Introducing Digitakt II

They sent units out to youtube creators (musicians not influencers) ahead of release so I personally don’t understand why they didn’t send a few extra units out to the most active OG Digitakt beta testers. There was an established team of dedicated testers that could have easily picked up these bugs well before release.

We tested the hell out of it.
But I guess everyone is busy enough, plus you always take similar paths/workflows…
How would you test this in its entirety, how would you be sure you left absolutely nothing behind?

Then comes a new firmware version.
You have to retest everything.
And sometimes bugs are erratic, like you think you’ve seen something but can’t reproduce it…

Let’s not forget that there are plenty new features. So you spend some times playing, and at some point figure your evening’s gone…

It’s pretty tough to test these things.

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That’s really great! I like a lot the vocals.

Don’t mean to single you out, but I think this captures an expectation (or maybe a sense of entitlement) that isn’t realistic, imo.

I’ve worked for a number of software companies over the years (most of which provide products that are far, far less complex than Elektron’s), and we often made the mistake of making public statements about our roadmap that always came back to bite us in the ass. No matter how secure you feel in your operations, in the stability of your market, in your product vision, there will always be unforeseen variables — they sometimes necessitate small shifts, but sometimes they require a complete strategic overhaul. I don’t doubt that many of the folks who are asking for increased transparency would be just as — if not more — upset if Elektron were to “promise” something and then need to back-peddle.

Under-promise, over-deliver is a good motto. Many may feel that Elektron under-delivered with DT2, but then again they hadn’t promised anything to begin with. I personally feel like they over-delivered, and if history proves anything, they’ll continue to refine this for years to come.

I’m sure you did. This shit is hard as hell.

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Yes sure some beta testing was done, but not as many testers as usual. I was on the DT1 beta test but knew nothing of the DT2. I think they should have included more testers then it might have been a better release.

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Nice!!! I always enjoy your visits to my BPM neighborhood. :slight_smile:

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Ooooo! I like this one even better!

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this is awesome!!

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Do you have any numbers to base that on? Or do you just speculate, because you know a few, who were testing the OG but didn’t this time?

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Just wanted to say that I appreciate this comment — I’ve worked on a lot of software products as well, and I agree it’s a losing strategy to make public comments about your internal roadmap. It’s hard enough to keep the core team aligned and navigate the many variables that inevitably pop up when trying to create/build something. Better to let your products speak for themselves and focus on finding your own balance between moving fast vs. keeping high quality.

I see a lot of companies trying to figure out their approach to speed vs. quality, I hear the chorus of criticisms around customers feeling like beta testers. It’s all valid. I don’t understand enough about the economics of this world — e.g. how much are companies motivated to ship products early to generate cash from sales? how much of their business model depends on loyalty / future updates? — but I suspect this is all very challenging and I’m grateful for everyone trying to figure it out.

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Hello, I am looking at the MIDI specification in the manual for the D2, and I can’t find a MIDI CC for triggering fill mode. Is there really none?
Thx !

Of course I don’t have numbers, how could I? But I know that those that appeared to be the most active beta testers for the OG, those that highlighted many of the bugs when they added major features like song mode and the additional machines, and many of those that beta tested the Syntakt, did not have a DT2 until after the release, or still don’t have one.

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I have a proposal, or question, are you doing any kind of automatic testing? I’m thinking of a feature (a layer in software) where you could control the whole machine over USB (Sysex…) and it would also transmit all User UI actions and also the display contents, so you could record and play back full interactions/jams. Maybe you could then use certain test samples to check the audio output with automatic tools.

Don’t know if it would help, just some idea I had for some time.

I also had such idea at some point, but most of the testing is about the interaction with the machine, I would guess Elektron has some way to test the software otherwise.
But yeah, that could be a lead, indeed.

Normal, you can’t find it on any Elektron. Nor Control All (NRPN ?). Feature request !
(MD Control All machine can be midi controlled, so is OT Crossfader)

(There is a kind of workaround for midi FILL for Octatack with One Shot but it is not easy to set up ! :loopy:)
Midi command for FILL Mode? - #4 by sezare56

Ah I forgot midi CC for velocity.
Can be used as midi FILL. Not easy to set up too.
Syntakt standalone music - #1360 by sezare56

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Feature Request : done ! :slight_smile:

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Yeah, I saw that, and it’s exciting.
I’m just starting to get my flow on the DT2 and I’m happy enough with it as is, so it’s great to remember every now and then that at some point we will get an update which might make things very interesting indeed… and to then think that this could just be the start of the next series of Elektron machines is very exciting too.
Though it does mean I keep holding off on buying an AHFX (after saving up for 6 months) just in case something better is around the corner…

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I feeling the same way…happy happy! Lots of new stuff to discover!

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The AHFX is amazing! Do it!

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I would like to connect 2 novation launch control xl to DT II to control the 16 tracks. Is it possible through a usb hub or not?