DN owners. I have so many lost hours micro-adjusting parameters with headphones on.

My go to recipe to start:
-Use ALGO 7 so you can have the sound of each oscillator;
-UNISON 2 on each of the 4 track to enhance the binaural beatings (detune to taste);
-Make track 1 control each of the other 3 with the layering option:
-Then tune each of the 4 ratio to the harmonic series (so track 1 has ratio C 1, ratio A 2, Ratio B2 3, ratio B1 4; track 2: 5,6,7,8; track 3; 9,10,11,12; track 4; 13,14,15,16). You can also change the order thinking about what you want on X/Y mix of each track (this will be one of the parameters you are gonna modulate a lot); of course you can also change the tuning to your taste but the harmonic series itā€™s a bread and butter combination if you donā€™t want to think too much;
-AMP page, INF Release, MAX SUSTAIN;

Then the fun begins, I press a note on track 1 and Iā€™ll have a 32 oscillator drone tuned on the harmonic series, makes for a massive drone. But power is nothing without control so usually I turn everything off and start only with track 1 on the X output (so only the fundamental frequency and the first harmonic, 1 octave up) and try to adjust finetuning on page 2 to have a minimal long beating (usually between 0,02 and 0,07) then I adjust the unison detune parameter for another layer of beating (be careful, you will have the harmonics cancelling each other, which gives some rythm; if you donā€™t want that on the bass, just turn off UNISON and work monophonically).
After that Iā€™ll start listening on the Y part and usually I get totally carried away by trying a bit of LEVEL A/B, FEEDBACK, DETUNE, DRIVE. Then I start putting in the other tracks, using FX and modulating parameters (very slowly, LFO to 1 and Speed near 0, usually sinewaves) and things get totally out of control.

Next level is using MIDI LOOPBACK as explained to create big MACROS (Set every track to respond to MIDI channel 1) and by that time usually things have got completely bonkers and I am just driving the hell out of a gigantic soundscape.

Itā€™s really relaxing, a bit like meditation, I find myself staring at the screen but not seeing the characters anymore, in a calmful sense of peace.

20 Likes
#34

Anything online to listen to of that?

#35

Nah I always get too lost to press record :smiley:

Just turn on your DN and have fun!

#36

I just turn knobs

4 Likes
#37

This is nuts. Iā€™m definitely going to try this!

As far as my approach goes, itā€™s pretty standard.

  1. Audition some presets by type (I have literally thousands) and find one that is doing something interesting, usually from unusual ratios or clever modulations.
  2. Flick thru the algorithms, see if thereā€™s one or two I like better.
  3. Mess with all the other parameters on the first SY1 page, see if any LFOs are free to modulate something in a cool way. If things are sounding stale, randomize page 1 (or page 2!)
  4. Tweak the SY2 parameters, mainly envelope times and amounts.
  5. If thereā€™s still an unused LFO, use that sumbitch.
  6. If thereā€™s free voices available, see what Unison mode can do to add width and movement. Which is often too much :slight_smile:
  7. Only use the base-width filter when Iā€™ve got something going on 3-4 tracks, just to carve out some space.
  8. Try the master distortion. I usually use analog boxes for this, but occasionally (as on the DT) digital grit is useful.

I havenā€™t done the midi loopback thing as I use the DN midi tracks for a Waldorf M, but want to try some unused DT tracks to do something similar. Extra LFOs are always good.

And if I get bogged down with everything Iā€™m doing sounding the same, I check out some DN videos from VoltageCtrlr, Substan, Co5ma, ylva, Jeanne and others to get inspired by whatā€™s possible.

6 Likes
#38
#39

MORE MADMAN RAMBLINGS (like for real):

I often listen through my previous recordings of random useless things, and this sound surprises me more and more every time I listen to it.

It depicts a rhythmically complex repeating melody, that at first sounds like village chatter, later evolving into a folk song.


This sound was created with OP offsets, nothing else. And its mind boggling.

Im coming to realisation that through mathematical equations i can discover art from worlds bygone and future, aswel as those that run in parallel.

That melody existed before I found it. It existed before I did, and it will continue to exist in that exact ratio relation, after im gone.

It makes me very happy, knowing that all things are already here for me and nothing is off the table, I just have to pick a direction - and listen. Universe sings to us through FM, and its beautiful.

In case of this sound, and specifically DN, having 4 operators places the specrum of things you can discover into a ā€œcommonā€ territory. Common not in a bad way, but in a universal way. The less variables there are, the more likely that sound is to appear throughout the universe. Giving it the feeling ofā€¦ connection, to everything.

Mesmerising and endless , where beginning is the end, with everything happening all at once.
And I got honor to peak behind its curtains, because we evolved to experience time.

I still want more sound shaping options though :tongue: TY

8 Likes