I’m a huge fan of the Digitakt MK1’s sound and form factor, and I’m looking to add another one to my MPC 1000 and Akai S20 combo. One of the things that initially drew me toward the MK2 was being able to use all 16 tracks for sample spaces, but I decided that I preferred the mono sampling of the original. So my question is, after some brainstorming, would having two Digis working in tandem on the same project work out good? And if anyone’s done it, how’d it work out for you!
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It works just as well as any 2 elektron devices being used in tandem but there are some workflow specifics and the disadvantage of two UI’s to deal with instead of one.
If you had another elektron device like say a digitone (you don’t but I do) and you want to control mutes from the master DT, you DO have 8 additional mutes in the bank to work with but a second DT will eat up all those slots, so you could potentially use 4 mutes for digitone and 4 for the other digitakt but that might feel limiting.
You can’t “control all” both devices from one UI and you can’t reload from temporary on both devices by using func+no unless you’re sequencing the second digitakt from the first DT’s midi tracks which kind of defeats the purpose of having a second digitakt (but you could hypothetically use the midi tracks to sequence the second DT and then func+no from the first device should reload from temp save due to all audio and midi events originating in device 1).
You can’t get too hung up on what the slaved device’s bpm says, sometimes there’s a little bit of jitter. I haven’t noticed an audible result, but it made me feel not too good at first just thinking what if they go out of sync.
I mostly use my 2 digitakts separately but if you aren’t hung up on a single UI (ie everything in one box) it has some advantages because for midi gear, instead of using the same 16 trigs for everything, you have 16 for audio and 16 for midi, it’s just split between 2 devices.
Also, if you don’t have a dedicated mixer or if you aren’t sending both into your PC and tracking out the stems via overbridge then you have to rely on the analog audio out and audio in jacks to route audio back into the first DT and use the inbuilt mixer. That means that the inputs of device 1 will always be in use and if you wanted to sample straight in from a third source, you’d have to either sample into machine 2 which creates some other workflow issues, or you swap the cables in machine 1. Also whether the audio degrades in quality by doing it that way is up to your ears to decide but theoretically, the analog audio out/in would cause some loss of fidelity and like I said, it’s up to you whether you hear it or not.
I’ll let you know if I think of anything else but off the top of my head that’s what sticks out.
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i hear you. so should i just wait to save up and get a Digi 2 then? the primary concern i have is losing (at least to my ears) the sound and weight the 1st generation Digitakts had by being strictly mono-in, and since my workflow is based around creating drums from different records, i found that it was almost a perfect match to the tone i was trying to achieve.
basically what i’m trying to ask is, is there any difference in the sound between the two? at risk of starting up “thin-sounding newer model vs. warm and better older model” debates, i’m just trying to make the best decision for the money lol.
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I think that pre-effects and compression, with the exception of stereo vs mono samples, they’ll be sonically identical. I’m pretty sure they fixed that quiet external audio input monitoring behavior on the digitakt II also so something like that is probably not an issue. Any condensed workflow is always less stressful, but aside from that I think you have to want what it offers and be ready to accept what it doesn’t currently offer.
They upgraded a number of features and gave the button layout a minor facelift, if you like the new layout better than the old one there’s another thing you can count for it, and if you don’t like the changes then there’s instead something you can count against it.
There’s no overbridge, but it will come.
So it’s going to mostly be a matter of features vs features because there’s really nothing wrong with the original digitakt, or I guess digitakts if you want more than one. There was no digitakt 2 when I bought my second one, but in the same right I haven’t upgraded so take that as you will.
The important thing is the sonic characteristic of the original isn’t going to change pre effects and filter etc, however there may be some differences at the output due to the added processing options and how you use them. That’s my opinion at least.
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