I use the Digitakt VST plugin in Ableton, yes. Here is how I lay out my Digitakt tracks in Ableton (this is my starting template):
And here is how I have my preferences set up:
I generally use tracks 1-6 for percussion, and then 7 and 8 for bass, melodies, or other samples (I also have a Digitone now, so that handles a lot of the workload for me). I put tracks 1-6 into their own group, and then generally add a drum buss to the group to crunch it up.
On the Digitakt, to get set up for Overbridge, you need to go to Settings -> System -> USB Config. There you should set:
- OVERBRIDGE to be checked
- USB MIDI should then automatically toggle off
- INT to main can be AUTO
- USB TO MAIN [db] It’s important to note that the DT signal is very low going into Ableton over USB. This annoys a lot of people, but is really by design…basically the Digitakt is set up for a lot of headroom, so you won’t get clipping. Imagine you have one of your tracks maxed out in its levels and overdrive, and your driving your compressor makeup gain. So the Digitakt comes in really quiet to anticipate and prevent loss of the signal from happening. However, a consequence of this is that the default condition of the Digitakt when monitoring is that it’s very quiet. In this setting you can boost the signal back up…it’s defaulted to 0 (none), but you can do +6, +12, or +18. An alternative to this is just to add a Utility plugin to your Master channel in Ableton and boost your gain there. It’s easy to deal with…still it catches a lot of people by surprise.
- PRE/POST FADER It’s up to you…I generally set it to PRE and then manage my gain staging in Ableton. But if you like to adjust the track levels in your DT then you can set it to POST.
You’ll also see I also have the effects isolated onto their own track. On Overbridge individual tracks come in without effects, because the Digitakt uses send effects for delay, reverb, and the compressor. You can still access them in Ableton though (in addition to adding any other effects you want per track). To do this, you add an audio track in Ableton, select the Audio From to be the the Digitakt, and then set it to Post FX. However, what will happen here is that it will by default re-print all of your tracks here as well. This is actually okay if all you want is everything on one track. But if you want to isolate the individual tracks (like I do) then you need to mute the tracks on the Digitakt in Settings -> Audio Routing. There you’ll see ROUTE TO MAIN as defaulted to 10/10. You’ll also see your tracks trigs all lit up green. Just mute them all (they’ll turn red) and the POST FX channel in Ableton will only hear the stereo effects.
The audio tracks come in dry and mono…you lose all the panning information set on the Digitakt, so you’ll have to manage that in Ableton.
If you want to set up a VST to drive from MIDI, just drag it into Ableton, set the input MIDI channel, and then assign that channel to your Digitakt MIDI track. You do that by going to the SRC page on your MIDI track, holding, holding [FUNC] and then pressing encoder A down. That toggles it on, and then you can select the desired MIDI channel. It’s also super easy to map up to 8 different MIDI CC’s per track. Just go to the FLTR page and do the [FUNC] button press on each encoder. You can either specify the related CC number on the AMP page, or you can use MIDI learning in Ableton, which makes it really easy to get control of your filters, effects, etc…and to be able to PLock them with the Digitakt’s sequencer.
Hope this helps!
