Does all the sound from the jam sessions come from the Digitakt or have you installed your own samples? Is this a good machine for learning to make techno beats or would you recommend something else like the push 3? I have Ableton but feels it's to much of everything for a beginner and I have a hard time knowing where to begin and what's the right way to go about things. The Digitakt seems more hands-on and "jammable", and maybe learning how sequencers work?
Jam sessions are recorded by sampling my modular :) For a beginner, Digitakt 2 could be a better option as it's a more limited and focused experience. There's still a lot to learn but you can do it step by step. Read the manual, watch some videos, experiment and have fun!
Cool review. But I think the dy2 is gas for me… if you compare it to Maschine plus ok the sequencer has some tricks up it’s sleeve, but you can do those in another way. Like 64 samples is no problem without fx. The Instruments and fx and library are great. Been using Maschine since 1.0, but a syntakt with digitakt would be a great techno setup, especially with overbridge
recently came across your channel and loved your push 3 content! was wondering how do you find the digitakt 2 and push 3 compare? In what situation would you prefer one over the other? I'm planning to sequence and record synths (polysynth and intellijel cascadia) and mangle samples
Thanks that's lovely to hear! I love both Digitakt 2 and the Push 3. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Digitakt 2 has a really fast and quick workflow, it doesn't have too many features, and the best sequencer in the game with all the trig conditions and stuff. On the other hand, Push 3 is so powerful. I especially love the standalone because you can just move away from the computer and you basically have everything you need. It's also an amazing extension of Ableton Live when they are hooked together. If it comes to box + other gear I'd prefer Digitakt. If it comes to push 3 on it's own, or push 3 with ableton then this would be they way I'd use them. Hope this helps. 😊
The main reason that eventually led me to sell my Digitakt and most other Elektron boxes is the file management system. It just felt so clumsy and tedious to find and load samples and sounds and to organize tracks. It got in the way of being creative in the moment. I hope that one day Elektron finally modernizes the OS and GUI, because at this point I feel it’s the weakest part of these otherwise great boxes.
Fair enough! I think they improved things slightly with the introduction of kits and banks for the samples so you can organise the projects better but yeah that's another area for improvement for sure. How would you improve this part yourself?
Respectfully, I feel you may misunderstand the reasons why the Digitakt and Digitakt II file management works the way it does. Yes, it requires some preparation of banks and samples, however once you've made the effort, the creative possibilities are mind-boggling and totally unique. The control-all feature on the sample choice, as well as modulation of the sample, would not be possible if these devices read from an SD card. There are lots of other devices that one can use to make music, but no other device offers the spontaneous generative fun of these ones.
I dont really have a huge issue with this though I get the point. You can do a lot in this regard via Overbridge, otherwise the naming process is tedious on the device. Having to rename the preset again specially. Why not keeping the name of the sample wtf
Two completely different machines. I haven't used Rytm so I don't really know but it has to come down to whether you are looking for a sampler that can do much more than just drums (digitakt), or you're looking at a really good drum machine that has amazing analog engines and a solid sample player(rytm)? Then the form factor and the workflow are something I'd consider too. So it all depends on what you really want and make your decision based on that. 😊
I would suggest DT 2. DT lets you create a full song, with "all instrument parts", from start to finish. AR is an extremely powerful drum machine . As always, it's about what you really need 😊
I wish I could say the same.. Mine is just collecting dust in the shelf. I think they need to improve the “looper” and enable polyphony on the samples to make it usable for me.
There's always something that will be missing from any piece of gear. I've learned to either work with the limitations or if it really doesn't do it for me just sell it and move on. I agree on the polyphony that it will be a nice addition but it's not something that's stopping me from enjoying the box.
Feel that. I've bought so many elektron boxes and sold them. Idk why I'm watching this video. It's like I want to like the devices, but I know they're not built for my workflow. I think the Deluge is the groovebox for me.
@@FastCarsLoudMusic haha that's funny because I had the Deluge and sold it since I hated the workflow. It just shows that each person has their own preference for the gear they like and it's perfectly fine that you don't gell with the Elektron workflow. 😊
@@FastCarsLoudMusic Lol, that sounds exactly like me :) I really want to like elektronboxes and I watch every single ezbot livestream but when I use them I always get stuck. The Deluge is also my favourite, everything I do on it sounds good. The only problem I have with Deluge at the moment is performance. With the new Boards of Deluge pack 7# it struggles to handle more than 3 sounds.
