Today Elektron’s Instagram celebrated Digitakt’s 3rd release anniversary. I think however many of us who bought it aren’t completely happy with how Elektron handles development. In fact we don’t know if we can expect continous updates? The last one was a year ago and some bugs got fixed and we got Overbridge, but no further functionality nor further bugfixes. Elektron seems to be more interested in their newest toys too nowadays.
Do you think there’s a chance Digitakt still has some form of development roadmap or Elektron is working on an mk2 or just abandoned it in the product development sense?
I like it too. But when I bought it very early on Overbridge was already a promised thing on the box. That was a plain lie. So I guess we got it last year but I had to move on (got a Bitbox for sampling). As a MIDI sequencer its still great in my setup.
It’s one of the best sellers for the company, if not the best overall. I don’t think it’s going to be abandoned anytime soon - OT is more likely to go so they can focus on OB machines imo. The only problem with updating the DT is the lack of processing cycles left over. So, while other products got a Mkii version because of a lack of available parts, DT might get one so it can be pushed forward. But I’m not sure how likely that will be. I don’t expect stereo sampling or timestretching to be added at all - it’s not the DT way.
I think the people who would have been adding features and fixing bugs on the Digitakt have been prioritised towards Overbridge 2.0, which I don’t think was the original plan. They’ve been in damage limitation for a long time and I think they’ve finally got over the hump of that.
I’m hopeful that they’ll be able to direct resource (people) back to maintaining their existing line-up now.
I’m also hopeful that they’ll produce a Mk2 Digitakt with moderately improved hardware (second DSP processor to bring its processing power up to that of the Digitone), modified internal audio circuitry to enable stereo sampling and input passthrough, etc. Perhaps velocity sensitive pads that more closely resemble those on the Model:_ series. If they do this then it seems likely that they’ll produce a v2 firmware which will add features and fix bugs, and I’m hoping that they’ll also bring most of the new features and bug fixes to the existing Mk1 hardware (as much as is possible). It seems like Elektron have a history of continuing to release updates for the older boxes in parallel with the new ones (Analog Four mk1 for example).
Except when I bought it it wasnt at all what it was advertised as. It had tons of bugs, no Overbridge at all nor support at all (all added much later) etc.
That is the past however, it just shows me Elektron quickly pushes things through without much QA.
I suppose… I’ve performed with mine countless times with no issues. I’ve ran into bugs in the studio, but nothing that was “show-stopping.”
I see these things as tools… I’m not flaming Adolph Sax for making an instrument that requires me to adjust my voicing for intonation.
I’m not trying to be obtuse, but I just spend more time moving through music than I do being picky about what a thing is “not.” Maybe I’m lucky, but most things I’ve encountered are solved by creating a new project. …which is not unique to Elektron, or any computer program, for that matter.
Edit: I fully understand if a thing just flat out doesn’t work for you.
It’s a small company, it’s difficult to position products in the market and timing can be everything. The sad likelihood is that marketing/finance department may have had to cut the development time short to get the thing selling to keep the company alive. As technologists I’m sure there were plenty of people within the team who would have liked to give it the time it needed to become a stable product that fully delivered on the marketing promises, but you can’t prioritise that over the survival of the company. It’s hard times for music hardware manufacturers these days.
Yes it makes us beta testers if you want to think of it that way, but Elektron isn’t the only company doing it and it doesn’t abandon products after the first wave of sales which is more than can be said of other companies.
We all know OB too some unprecedented effort, yet they did deliver at a very unprecedented time.
Now they can have their teams re-arranged to fix things on the DT and improve it still, while some think about the future of the brand’s instruments. They probably already have ideas hence the latests jobs postings…
(DT’s hardware may be constricted as its been said but you can still flash the firmware and rethink things through to free up ressource allocations…)
anyways, I dont think DT is done and that we should wait for a mk2 (if it was only upgrading processing power, I could imagine so many users feeling left out or ripped off…)
If anything, it could be time to invest in a second hand digitakt, we may be in for a surprise.
Anyways, Happy birthday to the Digitakt, my first Elektron, still one of my go-to boxes…
no i don’t think they will do much else with it at this point. it has been said that it’s pretty much maxed out for abilities. even if it had more power available, I would expect a new Model:Something long before they add anything else to the DT.
based on the machines current build, i would love for them to add in midi loopback internally.
since midi is already in there it seems like it could be done without much more processing power…
This is a thing i’v seen a lot over the years, being a member of technical forums (cameras) since the late 90’s.
People buying technical gear in hope that they will be something else further down the road. It’s such a strange position in my view as either you buy something for what it is and you think it’s worth the investment, or you simply don’t.
Why buy something expecting it will be something else down the line ?
Do the people who reason like this, also buy a classical piano and hope it will be something else in a couple of years?
there’s a couple of features that at least sound reasonable - which doesn’t mean that they are - which I would love to see implemented - BPF might be the most obvious one.
I would also love to be able to have stereo output via USB (to send both audio and MIDI to my iPad via USB), although probably not going to happen either.
I understand that other features I wish for are most probably impossible (ie. zoom on SRC page, that probably takes a lot of processing).
At this point I’m hoping one day MKII will see te light of day - and that they will leave more processing room for improvement - I love it to bits, and some slight improvements would make it my favorite sampler ever (stereo samples, better sample management, stereo input monitoring, ping-pong play mode, second LFO, headphone output assignment so you can use it as a 3/4 output, more internal space or removable storage media - all these in order of importance)
I would be immensely disappointed if it ever comes out and only takes mono samples.
nothing wrong with expecting bug fixes, or for a product to work as advertised. people complaining years later that they’re not getting new features makes no sense. sure, new stuff is a bonus and everyone loves it. feeling entitled to new features into infinity is unrealistic. no company, especially a small one like Elektron, has unlimited resources for that.
