GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE! I got Déjà Vu LFOs running on the Digitakt II!

[kariGardarsson]

So, I've been messing around with the Digitakt II firmware, and what started as a little experiment to see if custom firmware was even possible somehow turned into a full-blown reverse engineering rabbit hole

After a ridiculous amount of ColdFire assembly, firmware archaeology, emulation, debugging, and a few moments of questioning my life choices...

IT ACTUALLY WORKS! On real hardware!

I've managed to bring Déjà Vu LFO functionality to the Digitakt II

What's new?

• DV-F: Free-running looping random modulation
  
• DV-T: Trigger-reset looping random modulation
  
• Loop lengths of 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 steps
  
• SPH controls whether random values are regenerated, locked, or reordered
  
• Available on all three LFOs
  
• All seven original LFO waveforms remain intact
  
  

And this isn't just a UI mod. It's actual new LFO functionality running inside the Digitakt II firmware!

But wait, there's more!

I've also made a simple standalone Windows firmware builder, so you don't need to know anything about programming to try it
Just download the official Digitakt II OS 1.16 from Elektron, select it in the builder, click Build, and it generates your custom

Code:

.syx

file ready for Elektron Transfer

No Python, no command line, no complicated setup, and no Elektron firmware included in the download

The first public beta is here:

https://github.com/karigardarsson/digitakt-ii-research

I've tested it on my own Digitakt II, and both DV-F and DV-T are working. It's still experimental firmware, though, and broader compatibility and stability testing are ongoing, so make sure you're familiar with the stock recovery procedure before trying it

Huge thanks to Bezronczek's Syntakt Firmware Workbench, Mutable Instruments for the original Déjà Vu inspiration, ElekLabs/digikit, and the elektron-firmware-tool project. Their work helped make this possible

I've attached a little video of it running on my Digitakt II

This whole thing has been a pretty wild adventure, and I genuinely didn't expect to get this far when I started

Anyway, I thought some of you might find this interesting!

Let me know what you think!

A small heads-up: The builder currently requires Digitakt II OS 1.16. Elektron just released OS 1.17 and the older version is no longer listed on their downloads page (talk about timing)

If you already have OS 1.16, you're good to go! Otherwise, you can request it from Elektron Support
VID_20261016_210124.mp4 (54.84 MB)

UPDATE: Déjà Vu now supports Digitakt II OS 1.17 too!
The updated Windows builder supports both OS 1.16 and 1.17, and the new version has been tested on real hardware
https://github.com/karigardarsson/digita...0.1.1-beta

karigardarsson/digitakt-ii-research

Python26

GitHubCopy linkCopied! README

[Bojack_Coarseman]

This is what I have written to Bezronczek about the DEJA VU LFO for Syntakt, maybe you could implement some of this?

So the first and foremost thing I would like to see implemented is the Hold parameter, which now is not available because we see the number of step. My logic: Most of the people using Touring Machines or Linear Shift Registers want the value to hold through the step, not glide while the step is playing (current implementation of DV-F gives a free running LFO and you can hear the parameters glide through the STEP).
Touring Machine (and Marbles) achieve this by advancing on the shift register with each trigger/clock they receive and then MARBLES has a control for how smoooth the transition is between parameters (from totally smooth to stepped). More advanced modules let you add probability to this (see Random8 by BEFACO) but let's not get ahead of ourselves. So it would be nice to have the option HOLD (each time there is a step a new value is generated and held through the step), I'd find it way more useful than having DV-T (I can't really find a good use case for the DV-T but maybe you did).
Then, obviously I'd like more options for the steps looping (odd options would be awesome, so you'd have a sequence of 5 over 8 for modulations for example). Maybe the step count in the Hold mode could go to the SPEED parameter? You wouldn't need the SPEED parameter with HOLD anyway and you could just keep the speed DIVIDER.
Then,last but not least, a QUANTIZATION OPTION! When you assign the LFO to TUNE it gives you random values which can be interesting for atonal stuff but it would be great if we could quantize the output for generative melodies. Even a very basic one (Chromatic/Major/minor) would totally change the game.

Another thing I'd like to see implemented are the destinations. If we could have the MACROS (MOD WHEEL, PITCH BEND etc etc) as destination for the LFOs, for example, it would be super duper awesome because we could map more parameters to it.
Also, destination VELOCITY or NOTE would give you accent randomization and, again, quantisation of the notes.