Dear Elektronauts,
I’m very happy to share my new album ‘Really’ with you. It is based on chopped, manipulated and re-interpreted piano phrases that a friend sent me - and it is actually the very first time there are sounds from a real piano in my music. It‘s calm and intimate, full of friendly noises.
I loaded these piano phrases into my Digitakt 2, searched for fragments that I could use, layered them - some sequenced, some freely looping. And added the Polyvera synth to play some pads to fill the sonic gaps.
Then I used my modular system for bass and of course there are some nice effects as well, like the OTO Bim and Bam, Walrus Meraki, Chase Bliss Mood MK2 and Big Time. Each track then was recorded in single tapes straight to 1/4" tape.
I absolutely adore this kind of workflow and I hope it translates to the listeners as well. If you want to check it out, you can just name your price for the digital version on my bandcamp page for the first week. There is also a cassette edition.
If you have any question regarding the workflow or how I made the album, just ask away.
Thank you!
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looking forward to the listening session of this goregoues warm piece. Bravo .
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Thank you very much! I’m super looking forward to the listening party. Lots of fun.
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Check out my new username! Wooo!
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So generally do you record the synths directly into digitakt in long takes? Or sequence it from digitakt? Or you record them separate into DAW and mix and master there? Just wondering if digitakt was more specifically used just for the piano phrases, or basically you sample everything into the digitakt and do the full arrangement on digitakt?
And how do you integrate the effects in your workflow? Direct connected to hardware outs or you use them on a send somehow?
Very nice sounding album man great job
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Thank you!
So on this album, there aren’t too many synth sounds per track. On the majority of tracks, I just sequenced the Polyvera and the bass sound (modular) via the Digitakt. There are about 2-3 tracks where I also sampled the Polyvera into the Digitakt as I wanted more synths.
That aside, I sample synths into the Digitakt super often. I basically use it a bit like a DAW.
The Digitakt goes through my mixer which has sends for reverb and delay. The effects go back into my mixer and everything is then sent to tape.
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Like ear-massage, very pleasant listening! Sounds great! 
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cool approach. so you manage your eq for some insturments on the mixer and also on digitakt you manage track levels. Do you use the digitakt master compressor or do you add a compressor/limiter somewhere else in your chain?
I’m always curious about dawless setups like this and how people accomplish some of the more ‘administrative’ stuff when finishing an album.
I don’t use compressors or limiters but I use the EQs on my mixer and also the secondary filters on the Digitakt. Plus volume control of the individual tracks.
Also, after recording to tape, I record the tape to Ableton Live. There I do very precise EQing to the stereo file as well.
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Great results, thanks again for the insight. The tape itself im sure has some natural compression and transient rolloff aside from the obvious glue and character it provides.
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Very pretty. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you guys for listening and the kind words.
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