Your advice - Digitakt - all in one solution for Illbient music production?

Elektron Gear Digitakt
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Hello,

I am a prospective buyer of a brand new Digitakt after not being satisfied with an SP-404 and MPC One as a previous owner. I have opened an account here and started to look at seriously purchasing a Digitakt as an all-in-one solution to make dense collages of creepy and depressing, Illbient music. (Elements of dark industrial-ambient instrumental hip hop meets doomer jazz).

My previous experiences with gear are as follows: - The SP-404 needed more structure and the amount of double button presses to get to the desired result was discouraging while the lack of a real sequencer was not as I desired. The MPC One - it had a touchscreen that I did not get along with and the overall design/capability almost did too much. After dealing with Akai’s overly negative support for license issues with product keys, I will never deal with them again or products in any capacity.

…and now I am here to try to actually get an understanding of the capability and the capacity of the Digitakt and whether or not I could use this to compose the music I would like.

Questions:

  1. If I were to buy a brand new Digitakt from Sweetwater (that is currently back ordered) what would be your best guess as to what version the operating system that it would be shipped with? (I know it seems like an unnecessarily amateur question, however, I still have nightmares to this day with trying to get assistance in updating the MPC One with their support team.) Not receiving the most updated operating system would not be a dealbreaker, – it would just make me more inclined to buy it quicker if it did have some of the more recent updates preloaded.
  2. After reading the Digitakt manual many times and the Sound on Sound product review, I understand that a total of 128 different samples can be used per project (or song). My goal would be to make extremely intricate tracks with lots of different samples per “song” while ensuring I keep the storage limit under the prerequisite 64 MB per project. Let’s say for instance I have 20-30 different samples that I wanted to include in only one song – is this possible as long as I stayed within the confines of the storage capacity per project? How is this actually achieved if you want to do this on the Digitakt? Would you have to re-sample every time or would you just have the sample entered in a slot that perhaps could be assigned to a step for instance.
  3. I work in E-commerce looking at multiple computer screens all day and sometimes as many as 15 to 20 tabs open at one time on my workstation – how much do I have to rely on a computer to achieve the desired result with the Digitakt?
  4. Here are some examples of music that are in the vein of what I would like to create. (Notice the number of different samples used - would this be feasible on the Digitakt?)

DJ Spooky “Journey” / Byzar “Phylyx” / SubDub “Soundcheck” / or basically just the “Eraserhead” Movie Soundtrack atmosphere’s with a bed of broken beats and warped record scratchings below it.

Thanks for your suggestions and the rambling. Looking for an all in one hardware only solution that doesn’t take up much space.

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Welcome!

1 - Doesn’t matter. Updating a DT is the easiest thing ever imagined. You won’t have a problem and if I’m wrong then you have this generous forum to help you out.

2 - Sample slot can be parameter locked per step so technically if one wants 128 samples in a pattern it can be done. Obviously you won’t be able to hear 20-30 sounds at the same time unless you do some resampling but still, what you’re asking sounds like no problem at all.

3 - You’ll need to hook it up to a computer to update which is very quick. Transferring samples into the thing also requires a computer and that pretty much takes as long as it takes. I don’t know what samples you’ll be using but I’ve never found this part to be painful.

4 - Yes. Fairly easily. You’ll have to spend some time with it but once you become handy it’s on like Donkey Kong.

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to oversimplify this very qualified statement for the sake of transparency, when one edits a sample (or even loads a sample) it can be added to the sound pool as a “sound”, the sound pool differs from the sample library because any sound in the sound pool can be locked to a step on any track. this is what allows you to get around sample per track limitations, as well as destructively altering the original samples.

I’d also mention that there are a lot of function plus x, and some other button combos that take some getting used to, but it’s more of a muscle memory thing because it’s not illogical.

computer is not necessary if you want to sample directly in, but transferring samples from the computer is the only way to insure max fidelity and also longer than 33 seconds sample time. if fidelity (ie lofi) is not a concern, sample directly all day - but it does normalize your samples and that can be undesirable at times. This is not to say digitakt direct sampling is lofi, it’s very high fidelity, but you won’t capture the same quality of sampling as you would a computer prepared sample, and it will never be “not normalized”. Most of the time you won’t notice, but it depends.

