Instant velocity is huge. Also just the convenience of as many octaves as your midi controller has is great. I’ve always used my Digi boxes with an external keyboard.
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I use a Launchpad Pro with mine, since I’m not a keys player but I like playing things in by hand.
For me it adds a lot to the experience — I just like live recording and jamming around — but even if you capture your basic idea via live recording, you still end up fiddling with the sequencer directly and adjusting p-locks, etc. etc. to refine the sequence and get it right.
So I’m in favor of external controllers but would add the caveat that they don’t eliminate the need to do some quality knob-tweaking Elektron style.
Just got the digitone ii today and only played with it for a few minutes, but I’m really impressed so far. I was messing with the “Lighthouse” preset and it sounds incredible.
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I said I wasnt going to grab Digitone2 until Overbridge was ready, but I went ahead and grabbed it anyway because Im in a country that has made some big big errors recently and our imported goods from everywhere are about to get stupid, so… it arrived 5 hours ago and OMG the tones that come out of this thing are godlike. This is it.
I have a moderate studio with about 12 keyboards/synths and/or controllers, drum machines, etc. I have a sizable software library going back 20 years and a couple DAWs. Ive played a lot of software, and a bit of hardware, and I have decent monitoring.
This thing sounds GOOD. Very good. Cascades of warmth or glitch or acoustic sounding craziness, and its got pages of parameters to play with! Im just going through preset patterns, experiencing things that are new to me (arp, seq, diff layout, etc etc), and testing everything out, and Im using the audio outs from the DN2 into my interface. It sounds like butter. Its relative volume is louder than that of my syntakt, but syntakt is over USB/overbridge and DN2 is audio in.
I am impressed, and I feel like this is the item that my syntakt needed. I OBSESSED over this for months, and mentioned hoping for an “Omnitron” (lol a fictional “everything” elektron box), but I dont need an everything box anymore. In my opinion, ST + DN2 is perfect, and I may have found some of the final pieces to my jam.
And… my 6 month old syntakt’s 13 key red LED burned out today, literally the same morning the DN2 was delivered. That key is light blue now, always. Im kinda ok with it right now, but have opened a ticket. 
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I’ve avoided watching any videos about DN2 after the launch, I watched a few on launch day but knew I didn’t have the need or budget for it, having purchased an AK the same week. But I’m really happy to see more and more glowing comments about it here. I love that Elektron expanded on their weird little FM wonder-box. I suppose one day down the road, if I get sick of my current setup, I may sell off several things and buy DN2. I truly don’t think I’m ever selling Syntakt though, it occupies such a nice music-making space for me.
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I caved and am a proud owner of a DN II as well as an ST since a week. I stand by everything I wrote in here though: ST is still way faster and probably more versatile due to the combination of FM and analog. I’m still a preset surfer on DN II as the engines are a lot harder to program than on ST. Except maybe for Wavetone and Swarmer, those are rather easy to grasp. Still lots more controls and options than on ST synth machines.
Still easier for me to give sounds that oomph on ST. Although overall sound on DN is breathtaking and compressor a plus.
DN II is a fantastic drum machine though, the new trig modes for velocity or retrigs are more useful and straightforward to me than on ST. It also has a much larger variety of hi hats.
Still a big advantage of ST is OB, although it’s only a matter of time till DN II will get it.
What I appreciate about DN II is the flexibility of assigning tracks. I’m sure there’s a good reason why the analog tracks on ST need to be fixed to 9-12, but that often makes my patterns more confusing than necessary because I can’t stick to one standard assignment that I can internalize. On the other hand, ctrl all is way better on ST imo, since the parameters usually do somewhat similar stuff on different machines, while they’re a lot more different on DN II.
So far, track count is not really a pro DN II has over ST if you use it standalone. For what I’m doing, 8-12 audio tracks is usually enough. It’s nice you still have four MIDI trigs left on DN/DT II if you use 12 audio tracks, so you can see what your creation might sound like on another machine. But it’s not a sufficient reason to upgrade for me personally.
I think I’ll keep them both as both are fantastic machines that push me in different directions. For something like a band or live situation where you have to be spontaneous and fast, I’d still prefer ST.
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the best on digitone 1 for me was to use an external midi controller onto performance setup (mod wheel, aftertouch, …)
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Yeah I always do that with my digis. But it’s nice to have some ctrl all action that only requires one knob, no setup and can lead to surprising results.
My statement above is incomplete btw, as you now have the option to exclude machines from ctrl all on DN II, which probably makes it more useful if you take the time to think about what you want to do.
