So besides conditional trigs and Overbridge, what can Digitakt do functionally that the Machinedrum can’t? Money/value aside, would it be fair to say the MD is superior to the Digitakt overall? Especially in the synthesis department?
Kind of gassing for a Machindrum to pair with my Rytm (I like the MD’s gritty sound in demos and especially want to do live sampling). But also wondering if Digitakt is the wiser buy at this point
individual track lengths.
that’s actually a big one tbh. how does the synthesis compare ?
DT has no synthesis, just sampling.
it’s sampling is different to MD. dt has quicker easier workflow. but MD does on the fly sampling which is a pretty big difference.
MD has more modulation sources n destinations.
There is none in the digitakt
ah for some reason I just assumed it had synthesis
well that makes things easy then. Will be on the hunt for a good priced used MD. thank you
it’s sort of somewhere in between an MDuw and an OT tho not really like either at all. 
they are brilliant at making products that don’t overlap but kinda do, don’t they?
MD pros: song mode, 6 outs, great synthesis w/ booty shakin’ bass, very flexible LFOs and routing, dope retro design
MD cons: no sample editing, VERY tedious sample management, NO RETRIGS at the sequencer level, only as a synthesis parameter on only select engines if I recall, no micro-timing, copy-clear-paste don’t work across as many parameters as they do w/ DT, kind of antiquated file management
DT pros: crystal clear audio, individual track lengths, micro-timing, creative retrigging (rolls, flams), sample loop point parameter, sample playback direction parameter, sample locking, SOUND LOCKING, Overbridge (not just audio outs, but lots of control, etc), faster resampling, USB connection, USB audio drag n drop (has this been implemented yet? Is Elektron Transfer working?)
oh yeah. CONDITIONAL TRIG PROGRAMMING
OK, but to answer your q directly:
The synthesis on MD is super fun, esp the FM drums, I wouldn’t say it’s life changing, it’s definitely inspirational especially when you do a “control all” move, where a single knob tweaks parameters across several tracks at once with unpredictable results.
The reason to choose an MD over a DT is mainly if you want to have synthesis parameters be automated, by using parameter locks… DT can do this great, but there are no super exotic drum synthesis things, just sample playback, which is still pretty powerful when you have such control over sample start, loop, end, tune, and filtering.
My suggestion: get a Digitone and then a little mini eurorack enclosure with:
MIDI to CV converter with lots of CV outs. This will accept MIDI notes and CCs from Digitakt
Intellijel Plonk
j0m0x ModBase
Noise Engineering Basimilus of some sort
and maybe one more interesting plucky thing from Mutable or whomever
some small envelope generators and VCAs and a little mixer
And you’re more versatile and faster moving AND you can sample and save your fave sounds and free up the euro system for more sounds.
I keep my Machinedrum and Monomachine around as a pair because they’re pieces of art and they have a certain aesthetic when used together as a duo. But they’re not an every day tool for me anymore.
well keep in mind I have a RYTM already so some of the MD’s cons don’t bother me as the RYTM can fill those gaps. I’m curious what you mean by no sample editing? Can’t you alter it the same way as on the RYTM? Live sampling of a live input is something I really want in my workflow.
As for eurorack, I’m already slowly into it. I think drums are not worth it for the most part, in terms of functionality to price ratio. Plonk is on my list though! Appreciate the out of the box suggestion though for sure
Oh, I see…hmmm, you already have Rytm.
Well look, if you can develop a pretty fast and streamlined way of sampling cool stuff and throwing it into Rytm, then actually an MD + AR is mega powerful.
I would just watch some highly rated YouTube videos featuring relatively unprocesssed Machinedrums in action to get a feel for the synthesis types
already ahead of you; hence the gas
Not really a pro at the moment 
Just to be clear for OP’s sake in case he doesn’t know (how could you not, given all the attention lately) – but Overbridge currently is not available for DT
Theoretically it is going to be a huge bonus, though. I for one am super excited about it.
Also regarding synthesis…Yeah the Digitakt is not a true synthesizer BUT it kind of does synthesis to some degree. It has 70-ish factory loaded single-cycle waveforms when you set to loop and they essentially play as a synth oscillator. Then you have synth-ish sculpting with AMP, Filter, LFO. Can do some FM-ish stuff with LFO. Yeah it’s definitely not a true synthesis engine but it’s not completely lacking in some synthesis-ish capabilities either.
thanks for the response. Though for me I’m not a big Overbridge guy. Barely ever use it with my Rytm Mk1. Only to do things that are super painful on the box itself. If Digitakt is as fun as people say it is, likely I wouldnt use it at all. Maybe just to flip through samples quicker
precisely my thought. I absolutely love my Rytm. I just was inspired by the much different sound palette of the machinedrum and the fact that it can do internal sampling ; which of course allows me to keep the Mk1 and not spend $600+ to upgrade to the mk2
The main reason I am looking forward to it is because the DT on its own does not have individual track outs. With OB we will be able to live-record a song performance into a DAW, and each DT track will be recorded onto a separate track in the DAW, so we could then go back and clean things up as needed after the fact or completely rearrange parts, add extra effects on a per-track basis, etc. The other main thing people want it for is to back up the machine & samples.
As far as editing and playing the DT, yeah OB isn’t really necessary there, it’s pretty easy to do it all from the machine itself.
Anyway it sounds like you’re heading in the MD direction, I’m not trying to convince you otherwise (I want one too…), just wanted to comment on some of that 
yeah I’m aware of this of course. Reason I dont use it with the RYTM is the quality loss compared to recording straight to my DAW. But since the Digitakt is digital, it probably doesnt matter as much
Well I was looking into the MD on youtube and I was curious about this comparison since I use a DT. While the MD definitley has the 16 tracks over 8, the 16 assignable LFO’s, and multiple outputs. And someone said on here it can live sample.
I think people are actually overlooking the synthesis capabilities of the Digitakt simply b/c the Digitakt doesn’t lump the synth capabilities in a catagory as such.
You can do FM synthesis on a sample with the LFO, granular with the sample length and looped playback, subtractive with the filter. And additive with sample layering and single cycle waveforms.
You can adjust the bit rate and get to 12bit samples. Then people hang on the 1 LFO, but parameter locking is really the same thing only you can’t do a rate of change as fast as the LFO. But you can assign the LFO to any parameter and at least build that sound piece by piece though not as nice as 16 LFO’s.
So while the MD probably does have some interesting synthesis capablities the Digitakt can just sample whatever your going for then resample whatever tweaks you make with it’s capabilities.
So the Digitakt has some limitations compared to the MD and UW+ version but so far as getting the same sounds and synthesis I think the Digitakt is just as capable though maybe not as full featured for the specific synthesis types used in the MD.
But I don’t know the MD really to say definitively but I think in what I’ve seen and learned the Digitakt feels like it stands pretty firm as comprable so far as getting similar sounds since you can just sample anything and there is plenty of MD out there to source soo…?