What’s everybody’s project workflow?

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#1

I’d love to hear from people about how they go about working on the Digitone.

Do you use a different project for every song? Do you move patterns from one song to another? Do you start on pattern 1, fill it up, copy elsewhere and modify? How do you work with banks etc when it comes to building up a piece of music?
Do you backup somewhere?

Thanks!

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#2

This is a great video:

What do you put on each track?
I used to have Bass, Drums, Lead, Pad like above.

But have now moved drums mostly to Nord Drum 2, so those are programmed on MIDI channels.
There have 1: Bass Drum, 2: Snare, 3: Hats, 4: the other 3 sounds. (All mapped to Global on ND2)
That got me wondering, which of BD/SN/HH are least likely to clash on a step in rhythms?

(And if I add another synth, then I may move to having only 2 or 3 channels for ND2…)

#3

Back when I used to rock DN and DT (and later on OT instead of DT), it would be one project per song. Regularly I would get a decent pattern going with the Digis, then copy and paste those patterns to create a variation. Rinse and repeat with a no-holds-barred attitude until 16 patterns had been filled. Then I would take everything over to a DAW, record each one multitracked and arrange the best bits inside of Ableton Live.

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#4

Usually just use 3 - 5 patterns. Main section consists of 3 patterns typically, becoming more complex across patterns. Alternate section will use a majority of the same sounds as main section with the same scale, but different notation. Mute and unmutr throughout, open filters up slow if possible during transitions. Thats how I do it

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#5

For all of my Elektrons, I use a song-per-bank. I get plenty of variation and haven’t yet maxed out the patterns in a bank for a song, but if I did, I would just spill over to the next bank. This way, I know I don’t have to re-set up any project configurations to start working on a new pattern, and can swap between songs without a load step.

I see each project as its own concept, potentially having its own hardware configuration… I might have a Digitone-only chiptune project with no external gear, a DnB project with all of my gear, an ambient project with a different subset of gear, etc. The concept is furthered on the A4/Rytm by design with kits being tied to a project.

This helps me quickly follow my feelings on what type of music and what gear to use when it is music-time, completely skipping the dreaded long setup before finally actually making music.

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#6

Thanks all. Interesting variations here. I like the idea of setting up projects as a kind of ‘studio space’ with banks as songs. I doubt I’d use more than 16 patterns per song. Def something to try.

I was indeed beginning to feel that a project per song was a bit overkill.

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#7

I generally stay in one project until it is getting a bit full, or, in the case of the digitakt, I want to unload some samples and load different ones, generally just because I want the first 8 default samples to be different. I have never filled up the project sample pool.

As far as patterns go I generally keep the first bank as a playground to start my ideas. I will work on single patterns and when I want to expand I go into another bank. A tip that I found really useful, at least for dance music, is having your main patterns on the top keys (1,2,3,4,etc) and having transitions on the bottom keys. This helps keep stuff organized and makes jamming a bit easier.

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#8

I tend to use one project per song but lately thinking it would be cool to use a project for multiple songs to share the sound pool. I always procrastinate a new project as I don’t want to dig for drums to fill the pool up. Not that it’s a pain, it’s just a pain.

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#9

One pattern per song :smiley: I’m a neandertal.

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#10

That’s shocking. But at the same time…impressive…

#11

I guess you can’t name patterns and I like naming songs so I know what the hell I’m doing. To get started, I named a project ‘Sketchpad’ for noodling and sound design, then I’m committing to a song by saving it as a project.

One question - I assume you can copy patterns from one project to another?

1 Like
#12

:smile:

I’ve actually started imagine the possibilities to have two patterns per song… :scream:

I mean this is techno, not prog rock :wink:

In all seriousness, I guess if I ever get to play live some transitional in-between-patterns would be quite useful.

I also haven’t figured out how to paste a track (sounds, locks. ALL, not just triggers).

#13

tbh - one pattern per song is sort-of forced by the fact that there’s no low-friction way to share sounds between patterns. I’m a card-carrying member of the one-pattern-per-song-gang too. (:

Related thoughts here: Strategy for performing pattern-chained songs (<-- good thread)

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#14

I know you can’t share the same sound pool between projects - but can you copy patterns from one project to another? I haven’t tried yet.

There’s something very zen about one pattern per song. I arrived on the Digitone scene primarily to limit myself and get away from the ‘anything is possible’ DAW environment.

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#15

I enjoy one pattern per song “limitation”. Although extensive use of Fill, Sound Lock, Conditions, manual play adds a lot of variation within this limitation.

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#16

You could try it, or try using the forum’s search function for an answer:
https://www.elektronauts.com/search?q=copy%20pattern%20between%20projects%20%23elektron-gear%3Adigitone

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#17

Ha. The old ‘search for an answer’ trick. Yeah I need to do that more often :laughing:

#18

Radical!

#19

This is the right attitude. It’s easy to forget in threads like this one how insanely cool the DN is, currently. What a machine.

:bread:

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#20

So how do the one pattern per song users work with their single patterns? I’m assuming muting, fading, live tweaking etc?

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