I wanted to explore the limits of the Digitakt II as a sample mangler. In this track, I created a simple four-chord piano loop and manipulated the samples extensively. The Digitakt II offers three LFOs per track, but I needed more. To achieve this, I employed a 'midi loopback' technique by connecting the MIDI out to the MIDI in and sending CC data from MIDI tracks to Audio tracks. With two LFOs per MIDI track on the Digitakt II, I was able to utilize up to five LFOs per Audio track. (But it's perfectly possible to route multiple MIDI tracks' CC data to a single Audio track as well)

The track begins with the original piano loop and some added texture. Gradually, I introduce 'mangled' versions of that same piano loop, eventually phasing out the original loop to highlight the altered samples. Seven audio tracks were used, six of which had the exact same piano loop assigned. The last audio track featured additional texture and tape noise, which I also heavily modulated and distorted.

Enjoy!

P.S: You can check out the video of this performance here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGmGCzPQfY8

Tags: ambient, cinematic, digitakt, experimental, week 18 2024, View by:boorch