(To set the scene for this slightly ridiculous post I suggest listening to some gentle romantic music and imagine someone staring lovingly at a Digitakt, lost in a trance and hand draped across its buttons.)
Back in 2009, I decided to get back into gaming, having taken a four-year hiaitus from it while I lived abroad. I couldn’t afford a gaming PC, so my first instincts were Playstation or XBox, thinking that was where the “proper” games were.
The person I lived with at the time was going through a rough patch, and it occurred to me that perhaps I could help her by instead getting a Nintendo Wii. But this meant forgoing Halo and the like, and instead embracing a machine better known for jet-skiing grandmas. It was woefully underpowered, had virtually no third-party publisher support, but who didn’t love Mario and all that?
My partner had never gamed before, but was quickly drawn into Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda and other inoffensive, wholesome delights. It remains the purchase I’m proudest of in my life; to see her experience real joy wandering around the Mushroom Kingdom and Hyrule was so heartening.
These days that decision has been joined on the pride podium by another: my decision 5 years ago to get an Elektron Digitakt. Apart from a MODX I’d had and sold some years before (something I used as a vastly over-provisioned piano, since my brain couldn’t deal with FM synthesis), this was the first electronic music device of any kind I’d ever bought. I have a degree in music composition so I know music theory and all that, but music production was new to me.
Again, there were the concerns about some of the limitations compared to other models; The MPC One had, well, everything, and Roland’s MC707 looked pretty slick too. The Digitakt was mono, had only delay and reverb where the aforementioned boxes had all sorts of effects, and all tracks were monophonic. Thankfully, my wet-behind-the-ears naivete meant I didn’t notice (or at least understand) the first and third of those limitations, and I figured I could live without tonnes of effects for now. The sound-mangling potential the Digitakt offered made up for that to some extent anyway. So this felt like PS/XBox vs. Wii: round two. I chose the “Wii” again.
The Digitakt arrived and was promptly shunted into a draw where it would sit for two entire years - ostensibly because I was engaged in real-world trivialities like trying to find a job and somewhere to live, but also because I was scared of the learning curve. I had read many accounts of the Digitakt (and Elektron boxes in general) being a bit “Marmite” (that UK reference may not travel well; it means something you either love or hate). While many people were effusive and evangelical towards these boxes, others said they never gelled with the workflow and ultimately gave up.
Well, I really needn’t have worried. What a joy it is; others on this forum have put it best when they describe the Digitakt as an instrument, in stark contrast to some of the competing products which can feel, well, more like work. Sure, the MPC can do it all, but you’d better like juggling different screens; sure, the MC707 can also do it all but you’d better like diving a rabbit’s warren of menus (on a tiny screen.)
The Digitakt, in contrast, is a joy to use. I’m a trained pianist, and I’m still amazed that something that is so obviously not a piano could actually evoke a similar experience in the sense that it is so tactile. You feel like you can actually play it, not just configure it.
Yes it has limitations; it’s unfathomable that it’s mono given the price, and the lack of performance effects and timestretch are irksome. But ultimately it’s like a beloved friend, whose periodic annoyances fade into meaninglessness compared to their redeeming qualities. And anyway, to flirt with a cliche, those limitations can focus your creativity. An MPC can paralyse you with choice given that it does it all; the Digitakt will actually get you making you music. Too much choice can be a bad thing.
And so to anyone afraid of taking the plunge with an Elektron device, I say GO FOR IT. Your mileage may vary and we’re all different, of course, but I can honestly say that, once I sat down to actually learn the device, there wasn’t a single thing that didn’t seem logical or intuitive. It feels like it’s been designed by some awesome gestalt superbrain, one hemisphere of which was sourced from an elite-level software engineer fluent in UX and logic, and the other by Mozart himself.
Thank you, Elektron. I totally picked the right device.