I just upgraded to 1.5. I can’t believe how intuitive this update is, save for one detail… Am I able to change slice start points, or am I stuck with the automatic mode? Thanks so much for any help…
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You don’t. Automatic only. It’s all in the new updated manual.
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This is kind of a hidden feature. First, turn on any other sampler…
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Yeah, you really have to work against it to get outside of quantized slices
It’s possible to use the delay on a low-pass filter, or the end of the amp envelope, to cut the beginning or end of a slice once it’s in the sequencer.
The laborious workaround is to use one shot mode to p-lock your desired slices into the sequencer, spaced out as needed, then resample using the new fixed-length recording feature.
Also, tap-tempo followed by fixed-length recording help keep things on-grid if you’re sampling something in, and all the better if it’s short.
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OK. I just assumed that you could parameter lock slice-starts like you can everything else.
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That seems like a very conscious decisions by elektron to keep ot owners from revolting 
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Thats pretty funny…
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You are not alone in being confused by this, I’m really impressed by this update and it came as a suprise - but for me the slice machine is like a carrot dangling moment, if you could as you mention, just p-lock slice starts then it would be spot on.
I also disagree that adding this extra detail would piss off OT owners - the OT still offers totally different functionality and is just a different beast altogether.
please elektron if you read this add manual slice control (v1.51) 
until then i’ll just continue using one-shot mode with p-locks on trigs…
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If they implement editing start slice point the next comments will probably be the need for a zoom mode.
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I hear you, but I also feel a lot of people are ok just using their ears.
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They did implement this on one shot , so 1/4 of the way there 
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My guess is the slice machine is pretty much just a UI overlay of p-locks for sample start (and end) points.
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You have to create evenly-spaced loops or sample chains for them to work efficiently in the DT 1.50 update. For loops, they can be made in the DT itself or in a DAW. For sample chains, check out OctaChainer, it’s an excellent and free tool, and opens up a world of fun on DT 1.50. It’s very simple and incredibly clever.
That said, if you’re wanted to p-lock the sample start point with visual cues, you can use the standard one-shot mode like always.
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You can also record your sample chains / loops with DT…
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You could always go back to the old way in one-shot mode and p-lock the sample start point wherever you want. That’s how my grandparents did it on their Digitakts, and theirs before them.
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Learned the hard way by sampling funky drummer direct through the inputs and not knowing the exact tempo. I used Tap to get close but moving forward I’ll curate my samples better and know the bpm before loading them onto the DT for slice machine.
I might have to check out Octachainer in the future. One of my favorite Lfo destinations on the Digitakt is sample slot, but it’s a bit unpredictable and sometimes is scanning through over 100 samples. It seems setting up some solid samples in a chain, evenly spaced, and using slice mode with Lfo > slice selection would be more ideal / controlled for this type of thing after 1.5.
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Lfo (Hold mode) on slice select is great. I prepared some drum kits for that, in a DAW, grid edit. Beware with Octachainer, it takes the longest sample as reference and add silence to others. Sample chain can become long, ram consuming.
Concerning slice resolution, for a 1 bar loop you can try GRID = 64 for more precision and change length accordingly. May not be accurate enough, but worse a try imho…
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Excellent advice, and the reason why I advise to trim the longest sample in a chain to as short as possible. I use short, snappy sounds in chains. For longer sounds I’ll use a different sampler/synth/drum machine.
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This i didn’t know and was my first experience yesterday with octachainer. Ended up getting a looong wave form with generous silence in betweenand couldn’t find a setting for the space in between. Thank for the info.
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It is logical for equally sliced samples. In drum kits I planned to separate longer samples like cymbals, open hihat…
Another possibility (easier in a DAW), is to use several slices for longer sounds : for instance, 4 slices for a cymbal, change Length accordingly.