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Im finding my experience with the ST is transferring to the DN2 fairly well, and I am already fairly quick with sequencing, note edits, etc, but I definitely have a lot to learn in terms of track layering and many other things DN2 does differently. Trig modifiers, for example. I already found my ST and DN2 playing nicely together inside my DAW, and I think I will sometimes allow ST to lead or DN2 to lead, depending on the percussion sounds I want.
DN2 percussion is niiiice. I hadnt played much with the drum sounds last night but by now, today Ive been through many stock patterns to give them a listen and the DN2 has its own distinctive drum/perc sounds versus the ST. I can use the palette of each to create suitable moods and styles, and I am sooo excited about this!
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are metallic/cymbals better on DNII?
Other than very short sounds and maybe ride on the syntakt…the rest sound “wrong” to me.
(my DNII delivered yesterday but haven’t had a chance to turn it on yet)
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Well… lol dont get me wrong - I LOVE the drum sounds from the ST for everything they are, but Im pretty sure the metallic sounds on DN2 are a bit better. Ive already heard numerous kits and individual presets that sound a lot more acoustic/“right”, in my opinion (I know what you mean), and the bass tones hit super hard without a whole lot of tweaking. DN2 is instantly louder than ST, and I have to mix DN2 down a little to make room.
I do have my ST going over USB/Overbridge though, and DN2 is audio in with analog gain, so that isnt exactly fair to say “DN2 maybe hits harder than ST on some drum/bass sounds”. Once I use Overbridge for DN2, Ill see what the relative loudness is like in that mode.
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Well, absolute rookie here, so take my words with a grain of salt. Anyway, I have both. I wanted the ST for it’s analog creaminess, and the DNII for it’s FM synth part. Figured that would cover quite a large area synth-wise. Of course GAS kicked in and now I want the DTII to complete the Holy Trinity, but I went for the former devices first as I’d like to try and create music more with actual synthesis of sound than via meddling with samples. I don’t easily sell gear (or basically just don’t) as I think long and hard before obtaining it, so both devices will not leave my setup ever (and I’m ready to welcome the DTII as soon as the GAS account is topped up again).
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Well that’s very subjective so I’d suggest you unpack your DN II and find out yourself. But from my experience, OG DN was already superior in this area and judging from presets, DN II has even more to offer. But it’s still “just” 4 OP FM, so if you need real sounding hihats, might just use samples.
Edit: forgot about hi hat lab on ST, was mostly speaking about its FM machines. The analog hi hats can sound quite good with metallic cymbal sounds imo. DN II might still have the edge, also with its 3 LFOs, comb filter etc.
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I appreciate this writeup and look forward to hearing how your experience with it evolves.
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New instrumental project I made… Tracks 1 & 4 feature a lot of the newer ST firmware offerings. Love the acoustic machines & sy chip so so much. Someday maybe I’ll have a Digitone 2 to compare it to but I’m not parting with the Syntakt.
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The main bummer for me about the ST is that there is just the one analog cymbal track. I very much prefer the analog hats and cymbals, and it’d be great to have two of them going at a time.
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Agreed! If you’re fine with hats that mostly consist of noise with some flavor, you can use other digital machines though that have a noise parameter.
@djst: Will do, cool it’s helpful for you!
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Yeah the topic of this thread is very close to my heart. I’ll have to find out for myself but I think it’s really interesting to hear about the nuanced differences in workflow between the two. And I suspect that part of it has to do with familiarity too, which is why I’m curious if some of the immediacy of the Digitone 2 will happen gradually over time as you get more familiar with the sound engines (“machines”).
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Yeah for me it isn’t the track count that would make the difference but the polyphony and layering:
- One track for a pad chord, using 3-4 notes.
- Two layered tracks for the bass (a sub and a top) so I can avoid the mess in the 200-500 hz section, which is always a problem on the Syntakt for me with bass sounds that have a bit of top end.
- Two layered tracks for the lead to create really thick and more interesting textures.
- Then the other 8 voices/tracks for drums, textures and other synth sounds like arps, etc.
On a DN2, I’d probably standardize something where I always keep element x on track y, such as:
- 1: Kick
- 2: Snare
- 3: Percussions
- 4: Hats
- 5: Bass (with track 6 as the layered track sequenced by track 5)
- 7: Pad (with 3-4 notes of polyphony)
- 8: Arp (with 1-2 notes of polyphony)
- 9: Lead (with track 10 as the second layer)
- 11: Additional synth 1
- 12: Additional synth 2
- 13: Texture (swooshes, weird sound farts, ear candy, etc)
- 14-16: Reserved for maybe external gear
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For sure, polyphony is a big one for me. Makes my DN tracks sound fuller and more finished for sure. Although you could also make the argument that if you mostly work mono, you have to set all the tracks to mono on DN, so an extra step. Plus imported project from OG often sound different because you now have 16 voices and nice voice allocation effects if you maxed out OG are no longer present.
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