I'm also a YT content creator & Elektron machines user, big fan of the Digitakt of course. Something that really wowed me right from the beginning of your video is the perceived loudness considering how your source content appears to have been recorded at quite a low volume according to what the YT "Stats for Nerds" menu indicates: -5.1dB... If you compare with my latest video the difference is mind boggling considering my source material was comparatively 8dB louder yet somehow your video sounds considerably louder... Do you have any suggestions to help loudness with video uploads?
For anybody who cares I did a bit of research and I think I might be onto something... There's a possibility that YT calculates the integrated LUFS loudness to determine how to increase/reduce the loudness of an entire track as a whole, and because your video consists mostly of speech with quiet music below, your music examples with Jam 1,2 and 3 only represent a small fraction of your video which weighs little in the overall integrated loudness calculation over 34 minutes, as a result these musical moments appear to benefit from a massive loudness premium! If I'm right it really goes to show that the YT loudness management rules could definitely use some adjustments!
@@Silent_Stillness Hey I'm not sure I follow 100% but will try to answer. The jams at the beginning are mixed to -0.3 db with a limiter. The voiceovers are mixed around -10 to -5 range and the music behind the voice is mixed by ear so it feels nice. There's a limiter at the end of the chain of the video as well to ensure there's no clipping. I also use Shure SM7B microphone which is really nice. Hope this helps. 😊
@@oscilop Hey no worries thanks for answering! I'll try to clarify: Typically with a limiter like Pro-L 2 for example there is a loudness metering mode which tracks LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale). This mode tracks loudness as opposed to peaks in dBs. In Pro-L specifically there are 3 ways in which LUFS are measured and monitored in parallel: "momentary", "short term", and lastly "integrated". Specifically the "Integrated" loudness meter mode calculates the average loudness in LUFS over an ENTIRE piece of music. Because it appears that UA-cam relies on this method only for evaluating whether it should lower the loudness of a video as a whole compared to a loudness of -14 LUFS (by reducing the maximum output volume), that inherently means that if most of your video effectively has audio content that is well below the threshold of -14 LUFS if its loudness was to be measured "short term"(which is definitely the case of your video), you will effectively be allowed to have moments of music that in fact would greatly exceed -14 LUFS if the "integrated" calculation only occurred from let's say 0:20 to 3:30 in your video rather than over its full 34 minutes duration. If you check my video "Jam Session #5", even though I mixed it at around -10 LUFS (Integrated) which is fairly loud, you can see that YT removed almost 3dB to my content whereas you received no such penalty and as a result your 3 Jams at the beginning sound much louder than my video. If you've never checked this before you can right click on your video and in the pop-up menu that appears you can click "stats for nerds" and will show you if your source content volume was altered in the "Volume/Normalized" line. Also, an FYI: I noticed that the YT video chapters segmentation just bugged on your video. I know that the first time I reviewed your video it included chapters/segments in its timeline but it no longer does, the easy fix for this is to edit your description by adding basically anything, (a space or a word, anything really) and saving it. It should reinstate your timeline segmentation to match your chapters. I found this out through experience because I was getting the same issue when I started making content and I erroneously assumed I was being penalized! Enjoy :D!
@@Silent_Stillness Hey, I know all about LUFS but thanks for clarifying :) If you see UA-cam's loudness guides they say you should aim for around -14db integrated and around -9db momentary. So there's no need to go any louder than that as your sound will be pulled down which will make it sound less loud because you've already squashed it a lot and when you tame it down it loses the perceived loudness. I think what you can learn from this is not to go overboard and aim around -9, -10 momentary, and -12 to -14db integrated loudness ballpark. My jams are around -10db momentary and -12db integrated loudness with a true peak limiter to -0.3db.
@@oscilop OMG that's a great point! I was completely unaware about the momentary number, I was only aware of the -14 LUFS, I'm so glad to have had this conversation because otherwise I would have never known about the -9 LUFS thing as I haven't stumbled upon that info with the research I did after writing my original comment. I'll inspect the audio in my source content for Jam Session #5 and I'm sure I'll find momentary peaks that are louder than -9 LUFS, anyhow thanks so much for the info! Also I see that your chapters segmentation is back! Edit: after inspecting my loudness over that Jam Session #5 video, what I found was that to my surprise I never exceeded -9 LUFS momentary (except barely for 1 peak) but my integrated loudness was definitely at -11 LUFS, which coincides with the -3dB penalty I got. After that analysis I'm concluding that my initial assessment of the situation for your video was unfortunately correct, which is that having prolonged times of low loudness in your video enabled your Jams 1-2-3 to sound louder.
Does all the sound from the jam sessions come from the Digitakt or have you installed your own samples? Is this a good machine for learning to make techno beats or would you recommend something else like the push 3? I have Ableton but feels it's to much of everything for a beginner and I have a hard time knowing where to begin and what's the right way to go about things. The Digitakt seems more hands-on and "jammable", and maybe learning how sequencers work?
