I really dig this little box

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#1

Just wanted to throw a little positive light up for a rainy, cold Wednesday. I don’t make a lot of music presently - so many factors competing and my headspace isn’t good right now - but last night I grabbed my DT, sat on the sofa, and jammed for an hour.

It felt good. It was fun just to explore some sounds I’d downloaded, sequence a few things, play with the P-Locking, and make up something akin to sounds which make my ears happy. It’s a good feeling to know that, even when I ‘can’t’ make music, I can grab that tool and time washes away.

Contemplating picking up a Digitakt in the January sale (pre Brexit!) to pair up with it.

FWIW, I’ve not upgraded it to 1.10 yet (after reading the threads) but might do so, just to get it up to spec.

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#2

This is why I love the Digitone. Best sonic exploration machine, perfect blend between great usability and wide range of possibilities. I understand the theory behind FM but I’m still incapable of using that knowledge consciously, if that makes sense. So I just explore, and the DN lets me. I love this synth :fire:

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#3

I love it. After I got it and did a few tunes with it I basicaly felt like this is the synth I’ve been looking for my whole life. Self-contained, easy to use, easy to explore with. The sound quality is amazing. The basses are immaculate and push air with formidable force. The leads are fat and bright with unison and chorus. The dub techno chords pulsate and blip into eternity with beaty and grace. You can coax out cutesy underwater level arps or speaker melting assault robot growls out of it. Everything is so powerful and neat and wonderful and meshes together so well even without external mixing. And you get four tracks of this. It’s amazing.

I have a Digitakt also and it pairs really well with the Digitone thanks to the audio in. They really built these two to work together.

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#4

I also have only positive things to say about this little box. It’s my favorite off all the synths I owned so far.

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#5

Its probably Elektrons biggest acheive ment.

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#6

I liked it so much…i bought the company.
aremington

no but seriously i have 2 of em :smile:

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#7

What are the drum sounds like out of it?
I have a machine drum uw which I must admit gets less use than it could as I got a digitakt a year or so ago and just love it. I would consider selling to buy / swapping the md for a digitone, as the FM drum sounds in the MD are my favourite ones, and the generally soundscape / synth vibes of the digitone certainly appeal. But I have yet to hear much by way of the percussive noises, especially hi hats, that the dn can output.

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#8

Imo, they are awesome. But I don’t know which type of sounds you are after

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#9

The MD EFM cymbal is hard to match - but that’s 8OP FM! Other than that, I strongly prefer the drums I get out of the Digitone. The MD has a distinct charm to it though.

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#10

I’ve heard several really good sounding FM kicks from the DN demos. Thick, clear, solid kicks, very nice.

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#11

Surprisingly (for me) really really good. Never thought I’d use my DT to make some drum samples, but then @Ess released Uncanny Valley and single-handedly changed my perspective of what is possible on the DN and what I can use it for.

#12

I also have a UW. They are very different beasts. The main difference is that you have a lot more control over those sounds on the DT than the MD. To my ears the MD can make better sounding drums quicker, but you don’t have the massive range of control over those sounds that you do on a DT. I can literally have a sweet ass Basic Channel kick, and then Plock morph it into a drone, or a snare, or White Noise, or a cowbell, or a saw like lead.

So if you are aiming towards evolving and insanely dynamic sounds the DT might work. But i’m never giving up my MD. They really fill two different niches.

Also caveat. Ive been programming FM synths since the 80’s. I can whip up an ok sounding snare from scratch pretty easily, but that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. And to be fair, the factory presets have a nice range of drums sounds to start with and learn by.

1 Like
#13

SO MUCH THIS! Ive had my DT since September hooked up to a big studio setup. I’ve used it a couple of times to get some melodic content into the Octatrack or run through the modular, but never really explored it. About 2 weeks ago Instead of reading for an hour before bed I just grabbed the DT plugged in some headphones and created a small sketch. I’ve done this every night for the last two weeks, (13 project sketches and counting) and man, I love this little synth.

Its not going to replace the OT as the brains of the studio, or the modular as the brawn, but for quickly sketching stuff and generating some weird ass noises, and just generally being a pleasure to futz with, this thing has it. And yeah, it feels “good” there isn’t any other way to put it. Just super pleasant to make tracks with, not overwhelming in complexity (Hello OT), but just enough umpfh to make very interesting stuff. And a lot of space to explore.

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#14

Digitone and Machinedrum are the greatest digital duo there’s ever been.

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#15

Speaking of MD vs DN for drums, it’s pretty funny how they are more related than you might think…

The design for the envelopes in the Digitone actually came about from my own frustrations with how the Machinedrum’s EFM engines only had decay for the modulation, this meant that most sounds rang out as a sine, either that or have constant modulation. I really wanted to have control over that and figured it would be neat to be able to set the ‘floor’ level, allowing you to retain modulation, but also use it for snappy sounds and such. Attack Decay End was born. Hehe.

(Having said that, I do love the MD. And as MatthewAllen above pointed out, it’s much quicker to make drums with - don’t have to spend hours tweaking pitch envelopes and stuff.)

This has been an episode of Elektron facts™
Join me next week as I randomly share an anecdote in another random topic.

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#16

You and me both. I use the EFM machines all the time, but they have a very signature sound to them. I just assumed it was the way my brain approached the audio design.

MORE PLEASE!

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#17

I use the DN + MD combo and love it! They sync so well, it makes coming up with ideas very immediate. There is some exceptional percussion you can squeeze out of the DN, just listen to some of the content from the “Uncanny Valley” (thanks Simon)

If you’re not great at making patches, just grab a preset and adjust to taste. I would like to say that I’ve been addicted to the Digitone’s “TX-Bass” patch. Been all over that one for a few weeks now.

#18

The decay only thing is definitely something I’ve always been annoyed by, I love that your solution to this was to just go and design a whole new box!

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#19

Yes, I love this box & it is great for just jamming on. I often just play & make noise just for the sheer pleasure of it, mostly using Digitone or Soma Lyra-8. Hope your headspace improves soon, life can be tough. Be kind to yourself.

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#20

Yeah, man! I started to fire it up at lunchtimes (My main office is at home so I’ve got it ready to go next to me) and have little jams, just to see what sketches come about. It’s so quick and easy to use, you can get going straight away.

(I have modular envy; I’ve been wanting to get deep down into it - or at least start a really small case - but research time and a need to sell a whole bunch of pedals before I can afford it ain’t on my side!)