Care to Speculate on Digitakt mk2

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

I hope everyone is staying healthy. Crazy times here in Seattle.

Anyway, I am strongly considering moving from a DT to an Octatrack. I love the DT and have reached that golden age where everything is muscle memory with it and I don’t have to rtfm or watch YouTube tutorials anymore. I’m thinking of switching to the OT mostly because it checks a lot of the boxes feature-wise of things I have not been able to find workarounds for on the DT.

But if I thought a bulked up DT mk2 was on the horizon in the near future I would wait for it. Anyone care to take a guess on if and when such a product would come to market (or better yet, inside info on a pending mk2 release!!!)?

Or, should I just go for the OT? Is it that much different in terms of basic functionality (xox sequencing, sample storage, etc)?

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#2

What are the things on the DT that you want to do but aren’t able to find a workaround for?

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#3

Even if a mkii was on the horizon, I would still grab an OT if the features you’re looking for are found there. If you look at the companies history, while slight changes are made on mkii reiterations there hasn’t really been any wildly significant changes. Especially because they try to maintain compatibility between old and new units. Ultimately even if a mkii dt was coming it’s unlikely to be a bulked up version, rather a more refined version of the current iteration. Like maybe they’ll add a button for the compressor

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#4

Same form factor, 4 audio tracks, 4 midi tracks, x-fader, 2 x lfo and 1 insert fx (better 2, and distortion/filter do not count…:sweat_smile:)per part and I am in ( basically half an octatrack with half the menu diving)

#5

Haha wait dude why have the amount of tracks been cut in half for your MKII version?

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#6

To give it half the octatrack power, a 4 track audio looper/mangler…:upside_down_face:

#7

My understanding is that a MKII for the Digis is unlikely - all of the other elektron MKII’s only came about because the parts used in the MKIs became unavailable, they’re basically just hardware revisions. The parts for the Digis are still available and seem pretty solid, so a hardware revision is unlikely (especially for such relatively new products, only a few years old). For big updates, it’d be more likely to happen on the firmware side of things IMO.

7 Likes
#8

Nope.

#9

The main things are:

A. Song Mode
B. Not having another filter or more eq options. I know I can resample to filter low pass then high pass but this tends to be a bit of a flow killer.
C. Storage space-it would be great to have all samples be accessible rather than having to back up a project + samples in order to start over when I want to add new samples
D. More outputs-while I am cool with recording each individual track into my DAW, it gets confusing pretty fast when I am switching between multiple patterns each pass. I have not used OB mostly because I like to run external processing on the individual tracks. Those cue outputs on the OT are starting to look pretty handy.

I think those are the main things although I’m sure there are other minor things. I’m the type of person who embraces the limitations of my gear, and I look for creative ways to get around it but these are the things that I haven’t found satisfying solutions for.

6 Likes
#10

You are probably right. Even if a mk2 did get released there is no guarantee it would have any of the features I’d want.

#11

Buy an OT.

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#12

So for those that have both or have switched from one to the other, how much different are the workflows? I have read that the OT is a much deeper device but just in terms of what the DT does, is the functionality similar on the OT? I’m just wondering if there is some knowledge that can be transferred between the two or if I would essentially be starting from scratch.

#13

Hi guys,
So back in maybe like 2014 ish I bought an Octatrack, my first Elektron device.

It took me 8 months of use to be totally overwhelmed by the machine, I tryed everything I could imagine at the time with it, and it worked.

When I had an idea, a way to mangle audio I could achive it with the Octa, maybe too many ways at the time to be honest.

I was like with Fl studio and Ableton.

For FL I could jump in and do whatever I want, I had total freedom with the structure wich I wanted to make music with.

But for Ableton for a long time, I had to know what I wanted to do BEFORE I did anything.

This was the Octatrack for me for the first time.
I had to know what I wanted to make, to set up stuff so I can make music.
After giving up on the Octa I turned to Digitakt.
Night and day in quickness and ease of use. (for a beginner like I was!!!)

It was hearthwarming, reading the OP achiving the comfort of using the Digitakt as an extension of the body, because it made me realise, that I have achieved the same.

Bottom line is, if you want a very versatile and easy to use machine keep the digi in my opinion, and get an Octatrack with it later.
Or if you really want to commit yourself than buy the Octa and stick with it, because once you use the Octatrack like you do now the Digi, nothing will stop your sonic imaginations from coming to life.
Hope this helped anything

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#14

Thank you for your response-it was very helpful and clarified a lot of what I am thinking. My hesitation with buying an OT is that I will give up a lot of time I could be making music on the DT in order to learn the OT’s workflow and quirks possibly only to discover that the OT doesn’t do what the DT does as well (in terms of workflow not features). From what I’ve read, much is made about the OT’s loop functionality and realtime sound mangling which I am not sure how I would utilize. For me, buying an OT would be all about extending the functionality of what the DT does (Extra outputs,song mode) not adding a host of unrelated features.

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#15

I feel like if it were me, I would really get both. Because while you get the extra legroom with the Octatrack, the miles I put in the Digitakt is just too much for me to dispose of.

#16

But to be honest, the workflow is not that hugely different on these machines.

I feel like you can safely explore the newness in the Octa, while still being able to do basic stuff because you already know the ins and outs of the Digis workflow wich is similar in its most basic nature. If I got the Octa in my hands, with the knowledge I have today about the Digi,
boy I would NEVER have sold my Octatrack. I miss it every day.

#17

That’s always a good idea- get both!!!
Seriously though, good to know there is some overlap in the basic functionality of the two machines. Thanks for the insight.

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#18

It’s always said the processing power on the DT is maxed out so no more significant updates and also there’s a significant amount of empty space in there - assuming those things are true…

Does anyone think they’d come out with a Mk2 and offer an upgrade for those with current DTs? For those who were around when there were +drive updates how did that work? How often has Elektron upgraded their products in this way (just MD and MM?).

I don’t see how they don’t try to cash in on their most popular product (or is that DN?) and close the gap on some of the shortcomings but also not wanting to anger everyone who has a mk 1 (a lot of people, way more than Heat mk1 :wink:).

#19

No.

I agree with this.

5 Likes
#20

ha ha well a nice simple answer!