yesterday evening i have been playing with my digitakt, heat, kp3
the heat made my sound from nice to ‘a monster’. It was so big and fat, went through all walls, and sounded more than fantastic
i think the point is… how to learn this machine…
where to start.
I did what @Bluehaze told, it helped a lot…
anyone an idea about how to learn this?
I only use it as a master fx.
Just try everything and anything that comes to mind with it. With the the tools it has, and the modulation options, quite alot of combos to explore. And maybe experiment on one type processing (only drive, only filter, only eq…) at a time first, and combining them only later
All elektron gear is like this… you gotta put in the time to really get all the possibilities
I sold mine, I felt that it did not do anything that I could not achieve with some of my other gear, sure it is a nice tidy well featured package, but if it isn’t doing it for you sell it.
I have a reasonably large analogue modular set up, and the Roland Bitrazer and Torcido provide me plenty of (digital) dirt, so for me the heat was a non essential piece.
yeh ive been working at such sounds for decades now… i dont need a special box to do it because there are so so so many techniques for so many different kinds of grunge, dirt, fuzz, distortion, saturation, etc. and im pretty familiar with them plus ive already got a bunch of cheap gear and software that gets the job done and then some
i wont argue with someone if they want to give me a Heat, or a Culture Vulture or Sherman or whatever… but theres no way im gonna spend a wad of cash for something like that
Yep a million alternatives available to the Heat.
Sounds good but nothing new to the table, particularly if you work ITB.
OTB maybe worth a look though.
What would you recommend itb as an alternative?
Can’t speak for anyone else but for me ITB Heat alternatives are -
Fabfilter Saturn
Sly-Fi Kaya
U-He Satin
Klanghelm SDRR
D16 Decimort 2 (bitcrusher so kinda different but equally useful for mojo/character)
Slate Virtual Tape
Soundtoys Decapitator
Otium Sonitex
These cover pretty much every shade of dirt/tape/mojo I need and sound legit. I normally dont need to use ITB filters so I can’t offer any recommendations there (tho Soundtoys FilterFreak 2 normally sounds pretty good if I do ITB filter).
Had a few plays now with a friend’s Heat at his studio. It’s a great box. On my list. But the above plugins sound just as good/better to me for ITB work and multiple instance has obvious benefits. Heat’s very attractive still tho for sound design/hands on/playing shows without computer.
If the OP is just after subtle saturation/vibe they might be happy with a Deco? Save themselves some £ if distortion isn’t really their thing… Heat has a lot of uses tho. Env follower, Lfo distortion/filter etc etc.
use it on Sine Waves, get new Waveforms! check the Video i did on my YouTube Channel, you will see: This is amazing!
Sell it.
make a record with it and stop listening to us lol 
I just wonder why you bought it in the first place, and what you were expecting from it when you got it?
It is good at what it advertises it does, and doesnt seem to have any issues with both HW and SW as far as I know (can’t confirm as don’t own one)
But basically If you don’t know what to do with the Heat you may as well sell it.
My go to ITB ‘heat’ plugin is Brainworx BX Saturator V2, but there are so many alternatives as @Callofthevoid has pointed out. The list goes on and on.
Awesome on pretty much everything from tracking to mastering.
M/S and multiband modes rule 
Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2 is rather magical, and adds zero latency, as well.
Good news I just discovered that MacProVideo.com has released an tutorial on the Analog Heat that goes over every aspect of the elektron heat. I used the site before for a basic primer on Analog rytm and Overbridge. The author Thavius Beck is a known music producer and remixer so he is very informative. They also has digit rank, mpc live, octatrak and the whole gamut of machines and gear
why would you buy a piece of equipment without knowing what it does?
It may not be a question of knowing what it does. The real question is how to use it well? We were all there at some point in time.
once i bought a rytm
never touched it
never heart it
just try…
i have bought a lot and sold a lot… usually i don’t loose money on it
it’s better to give it a good try
might sound stupid, but its reality
and brings me somewhere…
Give those tutorials a try at macProVideo.com. They cover a lot of basic features of the heat.
that’s what I am gonna do, thank you very much. In the past, I learned a lot from macprovideo…
… hey, that’s my phrase