I don’t really have anything overly negative to say about digitakt, and I agree that updating the OS is as simple as turning it on and plugging it in. Transferring samples is incredibly easy as well. Doing everything from the box is possible but lends itself to a gridlike workflow, you may find yourself going back and forth or prepping samples on the pc in order to get the most out of the digitakt, but if your workflow is all loop based you probably won’t need a computer at all. composition might steer you back and forth between the two.

It’s very simple to get into, but there’s a ton of depth to the machine.

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  1. One way to get around the 128 sample limit is to create sample chains — a “sample chain” being one audio file with a bunch of different samples on it evenly spaced out (typically at intervals of 16 to be easily select-able with the Slice machine). I’ve used it for things like kick drums (one “sample” with 16 kick drums that I can choose as Splices) but you could also use it for chords or anything else. Just one idea to make the most of the DT’s limitations.

  2. I don’t use Overbridge so I hardly ever use the DT with a computer. Just for transferring samples.

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You also have the Sound Pool.
Think of the sample list as the raw sample and a Sound as a sample saved with all parameter settings. These use allocated RAM and are separate from the Sample list per project. You can lock them to any step in the sequencer, same as samples off the Sample list. 128 Sounds avaliable in the Sound Pool plus the 128 samples on the list p[er project.
i may be wrong about some of those numbers, but on DT you have 2 lists, Sounds and Samples.

Id wholeheartedly agree with this.
Its a great instrument.

Is it that? Probably not.

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I just wanted to echo what @Annihilation_Squares said about updating it: it’s really not a cause for concern, because it’s one of the easiest devices to update. And if the DT is back-ordered, my guess is they’re going to restock brand new devices which will likely come with the latest OS.

Other than that updates, I almost never connect my DT to a computer. You can even sample over USB from a phone.

Also, I’ve never heard of Illbient music. I might check that out

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I researched grooveboxes just like you’re doing and finally decided on the Digitakt and it turned out to be a great decision. I don’t have a ton of audio gear because I don’t need it. The Digitakt fills a lot of harmonic and rhythmic holes.

I’ve had mine since last April and have RTFM plus watched and rewatched all the tutorials / demos by True Cuckoo, Ricky Tinez, Red Means Recording, Loopop and more. Pretty much doing straight covers of their work and then going off piste with my own.

Kind of OT but I had virtually no use for the midi tracks until I discovered I could use them to control my Eyesy video synth :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: and just last week I got an Obey 40 so now I can sequence my lighting trees with the DT too!!!

Suffice it to say, the Digitakt has enabled me to flesh out my mediocre keyboard skills in a big way.

IMO, the Digitakt is genre neutral. You can match it to whatever style you want.

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I don’t think Digitakt is suited to “prog”, with intricate polyphonic chord changes, arps, changes of time signature, and sequences that span 128 bars. But for illbient, it will be very good, especially if one wants to play or improvise, as opposed to just hitting start.

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I have one and I love it
I’ve had all of the other boxes except monomachine and DT is a beast - can’t go wrong imho

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Sound doable with Digitakt with the right samples. Except for the Dub thing, you don’t have some sort of spring reverb on Digitakt. Only a modern hall reverb and a digital delay. But you can import or sample a snare with spring delay already on it to get the dub feel.
Also for pads and chords, you don’t have stereo sample, so if you plan to have a wide evolving pads you will have to cheat with 2 tracks, or just, don’t do that. Stay mono and set your track in stereo field. Adding reverb can spread tracks on the side.

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To get the stereo feel in dt i plock l-r pan sweeps or set the lfo to pan depending on whether or not I’ve run out of lfos - only discovered there were two after about a week!! I know rtfm…,

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The handy song mode that has been recently implemented makes it also very handy to come with a complete track from that single device.

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the digitakt is absolutely an all-in-one for this kind of music. LFO is your friend for crisping up drumbreaks.

