Roughly 27 Tips for Drum and Percussion Patches on the Digitone
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2024
- My love for the Digitone is, by this point, fairly well documented. It encapsulates, for me, almost every aspect of an electronic instrument that makes me happy, but I think the thing that constantly has me coming back and being delighted is the synthesis engine itself. There are layers of depth to the engine that invite you to explore and be playful - to find ways to twist it into new shapes in order to find new sounds.
This was never more apparent to me than when I was putting together the patch pack I recently released which focused on drum and percussion sounds. There were so many sound design techniques that crystallised in my mind and lots of little tips and tricks that I learned that made the whole process so rewarding.
In this video I'd like to share a bunch of that learning with you. A load of tips, tricks and techniques that I'll always have in mind when building drum or percussion patches on the Digitone.
Timings:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:11 - Attack via Amp
00:03:01 - Balancing Decay and Release in the Amp Envelope
00:05:00 - Meta-tip: LFOs as Envelopes
00:09:21 - Attack via Pitch Envelope
00:11:37 - Attack via FM
00:15:01 - Attack via Filter Envelope
00:16:36 - Layering Attack Characteristics
00:18:03 - Softening Attack Characteristics for Fun and Profit
00:20:18 - Creating Noise via FM
00:22:05 - Cleaning up FM Noise
00:23:46 - Noise via LFO
00:27:13 - Giving Noise Character via Resonance
00:29:41 - Creating Metallic Sounds via Detuned Clusters
00:32:53 - Creating Metallic Sounds via FM
00:36:53 - Wood is Just Metal, but Chill
00:38:10 - Balancing Two Percussive Elements
00:41:27 - Mix Envelope Example (Snare)
00:47:07 - Mix Envelope Example (Kick)
00:48:53 - Giving Kick Character - Noise
00:50:34 - Giving Kick Character - Massive Low End with High-Pass Filters
00:52:28 - Voice Management for Long Kicks
00:56:08 - Refining the High-Pass Trick for Long Kicks
00:58:10 - Preparing Your Patch for Velocity Mod
01:00:01 - Velocity Mod for Attack
01:06:01 - Velocity Mod for Harmonic Content
01:10:27 - Randomize and Humanize
01:13:38 - Making a Clap Patch (Multi-Attack Envelopes)
01:21:05 - Outro
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Do you have your own favourite tip, trick or technique that I didn't mention? Let everyone know about it by replying to this comment!
You can use the LFOs to amplitude modulate for claps or just additionally weird drums.
This is THE definitive drum sound design resource for the Digitone. Thank you for taking the time to create it and know that I will refer back to it often!
Thank you for sharing these tips!
Wow, thanks for this! Super helpful.
Attack tips on fire!
Excellent tutorial.
Brilliant. Thanks!
Thank you for taking the time to make this. Love you sink ❤❤❤
Just before I receive mine. Awesome !
I'll be living with this one for a while, tonight I'll start in on it.
Very much looking forward to it, thanks again!
watching this for the 2nd time thru, such a key bible
Coming back to this later and realising I finally get the velocity mod feature now super cool!
What a superb tutorial. Thanks!
Thanks for watching!
This is not only one of my favorite subjects (drum synthesis generally) along with my most requested tut I can never get enough of (digitone drum design specifically) but also it is incredibly well executed and concepts/reasoning taught rather than just demonstrated. You joke at the conclusion about making it to the end, but...I watched it twice in row. You are a fucking saint...thank you.
great tutorial thank you for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
So much interesting tips and ideas in this one! Great stuff.
Cheers!
Super helpful. Thanks so much!
I'm glad I could help!
Great video! Thank you!
Cheers!
What a treasure of knowledge. Thank you!
Thank you!
Thanks so much for taking the time making this video, I learned a lot!
Thanks for watching!
Great video. This is probably the best tutorial I’ve seen on how to make percussive sounds using FM. I’ve not got Digitakt but I can totally apply these basic principles to my Korg FM, Model:Cycles and even OP-Z
Fantastic video
Thanks!
Thanks as always for your time putting this together. Really useful. Love your mellow delivery and the clarity when explaining your processes.
I'm glad you enjoy the mellow. I'm all about that big mellow energy!
