Hello, this is my first post. I have a question regarding the lifecycle of the ssds in elektron gear. I had a monomachine for about 6 years, with no memory issues. I would like to acquire a digitakt soon but I am a little apprehensive regarding the lifespan of the ssd in it. Am I total freak for even worrying about it?
I tried contacting elektron but they never responded. Does anyone have any ideas?
It not ssd as far as I know
It’s not branded as SSD, but it’s a kind of flash memory, so IMHO the description/category Solid State Drive fits well.
About the question itself: the +drive is used in many Elektron products for a few years now and I haven’t seen any reports of failing drives after longer use here.
No flash memory and no ssd, just sdram backed by a big capacitor.
Edit: there’s probably both non-volatile ram and some kind of flash: https://www.flickr.com/photos/128743207@N08/35673267555/in/album-72157683648770700/
Very interesting stuff. Would love official insight on this.
Probably 
Just try not to worry, buy one, enjoy it, make frequent backups, and if anything goes wrong send it back to Elektron.
I’m pretty sure that’s just for the “current state” memory, and as you said later, there is separate flash memory for the project/sample storage.
The RAM used in the all new Elektron products is NV-RAM. That’s why you can turn on the device and there is no project loading phase.
The +drive itself is definitely a flash type chip (solid state).
according to theslowgrowth, replaced in digitakt by ram+cap
Pretty cool thanks for sharing. I had no idea the digitakt uses kailh switches. Very nice
Ah, they are going the cheaper way now. I wonder how long the supercap can power the ram then. Still okay after a few months? Over a year? Interesting design choice …
Their older design (NV-RAM + battery) was at least rated for a few years without any power-up inbetween.
yeah, theslowgrowth again has the same concern:
The magnetic NVRAM that was used in the “Analog”-series devices was removed (probably too expensive and too small - the largest available on the market is currently 16Mbit). Instead, they use a 1Gbit DDR2 SDRAM powered from a Supercap. So, effectively you get the “persistent” memory (no loss of data when power-cycling, even without saving your project) but it porbably won’t last 20 years like the magnetic NVRAM
Thank you for providing this information. I really appreciate it. Will probably get one these lil dudes pretty soon. 
Loads of folks on here worry about loosing their data. I don’t recall ever reading of a plus drive failing, maybe once or twice in four years, maybe I’m not sure. Sure it’s good practice, but I haven’t ever backed up my 4 1/3 year old AR… I’m not even worried about it. I also don’t care if I loose everything, it’d be inspiring to start fresh…
Would be a silly worry except… Elektron really don’t make total backup of the device easy.
In fact, I’ve been wondering if there’s a way to backup the Sounds on the Digitakt? Not sure I’ve seen this discussed. Maybe with C6 somehow? C6 though is a pretty unuser-friendly way of backing up in 2019. Does not exactly feel reassuring whenever I use it…
I get that… but that doesn’t work for those of us that use the devices for paid projects and often need to be able to recall (without worry that maybe we can’t!).
Sounds can be backed up through sysex. It’s explained in page 63 of the digitakt manual, so there isn’t really a whole lot to discuss. C6 is not the only program that can be used to make sysex backups, there are quite a few. C6 is actually a good simple sysex transfer application. Moog has even recommended its usage as sysex tool, which I think is supposed to mean something for some people.
Full backups of the dt are not streamlined (projects, patterns, sounds w/C6 & samples w/transfer) but they are far from difficult. I’ve backed up and restored projects and samples many times successfully. There is nothing unfriendly about the interface.
We’ll have to beg to differ - there’s plenty unfriendly about dealing with sysex and C6. It’s archaic and effectively back to pre-UI DOS days! You might be ok with it, and I can certainly deal with it even if I don’t think it’s ideal, but I think plenty of newbies for sure would not be alright with it. There’s lots of “quirks” (bugs) when backing up and restoring sysex on the Digitakt; I’ve read about them here on this forum and experienced them.
A good backup solution would have this all abstracted from the user by a friendly UI that didn’t look like 1995. Elektron Transfer is a very good example of an easy back-up solution. They should roll all back-up into that. Frankly, they should roll it all into Overbridge; users shouldn’t be dealing with multiple applications, all of which handle different aspects of the device. It’s a bit of a mess.
I’m in no way encouraging you not to backup, but in case it makes you feel a little better about reliability, here’s straight from 
employee:
I do it routinely to clone my digitakt to another digitakt. First sync your +drive and then export your projects.