Sure, there are limits, if you have clock and several channels going in, no midi filters…
I like HOLD mode to send minimum random lfos on CCs, but having continuous midi lfos can be usefull, and random slew even more !
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I think the answer is “no” but is there anything like the Octrack’s setting for saving recorded samples into some sort of project folder?
I can see a future where my DT2 ‘recorded/’ folder is filled up with samples like REC0278, REC0279…
And yes, I’m lazy
You should be able to export the project using transfer and re-import it, choosing to import duplicate samples. They get re- organised into a project folder, and you can delete anything now redundant in your recording folder.
Might be something slightly slicker, I’m a DT2 newb.
dataline/cenk’s opinion about the DT II taken from here:
It’s a good update to an already great machine. However, for me, its difficult to get excited over it. 16 tracks are great, but each of the tracks are more or less the same thing, so that makes it a bit useless. Sonically different machines or Poly routings would put the 16 tracks to better use.
I do not like the TRACK button has changed position. And looking at it, that button could have been left as it is. Strange decision where I see no reason to change.
The new time stretch engine is also a bit useless. I can not do any slicing or anything with it. Just drop in the sample and stretch it. I wish it was more of an effect rather than a playback mechanism, I would have found it more useful.
I wish for more sequencer generating modes. The euclidian mode feels pretty outdated, especially after Live12 pattern generating methods blaze all over it.
I wish I could change slice points.
I wish, I wish…
That’s what I think about the DT2.
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I tend to agree on some points, at least currently. who knows what they have planned for it, tho major updates will most likely take years to drop. it’s a cool machine for sure. I traded mine for a Rytm mk2 the other day and haven’t looked back 
the 16 tracks all being the same is a good point. poly or ctrl machines would make a lot of sense.
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This…
Add some note ranges to the generation and now we’re talking
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Not to pile on, but I just returned my DT2. I felt the upgrade was nice but I could not justify the expense. There is a lot of overlap with gear I already own (ARmk2, Blackbox). I thought I could downsize but I didn’t like the new setup. Turns out each box does what it does well. I give props to the new DT2 but I was fine without it. To each his/her/their own. At the moment I’m looking at the original DT with renewed fondness.
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i love the dt2 but he makes some very good points and his honesty has to be appreciated
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Yeah, agreed. 16 tracks tends to make everything i write too busy but that’s a me problem!
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I’m loving the DTII, fixed all the shortcomings of the original without being too busy, and I’m sure there’s years of updates in the works (unless there’s a new Octatrack they don’t want to overlap with too much).
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this has been totally transformative for me- it allows space to make easily accessible variations of tracks while remaining on the same pattern. this subsequently results in sort of having several different patterns in one. i also usually dedicate one track to just a sawtooth scw to play the root note of the pattern when a tuner is needed- bc there are so many tracks, their use is more open-ended
this 1000%. one example being when i owned the dt1 i thought i hated sample management but i just hated having to constantly think about and economize what i was sampling for sake of space. also all the new qol features make every other elektron box feel somewhat dated
with that being said, it’s still a digitakt lol. it doesn’t properly slice / doesn’t have zero-crossing detection and is weird as hell in other different ways. you can’t help but wish it could do certain things that it probably never will
when at times you inevitably get frustrated, it helps to think of the digitakt as not so much of a sampler and more of a unique instrument with a sample-based sound engine
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Yeah, nothing wrong with constructive criticism.
Yep, wrapping my head around what the DT is best at took a bit of a… stretch.
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An upgrade for stereo only would have sufficed for me (mainly for resampling purpose, with Arm/Play/Rec included)
Everything else is very welcome.
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I think this nails it for me.
I’m still using my OG DT (love it, will probably never sell it) and I’ve been waiting for the DT2 bugs to be ironed out before deciding if I want to upgrade.
In the meantime, I’ve dusted off my Push 2 and have been playing around with Live 11 Suite. What I’ve discovered is the Push 2 + Live makes for a really great hands-on sampler with a bunch of features that the DT2 cannot match (yet… perhaps).
No surprise I’m sure (DAW vs DT isn’t really a fair comparison)… but I’ve not really thought about Push + Live as a direct hands-on sampler alternative to the DT2 before.
Having a much larger screen than the DT/DT2 with full sample zooming (not just post-recording like the DT, on Push you can zoom into all samples including imported samples), zero-crossing detection, sample loop cross-fading that works really well, different (and great) warp modes, superb auto slicing on transients, manually adjustable slice points (which are fast and easy to tweak) and polyphonic sample playback… all a lot of fun to use, and super intuitive.
