Digitakt vs. Octatrack

Elektron Gear
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So… I’m looking at getting one of these puppies for sampling duties. I realize this has probably been beaten to death in various threads, but I couldn’t find a dedicated discussion for this particular comparison.

Essentially I’m asking for a quick and dirty rundown of the main differences. So my questions for those of you who have used both:

Does the octatrack cover the functionality of the digitakt completely, or are there features of the digitakt that the octatrack lacks?

What - in your opinion - are the most important upgrades in functionality of the octatrack compared to the digitakt?

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Digitakt = mono, auto normalises, you have to use Transfer software for sample transfer.
Only 1 sampling track at a time. Limited space compared to OT. Sampling drum machine. Literally.

Octactrack= stereo, choices choices, extensive sample editing, drag and drop from your computer over usb. 8 sampling tracks available to sample any source simultaneously.
Supports 64GB memory cards. Dynamic Performance Sampler. Literally.

They both have 8 midi tracks but OT has the amazing midi arp, and 3 LFOs per track.

Digitakt has send fx, OT has inserts.

Octatrack has 4 in 4 out.

Oh… and octatrack has the crossfader… which can be asssinged to any parameter on any audio track… multiple times (Ive never hit the wall on that)

If you want a machine that does a lot of stuff for you, go digitakt.
If you want a machine that you can fully customize to your will (within the limits of its feature set of course) go octatrack.

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Slicing samples is better on the OT.

Digitakt now has slicing, but you can’t manually set or change the slice points.

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DT has overbridge and not OT

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Ok! Both are killer machines. If you’re not already in the Elektron world then Digitakt is easier to learn. However Octatrack isn’t too hard, it just takes some dedication and time to learn all of the ways you can use it.

I own both and love both for different reasons.
Digitakt was designed to be more of a one shot sampling drum machine.

Even though you can sample loops with the most recent update, you’re limited to 1gig internal storage.

Octatrack is a full fledged sampler, utilising a compact flash card up to 64g for storage.

I use it for sampling 16 - 64 step loops, mostly from my Eurorack, as well as a mixer for other elektron machines. It’s the central hub of the setup.
There are many ways to twist, resample, chop and play what you’ve recorded within the octatrack.
There are 2 effect blocks per track on the octa where you can pick from filter, reverbs, distortions, chorus, delay etc.

It houses many effects but only 2 can be used per track, unless you use a neighbour machine which will sacrifice another track to add 2 more effect blocks to your previous track.

Many people prefer digitakt effects as they are more modern sounding than the octatrack fx. Personally I think both have excellent effects.

Octatrack offers an amazing delay per track which can also be setup as a freeze delay for glitching which is my personal favourite.

Delay and reverb on the digitakt are send effects, but sound great.
Digitakt also offers a dedicated overdrive, sample rate, filter, bit rate, delay, reverb and a master compressor all available per track.

Both have 8 tracks plus 8 midi tracks.

Octatrack has 4 inputs and 2 master outputs plus 2 cue outputs.
And the best of all, the crossfader!! Scenes are a super powerful part of the octatrack.

Digitakt however has the control all function which is also very powerful and a feature from the original machinedrum. Control all is a perfect way to create new sounding patterns from existing patterns.

Anyway… there’s always more to be said about either machine… but hope these few thoughts off the top of my head can help you make a decision.

Cheers!

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Octatrack any day for reasons mentioned. Also Digitakt has gotten to pricey for what it offers.
Also look at Push 3 as alternative. Standalone is not much more than an Octa now.

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DT is more immediate.
On DT you assign samples from pool directly to tracks, and you can do that per pattern.
On OT you have to use parts. No bog deal, but parts require some planing, otherwise you accidentally replace some of your samples on another patterns.

With some skills, DT goes far beyond just sample based drum machine.
This video was published before DT machines were released. With the new machines DT is even deeper.

Despite on all OT power, my OT collects dust and I use DT, with SP404mk2 for stereo samples.