That's so brilliant and inspiring! Thank you so much for putting all the effort in this
I'm so glad people are enjoying it!
Incredible video, thanks for making this!
Thanks for watching!
This is insanely useful. I've wanted to try making some percussion sounds on my DN but haven't done it because relying on the DT's samples is more immediate. So thank you for this! The DN's range percussion flavor is way greater than I thought.
Thank you Professor Sink. This will get many re-watches from me.
This is a really good tutorial
FANTASTIC STUFF!
Cheers!
This is the best Digitone video that l have viewed!
Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
My e25 digitone was delivered today! I'm a trucker so I don't know when I'll get my hands on it but I can't wait!
Amazing, thanks for this very useful information. I have a digitone just for 8 days or so. I was a bit uncertain if this device would be for me, design wise. Really awesome to see that design on the amazing piece of kit is deep! Very reassuring. 😉
Wow !
Amazing video , very usefull tips !
Thank you sir to put a lot of effort and time in this tutorial , quite an eye-opener !
Cheers! Glad you enjoyed it.
it's incredible!!! thank u man! you are the best! :)
Cheers! Glad you enjoyed it!
1:00:06 is so key. I'm glad you mentioned the decoupling of Velocity to Volume, it almost gives you a way of coordinating the Velocity as a Macro.
Absolutely brilliant. Loved going back to my DN and being fast tracked to excellent drum design- brilliant tips in general but also brilliant Digitone knowledge ,thank you.
(I dont often watch vids this long but Mr Sink on the D'Tone is a must and multi watch).
Really glad that it was useful to you!
love these digitone deep dives. the most incredible sounding, inspiring synth ever
A future classic, 100 percent.
@@OscillatorSink thanks for unlocking some of its mysteries. I'm **barely** scratching the surface.
I was recently obsessed with drum sounds synthesis and this video solved all of my struggles! Perfect timing, perfect video!
FM drums are love. FM drums are life. Glad I could help!
So much good stuff here and presented very clearly. I am revisiting because all of this is so helpful when experimenting with the Digitone. Excellent work.
Welcome back and thank you!
this is by far the best instructional video I've seen and the one for free. big thanks for that
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
The concept you presented here will really change the way I hear and think about percussion. Thank you so much for the time and effort you've put into this.
Happy to help, thanks for watching!
Well. That´s huge and I have to continue tomorrow. I would love to see your ideas on organic tonal sounds. Thank you for that great high quality Digitone tutorial. I´m really glad that you did this. Good night
So I watched the entire video and I will also try some of the tips on the modular. Plus an idea: @dave mech had the idea to make a generativ sequence with probability triggers affecting programm changes. So this would also be possible to use the FILL button to do this. Oh, and thanks again for this video.
This is... incredible. Just got a Digitone Keys specifically for FM Drums and as a groovebox. This video is exaaaaactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much! 🥰
Yesss FM drums are love! I hope you enjoy exploring some of these ideas; the Digitone is a wonderful instrument.
absolut my 1. tutorial ... thank you so much
Cheers Bruno!
Awesome as usual. Really like the detail you go into, much like your Drone video. Would love a Bass video at some point from you to round out the series.
Thank you. I'll add bass to the list!
Brilliant! Went through all of this sitting on the sofa with the Digitone. After having it for a month now I am really starting to get the hang of it, many thanks to your excellent teaching style.
I'm glad to hear you're enjoying your Digitone!
I don't even have a digitone, but as general ideas on drum synthesis these tips are still really useful.
Very nice tutorial. Not only for percussive sounds, but for sound design in general as you show the parameters and how they interact really well, making it a lot more concrete than just looking in the manual to see what you can do with the Digitone. As you can probably guess from that statement, I do not own one, but it is quite high on my wishlist at the moment as FM synthesis does stand out a bit in a world full of subtractive synths, and it is capable of so many appealing sounds.
I hope by now you found your Digitone. I recently got one and I was looking for sound design tips for leads. I do appreciate the quality of tutorials of Osci, so I was happy to hear from you that this one was sound design on the digitone!
