Digitakt vs Ableton

Hi,
I’m gradually becoming more and more Elektron gear having already bought a Machines, Analog Heat and Analog Four.
I use these machines along side Ableton Live 9 but read with interest about the Digitakt and find myself thinking about the sampling capabilities of the Digitakt.
I’m currently loving the hands on experience of these machines and think a sampling version would be great but . . .
Is the Digitakt a different experience to Ableton other than simply being hardware. I mean sampling wise.
Cheers,
Adam

Sorry, should say a Machinedrum.

Anyone got any insight into this? Cheers. :grinning:

Digitakt is super straightforward, so I wouldn’t even compare it to Ableton.

The octatrack would be a better comparison.

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Imho it is incomparable.
In a DAW, with the near infinite amount of plugins you can buy, you can do pretty much anything to a sample. You can throw an incredible amount of fx on a sample to mangle it, or use Reaktor for example to build your own sampler even.

The thing that makes digitakt / OT incredible is the different worlflow, stand alone use, sequencer etc. You’ll do things to samples that you won’t come up with in a DAW. But that works the other way around too. And that’s exactly why both methods are awesome in their own way.

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Cheers for the responses.
I’ve used Ableton for over 10 years and thoroughly enjoy working with it. However, I find myself far more inventive with the hardware I’ve added. Perhaps this is the nature of hardware; the kinesthetic nature of these devices encourages greater interaction.
I have Push 2 and use the Ableton Simpler device in Live 9 to explore samples and that’s currently my setup: Live 9 as my sampler and organiser and plug in player. However, I do wonder if a hardware sampler would have a similar impact as the Machinedrum and Analog Four have.

After owning an Octatrack twice I’d be reluctant about using a hardware sampler over a DAW. In a daw you’ve got unlimited storage for samples that you can pull into your project immediately- with a hardware sampler, you have to load the sounds(within storage capacity) into the sampler, and then find it and load it into the project, and then find it load it into the sound slot(for which you’re limited to only 8 slots).

That being said- I plan on purchasing a DT once OB is released because for live recording samples it seems really cool, and the midi capabilities could really add that nice Elektron feel into my Ableton workflow.

So for live recording samples, midi capabilities and that beautiful sound of the DT- definitely. But for workflow enhancement alone- no

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Cheers Ryan, that’s the kind of insight I was after.

Is the sound quality of the DT that impressive?

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I really like everything I’ve heard from it. Compare the Elektron Octatrack SoundCloud demos with the DT ones and then listen to the tracks on that thread of people sharing stuff they made only on the DT- I hear a really clean, full sound on it personally. It sounds really beautiful to me

Good luck!

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Cheers Ryan. Your feedback has been really helpful. I’m having a look around on the internet to find suppliers. Seems like they’re out of stock across the country which may at least so me being too impetuous.

I have Push 2 and a Digitakt. Ableton and Push 2 is a great integration and opened up sampling with the convert to simpler making it a great tool. I would say I like having both options. I’ve sampled more on Digitakt purely because how easy and immediate it is. I like both work flows for different tracks so I mix it up.

Cheers Billville.
I’m watching a number of YouTube videos and considering how the workflow compares to Ableton sampling. It certainly encourages experimentation like the other Elektron boxes.