I love the DSI OB-6 Desktop… the VCOs sound just amazing…
super sweet filers, unsion mode, polyphonic, analog saturation,
delay, reverb, chorus, seq & arp… what do you need more?
I own the Monologue and its a perfect companion to the DT for bass-lines and leads and such. I’m looking for another desktop synth that can do pads and keys so far the only thing that really has my ears tickled is the Roland SH-01A it can do poly mode now and some pads in some of the demo’s I’ve heard sound really lush. Just dont know about the keys and chords though. I’m no Herbie Hancock but want to add some odd chord stabs in here and there. Whats everyone think?
There needs to be more options for small multitimbral synths.
2 Likes
If I had to pick only one, the OB-6. It just sounds so over-the-top ridiculously good. It can make huge, dripping analog sounds but it’s a bit more cutting and precise than a vintage Oberheim to my ear. So I think it works with the modern sound of the Digitakt (to the extent you can say the Digitakt has a “sound”) better than a fat n’ sloppy vintage machine while still adding a big dose of real live analog flavor to your tracks.
I guess you would want diversity, and the Virus TI is still hard to beat for diversity
Yep, if money is no object, that synth will do very nicely 
iPad apps like Gadget are great. You can sequence eight different synths in Gadget for example; and, imho, they sound great. It can be as simple a setup as an iPad, Gadget ($40), a cable for MIDI, then the lightning connector to iPad from USB end of MIDI cable you use. That’s it. Easy. Control the parameters in Gadget via the knobs in the DT. A lot less cable and wire mess than with hardware synths. Plus, in my experience, an iPad is more immediate and less hassle than using laptop/computer synths.
I tried doing this with Gadget but every time I would start the pattern in DT, it would “reset” a lot of parameters in Gadget to 0 values, like the filter and other random stuff, because of the default CC parameters in the DT MIDI track. Even though I did not have any parameters locked in the sequencer, and had not tweaked any of the CC values, they were all 100% at default, it was still sending those default values to Gadget upon hitting Play on the DT.
Just curious to hear your thoughts on this. Have you run into this problem or know if there’s a way to resolve it? I didn’t mess with it much, started to feel like too much hassle.
I guess I could set all the CC numbers to numbers that aren’t used in Gadget, but it still kind of bugs me that it’s trying to send those over to Gadget without being parameter locked or actively tweaked
I’d have to say my modular.
2 Likes
ask away!
I haven’t had any of those problems, surprisingly. I do use an Octatrack though. I just go into each Gadget synth, set the MIDI channel (like Berlin Ch. 1, Lexington Ch. 2, etc.), and assign the CC values in Gadget itself (tap on the CC in the Gadget synth list of parameters that comes up when you press Function in Gadget and then twist the encoder in the Octatrack). I switch to “Advanced” in the Korg Settings so that I can access all the MIDI stuff.
I’m honestly surprised it works smoothly and is easy to set up given that we’re talking about the Octatrack and the walled MIDI garden that is the Korg Gadget 
2 Likes
Ahhh, well what I figure is happening is the DT is sending out the “current” encoder value (which by default is 0) out to the default CC numbers when you start the sequencer, and those just happen to correspond with things that actually do something in Gadget… like filter cutoff. So I tweak my sound in Gadget, tap out a sequence in the DT sequencer, and as soon as I hit play, I can’t hear anything because it sends out a value of 0 to the filter cutoff And I can turn the knob in the DT to change the filter or whatever other values it’s sending, but that changes the sound I tweaked in Gadget.
So the OT doesn’t do anything like that?
I’ll go back and play with it some more, maybe it was just a fluke I was overlooking. Gadget definitely does seem like a good companion with the multiple instruments and relatively few parameters to deal with.
Worst case scenario I guess I could turn off sending CC values from the DT but what’s the fun in that
EDIT It seems to me that it should only send out the encoder positions when A) manually tweaking or B) parameter locking values into the sequencer… otherwise, don’t send anything… This might ultimately be user error though or I’m just not used to how these kinds of things interact together.
Yeah that never happens to me. I set the encoder values and they stay there unless I change them.
What you’d want to do is set those midi track cc’s to something useful in Gadget, or make sure the ones that do unintended things are disabled by pressing function+encoder for now. Even with those disabled you can send clock and notes and get going and then add them back later…
Seems @digiwut’s post had some tips for the Gadget side…
Also make sure encoder dest is set to INT in the DT main settings, this will make sure the knobs don’t generally send cc’s when changing audio track parameters…
TY! Now that you mention disabling the CC values, that’s another weird thing I seem to remember… on the page where you set actual values, they all had X’s (if I remember right…) so I assume that means disabled and they shouldn’t be sending anything, ever. But on the page where you set WHICH CC to send, they were set to various default CC numbers.
So that was, as I remember, how things were set up and it was still sending out “default” values to Gadget when I started the sequencer.
I’m gonna go back and mess with it later on with you guys’ suggestions in mind, will let you know how it goes!
Speaking of all this MIDI sequencing, does anyone use all eight MIDI tracks? I feel after two or three, my brain is full and the music starts to become a bit mushy. I guess if a person uses drums tracks, okay. But as for synths, I couldn’t imagine filling eight tracks of them.
1 Like
I often use 8, especially if I’m working with poly synths. More than one track on the same channel to get more polyphony.
For instance if I’m controlling my mnm poly mode with the DT I’ll set midi trac one and two to the same channel so I can achieve the 6 note polyphony, etc
Virus TI !!! Even if you cannot create patches, modern producers keep coming up with a lot of inspirational sound banks all the time, what causes this peace of German engineering to sound fresh from year to year.
1 Like
Hi @tr909, do you actually have a Blofeld paired with a DT? I’m jamming on this setup and I love it, I love blofeld’s pads and atmospheres so much
Only thing is I am noticing an annoying inaccuracy in synchronization between the two machines. My settings should be ok, and actually the Blofeld arpeggios sounds good with DT’s beat 40-50% of the time, but often I can feel a noticeable delay. Meaning that the tempo of the arpeggio is right, but somehow slightly shifted from the beat (grrr).
Sometimes when I press play on DT the synth sounds out of time, then if I stop and make another attempt it will just work fine… so random!
So I’d like to ask you, have you experienced my same issue? I’m reading experiences of many other people having this problem so I’m afraid I’ll have to return it to the shop but I’m craving for a reason not to 
If I don’t find a solution I’d grab a A4.
Sorry for the long post!
1 Like
Will this piss off the purists yes?
SH-01A
keystep, digitakt, SH-01a, i have had loads of fun.
might go with a micromonsta soon tho to add more sound design capabilities to my setup.
3 Likes