I set myself a task this week to make the best 8 pattern composition, working in headphones mainly, using battery power on trains and in the garden, and its been a blast. I selected quality samples and used them intelligently. I have got a lot further and more comfortable with it all now. I want to use the Digitakt to make entire tracks and record performances.
Now the sad bit - I took it into my studio today, with the intention of balancing everything up and mixing each pattern, and it sounds BAD through some Adam quality monitors. The main concerns are as follows.
Congested sound - With no way of separating sounds other than HP/LP filters everything sounds really congested and overlapping.
It also sounds as though it doesnt have the low end frequency response.
Stereo field sounds narrow. No matter what I seem to do it just sounds so boxy. I had to check the mixer wasnāt in mono.
Compressor does little to help, in fact it just makes everything sound more of the above.
I just wonder how much I am expecting from 8 mono samples.
My intention was to use my laptop to capture live performances and then chop it up to stop the endless hours of sequencing, but the result sounds very far from acceptable.
Can anyone using this as standalone give me any advice please?
Extra LFO on current firmware can be used on some samples to do some panning too. You also keep in mnd the reverb filter, to get the low end mud out of the reverb you have to narrow down the base to almost halfway.to filter out frequencys below 100hz. Reverb and delay are the best friends to spread the stereo field. Another tip is to place a hihat panned left and another trig right after panned right and then use microtiming to hear them almost at the same time but spread in the sterofield.
I have good headphones. I am on 1.30. I was prepared for this first headphone stage to be rough, I worked the arrangement - I also need to mention I am very used to mixing tracks, with Ableton etc. Obviously this doesnāt have the mixing features, but it feels a long way from the line.
Are you 100% sure that thereās not a technical mistake with the connections, cabling, stereo assignment in the interface software, etc etc etc? The DT has monster bottom end, and you should be able to pan samples fully left and fully right and not hear anything from the opposite side. If you pan a sample, does it fully disappear from the opposite channel?
Yes it does. All connections are good but thanks for asking.
I think my immediate trouble is from the Digitaktās limited 2 outputs and a lack of decent EQ per sample. Coming from an MPC2500 with 10 outputs (which I EQ on my mixer / track out to Ableton), it seems very congested. The lack of stereo samples makes everything seem far drier and reduce the engagement. With just one reverb / delay for for everything (or just applied to one sound) there are way too many dry sounds.
I think the outputs of both the Digitakt and the Model:Samples output quality are great. I am just echoing some things already commented above, but the LFO is great to get get panning effects on things like pads and whatnot. And I dig the master reverb algorithm, and varying the amounts of it in certain tracks helps to fill out the sound. The Base-width filter is good for some basic eq work.
Also, make sure that the your mixer or interface and/or DAW channels that you are recording into are hard panned. That can make a stereo signal flat and not sound right.
I was going to suggest that for the EQing/filtering. Problem with resampling the reverb is it sums to mono. Which can be cool but maybe not what someone wants when they have a lovely bit of stereo going on before doing the resampling. Anyway, that aside, I totally agree that itās more than possible to make awesome mixes on DT alone and mono samples help make things more cohesive and translate to other systems more easily. As for the ālack of bass issueā, itās all a balancing act. Want a bass heavy track? Then reduce the higher end or the volume of some of the other tracks in the mix.
Yeah the basewidth filter on the 2nd filter page should go a long way for making space, HP filter resonance if you need to boost bass on something. Overdrive and bitcrush can help different parts cut through the mix aswell. One trick I quite like is to use the volume control found on the same page as the overdrive to more or less set your maximum level so your mixer page is more of a safe space.
Did you go back and listen on headphones again? Sometimes there is that aspect of in the moment you lose track of yourself and have fun but listening to it again later you just dont even understand what on earth you were thinking.
Iām with you. I love the DT, but after spending the last 3 months writing a full set of music on it and the Digitone, Iāve realized how lacking in certain areas. You could use OB to multitrack to your computer, but if you did ANY panning or panning automation, youāre gonna lose it when using OB. Itās a real pain in the arse. Iām with you on the EQ situation, too. Iād love a 3 band EQ to go with the 2 filters.
Unlike @Microtribe, I think the lack of stereo samples is extremely disappointing and limiting, especially with the resampling of reverbs. Hell, you canāt even make a cool stereo loop in the DT and then resample it into the machine without losing the stereo.
My basic workflow for the last 3 months has been to write my tunes, then when I have a sound that needs EQing or something, Iāll just edit the sample on my computer and then dump it into the DT. It definitely makes for more work, but itās mostly paying off in the end.
Iām struggling with the same thing as the OP, with the Digitakt. In my case, itās my next to no skills on mixing thatās the culprit. Just confusing the amp volume with the mixing volume, ruined everything. When I understood the difference, tho ā¦
So yeah. This is about learning your craft mate, and you donāt get much for free in the Digitakt which is exactly why itās worth the bother.
For stereo width and something like chorus-like effect, I apply the fastest possible square wave lfo and set it on the panning parameter. Do this on hats or a snare, apply filtering to taste and youāll get wonderful results. After 1.30 You have most of the tools youāll need for your mix to sound great. I use exclusively headphones and with a bit of try and test I have few default things that I do even before laying my pattern down - like high-passing my kick and snare, always lowering the high hat volume more than I would by just listening on it and shortening the release of the bass (unless the music dictates otherwise).
Good headphones for listening music is not necessarily good for mixing. If yours are not studio headphones maybe thatās the problem. Studio headphones have flat EQ response, so they give exactly the bass-mid-treble response you go for. If your headphones have bass-boost or something, you may hear more bass than there actually is. I can confirm that Digitakt has monster low end.
Digitakt also has deceptively many options to tweak a sample and they all relate to each other. Just because you got options, donāt always use them. Itās easy to overproduce or tweakbreak a sample in the Digitakt. If the source sounds good, maybe donāt touch it. If all you want is just a more muted kick, just apply some of that secondary filter magic and youāre done. You donāt always need two lfoās, reverb and delay, every step p-locked, filtering and overdrive and compression just cause itās there.
Which headphones do you use if I may ask? The problems you are running into are very typical for headphone mixes. Very few headphones have a true neutral frequency response and (certainly closed backed) headphones will make it seem like the stereo image is wider than it actually is because the sound is not ā3dā.
Through sample choices , placement in frequency spectrum, filter usage, pseudo side chain compression (LFO to amp level) etc. One can get a great sound from DT. I perform live with it and it sounds great in the studio and in clubs.
So the solution here is either buy a pair of neutral FR headphones (which are quite expensive), and/or use reference tracks regularly to A/B with, or produce everything on your monitoring.
Regarding the reverb and delay: mix wise this makes the sound very focussed and less cluttered really. Make sure you use the filters on those effectively as well to not clutter up the low end.
Stereo samples are not the end all to create a nice sound. Use panning , use LFO on panning. Use (subtle) ping pong delay and reverb etc.
