How do you take tracks you compose and record directly from the Digitakt, and master them for release? Looking for hot tips!
For example, I found this thread really interesting: Quick tutorial on proper volumes on the Digitakt
The Dawless life has its pros and cons, one con is lack of flexibility when it comes to mixing and mastering (when you’re new like me without a ton of gear at least 
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Checking Levels, Recording while Jamming and then throwing Ozone on the Audio File! 
Nothing more you can do. Wait for OB and then multi-track i guess. We have no EQ on the Tracks so its really hard to actually “Master” something straight from the Digitakt. Unless you record every track on its own - one after the other. Which is - messy of course!
Well. For mastering - you could record your whole tracks as stereo file, import it to your daw of choice and do the mastering (or let it do by somebody who is trained for that job)
I guess you’re rather talking about mixing, where you want to edit the single tracks.
Either record them one after the other, wait for overbridge, or mix it inside the digitakt. At least you can adjust the levels, and most important - select sounds that fit together and don’t compete to much for the same frequencies. Selecting the “right” sounds can save you from the need of Eq-ing too much. That’s what I always try to achieve.
Unfortunately there is no option for using high pass and LP filter simultaneously on the DT (like in the OT). That would be very handy.
Great thread, much better than the “No OB sucks” threads!
Learn how to get the best out of what you have!
I don’t have a Digitakt yet, but I have a lot of outboard gear & don’t master my tracks, so I have a little to say about getting your music to sound as good as possible without mastering at all.
I eq with my mixer when sampling. So I try to get this right when sampling, not after (weather it’s vinyl, guitar, hardware synths, found sounds, vocals, whatever).
I reduce lows in the “high” sounds & reduce highs in the “low” sounds (listen. use your ears).
Make your beat in the Digitakt & get your levels right.
Record the master outs while jamming.
Then use your favorite Izotope plugin for mastering
(I hear Izotope has great mastering plugins, like Izotope Ozone suggested above).
You could even dump certain sounds or certain tracks into your DAW, do what you need to do, then dump sounds back into Digitakt (1 shots &/or loops of your tracks).
In my opinion getting your levels right alone makes such a difference…so does panning sounds, layering sounds & cleaning up frequencies (easy to make things muddy, at least for me, I love deep & dark sounds with bass that goes boom).
These things are HUGE in my opinion -
Volume/levels
Panning
Layering
Frequencies
Most analog style plugins are made in -18dbfs in mind as peak. basically if you saw VU meters on plugins use those and check your volumes. You’ll be surprised how quiet it is compared to what you probably got used to. The thing is, these plugins all do sound better at that volume too.
And this is not really mastering but mixing. Mastering is when you take a good mix with good headroom, stereo field, lufs/average volume, frequency separation etc. and tie it all up. This is also why OB is crucial because you cannot mix anything well without multitracking. I mean at least since the Beatles when they started using multitracking and it was a big quality jump in music recording.
Mixing is quite a big topic though and its hard to answer things like “how to mix so it sounds good”. Volumes/gain staging is a starting point, but then you basically learn all the tools you have, train your ears to hear things etc. it takes months and years really.
I’ve been mixing as I go sort of. Like start with the kick and then just make sure that everything sound good around it. But listening to the final version, I always notice some serious mistakes specially after I upload it online to instagram/youtube.
I’m gonna try the approach you posted. After hearing a track loop multiple times, it is hard to tell what is louder than it should and what is good.
Yeah, it just takes time… I’ve only been making beats 3 years, but in the past 3 years I have only taken 2 days off. I spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in my studio. & I just recently got to a place where I am happy with the sound quality of my beats. BUT, I admit it was never really my main focus, so it probably took me more time to get to a level I was happy with than most.
Experiment! Experiment! That is really all I can say…research, try out what people suggest, try out different things, something might not work for 1 sound, but might work for another. Use your ears! The more you do it, the better you get.
& really, what I’ve noticed, for me at least, is getting levels right & layering sounds is huge. My drums used to sound thin, so I would turn the volume up. I later realized layering my drums (which is a whole nother subject) made a HUGE difference…& just getting all my levels “right”. Listen to your song or loop as a whole & think about the things it needs…is it a little muddy? Barely hear the hi hat? Try to pin point things & then work on those things.
I try to make sure I don’t shove too many sounds into the same frequency range, give things space to exist. This way even the stereo outs can be mastered by the person who masters my stuff.
