What if we just love the idea of hardware companies battling tooth and nail to win over our hearts?
Itâs industry chessâŚ
MPC X and LIVE were hardly a shocking NAMM news story with the 2 standalone MPCs rumoured months and months ago.
Elektron like TE, showed a taste of what is to come, happens every year, doubt it was a knee jerk reaction to AKAI. To be fair, they generated a lot of interest in DT.
If they wanted to kill the zoom sampletrak they should have released the Digitakt about 16 years ago in Year 2000 - I guess your joking right?
Is just me or are elektron on drugs?
Now they are saying on the website - a digital engine
Compact, rugged and to the point. Digitakt is a formidable drum machine. With an astounding feature set and an exquisite digital sound engine, the stage is set for a striking encounter.
Rhythm is a fundamental part of music. Off-kilter beats, four on the floor workouts, polyrhythmic excursions all serve the same purpose. They provide musical structure and sometimes they even make us dance.
Digitakt is a new compact drum machine from Elektron. It contains all the necessary tools to make people move to the beat. A digital and highly flexible sound engine, sampling capability, a live-friendly sequencer, the means to control external MIDI gear. Round it off with a super crisp OLED screen and wonderfully tactile back-lit buttons. Done deal.
Drum machines are something of an Elektron speciality. With the Digitakt we show why.
Are you implying that theyâve changed their wording?
Because the Digitakt info on Elektron.se hasnât changed since it was publicized 6 days ago.
touche
Still, it makes little sense to have stereo when using as a soundcard and mono when standalone. And my biggest gripe with this is the inability to stereo sample, it makes the sampling function less useful.
But yeah, the lack of stereo on a drum machine, not a big deal. On a sampler howeverâŚ
Ahah anything you say may be used against youâŚ
Nice one Adam
DT did generate a lot of interest but I think much of that has been driven by most peoples presumption that this would do drum synthesis. We have seen press reports mentioning this! I think much of the excitement would have been muted had the Elektron guys been clearer. Not saying there was anything sinister in the way they revealed DT but once I sifted through what this could and couldnât do my interest/excitement took a gigantic nosedive. I just donât get it! But thatâs ok, itâs not like I have to like all things Elektron!
I have no objections to this. Endless dialog is the basiss of all democracy.
I agree, not all products will strike a chord with everyone, I was bummed when I realised drum synthesis was missing. However to say they rushed the release of a product because Akai were showing MPC live is silly though.
What strikes me as most interesting with Elektronâs communication around the DigiTakt, is that they once again remain silent on just about everything but a potential release date, and a basic set of features. Youâd think that after Overbridge, theyâd learned. Silence is not the option, just more clarity.
So either they donât know, and the reason weâre not hearing more is that they actually donât know yet if the unitâs gonna play back stereo or mono samples, if it samples in stereo, if it has synthesis and so on. Itâs in the cards, but until it works in beta and seems stable, thereâs nothing to tell. And thatâs fine.
But if they do know that synthesis was never in the cards, never gonna happen, and of course itâs a mono sampler - then not saying so, is just not a properly thought out communication strategy.
Compare to the MPC Live - thereâs a bunch of stuff we know for a fact. What we donât know, Akai says âWe donât know yet. Or we canât say.â
Itâs not - âHaha, maybe we know, maybe we donât, youâll just have to see. One of the reps on the Namm floor might slip something, but officially, weâre just not telling. Hah.â
Given the cycles of development, itâs hard to believe that they havenât decided by now if itâs a stereo device or if it has synthesis. An April launch would indicate itâs in internal beta, or close to it.
So letâs assume they want to aim for synthesis, but donât know if itâs going to work, given hardware and software restrictions. You could then communicate:
âAt launch, the DigiTakt wonât have any drum synthesis of the kind. We repeat - no drum synthesis. Itâs a sample playback instrument.â
Or - âWe are looking into options to implement drum synthesis in the future. It will not be available at launch. We canât say for sure that itâs ever gonna happen, or that it will be part of a release in the future. But we are investigating it. But donât hold your breath. This is primarily a one shot drum sampling instrument.â
As for stereo sampling:
âRight now, we are aiming for mono sampling only. Itâs a focused one shot drum machine, and thatâs the way you should look at it. We realise stereo sampling is an attractive option and considered by many to be mandatory today, but for the moment, we believe that this more focused approach allows you to work with the instrument as a singular drum machine, which is what it is. Itâs not intended to replace the Octatack, but could very well make for a great companion, if your work is very sample-heavy.â
If you donât know, thatâs fine. If thereâs nothing to tell, thatâs cool.
But if you do know, just be honest about it.
Haters gonna hate either way, and lovers gonna love you even more.
@tsutek all good mate, I was just kidding⌠Iâm impressed how Adam remembered this sentence of yours though
I totally agree with you, fyi.
@andreasroman They totally need someone to deal with their communication.
If they made clear the points you underline, I canât see how it would cripple their strategy and/or sales.
Maybe you should apply for such position !!
If you were doing this as a consultant, you could also apply to TE
Ah, the irony - I do this as a consultant, and I live in the same city as Elektron and close to the TE headquarters as well.
But Iâve already been snagged by other parties, so theyâd have to offer me both milk and cookies, for me to consider it
Well, this thread is about âIntroducing Digitaktâ.
Two words.
The Digitakt part, weâve seen a bit, but the âintroducingâ is still perfectible IMO.
And I like your vision ^^
Im always amazed by the culture of Elektron as a compagny. Basically all their devices are good drum machine even the monomachine and the A4. But it seems that melodies, chords, ambient stuff is slightly out of their DNA. I mean elektron is the only one compagny that can sell a Sampler at 1400 euros which can play only samples over two octaves, cannot play a sample in stereo nor a chord. But it is the only one which has record buffers and scenes : it is a bliss and a curse at the same time.
And im pretty sure the story will be the same with the digitakt. It will probably again be a great drum machine, good for glitches and fails as a traditionnal sampler. But if elektron try to extend their territory towards melodies/chords/ambient stuff it will be an incredible machine.
Just checked, you are totally right. And i fully agree with the posts about the communication as well.
Itâs simply not professional. Be transparent.
Frankly Iâm quite fed up with the whole discussion. Iâve wasted to much hours finding out what this machine actually does.
Might as well leave it alone and shift focus.
Wait : OT does stereo sampling! Doesnât it ?