Digitone as delay and reverb fx unit

Thank you :slight_smile: always appreciate your ramblings, no matter where they end :slight_smile:

It will work well as an fx box with two caveats

  1. There’s no way to eliminate the dry signal from the inputs - you can never go 100% wet. This isn’t an issue unless you want to use it on a mixer send, in which case you’re out of luck because the dry component will cause phasing issues with the rest of your digitone mix. Elektron should implement kill-dry as an fx option on their machines but they don’t.

  2. FX settings change when changing patterns. This can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing, but it’s certainly different than using a dedicated fx unit.

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I’ve been thinking about this again. Of course, I search the forum and come up with a response I posted offering to test the DN out as an FX unit. Naturally, I have not made good on that offer. However – I have the day off again tomorrow, so I should have a chance to give this a go. I’m going to try plugging it into the master insert on my SSL SiX (which should mitigate the issue of not being able to remove the dry signal). I’m curious about how the master distortion plays with a mix, not to mention the nice Chorus/Delay/Reverb. In the meantime, has anyone else tried using the digitone as an FX unit?

I used to stick guitar through a Digitone (it made a surprisingly good effects box with the four master FX). The master distortion can either sweeten/glue a full mix or grind up individual instruments (not just guitar, but drums, synths, etc). I seem to remember @selfup doing something similar with regards to guitar processing in the past too.

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When I had mine I tried it and was left underwhelmed because I could not parameter lock the parameters of the effects.

They are otherwise excellent. I just wanted and, expected, more.

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Yes the chorus/verb/delay are excellent. This lets me use my reverb and delay pedals for my analog gear. I usually push distortion through into the DN because I have some tube screamer and high gain pedals. It is unfortunate you can’t Plock, but you can change the params per pattern :upside_down_face:

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I use onboard Digitone effects for my prophet all the time as the reverb on the prophet rev 2 is a bit too metallic imo. But that’s about it. Nice to hear but I can’t get really crazy with it either. Does it have to be hardware? Why not create a chain of effects in Ableton where you can go really crazy and controll them via a midi controller? Otherwise youtube has manipulated me a bit lately and kept showing me suggestions from the hologram microcosm. The price scares me and maybe you can get there with only stock plugins.

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FOR PEOPLE STRUGGLING WITH DIGITONE MASTER FX RANDOMLY STOPING

If you haven’t been convinced yet I think your money would be better spent on any of the many excellent FX units out there. Even if you budget is less than a new DN and is in the realm of a used DN.

I think Elektron does a great job of providing very usable FXs on their devices, but I can’t see spending that money on DN “for the FX” though : )

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3 years late to the party but I have been interested in the same question myself - especially whether the delay feedback was plausible to play with in a live setting for guitar. Turns out the answer is yes and I am using it as a layer in my live DJ sets on a regular basis. Made a quick run through vid in case anyone is still pondering this: