You’ve listed a lot of good techniques here, and I don’t want to detract from that, but I honestly don’t understand this one. I know that changing the algorithm can have a substantial and unexpected impact on the sound. But it feels like hitting a randomize button. It’s not a deliberate design decision, and after a lot of careful work with a particular algorithm, it basically throws all of that away. Am I missing something? (I am on Team Careful Design, and I know that not everyone is…)
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I like to layer sounds across the 4 tracks and set a macro knob to modulate the crossfade, feedback and fx.
Sometimes if I’m feeling the jam, I’ll func+yes then ctrl all and mess around the offset ratios and envelopes and such by tiny amounts, then revert back and do it again until I find something I really liken then make a diff pattern with those new parameters to help come up with ideas.
Changing the algos often gives me undesirable results, sometimes it works but not often enough for it be a go-to move.
Wish I had a dn2…
I’m all about randomize buttons 
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Okay, fine, if that’s all it is, I can deal.
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Putting drum sounds through the arp, saving the sound and sound locking rolls per step.
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I love to layer 2 hi hat sounds, one set to arp and put panning on an LFO. It’s amazing for IDM.
I still enjoying putting all of my drums on one track as well (sometimes set the whole track to FILL only for variation)
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lol did this one quite a few times. in fact i had different arp speed in the sound pool so i can dial the sound with plocks and always have my retrigs.
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That’s a pretty peculiar notion of what constitutes understanding.
Was going to put this in “tips and tricks…” thread, but maybe here is better;
My go to is to NOT use the (revered!) Elektron sequencer. Yes, I know it’s flexible and the Euclidean option yields interesting results but it’s also (IMO) clunky and seems very much designed to accommodate people making music that is grid-based/“dance” music (by which I mean techno, house, electro, etc)
So, when I connect my ipad to my DNII, and start playing with Fugue Machine Rubato, Harmony Bloom (rapidly changing params to get wild flurries of sound), ChaosArp and others, a whole new world opens up.
And even if I was interested in making 4 to the floor type stuff, then hooking up a different sequencer just brings a new flavour. Waymaker, Senode, StepPolyArp, New Path, Mass, the SQSL apps…and on and on.
And although I really liked the idea of getting away from a screen with the Elektron boxes, I’ve found that the hands-on approach with ipad sequencers is really immediate, and I can “play” the sequencer more intuitively than using the elektron one.
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Just adding to my previous post. I’m now using a device by Kentaro called Dots, and my Midi Fighter Twister is midi mapped to the start/stop buttons. Utter bliss!
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You generally want your information to be accurate. And you will usually get that from a book written by an expert, like the one you mentioned. Not from a piece of software that is in effect gluing together snippets of supposedly relevant text from its huge training corpus. And then you posted the result supposedly for the benefit of others here, without trying it yourself (if you had, you would have discovered the errors). I don’t understand what motivates such an action, nor how it can be called “understanding”. But thank you for deleting it; that way it won’t be mistaken for fact by a human reader, or recycled into further sludge by other LLMs.
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That’s the thing. You can never know if it’s accurate unless you fact check it, by which time you may as well have gone straight to a reliable source.
LLMs give fast answers, and it’s easy to see why people ask them instead of bothering to actually look stuff up, but if you want a correct answer they’re a waste of time. And I’d argue that they cannot ever get much better because of the way they work.
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Two of the most brilliant parts of the DN’s design, IMHO, are:
- The way most algorithms isolate C and A on X leaving (at least part of) the Bs contributions for the Y
- The really over-sensitive adjustment of the B ratios that let you sweep both with a single twist of a knob.
When doing sound design, I often know exactly what I want for a 2-op FM sound, but then want to “fancy it up” with some interesting harmonics from the two left over. So I’ll crank the balance 100% X and get my primary 2-op sorted. Then I’ll mix 50/50 X and Y, and just start sweeping B1 and B2’s ratios until something crazy hits me. Then dial back the Y until it ceases to be distracting, now just providing interest.
So quick and so satisfying!
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Ahaha what does this track have to do with Digitone, or entire topic? Wrong post?
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Heh, this topic is cursed. Actually, it might have been from the start. Much as I love DN2, it is such a sprawling collection of great features that any tips or techniques are likely to be very specific to a particular genre or track or even just sound. For me, the strength of DN2 is how it starts from the basic layers of the Elektron sequencer and the DN1 design and slathers on this great icing of additional capabilities that threaten to overwhelm or unbalance but manage to take the whole cake into the next level of deliciousness.
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Sorry haha wrong thread! I’ll remove it.
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How do you find more of these apps, these look really cool. I want to explore these more but not sure what else is out there. Thanks!
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Well, check the Kentaro link I included first of all.
Also, check this guy Jake’s free devices. They’re ace!
If you have an ipad, I can recommend more sequencer/midi generators.
Have fun!
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