Yeah, even with the MIDI stuff I’ve been doing, only having the one global filter makes putting something together take a lot more steps than it needs to. That and only having 3 banks of pads.
But yeah, it sounds great. And I don’t think there’s anything out there that works better as a quick sketch pad.
This is something I made today. I figured out my chops and my drums on the Sampletrak and then sampled all the little parts from the Sampletrak to the Digitakt and actually made the beat.
In retrospect I should have done this on my Circuit Rhythm for a couple reasons.
One, I like the Digitakt’s compressor for smashing everything together but it doesn’t really work for side chaining things to the kick like I ended up doing. The Circuit Rhythm just has a side chain effect. So I wound up just parameter locking the amp envelope instead.
And two, I basically wanted to jump back and forth between two patterns. That’s easier to program on the Digitakt if you want to be able to just chain some patterns and let it run. But the Circuit Rhythm can jump directly between patterns so I could just play it.
Anyway, I thought y’all might find this interesting.
The kick did stand out for me even before I finished reading your post, so even if it was more effort than it would have been on the CR, it does hit nicely.
And your writing about the ways these devices push and pull you in different directions was thoughtful and fascinating. I like reading about how form and materials shape other folks’ creative processes. Thinking about how the M:S and its knob-per-function and step buttons encourage me to think of a pattern like clay, whereas the tracker-style M8 encourages me to think of song structure like clay
Sounds great, love the sound again!
You can sidechain things to the kick on the DT right? Do you not like the way this sounds?
Great beat. You have a feeling for great vibes
Nah, I like it. I’m just saying that I got the sound by parameter locking the attack on the samples rather than the compressor.
Yeah, the M8 looks super interesting. How was it getting used to the layout? Part of me thinks that I would never get used to it. And yeah, from what I’ve gathered there’s a lot of shaping not just sounds but patterns and pieces of patterns within the song. It’s interesting.
And yeah, I miss my Model: Samples. I wound up selling it to help pay for my Circuit Rhythm. And yeah, having everything right there on the face makes it pretty different from using the Digitakt even though they’re obviously very similar machines. Funny thing with it too. I had the Samples and the Cycles. The pads on my Cycles were as bad as everyone says. But the ones on the Samples were really nice. I don’t know what that was about.
And thanks, y’all
It took me a week-and-a-half playing an hour a day to get used to the controls. It does borrow a ton from LSDJ, so if you’re used to that (I wasn’t), you should feel right at home.
The big thing for me is that, even with strong midi implementation and a clip-launch type live mode, the M8 shines as a composition tool more than as something you play. Some hightlights on the song structure side of things:
–Being able to put X number of 16-step patterns in a chain, then copy that chain anywhere in a song
–Cloning is a shortcut that works anywhere in a project, so you can clone chains and quickly swap out patterns for beat variety, clone instruments and set different default filter/env/LFOs, etc
–Quick mute and solo of chains/lanes
–An extra 16-step lane of automation per instrument (on top of normal pattern FX lanes)
–Resampling has its own shortcut
Biggest PITA for me is melody writing. Without plugging in a midi controller, that part does feel like data entry. Working with samples has made this less of an issue for me so far
Sounds dope to me! Hope you release it 
It’s cool to hear your thoughts on the different workflows though.
I made this last night while messing around with the samples from BB13. Weird re-telling of “Rock On”.
I missed the deadline again 
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Some real good music that is that has been posted, kudos people!
Made a new sketch, the drums are a little monotonous but i did nt want to spend too much time on it its just a sketch afterall
Dont know why the thumbnail isnt showing…
This one is just the Sampletrak all on its own.
The Sampletrak’s sequencer is messed up. It’s set up like the pattern sequencer on the 404. Except you don’t record patterns, you record songs. So you can’t chain them together. So it you want to make a song you need to record the whole thing.
The easiest way to do this is to use a few songs to make 2 or 4 bar loops and then resample them. And you’re going to want to resample anyway since you can only use one effect at a time. From there you can just set the quantize all the way up to 1/4 and trigger the loops.
It’s fun. I’m working myself up to making a video about all this. It’s a cool sampler and more people should make videos with it.
This is a little cross post for the synthesized hip-hop thread since I think that other folks might find this interesting, as well.
These are some jams that I compiled from my Instagram. And I think they’re a pretty good representation of how I approach using synths in making beats. Two of them are just basically toying around with a sequence that doesn’t have any drums on it. Two of them are toying around with a sequence by adding some drums and seeing how everything plays together. And two are pretty much finished beats where I sampled some other little synth jams I did, chopped them up and put some drums underneath.
There are also notes for the set up of each one in the video description.
These are great, but 4 and 5 in particular feel new. I’d love to hear more exploring in this direction
a few weeks ago, i rummaged around jeremy steig’s catalog for beats and started messing with these from his song “alias.” if anyone can use these 2 or 4 bar loops, go for it. the original bpm is around 91. i prefer them slowed down a bit to 85 bpm or so.
Hello hip-hop nauts, I haven’t done anything truly new in a while but been dipping into these old beat battle tracks and thought I’d share.
Been attempting to mix/master them a bit better and with the Motherland one (which sounded truly awful when I submitted - maybe it still does, I’ve lost perspective) I’ve added some new bits, variations and what not which was a good excuse to delve some more into the 404 mk2. Not sure it’s really Hip-Hop though, ha.
And the o.g Tribe remix I submitted for the battle was pitched down which I thought sounded cool at the time but in retrospect sounded pretty muffled so here it is again without the dodgy pitch algorithm and an attempt at a better ‘mastering’ job.
#9 is still definitely hip hop. 
Both tracks sound great mate
I liked the pitched down version too. It reminded me of old blend tapes in the before time when pitch correction wasn’t really a thing that DJs had.
Also, the Digitakt and Digitone now have a song mode apparently. This is just a beat
RIP Coolio. Charisma on the mic for days
Just cross posting this from the synthesized Hip Hop thread as it’s what I’ve been up to lately, really enjoyed trying a new way of working and I think it’s the direction I want to head rather than make sampled beats…
All the leg work was done on the iPad using sugarbytes drum computer, two instances or agonizer and one of shockwave, Synthmaster and zeonn, arranged it all in Ableton and added an acapella to round it out…
I think I also need to work on my eq and mixing technique but I’m hoping to refine that as I go…
sick!