I really liked working with small loops. You are able to kinda slice it up by p-locking the start and end points. You can make granular type stuff with it. It’s not just a one shot sampler to me
Not cheap but I use a HX Stomp, really compact, many fx, amp / cab sim, fx loop, 2 inputs for switches / exp pedals, looper (not synced / quantized), clock sync, midi control…maybe a possibility to automate the looper with the DT?
Min/max settings for many parameters controlled by midi / exp pedals > kind of scenes > OT crossfader like control!
By mixing desk, you mean a small mixer? I have POD500… it’s probably different, but I’m able to hook that directly into my samplers and it works great.
I record loops and pads into my samplers and it works awesome… I can have one power chord, sample it and play it back. A lot of synth people don’t realize this… I’m not really a synth person just getting into it. I’m a guitar players by nature and have no issues sampling guitar chords, riffs, notes for solos and it all works awesome… looping is easy too… works just like a looper pedal… the OT has a great looper btw… if not, just make your own loops it’s very easy… people. usually just view samplers as drum machines, they are more then this… all my works have sampled guitars in them… no issues…
not to sound rude the the people saying here that samplers are for one shots and sampling guitars is not idea are totally wrong… in fact you can make oneshot guitar chords-notes-what ever, or loops and it works great!! my sp404 is a total powerhouse when it comes to constructing guitar riffs… it’s really good for power chords, really rip out ac/dc tunes… you can chug away on that sp404 like it was a guitar… biggest tip is… if you using say a small chord progression, and change up, insert a 1 shot of a guitar chord in the same key, it hides any clicks or imperfections that may come in your longer samples of guitar chord changes on the samplers pads - hope that makes sense.
When I’m constructing all my chord progressions on a sampler, I always picture it like as if there where two guitarist playing… it really makes the samples shine and sound real.
I said nothing about samplers in general, I was talking about the DT specifically since that’s what the OP asked about. My goal was to manage their expectations a bit; I hope you agree that something like the OT allows for different workflows than the DT even though they are both samplers?
Lots of good ideas in here as far as the technical connections.
As far as sounding “good” goes, if you want traditional guitar sounds you really want an actual amp tone or at least an amp simulator. Direct guitar sounds pretty awful to my ears, especially when it gets any distortion on top of it.
Clean direct guitar that gets a bunch of effects and things is another world IMO, you can get away with direct input there. I’ve done a lot of both, and like I said for “normal” guitar sounds you want that amp tone.
Of course YMMV, but every time I hear the DI guitars on a prodigy song or something I cringe.
If I can make real sound band jams on my sp404, I’m sure the DT can do it… I’m more then confident that the someone can sample guitars on the DT and make them sound good. I can do it with my sp404 and MODEL SAMPLES… and the DT is far above both of them in power and options… I don’t think it’s really a gear issue. Just that sampling a guitar is not the same as sampling a beat. Like I said picture your riffs as if two guitarist are playing… I don’t think workflow is an issue and any sampler can sample a stringed guitar, it’s just not that common and not as easy as making a drum beat. So weather the poster is using a DT, SP, MODEL SAMPLES, OT, or any other sample, it all all be done. Just gotta think outside the box of normal sampling… and think of little cheats… so the sampler being used it actually irrelevant…
AEN any cheap ZOOM modeling pedal will achieve this for you… all the way up to the top of the line HELIX… I have pod500HD
Or if your amp has headphones out, use that for the time being
I’m new to samplers like I said, but the beat step pro (it’s a sequencer) has a TIE feature, where it will play the pad constantly… I’m pretty sue the DT has something similar, experiment with a chord, with the TIE feature… I found power chords and bar guitars work best… and palm muted chords when using this TIE feature.
Another tip is just do one bar of one chord… for example if you playing the G chord, do it for one bar… don’t try to sample a bunch of chords in one go… so your bar may consist of a G-A… then the next part in your progress might be G-C… construct it that way… Then between each bar change/pad have the 2nd guitar produce ring chord, to blanket out and choppy cuts if they are there.