DN drums demystified...Big thanks
I'm an old hat at FM, and am having to 'relearn' how Elektron decided to fudge with what I know. This did help me a little bit. Of special note, it was nice finally figuring out what that LFO trigger type with the arrow pointing at the corner of the box was. I couldn't for the life of me figure that one out. Also, it reminded me there is indeed a second page to syn2 that I seem to overlook far too often, I think. I'm into classic UK breakbeat style stuff, so a lot of the drums I've been making are less electronic sounding and more accoustic sounding (though I will admit, I really love that classic dnb track Alien Girl and just HAD to make those Ed Rush drums, too!), but overall, this was not only a good tutorial for folks in learning about the ins and outs of making drum sounds, but was pretty informative just on Digitone's features. The manual, I will say, is one of the worst I've ever read. And it was magnified by the fact that the last manual I used prior to that was Yamaha's RS7000 manual which is insanely well thought out, laid out and presented. Compared to that, the Digitone manual is even more head scratching than maybe it might otherwise have been. Those guys know how to make a box, but they surely don't know how to document it...maybe they could hire some of Yamaha's technical writers!
I know this is ancient but I'm reacquiring the DN and this video is an absolute goldmine, what a great guide! Very clear, very insightful, thanks for making it!
I’m thinking about pulling a reaquire as well. How’s it going the second time around?
@@dancingclair Heh well, it just showed up so haven't really got my hands on it proper. But I mean, can't really go wrong with the Digitone!
Thanks for watching, and I hope round 2 with the Digitone is being fruitful!
Nice teaching there! The one about snares are very useful to me.
To extend one of your tip (except i missed it): One of my favs is utilizing the random LFO to modulate both the volume and the amp's envelope decay on a noise-like sound to create living shakers/hats.
This is also one of my favourite uses for sure!
Saved for geeky hours with digitone and a free few days xxxxxx thankyou you star! You know you the teachers of teaches😉😉😉💗🙌
Wait, there are *non*-geeky hours??
@@OscillatorSink 😂😂😂 callled sleeping😂😂😂😂🙌🍻
whoa, using the fast random lfo on amp vol destination is genius. kind of similar to the digital sample rate reduction noise you get from the vcv rack clone of mutable branches (bernoulli gate) when you run an audio signal to the input and reduce the signal with the probability knob. i love these kinds of creative experimental sound design techniques. so awesome. please keep making these. you should also get an octatrack, i would love to see what you do with that
Oh god, the Octatrack kinda scares me! I've honestly never really considered one... But I saw a jam last night that blew me away so suddenly I'm interested... I might wait to see if there's a new version seeing as the Analogs just got updated...
@@OscillatorSink dont let the OT scare you, the way you tamed this FM beast you shouldn't have any problem. The open ended sampling is the complexity. Love the 3 lfos per track.
Thanks !!!!!
Cheers!
TY SIR
Those Sub freqs kill me at 17:00 daaaamn.
As a long time Digitone owner this video finally got me into learning and experimenting with FM drums. Thank you for your inspiration and the time and effort you put into this great tutorial!
That's awesome to hear! FM drums are love!
I just picked up my new Digitone and really enjoying learning it so far as my third Elektron box after getting an Analog 4 and Octatrack both great machines on their own. Digitone is quite user friendly compared to the obtuse Octatrack.
Subbing for Digitone!
I circle back to this vid every once in a while. It's great information in a clear and precise manner. This machine really changed how I make music. I feel confident in deleting the whole library and building everything from scratch. I've never felt that before in a synth.
Not sure if I'll get 3 Volca FMs to pair with the Digitone (Plus Volca Drum) or just get the Opsix. Decisions.
Thanks for coming back! I got to say... I really do like the opsix, and I'd choose that every day of the week vs a cluster of Volcas. No comparison.
@@OscillatorSink Glad to know. Yeah it seems like it's the best interface for an FM synth in history beside the Digitone.
I wish it was multi-timbral like the Digitone.
@@mechatomb2921 Well, at least it has two layers. I think you can play them independently.
You're thinking of the Modwave maybe? There are tricks you can do with the opsix, but it's not multitimbral.
@@OscillatorSink You are right, I mixed them up. It‘s a pity. But there‘s the Digitone and also the native plugin now.
