Digitakt vs. Octatrack

I like oranges more than apples. Not so much a comparison as just the way it is.

iā€™m going to buy a Digitakt now rather than the OTmkII, cheers for the inspiration ā€¦ itā€™s true what you say, there is a ā€˜soundā€™ the Digitakt accesses.

itā€™s the new breed non linear programming of the digital to audio domain perhaps.

there is some audio mystical magic going on.

going to gig with the Machinedrum, Digitakt, and a two-track analogue Xenyx mixer, and use the Elektron Headphone outputs as Aux feeds to sample between the two during a performance.

yes, i know the Digitakt must be halted to start sampling, but the Machinedrum is able to capture loops realtime, so the combination is enough for progressive mixing for an improvised two hour set at a club or wherever.

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I am waiting for the OT MK2. (Itā€™s turning into torture, actually. Sweet consumerist torture.)

I also had some time with a DT. It was magical, certainly.
But I just know that for all the sheen and shine that stereo output has, after a few months of use Iā€™ll want it to go deeper than it is capable of.

Puddles are fun to play in, splashing around a bit on a rainy day. But Iā€™m ready to go deep sea diving, and for many years.
To each their own.

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bodies of water are however quite often perceptual ā€¦
to perform live without an Octatrack is, to some degree, going much deeper than performing with one.

but really for my situation the finances require limitation of investment.

i fell in love with the Digitakt.
the OT is way deeper, but the heart wants what it wants.
thus, the fabulous flagship is postponed somewhat lol.

Assuming then, that the depth of oneā€™s music is defined by an instrument.

The answers lie somewhere in betweenā€¦

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OT is so obnoxiously obtuse Iā€™d spent days with it and still not developed anything resembling a workflow or even a basic understanding of itā€™s UI architecture.

The DT on the other hand is incredibly easy to understand, and I soon became frustrated with itā€™s limitations. Something in between would be ideal in my eyes.

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I believe thatā€™s what the OT MKIIā€™s new ā€œimprovedā€ workflow cues are aimed at.

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I donā€™t know. I think comparisons between the OT and DT in terms of workflow, just wonā€™t get us anywhere. Theyā€™re worlds apart, as they should be, and what little time Iā€™ve had with the OT MKII, gives me no impression itā€™s taken cues from the Digitakt. I donā€™t think it can, I donā€™t think it should.

The Digitakt, for all its jazz, is quite traditional, just the sampler game dressed up in a 2017 suit. No small feat, and Iā€™m happy one of the best in the market did it.

The OT is like Pandoraā€™s box. You open it, you have no idea whatā€™s coming out, but itā€™s chaos for sure, and once you control it, you rule.

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ā€œVs.ā€ sort of leaves the impression one might be a winner, interpreting it as ā€œcompared toā€ would be more reasonable as they have similarities but really are very different, and different people will be drawn to either for various reasonsā€¦ They really are very different in totality of operationā€¦

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Totally agree. I can absolutely see a super pro studio musician going for either or, for various reasons, as well as the bedroom rookie just starting out.

Very clever of Elektron to position their two samplers so differently, and then just throw in a third one with the Rym that also has an analogue percussion engine to boost. My, oh my :slight_smile:

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there is no doubt i would buy all three current Elektron samplers immediately if the financial resources abstract notation indications were more somehow easily attainable. But for now, will go with the new breed Digitakt.

i guess one thing to mention about the Digitakt vs Octatrack comparison is that the Digitakt does in fact do loops, with the ever-essential feature of adjusting the loop start point. But no timestretching, and currently no slices.

edit:
Just realised that with the option of individual track lengths on the Digitakt, it is in fact quite possible to play imported loops that are longer than four bars, yay.
/edit

As i do not much enjoy the sound of timestretched content, if i was performing with the Octatrack, i would gradually build to a tempo where i have a bunch of loops in a folder at that tempo. Then play them with looping on and timestretching off.

the Digitakt is able to do exactly the same thing, except with a slightly fresher warmer sound.

but the Octatrack is able to hold 64gb of content, compared to the Digitaktā€™s gigantic one gigabyte.

I get lost in large folder systems on hardware instruments; some people donā€™t but i do. If only it were not so, but it is.

The one gigabyte storage is in fact quite a strenuous limitation, but it is better for my attention span compared to the 64gb media card i was planning to populate with the OT.

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perhaps. i still dont like the units layout. the 8 above 8 button is much faster and logical to program than the straight 16.

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Rytm MKII is just so sexy, I am hoping quench my sampling thirst once the Rytm arrives.

+If you want Elektron sampling features with ability to individually multi-track-- DT

+If you want something that can also act as a dynamic FX processor(complete with plenty of LFOs - OT(I didnā€™t care much for the sample process of the OT. Too much pre-work before getting to the sound design- but the OT was EXCELLENT as an FX processor and plenty of ways to play the FX like instruments.)

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I felt the same way with the RYTMā€™s macros compared to the OTs scenes. I got inexplicably lost with them all lined up in OTs row, but for some reason the 3x4 layout of ARā€™s macros were just more naturally organizable to me.

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The OT is a aborhant FX processor. The volume drop and tone loss when trying to use it as a mixer is unacceptable in any application. For all its theoretical potential in this area (itā€™s main selling point for me) I found it basically useless. The mixer section is terrible quality and degrades external audio, thereā€™s a major lack of gain, and it becomes a juggling act to match the OTā€™s output with your external sources.
The FX themselves are really quite poor, Iā€™ve heard better digital effects on digitech and danelectro pedals.

Haha, the OT is not something that people have a lot of agreement aboutā€¦ :wink:

donā€™t know the nameā€¦
but if you use a track as an input, where you can add your own fx
then there is audio quality decreaseā€¦

but there are other, less flexible & less advanced ways to use input
without audio lossā€¦

The master main/cue volumes need to be at 18 or maybe 19 for signal in to equal signal out.
This works for mixer dir at full, PU machine with track level at full, and flex recording with +12db set in attributes and played on flex at full track volumeā€¦
Thru needs one more adjustment on amp vol, forgot the valueā€¦

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