Oh to have a soundcard to record it into daw 
I had to sell my card to fund the digitakt , plan is to one day pick up a digital recorder and record it all live, one of the reasons i bought mine was to jump off the daw world anyways , cant bloody wait to record some sloppy mixes bring on the live recordings wooop woop
Why?
That’s the way we all did it in the day! What’s so shocking about that?
Still track out synths like that!
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There’s nothing shocking about multi-tracking each at a time. I do it regularly with other instruments. If you’d read what I’d said above though, you’d have seen that I said that doing so with the Digitakt isn’t as simple when it comes down to it. You can’t capture the conditional trigs effectively without recording extremely long loops for a start. You also run into issues with the sheer amount of variation possible in patterns. You can a large number of different parts that need to be recorded and organised (ostensibly 8 different tracks that can have 8 different patterns).
Without some kind of song mode to ensure the structure is the same, multi-tracking the Digitakt ends up as a compromise on how the songs were actually composed.
Ok, I’ll give you that much
Doing it with song mode in the octatrack was a little slow but easy enough.
Have you tried using punch in and punch out recording in your daw?
So you can play the digitakt live and when you get to a part you need to track, the daw starts recording automatically.
I do it all the time with guitars and bass.
I’m gonna have to say I agree, multitracking one by one is a complete vibe killer and people are obviously gonna take the stance of “when I was a boy we had to walk 16 miles in the snow to get to school”. imo if someone doesnt mind doing that then cool but I don’t really take pride in it, I avoid lining up files at all costs. that’s why I use OT more as an instrument or 2 alongside another sampler. DT is just supposed to be a drum sampler
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What I find really disappointing is that new products keep coming out but poor old Digitakt seems to be left out in the cold. I don’t personally have one but I would be really annoyed that the basic functionalities aren’t working after being released this long. Get your shit together Elektron! I’m sure you know that reputation takes a long time to build up and very little time to lose.
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I haven’t. I’m not entirely sure how that would solve the problem, but thanks for the suggestion. I’ll have a think on it and see if I can work it out.
On that point, I might actually just try using it as a drum machine for a while, until OB comes out. That way I’ll still get use out of it.
I doubt we hear from Elektron about OB again unless:
- OB for the majority or some of their boxes is retracted (killed) in which case they will likely offer some kind of financial rebate for owners of DT, or maybe even a buyback program.
or
- the damn thing comes out
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I just did an EP with just the digitakt and I chained the sequences, or counted them out and switched them manually, recording one channel at a time unless a few tracks were close enough in frequencies to group them on one track. It was tedious, but it really doesn’t take that long.
And yes, variations generated by conditional trigs imply recording longer takes, with or without overbridge, so I don’t see the point in taking it to account. More resources = more time managing those resources, it is always like that. You buy hardware you have to record it, you buy two pieces of hardware= More time recording it, you buy a car you have to pay insurance, gas , garage and manteinance, physicall objects require those things.
And that even translates to software resources, so when we get overbridge , you will sure end up having to deal with other inconveniences and idiosyncrasies like OS compatibility, connection issues, latency and a lot of bugs and updates, to the point of just wanting to record your stereo out and move on.
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I completely understand that (your tracks sound good, but not quite good enough), you want to be proud of what you make & want the finished product to sound the best that it can. That’s actually where I’m at, I’m starting to work on the sound quality of my beats. Actually I’ve wanted to for a couple years now, but just couldn’t get myself to use software mastering tools, it just wasn’t fun & if I don’t feel like doing it, I’m not doing it. So I got Analog Heat & I know this isn’t the norm when it comes to “mastering”, but my beats sound A LOT better & I have fun using it. Plus it fits my style of beats (the character it adds) But it’s an expensive route to take. Really we just have to compromise when making music…personally I’ve never found 1 box that was perfect & fit all my needs. It’s a journey filled with learning experiences that’s for sure.
Think anyone has been brave enough to open one up and see what kind of memory they put in there? I don’t have one anymore but if it’s removable maybe it can be replaced with something larger.
Just wanted to throw that out there and ask. I never cracked any of my elektron boxes open.
Edit: I found someone who has already done this:
The magnetic NVRAM that was used in the “Analog”-series devices was removed (probably too expensive and too small - the largest available on the market is currently 16Mbit). Instead, they use a 1Gbit DDR2 SDRAM powered from a Supercap. So, effectively you get the “persistent” memory (no loss of data when power-cycling, even without saving your project) but it porbably won’t last 20 years like the magnetic NVRAM.
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Yeah, maybe try using it as just a drum machine for awhile…I say mix it up…go by how ever you feel at the time…wanna jam on just the Digitakt? Record the master outs. Feel like experimenting with different set ups? Switch around your signal chain. Want to go deep into programing? Record 1 track at a time into DAW & arrange there. Want to use multiple pieces? Use it as a drum machine with other gear. It sounds like you’re going to keep it, at least for the time being, so I would try using it in different ways…
Can you record 2 tracks at a time? pan hard left & hard right? Jam out & get atleast 2 separate tracks in your DAW?
Another idea, when it comes to jamming & recording individual tracks…it would take some planning, but if you have an idea of the route you want to go, you can do the pan trick stated above to get 2 tracks recorded…jam out…then record a second time around, 2 track out, maybe the bassline & melody or chops & jam out with those…4 tracks only 2 jams? Add sprinkles after? That could be fun :o)
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It’s not a question of pride, it’s just the way it is!
How do you think rock band record their songs?
Overbridge all the guitar parts?
I get what he is saying, and it is tedious, but that’s the name of the game!
Remember workflow starts with work!
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That’s solid plan.
I always layer my drums where I have a loop recorded in stereo then I add kicks and snares, and anything else that’s needed to thicken the loop.
Then I can still eq and process individual parts as well as use my hardware for jamming ideas.
No but they generally have 3-5 people doing an instrument each so it’s not nearly as tedious. Plus an engineer making it all happen. I agree workflow starts with the work but I think a huge part of music production is about trying to remove the unnecessary work and allowing yourself to freely capture what you really want to put down. for example the less time I have to spend individually tracking and making sure everything lines up the more time I can focus on creativity without distraction. That’s the “flow” half of workflow
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How do you work out where the kicks are for complex tracks if you’re adding them on top of the stereo output from the Digitakt?
Uphill both ways mind you… 
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I do all the bass and guitar parts myself as well as the engineering!
On top of programming my drums and synths.
It isn’t that hard really!