Hey guys. Recently sold my Octatrack and am considering a Digitakt. Although now that an MK2 OT is out I could always go grey. But money is an issue and if I got a DT it’d more than satisfy my sequencing needs, percussive needs and wavetable needs but I’m curious how it does with the more hip-hop trip hop oriented sampling and playing back of beats and breaks and melodic loops. With or without MIDI sync, using either synths, samplers, and drum machines or something like a turntable or iPhone - How does it compare to that of an Octatrack, the OP-1 drum sampler, a microgranny or even a Roland sp404? One thing I really miss about my OT was using it with my OP-1. I’d have the the immediacy of op-1 sampling and slicing going to thru machine and then I’d just make loop after loop into my Octatrack via pickup machines or flex sampling. Now I know there are no thru machines or pickup machines on the DT so never mind that, we’re just going to put OP-1 directly into the DT. The OP-1 does a good amount of work already sampling and slicing. All I have to do is play some slices into op-1 tape and make a loop but then how would DT do taking incoming audio from the op-1, quick sample, chop, sequence, add more loops on next track save for later and try to add things and write (at least a tiny portion of) a song? From what I can tell, you can chop a brand new sample into smaller hits and assign them to other tracks. But if you wanted to conserve space, and keep it to one track, your only choice after sampling is PLocking different start positions. This was how it was on the Analog Rytm and in my opinion this method never really yielded good result when I threw a break or a loop in the slot. Even longer drum sample chains had odd results for me. It was always starting just too late or too soon at some crucial part of the sample. As a result i kept samples very simple, short, and almost exclusively percussive on my Rytm. I’m worried the DT will yield similar issues. Besides going back to Octatrack I’ve also kicked around the idea of getting a smaller simpler sampler like microgranny or sp404 and sequencing it from a beatstep or Keystep or something. I imagine the DT itself would do a killer job sequence something like a microgranny or Sp404 if it’s own sampling powers were lacking. There are always other options. Is there a DT owner or sampler sensei out there that has any insight for a grasshopper in need?
I do a lot of hip hop with melodic samples (2-4 bars usually) and the Digitakt works great. Just keep in mind there’s no timestretch so you have to find your BPM. BPM per pattern is a godsend. I can finally have a live “repertoire” instead of a pre determined set because I don’t have to worry about changing the tempo. I give it an A++ for loop based hip hop!
Boom! That’s excellent news! Working around a lack of timestretch isn’t so bad. At least it isn’t so bad doing it on the OP-1 so why not on the DT. Wonder if the Rytm MK2 will be the same. Doubtful I’ll have the money to find out anytime soon but whatever, I’m thinking the Digitakt might be the best solution. Thanks, dude!
I was an OP-1 user for a looooong time and the sampling work flow is def similar to the Digitakt. You’re good!!
i think the DT works great with breaks and loops. It lacks slicing, but if you time the loop before sampling so youve got the tempo locked, then setting and LFO to the start point gets some cool results. The only drawback on the DT as compared to the OT for me is that the DT is missing that sample rate and bit rate reduction that gives samples that lofi 12 bit sp1200 sound. Kinda wish they had put that in the DT.
Chopping breaks is very much play by ear with the P-Lock. It’d be nice if you could zoom in on a sample once it’s in ram to fine tune the start point visually, or if they had the zero crossing square like on the OT, so it can be a drawn out affair getting it perfect but once you do it yields great results. Hopefully this will be made simpler in an update. The DT has great potential for all genres.
This is probably what I would like to see the most on the DT along with the ability to edit existing samples.
Things like slice and chain support could be added by Elektron, the DT being a sampler I feel these things aren’t too much to ask for. Same goes for opening samples from the RAM in the editor to normalise and edit them some more.
I know Elektron doesn’t have to add anything new to the DT but there’s always hope. Even with chains/slice support added to the DT the OT is still a different beast and they won’t cannibalise each other by giving the DT some proper sampler functionality.
Just the zoom on the SRC page would be a great help to chop breaks & loops.
I have a micrgranny2 and a DT my advice is get both haha. Remember you can also lock samples in on a per step basis if moving the loop point isn’t to your liking. But the screen makes moving the loop point really fast and easy, mix that with micro timing and you shouldn’t worry about bad start points.
Any Tips for working with breaks and loops without timestretch ? For example with the amen break, how do you find the right BPM ?
I pitch tune a break to get a nice BPM, then I toss the sample in Chromatic and hope for the best 
then just resample the break. Wished it had a pitch-shift func but this does well too.
If you have a nice start point on the 1 beat, just put 1 trig in the sequencer and hit play. Make sure amp env is set to inf. Tap tempo (func+tempo key) to get close and then manually adjust tempo until it loops perfectly.