The unique Digitakt sampler and sequencer, regardless of being seven years previous, stays an extremely succesful gadget beloved by many within the music world. So how does the newest mannequin, which seems to be practically similar, maintain as much as the fan favourite?
Beneath the hood, the Digitakt II is a big improve in virtually each manner. Sadly, it additionally comes with a big value enhance to $999, from $799. With used Digitakts going for as little as $400, the selection between the 2 isn’t as clear lower as you’d anticipate.
I spent a number of weeks placing the newest Digitakt by way of its paces and evaluating it to the older mannequin, and in the end realized the brand new model might be not well worth the improve for my (and lots of others’) functions. That mentioned, should you’re an influence consumer who at all times desires to attempt the newest and best, it is a unbelievable piece of substances.
Countless Prospects
Bodily, the variations between the primary Elektron Digitakt and the brand new Digitakt II are extraordinarily refined. The monochrome display screen is white as a substitute of yellow. The instrument particular labels underneath the keys are gone, there are a few new buttons, and a few labels have modified. In any other case the 2 are practically indistinguishable.
I can not probably cowl each characteristic of the unique Digitakt. In truth, I’m going to need to gloss over even a number of the adjustments to the most recent mannequin. It’s an extremely wealthy machine that might take tens of hundreds of phrases to comprehensively clarify. As an alternative I’ll be specializing in a very powerful options and adjustments.
If there have been two main strikes in opposition to the unique Digitakt it was that it solely dealt with mono samples, and storage was fairly paltry, even by 2017 requirements. Personally, I did not discover the 64 MB of RAM (equaling 14 minutes of mono samples) per undertaking terribly restrictive, however the 1 GB of drive storage did result in much more time wasted actively managing samples. By growing the RAM to 400 MB (72 minutes of mono or 36 minutes of stereo samples) and the drive to twenty GB on the brand new mannequin, the storage subject is essentially solved.
Whereas having assist for stereo samples is good, I really discover the elevated storage to be the principle new characteristic I like. A part of that’s right down to how I primarily use the Digitakt II, which is as a drum machine. Stereo is simply much less of a necessity while you’re primarily working with percussion.
The Digitakt II is greater than able to dealing with melodic components, and it even comes preloaded with single cycle waveforms so you possibly can play it like a synth. However as a result of the 16 sequencer tracks are monophonic, taking part in chords requires both utilizing a number of tracks and sequencing the notes individually, or simply sampling chords. And although there are 5 completely different “Machines” (Elektron’s time period for the way a pattern is dealt with, e.g. one-shot, stretch, repitch, and so forth.) your outcomes will fluctuate vastly relying on the supply materials.