Please check my Digitakt understanding

I’m a new Elektron user. Hi.
I read the Digitakt manual three times and I understand the basic differences between samples and sounds. But being able to do similar operations in multiple places threw me a bit. Could somebody could check my notes to see if I’m mistaken or missing something somewhere?
Thanks!


  1. SAMPLES must be loaded into a project to be used on a track or to be available for p-locking.
  2. SOUNDS don’t have to be loaded into a project if they’re simply being applied to a track. But SOUNDS must be loaded into a project to allow p-locking.
  3. SOUNDS loaded into a project become independent copies of the +Drive version and are saved with the project. If a SOUND isn’t loaded into a project, that project is referencing the SOUND directly from the +Drive (<- still not sure about that last part. Isn’t the SOUND being saved with the project even if it isn’t loaded into the POOL?).
  4. There are three ways to load SOUNDS directly to tracks …
    i) FUNC+LEVEL/DATA -> YES
    ii) IMP/EXP -> IMPORT SOUND -> YES
    iii) MANAGE SOUNDS -> RIGHT MENU -> IMPORT TO TRACK -> YES
  5. There is only one way to load a sound into the SOUND POOL without applying it to a track at the same time …
    i) MANAGE SOUNDS -> COPY TO -> SOUND POOL
  6. There are two ways to save a sound to the +Drive …
    i) IMP/EXP -> EXPORT SOUND
    ii) MANAGE SOUNDS -> EXPORT TO HERE
  7. There is one way to unload a sound … MANAGE SOUNDS -> LEFT MENU -> VIEW POOL -> RIGHT MENU -> DELETE
  8. There are two ways to load (existing) SAMPLES into a project …
    i) FUNC+SRC -> FUNC+YES -> YES
    i) SAMPLES -> select -> RIGHT MENU -> LOAD TO PROJ
  9. There is one way to unload a SAMPLE … SAMPLES -> VIEW RAM -> UNLOAD
  10. SAMPLES aren’t loaded into a project in the same way as SOUNDS - they are loaded into RAM but always reside as a single copy on +Drive.

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that sounds so mind bendingly complicated. :sweat_smile:

Just go into the sample browser, select a bunch of samples you want and import to project.
then you have instant access to them on each tracks sample page via the relevant encoder.

the sample pool let’s you both select samples for each track and p-lock different samples per step via the encoder on the sample page too.

regarding sounds: imo don’t bother thinking about them unless you create a sound on a track you like, then just Export sound and you can use it in other patterns.

a sound is a sample AND it’s tracks settings. that’s all.

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Thanks pidgeo.
Reading the manual I was like “didn’t I just read that?”, until I realised there were multiple ways of doing things. I’m not confused about sounds and samples - just the number of ways there seems to be to do the same thing. I’d just like to make sure I’m not mistaking or missing something important. The three questions I still have are …

  • where can I see which sound is applied to a track?

  • sounds that are loaded into a project track but not the sound pool … what is their status in relation to the original sound on the +Drive?

  • is it right to say that samples always remain as single copies on the +Drive even if they’re used in a project?

Thanks for the help.

  1. i dont know. personally i dont really use sounds on the DT at all. I just sample lock from the samplepool and P-lock.

  2. Sounds used in a project but not loaded into the soundpool are just referenced from the +drive i think, where they have been saved. And the difference is you cant sound lock them (p-lock a different sound per step) unless they have been loaded in to that projects soundpool.

  3. Yep, the +drive is just storage. Nothing to do with individual projects. When you load samples into the samplepool they get copied into ram. originals are untouched.

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Got it.
Thanks for the help.

no probz

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Sounds to me seem more likely useful where you make a ‘synth’ out of the sample and want to retain it for future re-use in other projects as a named sound with particular start/len/loop/filter settings etc. Or save the settings to plock from one trig to the next with multiple sound setting changes to particular levels.

Otherwise just pulling samples in from the +drive to the project pool and assigning to your track trigs seems a much simpler way of thinking about things for straightforward hit and loop samples.

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Thanks for the advice mokomo.
I still haven’t got far enough to know what system is best suited to the stuff I want to make, but I think I’ve just about figured out what and where everything is, and how to get to it.

For some more clarity, since a sound is a sample + the edit pages, each pattern has within it 8 sounds. These sounds are part of the pattern/(kit). You can save track sounds to the +drive or load from the +drive to the track. You put sounds in the sound pool to be able to “sound lock” them per step on the sequencer replacing the default sound on that step for that track. It’s possible to be in a pattern which is using its 8 sounds and those aren’t saved in the +drive or the sound pool…

(These manual snippets are cut short just to provide the relevant information)

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Thanks.
The manual is difficult to understand on this because it mentions kits but then completely ignores them. So “kit” is actually the name for the sounds that are present on tracks but not the pool? Or rather, a name for the container that holds sound parameters on all tracks?

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Yeah I think you got it, but on Digitakt it’s connected to the pattern so it isn’t really a term you need to know or use, just think pattern. I probably shouldn’t of put that in there… :grin: It’s terminology from the analogs…

My main point was that each pattern has its own 8 track sounds…

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Got it. Thanks.
I’d heard people complaining about the Elektron way of doing things before. It’s nowhere near as confusing as some people make out, but I can see where they’re coming from now.

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Believe it or not, Digitakt is more streamlined than other Elektron boxes :slight_smile:

You appear to already understand things better thsn 99% of Digitakt users. I’ve ignored the concept of sounds entirely - might be useful when I want to treat the DT like a synth and save ‘presets’ of single cycle waveforms, but that’s already advanced & esoteric Digitakt usage, imo. Don’t sweat it.

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Really? That’s interesting. I took a while deciding between the Digitakt and Octatrack. Now you’ve got me curious about how the Octatrack is set up.

I’m a synth user and this is my first real try at a sampler. So the first thing I think when I look at those parameters is how I can create a “patch”. Need to get my sampler head on.

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I don’t want to discourage you from thinking about the DT in terms of synthesis or creating patches! That can lead to very good results, and after all, there’s no ‘correct’ way to approach any box, especially Elektron ones. My DT projects can be as complex and intricate as anything else I’m working on, including modular synths. (That’s even more so now that I’m microtweaking and modulating everything via Overbridge.) It’s just, when I want to save things mid-session, I just save the entire project - which saves everything I care about within the project - and forget about it. The project IS my patch. In comparison, I’m coming from the Machinedrum and Analog Four mk1, where there was no ‘save project’. I’d have to save a kit (a collection of sounds), then save a song (a collection of patterns), and the two weren’t necessarily coupled in any sense via a metaphor such as an overarching project. In that sense, Digitakt is a relief because it gets me out of my own way with respect to all the different discrete concepts we’re talking about here.

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“The project IS my patch”

Looks like I’ve found my DT mantra. Thanks!

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@tricera Trying to get my thoughts in this order as well.
Do you certify the 1…10 points above to be 100% accurate? Then I’ll print them

Wouldn’t go as far as certify, but I think so. At least it’s the relevant information lifted from the current manual. Please let me know if you find something different.

Cool, thanks nevertheless.
I haven’t been able to figure out one thing so far: say, if I have started a song using the default drums (don’t ask, figured out things later) and now I have BD1, SD1 etc loaded into RAM, how do I place those sounds in the sample pool but retain them at the same time on their respective tracks?
Thanks!

That would be export a sound to the project sound pool? Try 6. ii) from the list. To export to the project sound pool, first push left and select “VIEW RAM”. That brings up the project sound pool. Then push right twice to bring up the menu and select “EXPORT TO HERE”.