Digitakt vs. Roland MC 707?

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

Hey guys, first time poster.

I’m looking at the Digitakt and the new Roland MC 707.

On paper, and in my limited understanding, it does appear that the 707 is the stronger machine, though of course it depends on your usage and the 707 is also £200+ more expensive.

But I’m just wondering, from you Digitakt experts who may also have had a look at the 707, are there reasons you’d still take the Digitakt over the 707, other than price?

The biggest concern with the Digitakt is the lack of effects, which is an area the 707 excels on. That said, that lovely yellow screen… :slight_smile:

Thanks for any advice!

#2

I have both, I LOVE the digitakt. It’s an instant classic IMO, so immediate and powerful and FUN! The 707 has immediate aspects to it and is a lot more powerful, while significantly easier to understand than say the octatrack. Honestly the takt is worth keeping forever IMO, it’s just so instantly gratifying, but the 707 is much deeper and can do things the takt can’t.

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#3

protracker vs renoise: who will come out on top?!?!?!

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#4

FT2 ftw :grin:

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#5

What sampler hardware do you already own ?

#6

How long have you had your 707 for?

#7

The more I learn about the 707 the more I like it (at least on paper and on video).

But that Digitakt workflow just inspires me, and the Digitakt/Digitone pair covers so much sonic and sequencing territory for me that I haven’t had serious GAS for anything for months.

Prior to experiencing Elektron gear, the 707 might have been a contender for me, but I’m in a really good groovy space right now and happy with what I have.

YMMV

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#8

I’ve only had the 707 for 2 days so far. I have my digitakt and digitone set up right now together. They are an absolute blast to play, absolutely love them.

The 707 is great so far, I really like it too! I need to sell off other gear.

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#9

The DT has a great delay, bit-reducer, overdrive, reverb, multi-mode filter, and compressor… what lack of effects?

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#10

Performance effects. It really pales compared to Roland gear.

I have the Digitakt and love it. It does a lot, the more you progress in production the more you will hate its silly limitations.

Aesthetically, the DT any day. Other than that, the 707 seems more capable and usable in many more situations.

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#11

Performance effects? I don’t know the abilities of the 707, what do you mean?

#12

Performance effects are like the effects you would find on a DJ mixer or the loved SX404. Delay, scatter, beat-repeat, randmoizers…

I heard someone here mentioned that you can also edit the effects parameters.

#13

Check the manual, tons of parameters there. For example, the Compressor has 21 editable parameters…

#14

When Roland designed the mc707 it’s almost like they knew everyone would still keep their Digitakt.

That’s why they didn’t bother with one-shot sampling or loop-slicing. :smiley:

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#15

I meant what does the 707 have that the DT doesn’t in terms of effects? DT has delay of course, and randomizing for each parameter page, and you can also edit many parameters for the delay, reverb, and compressor. Control-all + revert can also be used as a great performance effect on the DT.

#16

From the videos, it seems like the 707 can do a bit more. I haven’t read the manual so I cant tell you exactly. Beat Repeat is a big one for me and its not on the DT.

Also time-stretching. I think the 707 can change a tempo of a loop which the DT can’t do. I haven’t seen this illustrated some I’m curious about how good the time stretching algo is.

#17

Allow me to say that this is a silly question. It’s like you compare a Tesla with a Fiat. Any Elektron machine is a futuristic, inspired and deep device that will lead you to new heights in your creativity. A Roland device is a mediocre uninspired and shallow device that is made for the masses. So yeah I’m advising you to go for the DT :wink:

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#19

Uhhh ok, you did say that the DT pales in comparison though… but can’t really say how :man_shrugging: The 707 looks like a cool device from the limited amount I saw, but it looks like just another groovebox with lots of stuff thrown in to play with, while the DT is a sharp purposeful tool with a very focused workflow and extremely high quality sound and effects.

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#20

MC707 has a pretty versatile synth section (pcm and va), + drums, + looper, tons of fx, tons of parameters in general, but doesn’t look fun to play with. I’ve only read the manual so I don’t really know how approachable the MC707 really is. It just seems both devices focus on different things.

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#21

not sure but from what I‘ve watched it seems that the 707 can‘t do a lot with samples apart from timestretching…
can you even change start and end parameters of a sample?
Elektron boxes also excel at automation. Parameter locking and live recording of basically every available parameter. On the 707 it seems you only can only automate 3 chosen parameters per track… Correct me if I‘m wrong
Controll all is one of the coolest performance features. Looks much more immediate to me compared to creating a bunch of scatter effects.
The 707 has much deeper synthesis but it looks awkward to edit… Digitakt can still do great synth sounds with single cycle waves for example.
The polyphony of the 707 seems like a big advantage.

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