Scrolling/previewing samples on Digitakt

harrismix · 2023-05-24T03:27:10.890Z

Hi - Could anyone tell me if it’s possible to preview samples with fewer steps that his on the Digitakt? I have to hold down func & yes to play a sound, then release those and hit the down arrow to go to the next sample and then once again hold down func & yes to play it, then repeat this process . . . seems very overcomplicated for such a simple and basic thing . . . The MPC by comparison automatically previews/plays a sample as soon as you scroll to it . . . This makes the Digitakt sample pool preparation very long winded by comparison - is there any way to make scrolling to the next sound just play it automatically please? Thanks - Simon

baton · 2023-05-24T10:51:11.133Z

You can do it without releasing FUNC while scrolling

crash · 2023-05-24T12:08:03.758Z

Instead of FUNC + YES, try just hitting the current track’s trig button.

crash · 2023-05-24T12:09:29.463Z

My last comment might only work in the “quick sample select” on the SRC page.

harrismix · 2023-05-24T13:55:00.499Z

Isn’t that to load the sample from the pool to the pad (as opposed to browsing for samples to go into the pool)

crash · 2023-05-24T14:14:02.908Z

That’s what I was referring to with my followup comment, thanks for clarifying.

MuttBeats · 2023-05-26T00:15:19.541Z

I’m fairly new to Digitakt (and also used to own a MPC Live 2), and I’m with you on this.

Sample previewing in the main samples directories on the Drive+ (ie not the samples in the project sample pool) is more complicated than it needs to be.

I wish Elektron would add an auto-preview option as you scroll through samples, it would be so much faster.

shigginpit · 2023-05-26T04:25:42.501Z

I’m not against a quicker way to preview samples, but I don’t think it’s necessary to auto preview because

sometimes you know what you’re looking for and you don’t want a sample to start playing every time you stop scrolling as you’re headed there.
a lot of the factory samples which aren’t drums are pretty long and I don’t always want to preview the whole thing.
some of my samples are pretty long and I don’t always want to preview the whole thing.
sometimes I’m previewing samples during playback.
previewing single cycle wave forms in this manner would get annoying after like 3 of them.

as you say, I could see it being an option “auto-preview on/off” but would I want that as permanent adjunct to the existing method? no.

MuttBeats · 2023-05-26T11:02:06.669Z

For sure, I hear you. The Akai MPC approach is pretty smart here because you can 1) turn auto-preview on or off and 2) you can set how long the preview plays for (in seconds) so you don’t have to sit through a full 30” loop. IIRC (I sold my MPC so don’t have it to hand) you can also set the volume of the sample preview in options. It works really well and makes flying through big long lists of samples super easy.

sndrsklr · 2023-05-26T12:52:53.416Z

I would appreciate an option for autoplay as well, depending on which angle you set your machines up and the amount of samples you’re browsing through the hands get crampy after a while since one hand always has to use two fingers in an unergonomic way if you want to browse fast.

harrismix · 2023-06-13T04:38:34.839Z

After 2 months with Digitakt my conclusion is that it’s a great versatile and well made device (really for live performance use more than for a producer), I’m using it as a MIDI keyboard, an audio interface (output) for my Mac (seems reliable in this respect) but it’s not great as a sample source because the let down in this respect is that there are only 8 ‘pads’ that play the samples (Elektron what were you thinking? you should give users the option to make the 9-16 pads dual midi/sample pads so that if we are not using it in a midi setup we could have 16 sample pads, not just 8) - and the fact that there is no instant preview when scrolling through the stored samples and you have to scroll to the next sample then hold down two buttons at once to play the sound. This is overcomplicated and the reason I have also kept my MPC which has instant preview when just scrolling through sounds and 8 banks of 16 pads with 128 samples instantly available (compared to 8) - come on Elektron at least try to match some of this, I want to love the Digitakt as a studio production tool but I need to be able to access and preview the internal samples quickly, preview of samples needs to be faster/instant without multiple button presses for each one and please make better use of the pads - there is the ‘page’ button on the right that in a different mode could be an ideal way to switch between 4 banks of 16 pads, the same as the MPC can do, the buttons are there so why not add an improved sample preview and pad mode and make use of them? Please put some more focus on making the Digitakt do what the MPC can do . . . . it’s so close but also so far away . . .

mindph · 2024-07-23T19:11:56.656Z

“a lot of the factory samples which aren’t drums are pretty long and I don’t always want to preview the whole thing”

You wouldn’t have to listen through the whole sample with auto preview. Just do it like in Ableton where the sample automatically plays when the little preview button is on and as soon as you move to the next sample it stops the old one and plays the new one.

mindph · 2024-07-23T19:15:23.508Z

I second that. It could be such a small little, versatile and robust alternative to the MPC but as it is now with 1.51A it still has many tradeoffs.