Structuring Full Songs With Digitone

Hi all,

I have a question regarding composing full songs with the Digitone - Do you have any best methods or tips/tricks for accomplishing this? Do you just make multiple patterns then play them in sequence for a full song? Is there a way to save a full song? The manual does a good job of describing the buttons and different functions, but less so when diving into structuring full songs. If you could share your workflow or what you believe to be a best practice when composing full songs on the Digitone, it would help a lot.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

Cheers,

YC

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what I do is make the various sections on different patterns. Jam with them live, tweaking, muting etc, then moving onto the next section / pattern & do the same, and record the whole thing into daw for mixing.

The DN is designed for jamming rather than linear song production and works better when viewed in that way imo. its also lots of fun creating the structure in the moment.

Edit: You can also chain patterns together but its fairly rudimentary so i find changing patterns on the fly is more favourable as it gives more control and flexibility.

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I usually focus on 8 patterns in a bank (top row) Section A will usually occupy patterns 1-4 , in which the pattern gets progressively more complex / busy starting from pattern 1 up through 4. Section B will be patterns 5-6 and will be more of a bridge of sorts, which will have different notation but most of the same sounds and in the same scale, and build complexity over patterns 5-6. After the bridge, I move on to patterns 7-8 which is traditionally section A again, just the finale, in which the patterns are most intense at this point. That’s it!

Most of the patterns I do will have trig conditions added and use track scaling to make them much more long and varied. I also multitrack live takes and pick the best one. Afterwards if something is off, I can typically rearrange, cut, or add some things in Cubase, since all the stems are there.

None of these rules are set in stone. Sometimes I’ve just rode out the B section and never went back to A. I’ve done full songs that only utilize 2 patterns but did live track mute / un-mute. I’ve switched patterns prematurely or too late unintentional, but decided to keep it because it sounded good. Just remember to have fun!

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my understanding is that one can chain 128 pattens on the Digitone? so if the longest pattern in 4/4 time is 4 bars in length (x) 128… should mean 512 bars max per project with all patterns chained, so in effect a max 512 bar song is possible.
Also, if one uses a Model:Samples with a Digitone, they should be able to send program changes to each other via their sequencers, creating a nice pattern chain/song mode-esk setup, correct?

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I believe your math to be correct. It’s too bad the sequences of patterns are not saved with the project. What I tend to do is have some patterns change after 8 bars (128 steps) by using 1/2 scale for certain tracks. This helps to reduce the amount of patterns involved in songs.

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you had me worried Cepheid, a “project save” saves everything EXCEPT the pattern chain events, but say for instance I had a Model:Samples MIDI’d (and audio’d) up to my Digitone, than both machines could have program changes set up in each pattern to make the pattern chain procedure happen in either unit and those program changes would be saved as part of the sequence, I presume, sucks that Elektron won’t implement at least a basic pattern chain save. Even the new, hot, Roland MC707/101’s have saved pattern chaining, creating a “song mode” if you will,

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