Fantastic stuff. Well produced, very informative and also you’re a highly skilled musician, so it’s not just random anxious YouFlu advice, but pro stuff from a pro guy.
My main struggle with proceeding from a pattern to a song on the Digitakt (or the Digitone, if I’d had one) is not so much the above. Those tricks, I employ frequently. It’s more a matter of the consistency of the mix between the patterns.
If I got four patterns going with variations applied like the above, and I find that the bass isn’t working in the mix, I tweak it on pattern01. And then, I need to make that adjustment on the other patterns as well. And that lack of coherence between the patterns is what’s stopping me. The Rytm and A4 resolve this by the kit system, and the Octatrack with the Parts system. The Deluge has its patch system. The Blackbox also, a patch system. Literally, any modern groove box has a solution for this. But not these two boxes of awesome.
I can use Copy Sound to maintain this consistency over the patterns, but it’s a workflow killer for me, not in the least because I know this isn’t really a problem to fix, it’s just one Elektron has decided isn’t important for these machines. Which I totally respect. But nevertheless, it’s one of two major things that hold me back from engaging deeper with the Tone and Takt.