If you’re just exploring, then explore away; but if you bought it for an intended purpose that it doesn’t already do- I don’t recommend trying to shove a square block through the round hole
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For most of the loops I use (drum breaks) the lack of adjustable slice points isn’t much of an issue. The slicing occurs at the nearest zero point crossing so there’s no issue with clicks either.
You can absolutely play the slices on the chromatic keyboard, just select keyboard mode in the slice machine.
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Yeah, it’s not a modern MPC and it’s not going to those MPC things well. The DT is all about one shots, creative looping, granular, etc. I lean into it harder for sound design, as I find it easier to edit than MPC world
There are tools to help get one shots lined up for slicing (Octaedit I think. Edit: Nope! Octachainer). That should help you somewhat, and that’s where your choke groups will come from. Hope that helps!
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The slice machine was a very recent addition, in fact machines on DT in general. Before that, everything was one-shot. So the reputation of DT is based almost entirely on that. It really is a wonderful machine if you focus on what it can do, instead of what it can’t do.
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Sounds like you might want an MPC instead of a Digitakt. The Digitakt’s strengths lie in leading to unexpected places quickly, morphing sequences, live performance with developed muscle memory, MIDI sequencing, and snappy, bright effects. But it’s far from a one stop shop sampler and will definitely leave you wanting more if coming from the MPC mindset. As others have said, it excels when using it as a one shot percussion machine.
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Not OctaEdit. Don’t buy OctaEdit, you will most likely be disappointed
Its OctaChainer, and its free, and here’s a link to it
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Reading this thread makes me glad I didn’t impulse buy a Digitakt last week. I need to spend some more time figuring out if it’ll fit into my workflow.
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When a lot of us got the DT, there was no slicing, time stretching, or song mode, and there was a single LFO per track – I still loved it back then. For me, the strength is more around the sequencer, and being able to parameter-lock and sound-lock within the same track. I use it mostly as a sample-based drum machine (kinda like it says on the box).
It might be useful to mention that sounds on each track choke each other. Tracks are monophonic, so for example if you have a sample on step 1 of track 1 that lasts 16 steps, but you place a trigger on step 13, it will choke the first trigger. Hope that helps.
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It took me a very long time to figure out if it would fit it into my setup, I think I deliberated for over a year before committing to buying one. Ultimately yes, it fits in rather well, and I am very glad that I bought an MPC first - the DT (with the recent update) filled in some gaps.
Yup, i always check videos, read manuals etc.
Digitakt is a surprisingly deep device, I don’t think there’s any other sampler out there like it. It really rewards exploration and experimentation, so don’t worry about what you can’t do, and dig in. It’s an absolute powerhouse when combined with Syntakt, and though you might know Syntakt, Digitakt is a much different beast. There’s also a wicked sample chaining app on here, link below, that opens it up hugely. Have fun!
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you’re right, i need to not expect it to work how I want and instead bend myself to work how this machine works. Shouldn’t have started crying because I couldn’t get it to do what I want on day 1.
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You could always make a sequence, and conditionally trig the samples wherever you want them.
Bounce them to a single sample and reload it, then when you apply the slice machine the start points will be where you want them and you can play them across the keys and they will choke each other
Yeah, it’ll require a little adjustment to your workflow but at least once you can take a break and let the frustration bleed out you can adapt!
Hah, that doesn’t always happen to me, but it is a regular surprise why things don’t work the way I want or expect them to 
Moving slice points on a sampler is tedious and not much fun (see OT) whereas a fixed sliced grid is immediate. Transient detection would be much better feature for ease of use while maintaining a fun factor.
i agree 100%, but AT LEAST have the option to move slice points if you dont have auto-slicing ?? seems like a no-brainer feature for any modern sampler.
seems like it would be way better to just chop outside the digitakt (ableton, audacity, whatever) and then load the pre-chopped samples into it. Which is not a great selling point of a sampler.
Yeah, or just sample one hits from any source… there is no perfect sampler.
You could always chop up one by one in regular mode, assign to different trigs, record them all, then have that autosliced
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I do this using koala sampler and then record the chopped sequence into my digitakt. Or I’ll sequence the chops that I made on koala using digitakt as a midi controller and resample that as one audio track and put the trig down on one track.
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Just p-lock sample start in the sequencer, no need for slice machine at all. Unless you want to play slices like MPC, then you should get that. Digitakt excels at other things.
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