DIGITAKT No Pause challenge

[@Silent_Stillness]

For me the biggest revolutionary thing that really sets the Digitakt apart from any other machine available on the market is the incredibly unique way in which the machine acts as a natural sort of "filter of events". Let me explain pretty much for everybody (forgive me in advance for the length this is really complex but very interesting if you are serious about Elektron products): 1. You have the capacity of assigning a sample to one of the 8 tracks, and you then tweak it through a set of simple yet powerful tools that unlock a very important array of potentially extremely different results. 2. You can save the state of that particular tweaked track output under the form of what Elektron calls a "Sound" which can be stored in a bank that can hold a very large number of sounds which you can then conveniently access on any project. 3. From there, something very important happens: when you initialize a project and delete any information (sound) associated to any of the 8 tracks, you are ultimately faced with a choice: a) choice #1: you progressively assign ONE sound to each track on a per need basis (pretty much like what you did in the video). b) choice #2: you decide to treat every single track as a complex output of multiple sounds per track, with the very important restriction that each track has only 1 voice of polyphony. 4. In order to be able to have your creativity explode with choice #2, you need to have built a bank of customized sounds in advance that you are preferably very familiar with. If you do go through this process over time as you fiddle with the machine creating projects, it becomes a fairly natural thing to do. 5. So here is the VERY IMPORTANT part: In order for you to be able to load entire sounds on a per step basis no matter the track (as opposed to loading finger-drummable sounds on a per TRACK basis), these sounds MUST have been imported into what Elektron calls the "Sound Pool" in advance, which is this time a process unique to every newly created blank project. 6. So, let's say you went through that process and you've now quickly loaded 20 sounds to your project sound pool. What can you do from there? You have the capacity of selecting a track, and then hitting Record, then pressing FUNC and then selecting a STEP. So, from there you're going to generate a yellow lit "event" that does not yet have a sample loaded in it (I believe they're called Triggerless TRIGS). This allows you to initiate the process of loading a "sound" onto a TRIG without having the TRIG generate sound as the sequencer is engaged in real time. 7. So once that Triggerless Trig event exists on a given track, if you press and hold that event, and then turn the Data knob, it will bring up the sound pool menu, and you will be able to assign an entire sound to JUST that step, even though there isn't even a main sound loaded on the track per say. Then, once all your sounds have been assigned to the relevant Triggerless Trigs, you can press them again, simultaneously, and they will be turned into (red) TRIGS that will generate a sound once the sequencer hits them, so you never have to stop the sequencer throughout this whole process and you're going to get results that you can anticipate, or you could have super happy accidents if you just don't want to think too much. 8. This exact act is precisely what I initially referred to as a natural "filter of events". It is the ability of being able to queue different sounds on the same track while having only one voice of polyphony, and then to ONLY be able to mute or unmute the track as a WHOLE. This is very important as it implies the impossibility of being able to separate the sounds that get muted from the sounds that do not if they are on the same track. This quirkiness/unusual workflow forces results that in general someone would never produce if this restriction wasn't in place. The 1 voice of polyphony acts as a filter that simplifies the content that is being played back and the entire process of sequencing sounds in such a weird way allows us to completely break away from the standard overused structuring scheme of "Ok i'm going to bring my hats in now, oh and now it's time for adding the claps". With that approach, unmuting a track will invariably have a much deeper impact on the listener as it may involve bringing maybe like 3-5 new sounds onto the listeners ears as a "gelled unit of variation". 9. The one downside of this approach is that you cannot easily punch in sounds with a chromatic component onto a track. The only way of doing that conveniently would be to actually load a main sound onto a track and to then play it in real time chromatically, in a track that would also include per TRIG sound variations inputted using the technique I finished explaining on step 7 (so that the tracks retains the unique implications of the "Choice #2" approach. One problem you might encounter though is that trying to load a different sound onto a main track after having already recorded some events with a specific sound that you would like to remain unchanged might not be possible if the events were generated as "spawns" of the track's original main loaded sound (loading a new main sound would modify the sound on these TRIGS), as opposed to sounds loaded on a per step basis from the sound pool, unless the entire TRIGS were fully parameter locked. (I'm still investigating on this) Nothing forces you to do an entire project using only Choice #1 or Choice #2, you can have some tracks built strictly by programming sounds grabbed from the sound pool on a per step basis, and you can also have other tracks with dedicated sounds that are essential to the piece or that might need dedicated polyphony, such as a Kicks and Pads for example. Ultimately, it would be incredibly painful for someone to reproduce this workflow using means that don't enforce such a restriction. I've had the Digitakt for at least 6 month now and until 2 days ago I was exclusively using the approach that comes with Choice #1, often generating excellent results but that never really stepped "outside of the box". Now that I've opened the floodgates of Choice #2, I can tell you, the results you can get are NUTS -- on a completely different level. You can get so much action going using just 2-3 tracks, and you still retain the flexibility of the 5-6 remaining tracks to bring some contrast into your work. Side note: Where the Digitakt lacks in polyphony and polyphonic sequencing capabilities, as well as in tone generating capabilities, it is on another level entirely as a platform that is genuinely unique and that WILL invariably get you to generate extremely interesting results that you absolutely would not have even come close to with a different set of more traditional tools. I've been holding back on the Digitone because I'm extremely pissed at the 8 polyphony limit, the 4 operators restriction, as well as the repeatedly reported note hanging bugs that are still in effect in the latest OS. If the device would have cost 600$ as opposed to 1000$, I would not be complaining and I'd have one, but at that price, for a device that is primarily a 4 part tone generator, i view it as a massive problem, even though I'd probably be very happy if I had one. Please change my mind, thanks :)