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The Digitakt seems like a decent choice for this as long as you are OK with the reverb - definitely listen to that with an attentive ear before you commit. Otherwise, it’s a fun and fast machine.

The recommendation to use samples with baked-in effects is a good one. You might also have fun with resampling - I know I do. One thing I like to do is get a sample or three layered up on the same step with lots of shaping applied to each layer - bit & sample rate reduction, overdrive, filters, envelopes, LFOs, micro-loops, effects - and then resample the whole shebang to make a new one-shot or drop some parameter locks to make a slice-able loop. This can compensate for both the lack of polyphony and slightly bland effects, and it also gives you the opportunity to run the result through another round of shaping or double/triple it up for even more layering.

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As everyone has said, DT is a killer one-box solution, but IMO it’s strengths lean more towards rhythm and percussive material. If you want stereo and longer samples (as well as a different suite of fx that can be used per track plus the Dave filter) then I would look hard at the Toraiz SP-16. On the sound design side it is as powerful or more so than the DT. The reverb sucks but you can use one set of sub outs as a “send” and then out to a Blackhole, DBA Rooms or whatever pedal and use the sample ins (with a track dedicated to thru) as a “return”. The SP also has a super nice screen interface compared to the Akai and is very solidly built. Plus it has the best sound quality of any sampler that I have used (many.)

The main disadvantages of the SP are that there are propably no more FW updates in the pipeline, and the sequencer compared to Elektrons is very rudimentary… the song mode works great though.

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Digitakt will work for sequencing this just fine.

One box solution though?

I doubt any of those artists you mention use stock samples. Vinyl, cassette and tape echo there’s all sorts going on in there and as others stated digitakt has limited effects.

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Never heard of that genre before, but Ive made weird dark experimental hip hop stuff since 2009. Ive owned all of the mentioned samplers. Ive had my digitakt for about 3 years now.

+'s For the TAKT

No other sampler compares to its snappy envelopes, crazy LFO stuff, Way more control over start and end points in real time then the MPC one.

You have way more fine controls then on the SPs. Has a kinda dark sound to my ears. New sample rate reduction gives more creative freedom in sound design in a similar vein as the SPs.

One of the most intuitive boxes, had immediacy and a ha moments years later. New sample machines make managing loop content more fun and creative.

-'s for the Takt

small amount of ram per project, so if you’re expecting to rock tons of longer loops you’re going to run out fast even with multiple patterns.

Only a gig of storage for you samples. Red Means Recording had a youtube video about how he has been using the old golden era tricks of pitching up sampler prior to loading on to Digitakt to deal with the lack of space.

I would suggest watching some of @Eaves earlier Digitakt videos to see how he extends full tracks by making and resampling a drum loops by resampling to one track. He manages to make some super complex stuff, but using a lot of unique workarounds and work flows

Much more limited in terms of effects then the other mentioned samplers, especially if youre going to use it standalone. No stereo samples.

I think the perfect combo for this sort of thing would be an older sp 404 OG/SX plus the DIGITAKT.

The older Sp’s have less short cuts. much more basic interface. Effects/sounds much grimier. They an even crappier sequencer, but this is where the Digitakt comes in. You can sequence it with the Digitakt then you have the best of both worlds.

Reasons I love Sp’s for this type of stuff.

Basically unlimited sampling time. very organic way of playing drums and loops out of time. which is great contrast to clinical stuff on the digitakt. resampling with effects can do some crazy sound design i cant replicate on my takt

Just my 2 cents. I think stand alone always leaves a lot to desire. There is no perfect solution to all. I think two oddball friends that make up for each others shortcomings is the way!

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I wonder if there’s a good way to fake spring verb. Like maybe sample a hall reverb tail and give it a little pitch wobble? This actually sounds like a fun challenge

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Check out S.Marharba on Spotify…

…get inspired and buy a po33 ko and use the spare money for a cassette recorder and some vinyl.

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Impossibile is nothing with Digitakt
Try to connect midi out into midi in: a whole world will open up to you