They unstack. It is quite convenient to stack them that way when carrying them around the house. I plug two cables into the KSP and I am good to go.
I guess my point is that for me, the Syntakt and Digitone feel like one (elaborate) unit to me. I even power them off the one power bank with a power splitter.
Looks like a great setup and I get what you mean. Just jammed with my ST and DN and at some point they kind of start blending into each other. With lots of variety and differences there if you want them.
I’m enjoying the AR2-DN combo right now. I feel like between the two getting the best of all the Elektron functionality. I’m just starting to realize the creative potential inherent in such an honed down setup and it’s been very inspiring. It’s like an expanded Syntakt with sampling and individual channel routing, with loads of outboard options. For example, I run the Rytm outs into a mixer and process each channel with external fx. I then run the output from the mixer back into the Rytm’s inputs for stereo playback and on-the-fly sampling. From there I run the Rytm’s main outs into the Digitone, which has its own mixer page for monitoring and adjusting levels (unlike the Rytm’s Ext In). I like to use channels 1-4 for analog tracks (kicks, bass and melodic content, mostly) and 5-12 for samples.
On top of everything else, the DN does really good digital drums, which I can either sequence internally or sample into the Rytm for further processing. I then run the output of the DN through a Meris Ottobit Jr and Mercury 7 to add further processing to the final mix. Between the two machines I have a 16-voice analog-digital hybrid monster with all the fx processing I can handle.
