How to Start Tracks: Fourm + Microcosm into Digitakt 2

video upload by Sineway

"Fourm into Microcosm into Digitakt II – how I built a beat from nothing, faster than I expected.

In this video I build a beat from scratch using a brand-new setup: Sequential Fourm into Hologram Microcosm, captured and shaped on the Digitakt II.

Instead of treating effects as something you add at the end, I’m using the Microcosm as an idea generator - letting it transform a simple init patch into something that suggests harmony, rhythm, and direction very early on.

This is the first time I’ve made a track with this exact setup, and I was honestly surprised by how quickly it led to usable musical ideas.

The goal here isn’t to finish a track. It’s to show how I like to start - how I go from nothing to a beat that feels worth exploring further.

If you’ve ever felt stuck looping the same pattern without knowing where to take it next, this video sets up the foundation for what comes after. I’ll continue from this exact loop in the next video, where I focus on breaking out of the single-loop deadlock and opening things up into multiple patterns and directions."

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:35 My setup
00:56 Making a track from scratch
01:17 Quick overview of the Hologram Microcosm
02:25 Sound design on the Sequential Fourm
02:58 Combining the Microcosm with the Fourm
03:15 Adding reverb in the Microcosm
03:59 More Fourm sound design
04:22 Adding modulation
05:05 Improvised playing on the Fourm
05:31 Recording a pad into the Digitakt II
06:55 Sequencing the pad on the Digitakt II
08:50 Adding some fake sidechain pumping
09:50 Adding a kick and a snare
10:51 Introducing some 16th stutter on the pad
12:14 Adding dynamic hi hats using modulation
12:53 Adding a synthwave bass from the Fourm
15:00 Programming the bassline into the Digitakt II sequencer
16:52 Making the bassline a bit more interesting
17:27 Recording the bass into the Digitakt II
18:04 Using the Grid machine to quickly program the bassline on the Digitakt II
19:13 Ducking the kick
20:15 Preparing sounds for performance on the FaderFox UC4
22:59 Adding a lead sound using the Fourm + Microcosm
27:03 Some light mixing as we go
27:54 Some cheesy synthwave riffs
29:24 Performing on the complete pattern
29:55 How to go from a single pattern to a full song