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The filter sound really different on both.
DT has now two filter in series per track, OT use a FX slot to have filter.

DT has two ADSR for filter & AMP, OT is quite different in this area.

DT has two LFO which are really fine grained, OT has 3 LFO but the amplitude is less controlabe, I mean you have 0-127 on OT and sub digit range on DT. That matter is you want to do subtle change.

OT has 4 kit per bank, DT is one kit per pattern. Some love that, not too much my taste.

OT is for long sample.
DT is for short sample.

For me they have lots in common but you can not compare them. It’s the whole set of diff which make them in different class league.

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dt has better midi sequencing/step resolution and manual quanitzation if youre using it as a midi sequencer

dt has chromatic pitching of samples via midi and trig buttons, which is the biggest strong point for me

lfos are better/faster but does not have custom lfos

timestretching on dt is seemingly better now that it has the ableton stretch modes

octatrack is more of a sound design machine. better, more sound design-oriented effects for really “synthesizing” your sounds and you can make it do some crazy MLR(norns), orca(norns) & cheat codes (norns) style buffer recording and playback with mutliple rec triggers across multiple tracks or even multiple triggers recording multiple inputs into multiple buffers on a single track, being played back via different playback trigs. its not as immediately musical as the dt, but can do more if youre into tings like synthesizing your own percussive sounds from impulses or white noise. it closer to like a combo of an er-301 plus an electribe es1. where i guess the dt is probably more like an sp-404 or something more immediate and simplified. less modular

i also think the filter sounds better on the octa, despite the dt having a little more in-your-face sound due to the mono playback and maybe slightly higher fidelity dac/effects/sample resolution(?) (im probably wrong about the dt’s specs, but i prefer the ot sound either way)

its jut kind of unfortunate that the octa doesnt have the new machine stretch options of the dt, the rec resolution of the seq, and most importantly, the accurate chromatic sample pitch shifting/playabck. if they fixed those three things, or really just the last two things, this question wouldnt even be relevant anymore

some people would still want better lfo speeds, more fine tuned envelopes/filters/lfos, and the reverb and delay of the dt. it would be nice if it had the rytm mk2/digitakt graphical interface when it comes to the filter and envelopes. but i can live without those things. the chromatic sample playback and midi recording/playback issues are things i cant really live with, which is why i typically end up owning both simultaneously. which is annoying. because i use the dt/dn as my primary midi sequencer. an mk3 would solve almost all of my problems, esp if it had more tracks or parts/2nd bp filter/the analog elements of the syntakt.

to summarize, i need an all in one elektron groovebox withall the cool upgrades of the dt, synthesis + sampling , and more inputs. hope that pipe dream answers your question

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Imo the DT’s reverb and delay sound better than the OT’s.

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As someone who hasn’t got an Octatrack and keeps thinking about this because of longform, live stuff and stereo, the thing that is keeping me on my Digitakt apart from the fact that it fits on my piano is how wonderfully fast and unfiddly it is. It’s just a beautiful piece of engineering and ux that I could probably play with my eyes closed. Can’t overexpress how hands on and effortlessly fun it is.

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AND OT’s chorus is the same as the Monomachine’s. So if you want to have that sweet Sophie sound…

This is a minor point but still.

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A few points in addition to the previous replies:

Benefits of the digitakt:

  • The UI of the digitakt is better designed and more pleasant to work with (e.g. filter & amp envelope etc). This makes programming beats more fun on the digitakt.
  • Digitakt has 7 effects per track (e.g. filter, bw filter, drive, sample & bit rate reduction, reverb & delay sends) whereas on the OT you only have two fx slots per track. This means that if you want do highpass filter a sample and add some reverb you’ve already used your fx slots. On the other hand, some fx on the OT consists of several effects (e.g. filter allows you to highpass + add a lowpass filter with resonance & envelope, lofi has distortion, BRR and SRR).
  • On the OT you cannot assign the delay and reverb on the first FX slot so if you want to combine delay + reverb, you need to use a neighbour track.
  • The digitakt machines (werp, repitch, etc) are not available on the OT.
  • Pattern mutes are not available on the OT (only global mutes)
  • The master compressor is better than on the OT + on the OT you need to set track 8 as master track to be able to use a master compressor.
  • Sampling sounds is more straightforward then on the OT.

