Digitakt Quickstart Tutorial

In this video we’re gonna be taking a look at the electron digitakt. The goal here is to provide a quick start guide for anyone who might have just bought one or might be thinking about getting one and just wants a general idea of what it is and how it works. So we’ll basically just be looking at the main functions.

What is the Digitakt?

The digitakt is a sampler/ 64 step - sequencer. It has 8 sample tracks - in which you can load up all your own samples, and 8 midi tracks which can be used to control external midi instruments.

Create a new project

So the first thing you’ll want to do is to create a new project.

To do this you need to go into the settings page by pressing the settings button.

Select project - load project - create new.

This is where you load existing projects or create new ones.

Once your new project has been created you will have default samples loaded in.

Try pressing the buttons to hear the samples.

Sample buttons and midi tracks

Each project can contain 127 samples and 128 patterns which contain 8 audio tracks and 8 midi tracks.

So, all our samples are stored in buttons 1 - 8. These are our audio/sample tracks. and underneath you can see buttons 9 - 16 are the midi tracks.

You can see underneath each button it has a label. Kick, snare ect. This is more of a suggestion as any sample you want can be loaded into a track.

And we can see, under buttons 9 - 16 it shows what midi track this is. Midi tracks are going to be used to control external midi instruments.

As with most devices we have a shift key, although it’s called function here, that lets us access any secondary functions on the device, which can be seen written here as anything in orange/yellow text.

Selecting a sample

Once you select a sample you can start editing it. This is where the edit buttons come in. All you need to do is select the area you want to edit, and then use the corresponding dials to set the parameters to what you want.

Loading a sample in

There are a few ways you can load a sample in.

First select the track you want, 

next , go the the src section

Then you’ll see in the upper right corner, you can select your sample.

When you turn the dial you will see all the samples you currently have loaded into your project.

To select an existing one just select the one you want.

To add a new sample, select an empty slot

This takes you to the sample browser where you can see all of the samples currently stored on the device

You can navigate through the folders using the arrow keys and holding function + arrow to go back and forward through the folders

You can preview a sample by holding func and pressing yes.

Once you have found one you like press yes to select it.

And that’s it, press no to exit out of the browser.

Step sequencer

Once you’ve got all your samples loaded you’ll most likely want to start making a pattern. As usual with these devices, there are two ways you can do this, live record and step record.

Let’s look at step mode first.

Again the first thing you’ll want to do is select which track you want to edit.

Next pressing the record button will take you into sequencer mode.

Now you can start entering which steps you want your sample to play on by pressing the step to light it up.

When finished press record button again to come out of step mode

If we press function + page we can add more pages/steps to our sequence.

Digitakt will automatically copy your pattern from the previous page which is nice as that’s usually a good starting point to make variations from

Live recording

To live record we need to hold the record button and then press play. Now we can start playing in what we want live

Digitakt will also let you record automation in this mode.

This will then show up as yellow on the buttons too indicated automation has been recorded.

While we’re here I also show you that by holding a particular step and then changing a parameter, it will only change it for that particular step, this gives you a lot of control and options for variance.

Record a sample in

Now for one of the best features of the digitakt, recording into the device. Digitakt lets you sample in from a selection of sources, including external gear and internal tracks.

Let’s sample the volca beats into the digitakt.

Steps:

First connect the external instrument by plugin an audio cable from the devices output to the digitakt input

Select the sampler section button to enter sampling mode.

Now we’ll check the input source is set correctly, we want input L+R

If we play the drum machine we should now see a level coming through.

Set the threshold so that the incoming signal is greater than the threshold

Now you can start recording by pressing func - yes (check this)

Press yes again to stop recording.

At this stage you can trim your recording by using the top 4 dials.

These controls let you zoom and move the start and end point of the sample.

Once you are happy press yes to commit to the changes.

You can now save the sample to the device, give it a name and assign it to a track.

And you're done!

Connect a midi device and use a midi track

Finally we’ll look at how we can connect an external instrument and sequence it over midi.

For this we’ll create a bass line using the volca bass.

Take a midi cable and connect it from the digitakt output to the vocal bass input. At this point you’ll want to check what midi channel your external device is set to and set the digitkt track to match. In most cases it will probably be channel 1.

If you want to know more about midi, check out my tutorial.

If all is connected correctly the digitakt should now be able to play the external instrument. If it’s not working, go into the settings and check you are sending midi signals out, and also double check your on the correct midi channel.

If you’re using a melodic instrument like me, you’ll most likely want to enter into keyboard mode. To do this press function and prt.

You’ll now see the sequencer lights turn into a keyboard which will let you play the external instrument.

To change octave, use the octave keys.

Now you can record in just like you did for the other tracks.

Outro

By now you should be up and running with all the basic features of the device. Thank you.