Digitone tutorial: making full drum pattern in 1 track

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#1

Here’s the follow up tutorial to the previous one where I show how I make drum sounds on the Digitone: https://youtu.be/CUMi6zErxV0
This time I’ll show how I make all my drums fit into one track. I ran into a bunch of problems while figuring out how to do this, but hopefully you won’t have to repeat my mistakes after watching this :slight_smile:

00:00 intro, loading sounds into the sound pool
01:55 making an arp-enabled version of the sounds for fake retrigger
07:57 making a simple beat
11:58 using trig conditions and arp-enabled sounds
14:00 neat tricks

I hope you find this tutorial helpful, and thanks for watching!

24 Likes
#2

Even though I no longer own a DN, this was still super useful for getting the most out of any of the current Elektron lineup. Thanks once again for posting another inspiring tutorial! :yellow_heart:

1 Like
#3

Thanks for checking it out! If you own a Rytm, then Saint Stink Music actually made this tutorial weeks before me here: https://youtu.be/R1Ar3g8QrLU
It’s the same approach, and I think I’d do it exactly like he shows if I had a Rytm myself :slight_smile:

4 Likes
#4

Yes, I’ve been following @saint_stink’s tutorials while saving up. Now I can finally make use of them :blush:

2 Likes
#5

I really like your work, and this tutorial is amazing as always! I learn a lot with your videos.

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#6

Thanks a lot! It’s always nice to hear my stuff is helpful :slight_smile:

#7

That’s great!
I’m convinced only 4 tracks on the DN is absolutely no problem.
Applies just as well on the MC, I’m sure. This kind of sequencing lets you really squeeze a lot out of these instruments.

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#8

Thanks! I feel that 4 tracks is right on the edge of being too few, but it’s definitely possible to make full tracks on just those 4 tracks and 8 voices. It just takes a bit of planning and deliberate choices to fit the most important stuff in it.

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#9

Not sure if that is a preset or you made that snare, but it sounds great and pretty realistic! This really makes me wish the DN was made with more DT percussion features like retrig, though you seem to be doing fine without it.

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#10

Thanks a lot, man! I made that snare myself, and also a tutorial on how I make my drums sounds:

I wish the Digitone had retrig too, just for the convenience. It sounds just fine when using arp, but it’s a bit of a hassle having to save separate sounds in the sound pool for different amounts of “retrig”.

5 Likes
#11

And you don’t have a direct access to the useful Retrig Vel (velocity).

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#12

That’s true. For what it’s worth though, it is an arp, so you could set it to 1/24 speed and make the arp play a semitone higher than the last noe for trap hihats, if that’s your thing :smiley:

1 Like
#13

loved this - very inspiring! The creativity and exploring the limitations by others is just amazing sometimes.

I’ve tried, failed, and will be returning to using multimap to pull amazing drum sequences out of the Digitone, using the velocity layers stuff possible for different versions (or completely different) snares etc…but it is slightly breaking my brain. An amazing future tutorial perhaps :wink:

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#14

I learned this trick from you. Retrig would make things alot easier, but it’s kind of neat figuring those workarounds too.

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#15

An easy way, if you don’t need a trig on every step or a bunch, is just to use microtiming, I know that’s obvious, but you can just move a bunch of hats close together… That usually works for me unless I use the arp where I just keep arp on for the sound and use length to control if it is used.

1 Like
#16

Thank you! Yep @Kja, microtiming works great when you don’t need a retrig. I also use microtiming to get up to three different sound-locked trigs playing almost at the same time with microtiming. One trig microtimed all the way to the left, another all the way to the right, and a third in between them.