Benefits of the OT:

  • The crossfader & scenes: OT does not have control all but the scene & crossfader functionality works way better for performance purposes. You have endless possibilities and the crossfader is very tactile. This makes performing on the OT x10 more fun compared to the DT and for me personally the main reason to use the OT over the DT.
  • Liveloop functionality (e.g. loop 64 bars from any connected device of the main output)
  • Option to stream long stems from the memory card without sacrificing sample slots.
  • Stereo sampling: Depending on your music style and what type of samples you use, this might matter a lot (e.g. a piano loop in stereo sounds way better than in mono).
  • On the OT the slices work better as you can zoom in and change the slice points per slice (useful for breakbeats).
  • Each track can have its own unique reverb or delay setting whereas on the DT there is only one delay and reverb for all tracks.

So it depends a bit where this device will fit in your setup and if you will be using it to perform. The OT is more a central hub/sound design beast whereas the DT is a great one shot sampler. If you have a ST and DT, then working in the exact same UI is very useful to create muscle memory.

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???
You could always sample loops with the Digitakt.
V 1.5 lets you assign sample length, (which is cool) but there was nothing stopping you from recording loops with it on V 1.0.

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Being on my 4th honeymoon with a Digitakt and finally having things click makes me think about the OT a good bit. Im sure it’s more a “me thing” that I am now having fun with DT, but I also think the engines helped me out a good bit. I’m not a pro sample chopper but messing with samples and adding a simple beat is 100% fun to me.
I know I should just stay focused and keep learning new things on DT but man the crossfader and more ins / outs has me looking closer and closer. Also I want to mess with live looping. I have a Blackbox so no reason I cant start now, but thinking about doing it all in one box is interesting.
If I did pull the trigger I would keep the DT. Guess Ill be watching this thread a bit more!

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I bought a DT again as soon as I heard about Slice machine update. Game changer !

Same for OT, but DT pitch range is much better.

Definitely better on OT. Werp isn’t Ableton Warp, as said Elektron team.

Some specs
DT (per project) :
Mono samples
33 sec max recording (mono)
RAM 64MB (for playback, around 14mn mono)
128 slots (Slices now possible)

OT (per project):
Stereo recording, Stereo or mono playback

128 FLEX slots (RAM 85.5 MB)
8m28s max playback in stereo, twice in mono)
8m28s max recording (stereo only)
8 recorders you can sequence with trigs, play their buffer on the fly on any step of any track

128 STATIC slots (CF Card, 64 GB max)
CF CARD streaming : up to 2GB files (3h30m per track, so up to 64GB in a project)
Slices can be set freely.

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Can you swap CF cards? CF1: you load a few of your fav samples in Flex. No Static machines. Swap the card to CF2 and save everything to a new project with the added samples you’ve created. Possible, or forbidden?

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Yes you are certainly correct! My apologies. I was thinking of the new sample length feature which is similar to the octa. :sunglasses:

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This is exactly the type of breakdown I asked for. Thank you very much for your reply!

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Forbidden is not the proper word, it won’t work. Never tried but the way it is designed won’t allow you to do that.

When you open a project on the OT, it is bind to a given directory on the OT.

All project pattern, kit and similar are saved to this folder.
If you swap the card, the OT will be lost at some point when it need to reach the card.
Because the OT will sooner/later discover old/new card disagrees at data level.

But you can duplicate project or let the OT became a CF card reader to add sample.
You can not play with the OT in this mode, but still not power off/card removal. And it’s supported :slight_smile:

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