My Digitakt (live jam) learning experience

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

About a week ago, after about 1.5 months into my Digitakt ownership, I endeavoured to ‘jam’ with a DJ friend of mine.
Wow! I was totally unprepared :frowning:

So, I’ve decided on some best practices to improve our next jam.

  1. Should get my tracks in order - perhaps I should actually use the printed text on the faceplate, but they are a little difficult to read in the darkness and are just suggestions (so why are they printed on there?), but I definitely need to get things organised correctly, as I found that in a live situation I was wondering which sample was on which track.

  2. Samples also matter - although it’s going to take time and is something I’m putting off for a rainy day, which (living in BCN) won’t come until about November, I don’t really like the stock way the samples are arranged, i.e. by kits. I really need to get all alike sounds grouped together as that is how I remember samples being organised from back in the day when I used them.

  3. RTFM - Damn this box is powerful! I really need to do my homework and learn how to use it properly :frowning: In the last two days I’ve learnt what the purple mutes are, but still have a long way to go.
    It’s humbling, although obvious I guess, to see/ hear people that can totally play/ manipulate the box - all hail Cenk! Teşekkürler/ Tack! :slight_smile:

  4. Get your breaks down - In order to compete with the house stuff that my DJ friend was playing (via Traktor), I now think I could have represented myself better had I practiced the physical actions required to perform interesting and relevant break downs/ drops etc. This kind of touches on the previous point involving mastery of the device, but I also use a controller which gives me more direct control over the track volumes etc. The problem remains that I need to internalise what buttons to press (and when, obviously) etc in order to enhance the performance aspect.

  5. Who is the clock master? - I guess the person who is the greater source of sound and continuous beat should have the task of being a master clock (given the situation fo course). I tried using the timing adjustment on the DT as I wanted to have the more ‘raw’ experience, but things would have gone smoother if we had just MIDI synced.

Anything that anyone would like to add to the list of things (positive or negative) to keep in mind or using the DT in a live/ semi-improvisational/ jam type situation would be most welcome.

Cheers,
G

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#2

cheers for sharing! your post is an inspiring reminder, that learning to use and play the Digitakt well is an ongoing journey.

I also think the muscle memory point is a good one, practicing a few “signature moves” will def contribute to a good degree of proficiency.

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#3

Thanks for sharing.

The most obvious ‘move’ is either a CTRL ALL on the FILTER or on TUNE before reloading. Easy but takes practice to make it super tight. Good fun.

You could also experiment with not using master clock. Dial in the tempo manually and then use uTIME to nudge. This might make it sound more ‘live’?

Map your controller to delay Feedback, its an easy way to create drama when you crank it up but be careful! This also works well if you hit stop on the Digitakt…

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#4

I’ve found the sound browser to be super useful in a live setting… basically the ability to call upon sounds you have fully crafted on a whim is just a must for me as I then don’t really need to fine tune the sounds live as much. Sound pool stuff I think could be useful too but I have yet to try that out in a live type pattern building setting.

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#5

Totally. The ‘sneakers in a drier’ sound is the sign of effort! :slight_smile:

Already on it with the effect sends - great for extended housey chord stabs! :slight_smile:

#6

I’m sure that will make a big difference, thanks. Sad though it is, I only just found about the whole ‘Sounds’ thing!

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#7

Ain’t nothing sad about learning :exploding_head:

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