Jam sessions are recorded by sampling my modular :)
For a beginner, Digitakt 2 could be a better option as it's a more limited and focused experience. There's still a lot to learn but you can do it step by step.
Read the manual, watch some videos, experiment and have fun!
@@oscilop Sounds amazing and thanks for the reply!...might pull the trigger, I'm watching all the tutorials I can and it looks like a lot of fun.
@@simonmalmo7008 No worries! Have fun if you decide to get it. :)
Cool review. But I think the dy2 is gas for me… if you compare it to Maschine plus ok the sequencer has some tricks up it’s sleeve, but you can do those in another way. Like 64 samples is no problem without fx. The Instruments and fx and library are great. Been using Maschine since 1.0, but a syntakt with digitakt would be a great techno setup, especially with overbridge
recently came across your channel and loved your push 3 content! was wondering how do you find the digitakt 2 and push 3 compare? In what situation would you prefer one over the other? I'm planning to sequence and record synths (polysynth and intellijel cascadia) and mangle samples
Thanks that's lovely to hear!
I love both Digitakt 2 and the Push 3. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Digitakt 2 has a really fast and quick workflow, it doesn't have too many features, and the best sequencer in the game with all the trig conditions and stuff.
On the other hand, Push 3 is so powerful. I especially love the standalone because you can just move away from the computer and you basically have everything you need. It's also an amazing extension of Ableton Live when they are hooked together.
If it comes to box + other gear I'd prefer Digitakt. If it comes to push 3 on it's own, or push 3 with ableton then this would be they way I'd use them.
Hope this helps. 😊
The main reason that eventually led me to sell my Digitakt and most other Elektron boxes is the file management system. It just felt so clumsy and tedious to find and load samples and sounds and to organize tracks. It got in the way of being creative in the moment. I hope that one day Elektron finally modernizes the OS and GUI, because at this point I feel it’s the weakest part of these otherwise great boxes.
Fair enough! I think they improved things slightly with the introduction of kits and banks for the samples so you can organise the projects better but yeah that's another area for improvement for sure.
How would you improve this part yourself?
Respectfully, I feel you may misunderstand the reasons why the Digitakt and Digitakt II file management works the way it does. Yes, it requires some preparation of banks and samples, however once you've made the effort, the creative possibilities are mind-boggling and totally unique. The control-all feature on the sample choice, as well as modulation of the sample, would not be possible if these devices read from an SD card. There are lots of other devices that one can use to make music, but no other device offers the spontaneous generative fun of these ones.
I dont really have a huge issue with this though I get the point. You can do a lot in this regard via Overbridge, otherwise the naming process is tedious on the device. Having to rename the preset again specially. Why not keeping the name of the sample wtf
Your opinion of DII vs Rytm MKII? I can’t figure out which one, they are very same same but different. What you think?
Two completely different machines. I haven't used Rytm so I don't really know but it has to come down to whether you are looking for a sampler that can do much more than just drums (digitakt), or you're looking at a really good drum machine that has amazing analog engines and a solid sample player(rytm)?
Then the form factor and the workflow are something I'd consider too. So it all depends on what you really want and make your decision based on that. 😊
I would suggest DT 2.
DT lets you create a full song, with "all instrument parts", from start to finish.
AR is an extremely powerful drum machine .
As always, it's about what you really need 😊
I wish I could say the same.. Mine is just collecting dust in the shelf. I think they need to improve the “looper” and enable polyphony on the samples to make it usable for me.
There's always something that will be missing from any piece of gear. I've learned to either work with the limitations or if it really doesn't do it for me just sell it and move on. I agree on the polyphony that it will be a nice addition but it's not something that's stopping me from enjoying the box.
Feel that. I've bought so many elektron boxes and sold them. Idk why I'm watching this video. It's like I want to like the devices, but I know they're not built for my workflow. I think the Deluge is the groovebox for me.
@@FastCarsLoudMusic haha that's funny because I had the Deluge and sold it since I hated the workflow. It just shows that each person has their own preference for the gear they like and it's perfectly fine that you don't gell with the Elektron workflow. 😊
@@FastCarsLoudMusic Lol, that sounds exactly like me :) I really want to like elektronboxes and I watch every single ezbot livestream but when I use them I always get stuck. The Deluge is also my favourite, everything I do on it sounds good. The only problem I have with Deluge at the moment is performance. With the new Boards of Deluge pack 7# it struggles to handle more than 3 sounds.
Maybe consider a Digitone/A4 if you want poly - I guess it is really a individual sample player. Roll on UDO creating a poly sampler.
