Digitakt or Model:Samples+Model:Cycles?

Hi! I’ve only worked with DAWs so far. Now I’m planing to get into the hardware world. So please excuse my following question: If you had € $ 700 to spend would you buy a Digitakt or rather go with Model:Samples AND Model:Cycles? Thanks.

Depends what you want to do, this is not enough information to answer properly :slight_smile: Both of these options can make sense, depending on what your goals are

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Welcome to the forum!

Why?

Do you not know the differences between the devices?

You have to think for yourself about what you want to do with your hardware, and then see which of your desired features any specific instruments provide, not what any random set of internet commenters might think is cool.

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Thank you very much for the quick replies. I guess I’m looking for the option with the most possibilities. I already had the model:samples in my hands and liked it. But since it’s often called the little brother of the Digitakt or “Digitakt light”, I’m not sure if I would have to go for the Digitakt after a while anyway. But since the model:cycles is on the market I’m asking my self if the combination of m:s and m:c would give me more sonic possibilities than the Digitakt on its own.

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Hello. Less is more : Digitakt.
Especially if you come from DAW, learning 1 machine at a time is important. And you can go deep with digitakt with his screen and full enveloppe, filter, lfo etc… I use mine as a little DAW with sampling and resampling, arranging patterns and played them in order to make a track.
So yeah, go for Digitakt in my opinion.

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Digitakt is a sampler, so you can have endless sonic possibility depend with what you feed in. Plus the onboard single cycle waveform, and filter, env, distortion, bitcrusher, LFO, compressor and resampling give you extra space to sharp your sound. And if you don’t have enough, plug an usb cable and resample via the computer with your VST plugins, or sample your favorite VST synth.
Tell you, it’s endless :wink:

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Depends, if you like sample digging most then Digitakt could be your thing. If, like me, you are more of a synthesist then there s a lot of fun to be had with the MS+MC combo. I don t like digging into sample libraries, transferring files to the device etc. Much happier with plug and play synth knob twiddling. I have Machinedrum, Monomachine and Analog Rytm but the MC still looks really appealing to me.

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And yes the MC+MS gives you more sound options than Digitakt, if you like the type of FM sounds MC makes.

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The biggest advantage coming from the DAW world with the DT is Overbridge. You can slowly transition or add something to your current setup. As @blaize said, the DT is a sampler and can offer tons of fun/sampling.

The DT can go really far with 8 MIDI tracks on top of 8 regular tracks.

I am sure others will explain the fun of both Model machines.

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Other things to consider:

Sample management on Digitakt requires more effort than Model:Samples since you have less slots to work with over an equal amount (64MB) of project RAM.

Digitakt has 128 sample slots per project, as it uses the MIDI standard for this (which does allow you to modulate the slot # if you want to go all autechre widdit)

Model:Samples has as many slots as there are tracks multiplied by patterns, i.e. 576, and therefore no slot list to “manage”. For me personally, it gives me more mileage out of the 64MB sample RAM. I used to own a Rytm, and while I miss the old true “kit system”, I do prefer this newer sample slot scheme and wish the Digitakt had it.

Also: Digitakt has a built in compressor. This is a big bonus.

Also: you’re used to DAW work. Digitakt has Overbridge for multi-track recording into your DAW. The Model series does not.

You’ll need to weight the pros and cons of each to see what works best for you. We’re all unique in our individual needs.

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More sonic possibilities is not going to be a satisfying route to take when going hardware. A limited piece of gear can be more inspiring than a “do it all”. If that’s what you need, your DAW is still the best bet. Get something that you feel you would enjoy using, learn it well, and appreciate what you can make with it.

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If you need sampling capabilities and/or a powerfull connexion with the pc world, go DigiTakt.
If you want deep control on enveloppes and/or LFOs and/or effects, go DigiTakt.

If you want instant fun go Models:Samples&Cycles.
Direct control, pads, FM sounds,… you can see and hear some advantages here too.

But there’s not only Elektron in the world.
I mean, they are really good but what are you looking for ?
If you want a “DAW in a box” I’d suggest a MPC one for exemple.
If you want fingerdrumming a good analog synth engine designed for drums, why not keep your money for a Tempest ?
If you want to jam and sketch ideas anywhere, maybe a novation circuit would perfectly do the job.
etc

Maybe start with your favorite model:something, try it a few days and if it’s not okay, return it.

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Wait what?

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Actually I’m at the same stage as you right now.
I’ve spent quite some years trying to build a setup in Live that in essence works like modern sequencers.
Using Clyphx Pro along with iPad (running touchable Pro) I’ve built a quick way to go into to any device and start messing with it. At any given moment I could reset the selected device, all devices on the track, sends and even a full live reset so that I could quickly start builinding new clips on the fly.
In all my tracks before midi arp, chord and scale device (and of course the Vsti itself) I added midi devices to add probability and chance to midi notes.
Although I love playing with my liveset I’m finding that I’m spending too much time tweaking little details either on tracks, or scripting code to control specific functions and actions in Live rather than simply jamming and having fun.
This leads me to this point. Although Digitakt (and even Digitone) are excellent machines I’m thinking that maybe MC & MS is a better option to go than the Digitakt because we get more instant and dedicated knobs to specific parameters which is actually where I’m aiming for now.

One thing I don’t know about MC & MS that maybe you guys could tell me… Is the sequencer global or independent for each track? The reason for this question has to do with polyrythms.

Thanks in advance :slight_smile:

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One thing I would note with Digitakt vs MS is just how fast it really is to navigate the digitakts menus/parameters while on the MS or MC things in menus (quite few things) are more difficult to use in a live environment. Being able to sample/resample super quickly can also be conducive to a fast work flow as you don’t need to go back to a computer if you wanted to get into some quick sound design.

All the current elektron sequencers can all be set to different divisions of your BPM so you can get into polyrhythms/polymeter this way as well as by using different step lengths per track. There are some global sequencer settings you can use as well to alter how this works if you what things to run infinite or reset back to the initial state after a prescribed number of steps or loops through the polyrhythm.

I would say no reason to not start off with MC & MS, then if you feel like you are needing to bounce between the MS and computer too much, or feel you need deeper control on samples you could upgrade to a Digitakt. I think DT and MC together is quite fun, sampling the MC lets you push the sounds you make with it a bit further but live tweaking the MC always brings me new inspiration from the unexpected results you find from control all on multiple synth machine types.

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Used Rytm :slight_smile:

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Since I’m not a live musician, I’m not really able to answer your questions. But in the end I decided to get a Digitakt. I’ve been using it a lot for the last two months and every time I’m amazed how great this device is. For me it almost entirely replaced working with a DAW – what I wasn’t expecting. And now with the 1.20 upgrade (including class compliant USB audio) it got even better. After being a little skeptical at first, I can say with complete conviction that the Digitakt deserves its fame.

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Suddenly this new firmware update of the Digitakt and Digitone brings a lot of new requested features like chance which was something that instantly got my attention onto both MC & MS. Makes me wonder…

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Another vote for Digitakt. It’s the perfect introduction to hardware music-making and I think you’ll be more productive managing patterns and handling one device rather than two. Less is always more, IMO.

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makes you wonder what?