Some times you can get lucky, and won’t need a 2nd chord to blanket out cuts… for example I use a foot pedal… as soon as I am about to engage my first chord, I the exact time actually I engage the foot pedal… I play my progression… then just before I start to play the chord progression again… just before I play that chord - i actually attemp to move to the chord position as soon as I do that I engage the pedal again to stop the recording—- if you did it right that will give you the perfect loop
My HX Stomp is part of HELIX family.
Same blocks, but 1 DSP instead of 2 > less fx blocks possible.
Headrush / Fractal Audio / Torpedo are high quality amp / cab sim too.
It’s not ideal because sampling live guitar on a DT is a multi step process. There are workarounds as explained but if I was to do it live in front of an audience, they would hear my first bit of guitar, then nothing (granted the rest of the samples can play on in the background) while I save it, assign it and trigger it. Ideal would be more like a looper pedal or the octatrack where the initial recording is instantly looped and played back to the audience
Nope read my part about the foot pedal. If you practice at it, and use a foot pedal, you can make perfect loops, just like you can with a looper pedal. IF your DN can’t do that, get a SP404, it can :). I play live all the time… with pedals, and my sp404… one man band… I start with drums, loop, then bass, loop, then guitar, loop, and live solos :). or maybe get an OT, I really want one I know it’s even better for live stuff like this.
Or buy a cheap looper pedal, record your loops and sample that way, I’ve done that live too. My jjos 2500 has a looper, it’s just sometimes bulky to bring to shows
I think you misunderstand the word ‘ideal’ meaning kind of perfect. Yes, there are workarounds and it sounds like you’re using a combination of live playing and pre recorded samples to mask the changes. But all samples, from any source recorded live on the DT can’t instantly play back. That’s my point. Hence why OT or looper pedals are more ideal for live playing. Hope that makes sense. Love reading other people’s approaches tho, so cheers for that
I’m not here to argue, I just gave you my ways of sampling non-live and live… that’s all and I don’t have OT. or a DT… but if you can’t do that stuff with DT and you want to play live guitar, all live, no pre-recorded tracks, perhaps DT isn’t the right tool for you?
just an fyi, the sp404 (not sure if you mean the og, sx or a) has a lot more sample memory than the Digitakt.
Also there are a lot of old school samplers with a very small amount of sample memory. Some of them, just 1 loop would use all memory
Exactly. I run my guitar, through pedals, into a little mixer. I can sample it and then screw with the samples really easily. In fact, a mixer is perfect, as it lets you keep everything hooked up and ready to go.
Exactly. I’m not arguing, just giving OP the lowdown on what can and can’t be done on the DT. All peace and love from me. And as I said, I loved reading your own approach. That’s what it’s all about on here. Getting new ideas
my 16 bit wav files are like 30 megs in size… I’ve never gone over 100 meg for one song, I can do with the mpc2500, i’m sure the DT can too… sample memory isn’t an issue really if you doing studio work… live work it might… but the model samples and my 2500 can do if fire, so I’m sure the DT should have enough sample memory.
The looper on the 2500 with jjos is very neat, you can keep overdubbing new stuff onto it… very cool idea.
yea I use the MPC 2500 as well. Just saying. Sample memory is a big factor & not all samplers have a ton of memory.
No one is saying the Digitakt is incapable. But if someone uses primary loops / longer samples, the amount of sample memory a sampler has is good to keep in mind.
Especially if you are like me & like having a ton of sounds to choose from every track Sometimes I’ll play a ton of different bass lines / guitar & a ton of different melodies on a synth, then I like to chop them up & further manipulate them as a mix of one shot samples & loops.
I apologize, I’ve never worked with a DT - but I’m sure if I did I could figure something out. If the MODEL SAMPLE can do it - (it can’t even record live samples)… I’m sure the DT can achieve it as well… That’s the great thing about hardware, there’s always limitations, but when you find a work around or cheat, if feels great
If he’s just using the DT for live… I’d suggest for him to look into a looper pedal… I use a looper pedal and MODEL samples, can get what I want out of them… I play mostly ska and reggae… so I’m sure he could do it with the DT, and a pedal or two… maybe try to find a cheap POD500HDx, you can overdub on it’s looper as well… plus he’d be killing two birds with one stone —- it’s a effects/modelling pedal as well
I adore limitations
He wants to play live no? I find having a tons of effects samples, etc just leads to more mistakes… start of simple, and jam with your own loops