I bought the Digitone II right after the release since I was looking to make drums and chords outside of my eurorack case. And it was the best gear acquisition! I’ve since divided my rack by 2 and kept only modules for texture or weird sounds.
I was so amazed by the DNII that I bought 2 months later a Digitakt II but I can’t really like it for now. I’m not a sampler guy and get bored quickly when handling sample librairies. I find the DTII very limited compared to the DNII I don’t know what to do with it. I can already make percs on the DN and clearly prefer to shape them with synthesis techniques rather than samples tricks.
I term of sample processor I also have a Beetlecrab Audio Tempera and an Intellijel Multigrain. Which are both amazing very fun to use and totally destroy any inputted sample.
For now I’m using the DT as one shot sampler but I feel it’s such a waste of capabilities. I’ve tried the stretch machines but I’m really not convinced in terms of audio quality. There’s a trick to make pseudo granular but it kind of tedious and still not convinced by the sound.
I’m looking to tips and trick to really mangle samples maybe resample and work with the result. Or any other method that you might like to fully exploit the possibilities of the DTII
Its fine not to click with something. Youve more or less said youre not that into samplers, thats your answer. Get rid and spend more time with your DNII/other gear etc.
To be fair I often use the Octatrack just as a ine shot sample player. I think it is one of its use cases.
If you want to start mangeling something. Take just one sample that is long. Maybe a field recording. Maybe on several tracks. And then parameterlock the hell out of it. Different start points, filters, effects and LFOs. Throw everything on it. The real strength is the experimentation and happy accidents. But first you have to let go of muscle memory!
Keep it warm it’s the ideal compagon of the digitone, but yes you have to spend time on the elektron sampler but personally it is inseparable from the digitone, this morning I had fun making drums with wavetables, you have the samplechains to try too, all the retrigs and the parameters locks on the start & in points on the loops… it comes out really complementary sounds to the digitone.
I really like to resample and slice beats that I made at digitone to recompose them and deform them too. see you at trokson!!!
You can use the Digitakt as a wavetable synth, sort of.
It’s funny how you can get huge bass from a tiny portion of a repeated sample.
Sampling is a nice way to add textures
As an exercise, try limiting yourself to e.g. background samples. For instance, you can sample a 10s loop from your modular that gives a particular mood, then try different octaves and FX, and see where it leads you creatively…
In live conditions, you may want some sounds to be clearly defined, not evolving.
Thinking of a kick drum or some percussions such as hats or snare that have been fool-proved in different live conditions…
Try not to chase 11 rabbits at the same time, try to go in one direction first, digging until you see the light.
I used an original DT for drums for a long time, but am the same way as you are - i hate sample libraries, digging for samples, etc etc etc. Digitone II came along and OGDT got put in a box for 6 months.
OG Digitakt became WAY cooler recently when I just started using it to record things that Digitone 2 can’t do like guitar, moogs, vocal, vocoder, random sounds etc. Allows me to bring that stuff with me in a sense.
Sometimes I dream about replacing it with an Octatrack, but probably wont lol
You could try using it as a kind of synth and see if it leads you to something you like. Then you could use it to add rhythmic elements. If not, there’s no shame in letting it go.
the DTII isn’t limited compared to DNII. there is so much to explore with the DTII, it sounds like you haven’t used it in a focused way. Just using it for one shots is scratching the surface as you say.
It’s ok not to click with it tho, so you either give it more time and see if you do, or just sell it and use the stuff that clicks immediately, no point forcing it or feeling conflicted.
DT2 and DN2 do overlap for perc sounds and each can work on its own so I see where you’re coming from, especially if you don’t have a sample library ready to go. I got a DT2, bught a few types of samples and stick with that and I record the odd synth sample now and then to keep it simple.
I guess the key points are DT2’s machines and that it can make all the other sounds the DN2 can’t make, if you provide a sample. DT2 can also play very long samples which can be a whole thing in itself. I like the grid for samples that change tambre over time, silence creates rests.
Throwing bits of melody and fx in and then plocking the hell out of them can get some really nice results.
I’ve noticed things sounding really nice when pitched down compared to Ableton, (my home DAW). Drum breaks and melodies.
Not sure if it’s just in my head, but now I often try dropping the pitch to -12 just to see how it sounds, and it often sounds great.
Resampling the eurorack would be great fun
Maybe you should trade the DT2 for an Octatrack?
