Musique Automatique : Aranami [granular ambient w/ Digitakt]

This video could have been titled "When you want to get into Eurorack but don't have the money yet", aha. This time I'm trying to do some granular synthesis with the Digitakt. I'm really new to this technique but I'm really amazed by what the Digitakt can do. This experiment was made using only 1 sample : a series of 4 chords over 15 seconds. This sample was created on the machine with the factory content, so what you hear is 100% Digitakt-based. To get the granular synthesis going, I began to play the sample in loop mode with a very short length. Then to make things a little more interesting, I mangled the playback using 3 LFOs : The track's LFO is used to randomize the Start Point so that each time a trig happens on the track, a different portion of the sample is looped. That way, the 4 chords get played in random order. Another LFO is changing the Start Point (CC 20), but in a very slow and steady way this time. Instead of a static grain repeating itself, you get an evolving texture as the tiny loop is moving through the sample. A third LFO is changing the Length of the grain (CC 21). At random point, the length will start to get longer then go back to his original position. This results in acceleration and slowing down of the playback (you can hear this around 0:58, you can see it happening on the screen as well). This same setup is repeated over 4 audio tracks, each one at a different octave. As you can hear at 3:35, this process induces some glitchy sounds when the loop get stuck on one edge of the sample. But overall the Digitakt handles it very well, and I think those little bugs fit the mood quite nicely! On top of that I randomized the Pan, the sample Play Mode (forward loop/reverse loop) and the Delay Time. The fade-in and the fade-out are also generated on the Digitakt using a LFO and the MIDI loopback trick. Finally the Digitakt output is going through Ozone 5 for some mastering. No edits, no FX added. And there you have it, an evolving granular soundscape. I'm really happy with the result and I will explore this technique further in the future. One drawback I see is that the maximum attack time on the Digitakt is quite short so it's hard to get a very smooth dynamic. Sometime a sound will burst out a little more than I'd like it to. Otherwise it's an amazing machine and the gorgeous built-in reverb will help a lot in creating those dreamy atmospheres. Anywayyy, thank you for watching! I have a lot of videos coming up so be sure to subscribe if you want to hear more Digitakt-related shenanigans. If you want to know more about the MIDI loopback trick, I've got a detailed tutorial available here :    • How to set up the MIDI loopback trick on t...   Peace! Aldo P.S. : There seems to be some kind of electrical hum in the background, I tried to remove it but it's still quite loud... Sorry about that!