[@AndrejRojec]

I'd like to thank you very much for this awesome contribution.

[@ToyKeeper]

It's definitely an interesting workflow. It's not just Elektron machines which do this though. It seemed to get popular way back in the days of the Amiga, since .mod tracker music had a bunch of samples but only four tracks. So people worked that way out of necessity. The Elektron sequencer is basically a hardware version of those old trackers. It adds some really nice things like filters and effects, but the #2 workflow described above is significantly easier to do on a tracker than it is on a Digitakt.

[@Silent_Stillness]

@@ToyKeeper Lol i completely forgot I had written this monster piece hahaha

[@lifeless9233]

Excuse me, what the fuck ?

[@espacemaxim]

Digitone rulez, whether you like it or not

[@G0nz0uk]

This is great, I miss your Digitakt videos.

[@IvarTryti]

Thank you! I've been on a roll with the Elektron synths lately, hehe. I'm sure It'll swing back to the Digitakt sooner rather than later :D

[@rossconran2333]

I keep expecting it to morph into a remix of NIN Closer. Its not a piece of equipment thats ever been on my gear radar but Elektron gould do far worse than to use this video in their promotions. Brilliant work!

[@IvarTryti]

Thanks a lot for the kind words, Ross! Trent Reznor is one of my main influences :)

[@gernot-reininger]

Masterfully jam Ivar! Thank you!

[@IvarTryti]

Thank you, Gernot!

[@kontainer01]

Awesome and inspiring! You’ve really mastered the digitakt.

[@IvarTryti]

Haha, thank you very much!

[@samshrimpton407]

Switching between programmed beats and freestyle finger drumming was awesome!!! The programmed drums sound enunciated and the finger style ones had that Dilla like swing. Really added a nice flow using both. Definitely expand on that idea some more, there was some kind of voodoo magic going on there!

[@IvarTryti]

Thank you, Sam! Yeah, there's definitely something magical about unquantized finger drumming with dusty samples. It takes soooo much practice though, which is the same reason I use very little live recording in my music. I have huge respect for people who can live loop with good timing :D

[@deepvibez]

FANTASTIC!!!

[@robertparenton7470]

Thank You. Very inspirational!

[@IvarTryti]

Thanks for watching, man =)

[@justcox]

Awesome work my friend!

[@IvarTryti]

Thank you, Christian!

[@kenb7540]

Bravo !

[@hulumew]

this idea is so cool bro!

[@IvarTryti]

It's way different than how I usually make music, but I was surprised by how... not janky it was :D

[@ChrisERoots]

Massively enjoyed that! Simply buzzin! What can more can I say. Pure skill, talent and inspiration in full flow. You killed it and you’ve definitely given me an inspiring kick to do more with my own. Thank for you that...I look forward to the next one!

[@IvarTryti]

Thank you very much, man! I really appreciate it :). It's very different form my usual workflow, but I felt I was in a nice flow state for most of this jam.

[@pau1_r3d61]

Bravo 👏

[@ryankitch]

Awesome stuff. Nice work!!!

[@IvarTryti]

Thank you!

[@JamieClark]

Didn't know what to expect, but this is legit... Maybe I'll try this tomorrow - no editing means you can get it done and uploaded in a day haha

[@IvarTryti]

Thank you, Jamie! Yeah go for it! The only editing I did was unmuting the video during the parts I was talking. I generally try to keep my productions as simple as possible so I can spend more time on playing with the Digitakt or Digitone.

[@JamieClark]

Ivar Tryti smart man. Editing takes so much of my time, it’s what prevents me from uploading regularly

[@LeMorgue]

Now i definitly want one too.. :-) Good job!

