Mono samples yes, but is the output Polyphonic?

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

Hi,

I appreciate the samples are mono and the output is stereo inc. fx etc. Could anyone tell me whether you can play samples polyphonically in chromatic mode i.e chords?

Thanks

External sequencing of notes with internal sequencing of parameter changes
#2

No

1 Like
#3

thanks

2 Likes
#4

You can always program chords by copy pasting the sound to different tracks and altering the tuning. And it should also be technically possible with some sort of midi device to load the same sound on the 8 tracks and play it as a 8 voice poly sampler.

1 Like
#5

Thanks for the tip and yeah, it’s not a deal breaker for me, I was just curious. My order is still placed!! :wink:

#6

This is exactly why I ended up not wanting one.

I can live with only 8 tracks instead of 16, but not having more voices for the occasional stereo sample or for some polyphonic chords just feels like an artificial limitation given how you can get a high-performance off-the-shelve ARM SoC for cheap these days.

1 Like
#7

Yeah it is lacking in areas, but it’s the workflow for creating cool glitchy grooves that I’m getting it for. It will be run in tandem with maschine, logic and others, so I can cover the harmony parts there. Also the portability is something I like.

To each their own, though I do find some of the design choices a little strange. Maybe a firmware update?

3 Likes
#8

Well, it´s a Drum Sampler. Not a sampler sampler. :wink:

2 Likes
#9

Also, you can always layer up several notes on different tracks and resample.

2 Likes
#10

I think it’s probably more of a creative limitation than specifically a processor limitation. I’ve said it before but I see Elektron gear—particularly this and the Octatrack—as an extended hardware version of the oldskool sample trackers of the 90s. If you want polyphony, use sample/parameter locks on a track that isn’t playing anything where you want the polyphony to appear.

Or perhaps with each track having its own filter and distortion, both of pretty decent quality, it increases processing power enough that it can only really handle 8 monophonic channels…?

1 Like
#11

I’d love for Elektron to make a hardware product that works with multisample libraries, polyphonically.

Would be great to bring all those Samples From Mars packs to (tactile) life!

1 Like
#12

It’d be interesting, but I think it’s a bit outside of Elektron’s design philosophy. I feel like it wouldn’t be easy to implement unless there were some pretty strict limitations, tbh.

#13

Elektron seem to intentionally avoid polyphonic sampling. Bugs me! Doesn’t seem like an issue to a lot of users tho so I guess it’s a valid decision on their part, but still… Would open up a ton of new ‘internal’ possibilities and faster/more convenient workflows (for me at least…) if they did it in an OT2 or added dynamic polyphony to DT…

#14

They’re monogamous… :smile:

3 Likes
#15

I’ll just leave this here :smile_cat:

3 Likes
#16

Sweet :slight_smile: I can’t see what’s going on for that workaround? Is it limited to 2 voices?

1 Like
#17

all 8… it’s just midi out USB, mirrored back in, and cycling through channels 1-8 on each new note…

4 Likes
#18

So I could do that on OT I guess? Weird no one really spoke about this much before when it’s been brought up!?

It’s a little over my head tbh. Would it be fluid/as natural as playing a legit polyphonic mode? Or are there note related boundaries etc?

#19

it’s just like playing a poly synth…
on input, you have this limitation of +/- 2 octaves.

a quirk is that when you’re live-recording into the sequencer, and playing chromatically from an internal track, it’s going to record into that track + the poly-target tracks… so you gotta delete the track you were laying from afterwards…

thinking of releasing this as an app… could have some extra bonus features like sending randomized customizable CC values before each note, for example to randomize the panning or other parameters for each poly note or somesuch…

5 Likes
#20

App sounds interesting :slight_smile: I’m still not sure I totally understand how it works, I’ll try to set it up on OT as a test run. Surprised more people haven’t been doing this before, totally slipped past me. Guess DT seems better suited for this than OT tho as from what I read you can hold multiple tracks down and use the Ctr-all on just those tracks. On OT it’ll be pretty disjointed/clunky making settings across separate tracks for filter etc. Tho stuff like different insert fx per voice etc could be interesting… And couple that with midi loopback scene/fader stuff :slight_smile: And OT has timestrech which’ll be better for some sounds… Depending how well this all works it might be enough to make me grab a DT tho. The workaround’ll eat up tracks and I already run out :wink:

Elektron should make a legit poly mode, it’s obviously possible. Something tidier/faster (and not stealing multiple midi tracks) would be great…

2 Likes