So the Digitakt II has sooo many updates, there are a few that are going under the radar. So I figured I would make a thread where we could all discuss our favorite new features that aren’t getting as much hype compared to the headlining new features. So here are a few of mine:
Pattern Volume: having a separate volume control for the overall pattern in the mixer and compressor is so incredibly useful for balancing levels between patterns.
Compressor Routing and Sidechain source: Letting you select which tracks get sent to the compressor and which tracks are analyzed for the compression finally lets you do real sidechain compression.
Modulation Matrix: Letting you route modulation sources for velocity is so useful. I love using my beat step pro to get velocity pads for Elektron gear, and letting you set things like envelope decay for velocity makes doing things like getting lots of hi hat variation very easy.
What are some of y’all’s favorite features that you feel like aren’t as obvious?
Features > over-looked > cheatsheets:
I subscribe to Captain Pikant at YouTube and have also subbed a couple months at the Captain Pikant Patreon. Highly recommended channel if you aren’t yet familiar and at Patreon there are regularly updated cheatsheets that I feel may show off a few unlisted “tricks.”
Also highly recommend all of @DaveMech cheatsheets and of course “Loopop’s Cheat Sheet of Non-Obvious Digitakt 2 Shortcuts V2.”
I won’t post the files because I can’t recall whether these were offered as a “pay what you will;” I found my way through their respective YouTube channels.
Hope you’ll check em out and find them helpful.
/cheers!
LAST and NOT LAST trig conditions. Allows for easily programming drum fills when a new pattern is cued and leaves the FILL condition free for other uses. I use these on pretty much every pattern and wouldn’t want to live without them anymore.
Being able to only send one or two tracks out via USB audio allows for using external FX and routing the signal back through the L and R inputs. I use that for resampling tracks through my op-1f and guitar pedals.
I haven’t tried it yet. I was just responding to @Python tips above. I’m out of town and not near my DT2, but plan to run a track through Ableton Live and use roar and other vst’s to process and resample. Obviously this will be even easier once we have Overbridge, but this will do for now!
I don’t think there can be too many threads like these anyway ^^
But I’ve listed a few already.
My favorite may be the FX.
And I’m counting the comb filter in these, but also the BR that is better than the previous one, you can really get some interesting tones together with SRR.
Close second is the saving of MIDI presets + the saving of a trig as preset. So useful.
Page loop is also a thing I had been hoping for a long time, so glad it’s here!
I think D2’s comb filter is more usable, since you get the key tracking: you can actually play the comb filter in the same time as the sample.
There is also a filter envelope, so you can smash some metallic sounds without using an additional LFO.
I also like how it sounds in the bass frequencies, you can make a long sample sound very weird, something I don’t remind doing on OT (not that I’ve tested it, tbh)
It sounds a bit more hifi as well, to my ear, but I feel like everything sounds more hifi on DT than on OT, maybe I’m biased.
WAIT, you can save an individual trig sound as a preset? i have been wanting this for years! how do you do this?
thats incredible! man, i love elektron. between the dt2 and the syntakt, its like theyve been listening to this forum and giving us every feature they possibly/reasonably could have
there have been so many times that i ended up tweaking a really good sound with p-locks, but as a single trig and not been able to preserve it. infuriating
oh yeah, its much better. completely different thing than the octa’s. as mentioned, it sounds very nice and wobbly in the low frequencies, in that you can turn anything into an 808 with it. the srr sounds amazing through it, you can do some serious physical modelling with it. its much more of a resonator type of effect i feel like. not just a karplus-strong thing