I'm also a YT content creator & Elektron machines user, big fan of the Digitakt of course. Something that really wowed me right from the beginning of your video is the perceived loudness considering how your source content appears to have been recorded at quite a low volume according to what the YT "Stats for Nerds" menu indicates: -5.1dB... If you compare with my latest video the difference is mind boggling considering my source material was comparatively 8dB louder yet somehow your video sounds considerably louder... Do you have any suggestions to help loudness with video uploads?
For anybody who cares I did a bit of research and I think I might be onto something... There's a possibility that YT calculates the integrated LUFS loudness to determine how to increase/reduce the loudness of an entire track as a whole, and because your video consists mostly of speech with quiet music below, your music examples with Jam 1,2 and 3 only represent a small fraction of your video which weighs little in the overall integrated loudness calculation over 34 minutes, as a result these musical moments appear to benefit from a massive loudness premium! If I'm right it really goes to show that the YT loudness management rules could definitely use some adjustments!
@@Silent_Stillness Hey I'm not sure I follow 100% but will try to answer.
The jams at the beginning are mixed to -0.3 db with a limiter. The voiceovers are mixed around -10 to -5 range and the music behind the voice is mixed by ear so it feels nice. There's a limiter at the end of the chain of the video as well to ensure there's no clipping.
I also use Shure SM7B microphone which is really nice. Hope this helps. 😊
@@oscilop Hey no worries thanks for answering! I'll try to clarify: Typically with a limiter like Pro-L 2 for example there is a loudness metering mode which tracks LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale). This mode tracks loudness as opposed to peaks in dBs. In Pro-L specifically there are 3 ways in which LUFS are measured and monitored in parallel: "momentary", "short term", and lastly "integrated".
Specifically the "Integrated" loudness meter mode calculates the average loudness in LUFS over an ENTIRE piece of music. Because it appears that UA-cam relies on this method only for evaluating whether it should lower the loudness of a video as a whole compared to a loudness of -14 LUFS (by reducing the maximum output volume), that inherently means that if most of your video effectively has audio content that is well below the threshold of -14 LUFS if its loudness was to be measured "short term"(which is definitely the case of your video), you will effectively be allowed to have moments of music that in fact would greatly exceed -14 LUFS if the "integrated" calculation only occurred from let's say 0:20 to 3:30 in your video rather than over its full 34 minutes duration. If you check my video "Jam Session #5", even though I mixed it at around -10 LUFS (Integrated) which is fairly loud, you can see that YT removed almost 3dB to my content whereas you received no such penalty and as a result your 3 Jams at the beginning sound much louder than my video. If you've never checked this before you can right click on your video and in the pop-up menu that appears you can click "stats for nerds" and will show you if your source content volume was altered in the "Volume/Normalized" line.
Also, an FYI: I noticed that the YT video chapters segmentation just bugged on your video. I know that the first time I reviewed your video it included chapters/segments in its timeline but it no longer does, the easy fix for this is to edit your description by adding basically anything, (a space or a word, anything really) and saving it. It should reinstate your timeline segmentation to match your chapters. I found this out through experience because I was getting the same issue when I started making content and I erroneously assumed I was being penalized! Enjoy :D!
@@Silent_Stillness Hey, I know all about LUFS but thanks for clarifying :) If you see UA-cam's loudness guides they say you should aim for around -14db integrated and around -9db momentary. So there's no need to go any louder than that as your sound will be pulled down which will make it sound less loud because you've already squashed it a lot and when you tame it down it loses the perceived loudness.
I think what you can learn from this is not to go overboard and aim around -9, -10 momentary, and -12 to -14db integrated loudness ballpark. My jams are around -10db momentary and -12db integrated loudness with a true peak limiter to -0.3db.
@@oscilop OMG that's a great point! I was completely unaware about the momentary number, I was only aware of the -14 LUFS, I'm so glad to have had this conversation because otherwise I would have never known about the -9 LUFS thing as I haven't stumbled upon that info with the research I did after writing my original comment. I'll inspect the audio in my source content for Jam Session #5 and I'm sure I'll find momentary peaks that are louder than -9 LUFS, anyhow thanks so much for the info! Also I see that your chapters segmentation is back!
Edit: after inspecting my loudness over that Jam Session #5 video, what I found was that to my surprise I never exceeded -9 LUFS momentary (except barely for 1 peak) but my integrated loudness was definitely at -11 LUFS, which coincides with the -3dB penalty I got. After that analysis I'm concluding that my initial assessment of the situation for your video was unfortunately correct, which is that having prolonged times of low loudness in your video enabled your Jams 1-2-3 to sound louder.
niCE ONE mAGO