DT2 has none of this today, and it seems unlikely to have most of it in future unless there are radical changes to the underlying platform. Possible, perhaps, but I’m not going to assume that would happen.
And yet… I won’t be selling my OG DT because as an instrument that happens to use mono samples and then mangles them in really cool ways, it is unmatched IMO.
I’m now thinking of going for Push 3 + Live 12 Suite (and eventually Push 3 Standalone) with the OG DT as my crazy sample-mangling box for textures and weird beats.
I love the whole Elektron workflow but the DT2 isn’t quite hitting the mark for me (at the moment… who knows what the Elektron wizards will come up with in future years).
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I’ve got a huge amount of respect for Cenk and it’s his Digitakt and Model:Samples jams that brought me into the Elektron world back in 2019. However, my opinion is his statement about 16 tracks being “a bit useless” shows a wilful lack of imagination about how to put them to use. I think it probably says more about his perspective on Elektron’s direction than it does about the device itself.
I’ve had the DT2 a day (the OG DT for 5 years) and already I can think of several ways I’m excited to try to make use of the 16 tracks that don’t just involve cramming too many things into a pattern, for example:
- Processing a track via external effects, sampling the 100% wet signal and placing it on its own track so that you can use volume levels to blend in varying amount of FX on a per track basis as part of the pattern programming or performance.
- Recording a MIDI track, then sampling performed phrases that are then sequenced onto another track, with the original MIDI track being left in place but muted (could also be shunted onto another pattern to free up a track, but the point is we now have the space to have options).
- Moving away from trying to cram all my drums into 3 tracks to make space for other things, and giving each drum sound it’s own track to give me more freedom to mute and tweak individual things.
- Setting aside 4 tracks with the same sound and using a 5th MIDI Track, with the RK002 doing MIDI loop back, so I can play and sequence a polyphonic instrument on device.
- Additional MIDI tracks dedicated to apply further automation of MIDI CC parameters for complex synths, or automating external MIDI controllable FX, such as the NTS-1.
- Switching between multiple phrases on the same instrument by muting/unmuting tracks within the same pattern, rather switching between patterns.
- As above but instead of doing it manually with mutes, doing it with conditions, e.g. track 6 plays on all but the forth time around, track 14 plays only on the 4th time around.
- More space to programme risers, etc. that don’t feature in the pattern except for when the LAST condition is met.
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Has anyone with DT2 tested to see if song mode follows Song Position Pointer?
I know it was asked about earlier in this thread and the manual doesn’t mention, curious if anyone has tried
Looks like there was no mention of the potential of the underlying platform being new and capable of more improvements they have planned like Cuckoo talked about in his DT2 video…
Cenk is the reason I use Elektron today, but he’s at least partially human and therefore capable of being in his feelings too.
Without a doubt every single day I wait on Elektron to update the slicing properly because I know that they are aware of the issue and I trust they will do something about it, but that is referring to something that isn’t there…. When it comes to what is there, there is no way in hell this instrument is useless…… no way.
It proves this to me everyday, that’s like saying the front door is useless because you don’t have a back door…… I beg to differ!!!
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Definitely agree! We really have not explored having 16 stereo tracks on a device like this, and there’s going to be discoveries along the way.
I was just messing with something where you can record your whole groove to another track, and then set that track to a tune of -.01
You get a really nice flange effect.
Here’s an audio example:
The first 4 bars is the groove, and the next 4 bars is with both playing.
And we all know there are more things you could do with the recoded layered groove (filter, distort, stretch, etc.)
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I think the thought process behind approaching 16 tracks shouldn’t be so much looking at them as needing to be 16 full length tracks, even though they can certainly do that. Even without sound locks and decent EQ work on the device itself I can feel the range get pretty stacked and full on 8. So I look at the additional tracks for scenarios like you describe, or tracks to give yourself more flexibility by moving things out of what previously would have been sound locks etc. Track stacking is definitely overlooked by many.
Either way it comes down to options, and whether you use 16 or not more options is a win. I’ve always said too that a personal strength of the 2x8 sequencer that Digitakt introduced was the way that translates to the fingers. I don’t assign tracks haphazardly, I always think about them in blocks of 4 that can be quickly assigned to mute/unmute positions on the 4 fingers.
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To me it’s the bread and butter improvements from the DT1 to DT2 that will stand the test of time. 16 stereo tracks with up to 128 steps each. Once you spread out and start to leverage those it’s hard to go back.
The DT1 is still great, but it’s hard to say the DT2 isn’t greater. One really simple approach is to double how you organized 8 tracks, and you now have an alternate track for each (with up to 128 steps) that you can swap with mutes. This works especially well if you import a DT1 project to build from.
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