You took the time to make a video and put it out there. That means you are prepared for feedback. It’s great! 😊
That's a deep cut and I'm here for it.
@@OscillatorSink I think about that person often.
god bless you
To answer the question about our own favorite tips: I don’t think I have any in depth tricks to add to your big tutorial, but I’d definitely urge everyone to not forget the secondary filter page. It’s so good to have the secondary low and high cut, to cut away unnecessary frequencies out of the mix. I wish every Elektron had this.
I'd LOVE for the Digitakt to have that second filter page. I keep forgetting that it doesn't because I spend so much time with the Digitone.
@@OscillatorSink fully agree. Especially for people playing dawless (like many Eektron users), or all people not multi-tracking I guess, having this control over unwanted frequencies is super nice
@@lesstalkmoredisco9445 just being able to high pass non-bass elements is so helpful.
@@OscillatorSink possible now!!! Im so happy
INSTANT FOLLOW!
This is a really great and informative video in the digitone. I love my digitone but I'm kind of in a rut with it. I dont think ill ever sell it. But out of curiosity, if you could only own 1 synth between the digitone and the opsix, which one would you choose?
As a complete instrument, the Digitone is forever one of my top 3 synths I own, often in the top spot. That being said, that preference comes from the perspective of it being a marriage of synth, sequencer and workflow. For pure SYNTH, from a sound design perspective, the opsix beats it so it's about what you want.
But to directly answer, if I really had to choose only one, it's the Digitone. But I wouldn't be happy.
34:22 sounds like "Flying Turns" by Crash Course In Science
The Velocity Mod is lots of fun. It would be great if you could set a global Mod rather than a per track one, then you can have lots of fun playing live and manipulating them all at once, a bit like holding down the MIDI button but with quicker and easier access. Also be good if Velocity was an LFO destination but maybe you could do something with the MIDI feedback effect there??
Do one for the Digitakt!! please!! Big fan here
What topic would you like to see me tackle with the Digitakt?
A lot of the same techniques from this video apply to the digitakt. For example, you can make a kick from scratch by taking the single cycle sine wave and applying a pitch envelope and adding low end with a high pass filter with the res turned up.
Thank you! So very helpful. You wouldn't want to make a drum patches tutorial on the Analog Four? ;)
I'd love to! Would you like to buy me one? ;)
@@OscillatorSink Maybe he can borrow you one, as a thank you, for a future drum patches tutorial made😄
Can you make ambient drum sounds with the DigiTone?
Yes.
Oscillator Sink would you resell a DSI Tempest and use the profit to buy:
Moog DFAM(-/- ... Roland 06; TR-6S/8S); Subharmonicon; and
Digitone?
Thank you in advance
Yes, personally I would. For my tastes I think the DFAM / Subharmonicon / Digitone trio would be amazing.
You sound a bit like Gordon Ramsey when you start this video. Also thanks for this helpful video, Gordon! ;)
Mr Sink. Why do you not have a Patreon page? Love your work and your passion.
Thanks! I've thought about it, but where my work and family life is right at the moment I don't think I can keep up a release schedule that would make it good value for anyone kind enough to become a patron. I'm not ruling out ever doing it, but until I know that I'd have the time and energy to be proud of the job I was doing I'll stick to occasionally holding out the tip jar when I can create something tangible like patch packs.
Fair enough. I appreciate that having a Patreon account may put pressure on you to deliver content on a regular basis, which may in turn affect the way you present your work. I particularly love your Vermona DRM mkIII tutorial. That must have been a lot of work and very much appreciated.
25:01 Applause in the subtitles :)
where can i get the preset pack
Here you go: oscillatorsink.gumroad.com/
Hey, are the fx good on this machine?
Yes. The chorus and delay are good sounding all purpose effects and reverb in particular is very nice sounding.
@@OscillatorSink Thanks man, I'm sure the digitone, digitakt and analogue heat would make a great trio.
I'd love to add the Heat into the mix - Jeremy from Red Means Recording has done a bunch of sets with those 3 and those seem to confirm: great Trio!
man, around 55min, the bass frequency is shaking/moving my little sony bluetooth speaker around the desk, ya, bass on the Digitone, Sept2023!