Wish it had an eq. Even if it were only possible to use on a couple of tracks or something.
1 more thing, just thought of something when reading your post… when I get to a point where I feel lost in the sound, hard to tell what’s what from listening to it over & over, it’s time to take a break from it. Wait until the next day if you can. Even listening to something else then coming back to it helps… my beats sound different & I notice more “faults” when I listen to something else & then listen to my beat again.
Sometimes we just need to give our ears a break, they get strained & tired.
& of course the more you do it, you will get better…quicker at finding things that are off.
Thread is a bit old, but just had a few ideas I figured I’d add to the conversation :3.
When making songs I will often keep a little harmonic spectrogram that I hand draw & fill in with the relative range of frequencies occupied by each of the audio tracks (typically bounded by the filter cutoff frequencies for each track). In this way it is easier for me to visually discern when & where exactly different sounds might interact unfavorably & make the mix cloudy.
Additionally, if I need to roll off high frequencies on a sound being processed by the HPF (or vice versa), I will often shift to a new pattern, clear all settings for an arbitrary audio track, load the same source sample into it, filter out the portions of the spectrum that I’d like to get rid of, and then resample. I then replace the sample on the original track with the newly filtered one, and adjust the spectrogram accordingly. It’s sort of like having two filters in series, and really helps to facilitate on-the-spot eq’ing nwn.
file this one under “gettin’ things done”
I like to record digitakt in to my antelope audio orion studio rev2017 direct inputs, using atelope’s afx plugins in inserts (lang peq2 to enhance lows and highs a little bit and groove hill tube compressor to give more character) after that I like to put fab filter multiband compressor in very gentle mode and fab filter limiter just to put the level a little bit up if needed. That’s my mastering setup.
Links to records are in my profile.
key is; use your ears, mix quietly, mix on monitors you’ve grown to trust or are known for flat-response, uncoloured sound. price don’t matter. if it sounds as you mixed it when it plays back in a car, club, phone, laptop, etc, they you’re on track. that said, if you’re going dawless, then you would benefit from some external recording device, maybe a cassette four-track, or one track, since the tape will saturate the sound a bit. it really depends on your vision. i’m prob. alone in this, but i fucking love the character of the dt internal compressor. i had a very deep moment of realization that the dt has taught me to use my ears and since i’m a bit of a synesthesic, i have a tendency to visualize my mix, and music, so i dunno. close your eyes and listen as close as possible and don’t be afraid to get closer. keep things simple. i completely understand abandoning mastering-plugins, but just be realistic and work toward the setup of your dreams. if your mix is well balanced, but feels too quiet on a vid-clip, then you prob. did your best and no one’s gonna shun you over lightly maximizing. eventually, you’ll own a reel-to-reel solar-powered studio embedded into a mountain overlooking a misty pond. or a cheap cassette recorder from a yard-sale/amazon. til then, work w/what you have, or e-mail your mix to a friend who will do the honours of blasphemizing the already digital signal with their trusted digital mastering thangz.
Tips that helped me a lot:
Pick the right sounds first. You may have go to drum samples for most things, but if they just don’t work in a mix don’t force it. I look for a specific tone to begin with and find samples that compliment that tone in my head.
Resampling is your friend, use it and use it often.
adjust the Hi/Low Pass parameters on your reverbs and delays (Func + FLTR and AMP pages)
don’t be afraid to keep things dirty.
use the master compressor, it is honestly great.
What about for live performances? I’m new to production but keep ending up with messy mushy patterns. Even with just a kick and hi hat. They seem to compete.
For kick and bass I mostly use the HPF.High pass it and then add an amount of resonance in the cutting point.Transforms the kicks to beasts almost always.
If these two mix correctly the rest are easier to come.A filter like on model:samples would be a great help,with an addition of a band pass.But a continuous one.
That’s mostly a feature request though.
I always use the compressor in subtle settings.It makes the mix more “alive”.
I love using the lfo to modulate the pan.I hi hats,melodies,gives a really nice sense of space.
I use the side chain triggerless trig trick a lot too.Duck the bass where the kicks hit makes the track breathe.
I made lots of stuff into it but haven’t recorded yet because my computer isn’t plugged yet(due to space).I want to record my mixer output using a field recorder I plan to get soon,so I will have a dedicated device for that,where I will set my levels the way I want them.
Then I will transfer the file possibly on my iPad where I have cubasis and the Fabfilter suite and master the track there.
thanks for sharing