Hello,
I’m having fun setting a synth thru the Digitakt input and use the Reverb and Delay from the Digitakt.
I found the FX ok but sometime it’s not very detailled if the sound coming is too complex.
I never had an FX pedal, and it’s look like very expensive for a decent reverb/delay combo pedal.
What I’m asking to you who have a Digi and some FX pedal is : it is a real big difference between the Elektron FX and other FX ? Does it worth 400 - 500€ for just a minor improvement or it’s a game changer ?
I don’t talk about Mood or strange effect, just Delay and Reverb.
You ask a bit of a difficult question. First thought I have is, are you adjusting delay and reverb to correspond to the bpm of your track or are you talking about just playing with no rhythm track?
Good (expensive) delay/reverb has more complex settings, allows more adjustment to the size and sound you want the “room” or “space” to sound like.
As with all expenses, personal preference.
Some people say it doesn’t make a difference, but I use delay/reverb calculators to set good times for project delays, helps make time based effects more “musical”:
The Elektron delay/reverb are pretty clean effects. If you’re getting muddy sound, it’ll only be worse with others. Try using the FX filters to shave away unwanted frequencies.
Sometimes I like an effect with some colour, and sometimes I want a different kind of reverb (shimmer or blackhole). I bought a pedal for $300 US that gives me quality versions of those. For me it is not worth 500€ for a pedal, but ask me a year from now and I might give a different answer.
The fact youve not too taken by the DT effects suggests it’s worth you trying an fx pedal…
my fx pedals don’t necessarily sound better, just different but as I dual use them with my guitar so it’s worth the lay out to get them. I don’t think I’d bother just for the DT.
This might seem bit strange but I find more expensive fx sound better “in the room” when feeling the sound but when recorded the reward doesn’t seem as impressive (can’t rule out that is down to my shit recording…).
Thank you for your answer. Yeah I have not really tweaked the FX until now. I was just wondering if the problem came from me or the FX. I guess it’s from me
I have no comparaison but if you think it’s clean, I will try to adjust proper setting and send amount.
Do some experimentation. Turn reverb off and set delay filter to a fairly narrow bandpass. Play some of your stuff and move the peak around. See what effect it has. Then turn the delay off and repeat with reverb. Finally, work with both together. And, yes, be careful what you send to each/both and how much!
I don’t have any Digis, just OT,AK and the silver boxes. Based on those, the Elektron delays are great, and the Elektron reverbs are good.
Eventide Space is a great value used. To my ears it sounds better than the OT’s reverbs, but in some cases I prefer to work entirely inside the OT.
If you are ready to spend more than ~USD$350 (used Space) then you should spend a lot of time listening to YouTube demos and decide whether the sound is worth the cost to you.
Another option is to run Valhalla reverbs in a DAW. Valhalla covers a lot of reverb-ground, and should help you focus on which hardware reverb you want to add to your setup.
YMMV, but the Space has helped me avoid a lot of reverb GAS. I’d like to buy a CXM-1978, but I have a long list of gear that I’d like to own before I drop $1k on a reveb.
Edit: two underrated reverbs:
Zoom MS-70CDR: Reverbs are as good or better than Elektron’s, note quite to Eventide level, IMO. But it’s worth having even at the new price of USD$150 since you can run several FX sequentially.
Korg NTS-1: Extremely flimsy construction, but the reverbs are very very good. And you can load in inexpensive reverb plugins.
This is coming from an addict so take it with a grain of salt, but you can never have enough verb and delay.
I’m really enjoying the DL4mk2, into H9, into Big Sky. All of them creating new tails and textures that amplify and mutate into the next. Can turn the most boring sine wave sound into some really beautiful soundscapes.
I’ve heard that the Collider is pretty good and has both delay and verb in one. The H9s are starting to sell for cheap because of the H90 coming out and the app is pretty smooth and responsive., Also there are a ton of wonderful sounding reverb out there that it’s hard to pick just one.
On the cheap, Raum is an amazing VST that sounds great and is really flexible. They had given it away for free last year. Maybe they’ll do it again soon.
I don’t own a Digi but in this pedal budget range, I can speak from personal experience that the difference is night and day. In addition, if you go for knob per function pedals, you’ll use the effects more creatively and more efficiently.
