Maybe this could be difficult. AFAIK there are only a few shops having them on stock. Schneiders Laden in Berlin comes to my mind. My MK II is of a very good built quality. Housing, connectors, encoders, buttons, and pads seem to be made for long and intensive use. The X-Y pad works fine too. Software was stable and reliable.
1 Like
Another option which kind of has some +/- of the Pyramid and Digitakt would be the Deluge, it has trig conditions, a good and very flexible sequencer for internal and midi and cv sources, built in synthesis and sampling, although currently unavailable to buy new until the next batch (3 months or so) but if you are not in a hurry it might be worth considering.
1 Like
there is a music gear retailer just over an hour’s drive from where i am who stocks the pyramid. but i have decided for now to get the digitakt instead. plus the sampler side of it will come in handy.
always another time to get a pyramid.
Maybe the metaphor isn’t working for you, it works for me.
The lack of Song mode is a glaring omission IMO, and in many others. I’m guessing Elektron is eventually going to release a stand alone sequencer to sequence the DT/DN.
Its not so much an omission its just something it doesnt do, it wasnt part of the vision you could say. Most people who really needed a song mode didnt buy a Digitakt, the majority of the ones that did anyway either got over it or moved on.
2 Likes
Songmode, or the ability to save pattern chains after the unit is powered off, is a huge thing to be missing if you’re looking at buying something to use as a dedicated sequencer.
IMO it’s like buying recording software that erases the music when you turn it off.
Not necessarily for everyone - a lot of people never use song mode according to a number of posts on these forums over the years, I occasionally use them (song mode/arranger) but can often find it quicker to do it manually. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they are useless but I don’t think every sequencer should necessarily have them, the DT was never sold as having one so I’m fine with it, but I would not mind if they added something at a later date.
3 Likes
I think thats just your opinion of what it should be though. Imo it a device that demands familiarity and regular input, much like other instruments, not a pre programmed band mate that you play along with. I dont know if what you seek exists, depends on what parts of the Digitakt are essential to you other than song mode but I suspect anything that gives you full arranging control will either be pricey or lacking much of what makes the Digi good.
my apologies for the careless use of the term “guano”.
the fact is that you cannot send CC as sliding values with DT or OT, but it can be done with MD
you are the one that brought the slide thing up dude, not me. and the fact is i have been using elektron gear far longer than you have.
1 Like
If you just want midi sequencing control over gear, why not just use a DAW?
Personally l’m not into DAW, but isn’t that a loads a features cheaper option?
(I’m a slight hypocrite, I do use SoundTower to program the sequencing in my DSI synths)
2 Likes
I won’t feed sorry.
I think it would be good for sequencing drums or bass notes, but chords and pads I don’t dig it.
Would like to get a square pyramid for that stuff
But the conditional trigs makes other gear a lot more expressive
I actually sequence my Digitakt from an Social Entropy Engine. It’s basically a million miles ahead of the DT in terms of sequencing, plus it has an excellent snapshot-based song mode. I’m guessing the Squarp would be good too.
Point to note is that the Engine is no longer in production.
I bought a Digitakt and a Pyramid at the same time to determine which I wanted to use as my main sequencer. I have eight hardware synths and do everything outside of a DAW so a sequencer is important to me. I really disliked the Pyramid and sold it in a matter of days.
It all depends on what you need in a sequencer, but for what I do I never need chords over 4 notes, I would never use an arpeggiator in a track, I couldn’t care less about euclidian sequencing, I absolutely hated the Squarp build quality in comparison to the Digitakt, especially the pads and screen, the cv voltage was completely unusable and the calibration procedure simply didn’t work and I couldn’t get an answer from squarp.
In terms of workflow, I found the Elektron workflow to be just so intuitive and fast at this point that learning curve aside I just knew I wasn’t going to enjoy the squarp’s. I had trouble keeping track of what was where. The Digitakt has limitations but nothing that has ever stopped me from accomplishing what I want to do. I don’t care about song mode, if I need something longer than 4 bars I don’t see how chaining two patterns is that difficult.
I could go on but just wanted to add some perspective, because I was so hype for the pyramid from its reputation online and when I finally had my hands on it I struggled to enjoy it. The Digitakt is my favorite sequencer and I rarely hear a track that I wouldn’t be able to reproduce on the Digitakt sequencer if I had to. Elektron workflow and build quality rules.
2 Likes