[@IvarTryti]

Thank you, lemorgue! It's a very fun but admittedly pricey box =)

[@rey8318]

Outstanding

[@IvarTryti]

Thanks!

[@wm.ferguson2221]

It's so fun to watch you fly around the buttons and knobs. But what exactly is happening at 2:04? You sliced a drum loop to the first four pads and then - you changed the sample? How? That seemed kind of magical. Or is it that you have a bank of one-bar drum loops? That just went a little quickly for me. Great stuff.

[@IvarTryti]

Thank you very much, man! What I did there was to select a sample on track 1 and pitch it down to "normal" pitch and give the amp envelope a short attack and short release, so that I could isolate one drum hit at a time. And also added overdrive and bit reduction to taste. Once I was happy with the kick sound, I copy-pasted it to tracks 2, 3 and 4 and moved the starting points to a snare, hat and open hat. They all use the same sample, the same amp envelope shape and same amount of bit reduction and overdrive. So at 2:04, I'm pressing FUNC + SRC to go into sample select mode. Here you can change do a different sample in the pool, but if you press FUNC + YES, you'll go into the sample browser. Whichever sample you select here will *replace* the current one in the sound pool. Since all 4 tracks use the same sample, they all change when i choose a new sample. Pressing yes to select a sample doesn't take me out of the sample select mode either, so I can press yes, try the drums for a bit, then change to a different sample and press yes and try those samples. I don't remember where I learned this trick, but oh my god it felt like a cheat code when I learned it. I hope that answered your question!

[@naught101]

@@IvarTryti he means the bit after that. When you swapped out the samples (on all 4 pads at once?). All those samples are pre-recorded and the same length? An extra question, I've seen a few people (including you, I think) record loops like that at a very slow tempo, and then pitch them back up later. Why is that?

[@IvarTryti]

@@naught101 Ahh, yeah. The 4 pads all use the same sample, so when I change the sample for pad 1, it will also change the sounds on pads 2, 3 and 4. They're at different starting points, and I've made my drum loops to (mostly) use the same drum pattern, with kicks, snares, closed and open hats at roughly the same spots. The main reason to double the speed and pitch before sampling is to save disk space. It takes half as much space if you record it at double speed. The other reason is that the sound is literally degraded and sounds more lofi. It doesn't suit all types of music, but I think it's perfect for trip hop.

[@naught101]

@@IvarTryti Ah, makes sense.

[@dbajpeyi]

That was nice!

[@IvarTryti]

Thanks, man :D

[@sigh_gremlin]

awesomeC:!

[@IvarTryti]

Thanks!

[@solaryzer]

Great demo of how you work , and great track :-) (just in case any confusion its SJ here ,, changed youtube name and logo )

[@IvarTryti]

Thanks a lot, man! Haha, there was something familiar about the logo. I really appreciate it, SOLARYZER :D Edit: Oh wait, the logo changed just now. Very nice logo!

[@solaryzer]

@@IvarTryti I just made logo in MS paint a couple of mins ago ,, that will have to do , had to change channel name ....none of my friends could find my channel .. i searched for SJ , got a tons of results ,, none of which were me ,, so had to create original name . Anyway another great vid from yourself !

[@IvarTryti]

@@solaryzer Yeah, I can imagine it's difficult to find you when searching for SJ. I've had that trouble when trying to find some channels!

[@solaryzer]

@@IvarTryti There is only one Ivar Tryti ;-)

[@IvarTryti]

@@solaryzer Haha, that was unique enough, fortunately :D

[@soundmakerstudio2486]

Can I input a mic and sample what I sing straight on ?

[@IvarTryti]

It's possible, but with a few downsides. It only has 1/4" jack inputs, and it doesn't have a preamp. It won't boost the mic audio while you're using it, so it's hard to hear yourself when you turn monitoring on. But! It will normalize the audio after you're done recording, so the sample itself will be nice and loud (though probably a bit noisy, too).

[@soundmakerstudio2486]

@@IvarTryti thank you for your prompt reply! Appreciate it!

[@IvarTryti]

@@soundmakerstudio2486 My pleasure man, it popped up while watching a youtube video, hehe.

[@romichjordan]

white screen? how hahahh

[@monomakes]

Isn't that what everyone does?

[@IvarTryti]

I usually stop so I can "hear" myself think when coming up with new melodies. Then I input the melody and hit play to hear if I got it right. Rinse repeat.

[@Jeremy-su3xy]

pause, and take your time. make it better.

[@IvarTryti]

I usually do, hence the "challenge" part of the title. Thanks for the feedback!

[@Jeremy-su3xy]

@@IvarTryti Do you have OT?

[@IvarTryti]

I don't but it's something I'm very interested in checking out.