Before I begin, I’m aware that there are feature requests for the Digitakt and other Elektron devices, but I’d like to make a strong case for the addition of SSR on the Digitakt here.
As was mentioned in another post here on Elektronauts, we have bit rate reduction, which people seem to have their mixed feelings on. I think BRR is great and has its uses, but in my opinion what makes any sampler truly stand out is how it handles sample capture and playback transposition in the time domain. This is what seems to be a factor in what makes the S950, SP1200, etc. so legendary. Whether it be the kinds of artifacts it could add to the sound of the Digitakt, or the utter mutilation of sampled sounds, I think the lack of SSR is kind of a sore spot here, and the ability to resample the Digitakt internally only goes so far. At the very least I think the Digitakt already provides a great canvas for making music that can potentially be perceived as “warm” or “in your face” like those vintage samplers.
I’m not saying Elektron should simply implement SSR for the sake of vintage sampling emulation (though it would be welcome), but the deep, vast and unique sequencing capabilities of the Digitakt would lend itself so well to new and unexplored sonic territory using SSR.
Edit:
At the very least, it would be interesting to have the option to vary both the input sampling rate and anti-aliasing filter cutoff frequency a la Ensoniq EPS-16+. That would make the Digitakt’s resampling feature even more awesome.
TLDR; I wanna hear more aliasing and pitch transposition artifacts from my Digitakt
I fully agree. A lot of times I use my old Zoom Sampletrak with my Digitakt for exactly this reason. It would be really nice to just have it on the machine. It would open up a lot more possibilities.
This is probably my most missed feature on the DT. I sort of feel like it could even just be baked into the playback side rather than needing to be a discrete effect. Would happily forgoe the BRR for SRR in a heartbeat.
At the very least, it would be interesting to have the option to vary both the input sampling rate and anti-aliasing filter cutoff frequency a la Ensoniq EPS-16+. That would make the Digitakt’s resampling feature even more awesome.
100% agree, SRR is so much more interesting. Bit reduction feels like “basically the same” and then just “the same but with loads of noise” and then just “it’s noise” to me.
feels like all of those are easily achievable without bit reduction really.
I agree 100% as well for SRR instead of BRR on Digitakt and Analog Rytm. I’m actually obsessed by this sound and was contemplating buying a lot of sample and hold Doepfer modules like 5 minutes ago. Also, I modded a few days ago my TD-3 with a Sonic Reducer from Parasit Studio (a DIY analog downsampler pedal) : https://www.instagram.com/p/CfdxR8dALJ_/
you could try pitching the sample up two octaves, resample that, and pitch it down two octaves. you could even pitch it up again and resample that. the point is to push the sample up into the internal anti-aliasing to get a similar sort of SSR vibe, ricky tinez made a good vid about it with the digitakt
Yeah I’ve seen that video before. This can sound good I’ll admit, but it’s not quite the same as what we’re talking about and IMO only gets you so far. The missing element here is the rich aliasing artifacts. Even when pitching up and down during resampling, the anti-aliasing filtering that the Digitakt seems to employ suppresses aliasing very well. To my ears you can get some nice crunch this way, but it gets murkier as you keep resampling the same sample. Compare this to the sound of the zoom sampletrak, you get a bunch of aliasing that adds some grimy rich overtones. It would be nice if you could just dial this in on the Digitakt.
The Meris Ottobit Jr pedal is great for this kind of stuff, esp with its filter and sequencer (and just to chime with what the OP said, I nearly always reach for the sample rate knob rather than the bit reduction one, as it’s more interesting). it would be very cool to have it as a parameter on the DT
It has bit depth and sample rate with blend and on top of that a quite nice filter (LP/BP/HP) with resonance, plus some extra features that increase flexibility/usability.
I know a pedal is not the same, just putting it out here.
I just want to echo this exactly. I’ve been using that pedal for maybe a month now and I use that SRR way more than the BRR. I have it on an aux send and I send lots of DT beats through it.
I also use an Octatrack, which has the lo-fi effect (SRR, BRR, amp modulation) and I also mostly used the SRR on that, but now with the Meris I use that instead. The time stretching on the OT gets me closer to the old Akai/E-MU aliasing vibe though, not quite the SRR, but I really enjoy the harmonics SRR brings out.
I do use the BRR on the DT, but mostly because it’s there. Sometimes I use it as an effect, but mostly I’ll use it if I’m making a snare or something and need a noise source without layering another sample. I might not miss it if it’s gone.
I don’t have that Meris pedal, but I do have a Circuit Rhythm, which is kind of interesting here. I did a little experiment this morning to see what kinds of sounds I could get.
I used a sample from Lonnie Liston Smith’s “London Interlude.” And I just sampled it at a couple of different speeds and pitched it back down. At the end, I also used the digitize effect on the sample recorded at normal speed.
Here’s what’s playing exactly.
Original sample from vinyl in mono
Sampled at normal speed
Sampled at +1 octave
Sampled at +2 octaves
Sampled at +3 octaves
Sampled at +2 octaves with filter tweaks
Sampled at +3 octaves with filter tweaks
Sampled at normal speed with digitize effect
Sampled at normal speed with digitize effect
One hiccup is that the effects on the Rhythm work in presets. So you can edit them on the computer but not on the machine itself. However, their parameters can be controlled over MIDI.
Overall, I think this came out pretty cool. I’m going to mess around with it some more and try different pitches instead of just doing octaves.
DT’s BRR makes an 808 kick very phat. In addition I like to just toss an LFO on it on say a pad sample to get some extra percussive movement. Point being I think SRR is more of a loop-level processing item, whereas BRR helps more with individual hits and instruments.
Nah, I think that maybe the majority of people that would be using it if it were an option would be people applying it to chord samples and pitching those around.
When you sampled it in mono, do you just use the left channel, or do you sum left and right? I’m wondering if there would be a difference. I don’t have a working turntable at the moment and I should really get one
I remember that in 80s and early 90s music, people used to sample vinyl records into samplers like the E-mu SP-1200, with the record playing at a higher speed, to reduce sampling time and save space on the sampler. Then pitching it down would create all sorts of aliasing artifacts, which to some people’s taste might be a bad thing, but to my ears just sounds delicious. I’ve heard that this plugin does a good job at emulating the sound from that old sampling method: waveTracing - SP950 plugin but I haven’t really been doing stuff on the computer, so never tried it.
and I should really get one