I went for Strymon Volante and UAFX Golden Reverberator…
There are e.g. OTO Bim/Bam, Strymon Nightsky/Bigsky/ElCap, Empress Reverb, GFI Specular Tempus, Zen Delay and many others to explore.
One thing I’ve noticed on the DN’s reverb is the reflections seem very soft compared to most of the other ones I have. Personally I am 100% down with what the DN is doing here. It’s a perfect fit for me, but if you want that “snare drum in an untreated room”-sound that seems to be the default on half the units out there, the DN isn’t going to do a great job of it.
You might find yourself trying a lot of different reverbs until you get the one you like. Reverbs are like that! Very subjective stuff.
Personally, I really like the reverb on the Digis. I genuinely like the reverbs on the OT and A4 as well, but the Digi reverb is really much nicer to me.
I find myself trying out different stereo reverb pedals and eventually go back to running signals through the Digitakt/tone for a “cleaner” reverb, which I guess is a bit ironic, considering the premise of this thread! I’ve used some high-ish end reverb pedals, like Strymon, for example, and they can sound muddy compared to the Digitakt verb.
The delay on the Digis is really just a plain old stereo delay line with optional ping pong and a multimode filter before it. It’s pretty “clean” already. I would point out that if you’re looking to replace it, you’ll probably want something with MIDI if you’re interested in synced delay, so consider all the extra cables as well: 2 in, 2 out, MIDI, power.
i have oto bim, puts everything in totally different sound space. .every fx unit or pedal i use actually does. fx in elektron boxes are ok, but it just sound the same to me, the basic character of sounds stys the same if that makes sanse. so yeah, good fx unites are like a new layer of sound.
Thanks for the tips. It’s exactly what I want. A clean hifi delay and reverb. I don’t like when the track is just a reverb track. It’s tend to sound muddy when too many things coming into the reverb.
There’s one important thing to consider before going down that road: keep in mind that if you use an external fx unit all your Digi tracks will be affected equally by it, unlike with the internal Fx where you can choose which tracks to affect and which amount.
In my experience, it’s rarely the case where you want to apply reverb or delay to all tracks equally, so that’s a big limitation if you want to use it live. Of course if your plan is only to record it in a DAW, then you can record each track individually and you will be fine.
High pass your reverb, and all should be fine.
I run entire mixes through my quadraverb without any worries.
I quite like the digi delay and reverb. I also like my quadraverb, and all the octatrack fx. Reverbs can and do sound different, so at the end of the day its just personal taste. Is it worth getting an external reverb? Yes and no depending on what you want.
Yep, but my setup is the Digitakt + a synth (perfourmer mkII, without fx). Actually I use the DT FX on Input L + R, so I don’t mess the entire track with the FX. If I choose to get a pedal, is to wire between the synth and the DT inputs.
But from what you all say in this topic, it seem it not necessarly a big upgrade to get an external pedal. I’m not really into shimmer, weird delay or other over-customisable fx. I like things simple, that sounds clean and you ended at forgetting it, but if you bypass, it miss something.
I think I have to be careful with the filters on the FX as some of you mentionned.
I tried a few pedals: Boss RV-6, Empress Effects Echosystem, some Zoom multi-effect unit and Source Audio SA 263 Collider
They all do sound a bit different and of course there are differences in sound quality. For me the reverb on the Digi boxes sounds really good and the delay is also very nice for a digital delay.
If you want more texture or some other kind of reverberation instead of just “hall”, you’d need an external unit. But in the end, I sold all the pedals because the effects in the Digis are good enough for me.
What I have not mentioned is that you should try to use reverb sparingly and delay preferably, or nothing. Delay when synched is more precise than reverb and is therefore less prone to add mud to your mix.
Thank you all, I managed to get a beautiful sounding delay and reverb from my DT.
I carefully adjusted the filters and volume from setting page to remove the bassy notes.
Also, I set the R channel full send Delay and reverb and L channel without any FX send. Both panned in center.
Now I send the perfourmer channel with more or less FX with the panning knob. Work very well to keep some bassline clean and leads more wet.
