Digitone workflow as a poly synth

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#1

Hi there.
In many aspects, the sound of the Digitone is exactly what I’m looking for. I’m a keyboard player and have owned quite a few keyboards throughout the years. My question is how well does the Digitone perform as a straight up poly synth? I am much more interested in melodic/harmonic compositions and although I see myself using the internal sequencer for supportive sounds (arps, stabs etc.), for long notes and chords I would most likely use my DAW to sequence and slave the DigiTone’s sequencer to it.

For those of you that work this way, I’m interested to hear how feasible and ergonomic this setup is?

Thanks,
Eitan

#2

First you have to know that Digitone has a set of 8 voices shared by 4 tracks that you can control separately.
Knowing that, you can perfectly control the Digitone from a DAW.
You can save “patches” as Sounds, but you may find handy to actually store them in successive patterns.

Overbridge should be here relatively soon, that should greatly enhance the experience of operating the Digitone from a DAW.

2 Likes
#3

Yes I am aware of the architecture, but how feasible is it to record, say, a passage of chords using anywhere from 3-6 voices on a single MIDI channel/track on a DAW and play it back all the while some sequences on the Digitone may be running as well with additional sounds playing using the Digitone’s own sequencer, using Plocks etc.?

#4

The voice allocation to the four tracks is really flexible. You could easily set it up to be a one track, eight voice polyphonic FM synth.

You could also easily use one track for a monophonic (sequenced) bassline, another for, say, two voice percussion, and still be able to use a third “track” for playing five voice polyphonic chords/keys. From an external keyboard if you wish.

I’m not a keys player. But I’d say that the Digitone is really a great (!) polyphonic FM module, begging to be played. And I say that loving the Elektron sequencers.

7 Likes
#5

Btw you can define for a track the number of voices assigned to it, if you want to prevent voice stealing on one or several tracks. This is an awesome feature !

Another cool thing is that you can set the Digitone so that you play to tracks at once (e.g. one tracks being a pad and the other an arpeggio).

Most advanced Elektron machine in this regard.

5 Likes
#6

It works just fine as a regular synth. Hook up a midi keyboard, scroll thru the presets like on any other synth. The factory presets don’t make use of aftertouch or the modwheel, but you can buy packs on Elektrons site that does. Or you can obviously make your own presets (it’s way fun to program sounds on this box, and I’ve never bothered with FM synthesis before). The only thing that is different from a more traditional synth is that the effect settings aren’t stored on a per preset basis, only the send levels for a preset are.