The unique Digitakt sampler and sequencer, regardless of being seven years outdated, stays an extremely succesful gadget beloved by many within the music world. So how does the most recent mannequin, which seems practically similar, maintain as much as the fan favourite?
Below the hood, the Digitakt II is a major improve in virtually each method. Sadly, it additionally comes with a major worth enhance to $999, from $799. With used Digitakts going for as little as $400, the selection between the 2 isn’t as clear reduce as you’d count on.
I spent just a few weeks placing the most recent Digitakt via its paces and evaluating it to the older mannequin, and finally realized the brand new model might be not definitely worth the improve for my (and lots of others’) functions. That stated, if you happen to’re an influence consumer who at all times needs to attempt the most recent and best, it is a unbelievable piece of substances.
{Photograph}: Terrence O’Brien
Limitless 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 below 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’t probably cowl each function of the unique Digitakt. The truth is, I’m going to must gloss over even a number of the modifications to the latest mannequin. It’s an extremely wealthy machine that may take tens of 1000’s of phrases to comprehensively clarify. As a substitute I’ll be specializing in a very powerful options and modifications.
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 rising 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 challenge is essentially solved.
Whereas having assist for stereo samples is sweet, I truly discover the elevated storage to be the primary new function I really 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 whenever you’re primarily working with percussion.
The Digitakt II is greater than able to dealing with melodic elements, and it even comes preloaded with single cycle waveforms so you may 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 though there are 5 totally different “Machines” (Elektron’s time period for a way a pattern is dealt with, e.g. one-shot, stretch, repitch, and so forth.) your outcomes will differ vastly relying on the supply materials.
