Controlling VST instruments with Digitakt MIDI tracks

The Digitakt’s parameter-locking and conditional triggering are great for hardware and plugin control

01 > First make sure that the Digitakt’s MIDI information is being sent out of its USB port and into your DAW. Go to the Settings menu, then to MIDI configuration, then to the Port Configuration page and make sure that Output To is set to either USB or MIDI + USB. Set Output Channel to Auto.

02 > You’ll also want to make sure that input tracking is turned on for the Digitakt MIDI port. You can access these settings in Preferences. Sync does not need to be turned on here because the VST Digitakt plugin uses its own internal sync.

03 > Inside of Ableton Live, we create a new MIDI track and drag an instrument onto the channel. In this example, we’ll use Arturia’s Mini V3, a Minimoog emulation. We set the MIDI channel to 1 and record-enable the track so we’re ready to sequence.

04 > On the Digitakt, we select track 9 and go to the Source page. Enable this track to receive MIDI by holding Function and pressing down on the first encoder. Scroll to 1 to set it to the same MIDI channel as the Mini V3. Enter chromatic mode on the Digitakt and you should be able to hear the Mini V3 while playing notes.

05 To control aspects of the Mini V3 from the Digitakt, open the Mini V3 panel and select the configure button in the plugin window. Select which parameters to control from the Digitakt. Then, assign these to the eight controls on the Digitakt’s assign page. Now you can parameter-lock these settings using the Digitakt’s sequencer functionality, greatly expanding your sequencing possibilities.