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!
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.
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!
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.
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! 🥰
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 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.
@@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.
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
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.
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).
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.
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??
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. 😉
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.
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.
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.
@@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
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.
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!
