Tutorial on how to make lonely leads and distant pads on the Digitone

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#1

In this tutorial I go through how to make leads and pads on the Digitone, as well as a few general tips and tricks. What I like about the general settings I go through in this tutorial is that it’s a very good starting point to make many unique sounds that are generally pleasing and easy to use. I avoided specific settings on purpose, and hopefully it’ll encourage experimenting.

General settings:
Simple ratios. 1 is good.
Low A & B levels. Higher levels are hard to make soft sounds with.
Filter tracking: 100.
Filter cutoff: around 50% with a bit of resonance.
Long amp release.
Slow LFO assigned to Pitch All.
Feedback at around 90 to get that gritty sound. Adjust to taste.
LOTS of reverb and delay.

For leads:
Same as general, but…
Locked to 1 voice.
2nd filter’s base at 50% to remove bass.
Enable portamento.
-type: legato only
-style: glissando
AENR (amp envelope reset): off
PHRT (phase reset): off

For pads:
Same as general, but…
slow attack on B’s level
Ramp shaped LFO on delay (or chorus + delay)
Change shape on Pitch LFO to random
Add fade to pitch LFO (and set trigger mode to TRG to reset on every note)

Tips & tricks:
Use lock trigs EVERYWHERE.
Manage voices. Hide voice stealing with reverb and delay.
Experiment with using LFO2 to modulate LFO1 (depth, speed, etc)

Thanks for watching!

55 Likes
#2

thanks for this! could you expand a bit on the “lock trigs everywhere”? maybe an example?

1 Like
#3

Thanks for watching! The example I use in the video is that I play a note with the lead synth, then I place lock trigs on every other trig after that note. I use these trigs to slowly increase the filter cutoff, chorus, delay and reverb, and for some of those trigs I also change the speed and depth of the pitch LFO. This is one way you can get extra expressiveness out of your synth sounds. I also use these trigs to pan the sound and use the the reverb and delay to widen the sound.

6 Likes
#4

this is lovely.

2 Likes
#5

Lovely. It is really easy to get those nice soft sounds out of the digitone. Great for pads and textures.
Ramp LFO to delay send is a brilliant idea, bravo!

4 Likes
#6

Thank you @nilsec and @Microtribe!

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#7

Killer video. Good stuff, as always.

2 Likes
#8

Yes, really impressive. Thank you!

2 Likes
#9

Thanks! I’ve been thinking about making a tutorial for drums one day too, but I’m gonna have to do a lot more research first.

8 Likes
#10

Drums are interesting. I always end up doing it by accident…especially tribal drum sounds. But kicks/snares/claps are my favorite to use to then turn into techno sounds (sidechain-ish stuff). So I guess that’s the other way around. Good luck with making a tutorial for that! I am sure it will be a bit difficult :joy:

3 Likes
#11

Excellent :+1::+1::+1:

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#12

Please do! That would be awesome.

3 Likes
#13

Beautiful tutorial. Thank you :control_knobs::control_knobs:

1 Like
#14

As a teacher myself, I can say that you are very good at transmitting knowledge. I’m very thankful for the time you take at making those highly instructive videos for a bunch of strangers.

5 Likes
#15

Thank you very much! I’m very glad to hear it, @Tchu. 90% of the video making process is in the planning stage; everything is important and it’s hard to filter stuff out to avoid information overload :stuck_out_tongue:.

1 Like
#16

This is Gold really Thanks ! (Just bought a DN cheap secondhand to go with my Octa) Big fan of your work !

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#17

THank you very much @Hosanna! Congrats on getting a DN, I also got mine used for relatively cheap. Great seller too, we chatted for like an hour before I left.

1 Like
#18

Fantastic tutorial and beautiful sounds! Thank you!!!

2 Likes
#19

Thank you! I’m glad you found it helpful =)

#20

Thanks for this. I’m a big fan of your Youtube tutorials style!

1 Like