Intellijel Cascadia: Drum Synthesis Workhorse Meets Digitakt – Modular Percussion, Sampled and Sequenced

Cascadia: The Modular Drum Synthesist’s Swiss Army Knife

The video opens with Cascadia front and centre, immediately framed as a versatile solution for electronic drum synthesis. Rather than relying on a rack full of dedicated drum modules or multiple synth voices, the approach here is to coax a full range of percussive sounds from a single Cascadia. The presenter notes the impracticality of owning eight units just to build a drum machine, setting the stage for a more elegant workflow.

Intellijel’s own Matt makes it clear that Cascadia’s wealth of sound sources and modulation options make it particularly well-suited for kicks, snares, hi-hats, and more. The focus isn’t just on the raw sound, but on the process: how to sculpt, sample, and assemble a kit using only what Cascadia can generate. This sets a patch-oriented, exploratory tone for the rest of the demonstration.

"It leaves you feeling like oh I could do with more than one of these. Which can get a little impractical if you wanted to make a drum machine out of let's say eight Cascadias."

© Screenshot/Quote: Intellijel (YouTube)

Sampling the Modular: Cascadia Meets Digitakt

The workflow hinges on a tight integration between Cascadia and Elektron’s Digitakt. MIDI from the Digitakt is routed into Cascadia, providing precise control over note triggering and parameter changes. Meanwhile, audio from Cascadia is looped back into the Digitakt, allowing each crafted drum sound to be sampled in real time.

As each new sound is patched and dialled in on Cascadia, it’s immediately captured and assigned to a pad in Digitakt. This method not only streamlines the process of building a kit, but also ensures that every element shares a common sonic DNA. The video emphasises that this approach is equally viable with other samplers or DAWs, making it a flexible workflow for modular and hybrid setups alike.

Patch by Patch: Kicks, Snares, and Modular Percussion

The heart of the video is a methodical walkthrough of sound design for each drum voice. For the kick, pitch envelopes and index modulation are used to create punch and movement, with drive and wave folding adding aggression or subtlety as needed. The process is hands-on, with patch cables flying and parameters tweaked in real time to dial in the right transient and decay.

Snares are built by layering a fundamental tone with noise, using inverted envelopes to modulate high-pass filters for a natural decay. Tom drums get their own treatment, with careful attention paid to decay shaping and frequency separation from the kick. Claps are conjured from alternative noise sources, band-pass filtering, and sample-and-hold modulation to inject variation into each hit.

Cowbells, hi-hats, and even a cabasa are all tackled with similar patching ingenuity. The video showcases the use of Cascadia’s alternative noise types, accessible via the configuration app, to dial in classic drum machine textures. Throughout, envelope manipulation, waveform selection, and creative routing are highlighted as key tools for modular drum synthesis.

From Modular to Complete Kit: Layering and Cohesion

"Recording them straight in and being able to reference them against each other meant that the whole kit felt really cohesive by the end."

© Screenshot/Quote: Intellijel (YouTube)

Once all the individual drum sounds are sampled, the workflow shifts to assembling them into a cohesive kit. The Digitakt’s sequencing capabilities are used to program patterns, layering the freshly captured sounds in musical context. This approach allows for immediate feedback, as each new voice can be referenced against the rest of the kit and adjusted for balance and character.

The video underscores how this modular-to-sampler workflow makes it possible to build a full-featured drum kit from a single Cascadia. There’s no need for racks of duplicate modules – just one well-patched synth and a capable sampler or sequencer. The result is a kit that feels unified, with each element sharing the same sonic fingerprint.

Creative Horizons: Cascadia’s Drum Synthesis Potential

The presentation wraps up by highlighting the sheer creative scope that Cascadia offers when paired with a sampler like Digitakt. With just one unit, users can generate a diverse array of percussive voices, all tailored to their own taste and musical style. The workflow is described as seamless and repeatable, encouraging experimentation across genres and setups. It’s a reminder that, in modular, sometimes less really is more – provided you know how to patch it.

"There's so much scope for different styles of music. You know, it's just whatever you can imagine, really."

© Screenshot/Quote: Intellijel (YouTube)