As we all know, it is not possible to remove the sidechain source from being compressed by itself, making it difficult to use the Digitakt’s compressor to produce “ducking” - having the volume of the other tracks reduce when the kick hits.
A common feature request is to be able to choose which tracks are routed to the compressor, like the Syntakt’s FX block, so the kick doesn’t have to be compressed with the rest of the tracks.
My question for Elektron (or anyone that knows) is, why is the compressor designed this way? If they don’t intend for you to sidechain the kick to the bassline/pads or whatever then what do they intend for you to do with it?
I personally find it pushing me to more experimental uses, perhaps choosing the sidechaine source to be the snare or high hat tracks for extreme weirdness.
It seems like this design is intentional, does anyone know why?
1 Like
I would hazard to guess that the effects architecture works such that the entire master signal gets processed through the compressor, and there’s no way around it. And that being able to isolate a single dry track to activate the compressor wasn’t so difficult for the firmware, so they could do so…this one feels less to me like an intentional limitation and more like a structural one.
But also: yay that you are using the limitation creatively!
Edit: I would love to be wrong, as being able to remove tracks from the compressor would be incredible, and make the DT even more of a powerhouse than it is, but I am not holding my breath
2 Likes
While I agree, I am using the compressor in the DT as a pseudo limiter.
- MUP @ 0
- MIX @ 127
- Fast ATK and REL (between 7 and 10. Play with it)
- I am lowering THR untill the compressor barely hits in
- Then I adjust MUP to taste
- SCS @ MAIN
- SCF @ 0
Try it, it works nicely.
4 Likes