Introducing Digitone

Potentially more than eight voices though :slight_smile:

This looks and sounds like an awesome box. Iā€™m not too bothered about the 8 voice polyphony since I plan to pair it with my AR and a DT. I can sample bass and stabs from the DN to the DT and free up polyphony for chords and pads and being able to use the DN inputs to add effects and overdrive to the final mix is awesome. Add to that the midi sequencing and the added LFOā€™s that gives you to modulate both the DT and AR! Iā€™m sometimes sceptical of Elektronā€™s way of doing things but I think they knocked it out the park with this one. Now lets hope it proves less buggy than the DT and that they give us the DT update soon!

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Hmmm but the main concept of the Digitakt is being a drum sampler.

I think any box with midi sequencing should have scales/chords. Itā€™s 2018 and why not?

I think we have here tools that are Specialized for certain Tasks. You can either use the Hammer to hit nails but dont expect then that you can paint walls with it too. Tools are how they are. Use them to your liking. Or choose a different Tool. Or did you hear a painter complain that he cant Paint with a hammer?

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I would be very careful before preordering Digitone for MIDI sequencing duties. As we all know, Digitakt still isnā€™t stable when using MIDI and Digitone is probably using similar hardware so it may have the same issues.

True. I still get the odd crash when doing midi, but to be honest what bugs me more is the fact ccā€™s stop sending once you turn two encoders at the same time. It makes tweaking cutoff/resonance on external gear very annoying.

For only Midi duties i would Order a Copy of Steinberg Cubase, Apple Logic, Bitwig or Ableton Live, Reaper, Studio One.

Good point, most of the issues people raise are midi related. As Iā€™ll be slaving to OT Iā€™m not too concerned about midi.

They have said bug fixes are coming very soon for Digitakt. I would be surprised Digitone to have the same bugs. Remember those are shipping these days, so people will test it very soon. I would be a huge bad decision (in business term) to replicate the same mistakeā€¦i guess

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I assume that Elektron Software developers are smart enough to have modularized the Sequencer inside DT and DN so when they fix a bug it is inside a module that both machines Share.

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if you want to make a polyphonic synth on an mcu and you want to keep the response time fast enough for a rhythmic sequencer with crazy internal plocking plus external midi sync, that is not so trivial. it is not a matter of just copy/pasting some code to get extra voices. this thing already has 32 oscillators and a bunch of fx. I can easily imagine that the chip is totally maxed out already.

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Maybe, maybe not. I assume itā€™s using the same ColdFire as in the Digitakt and that isnā€™t exactly a slow processor.

In general, it would be interesting to hear more about the development approach and toolchain Elektron uses for these boxes. Iā€™d love to hear the reason for choosing the Freescale ColdFire architecture over something ARM-based.

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8 voices is plenty (for me) on such a small box when sound locks are a feature.
I think of how much I squeeze out of an AK thanks to sound locks and it only has 4 voices.
8 is going to be a vacation away from p-locking AK OSC tunings to make chord progressions on the last available voice.

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agreed. Iā€™m well happy with 8 voices :slight_smile:

8 voice is plenty. I have an FB-01, which is also 8 voice multi-timbral. I have it set up usually in 4 parts - 1x 5 voice and 3x 1 voice. I rarely find myself needing more.

With a DN on order, the FB-01 will return to itā€™s proper duty of door holder. What a pain that thing is to program, even with a nice software editor.

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I wonder why elektron chose to eliminate the slide functionality? I use that all the time on the monomachine. Maybe they now expect you to draw this with overbridge in your DAW? Is this how the analog machines work?

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No idea, this is annoying me too. I can sorta deal with lack of midi arp and arp plocks but no slide on a synth is just weird. The weird part is Iā€™ve heard slide on some of the preset demos so not sure how itā€™s being done.

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Which software editor? Im using patch base on iPad. Works great but dont think ill be using it if i get Dtone. Although do love the warmer sound of the FB01 vs modern FM.

My guess is cleverly placed p locks on pitch lfos etc. I am really excited about this synth but I feel you miss a lot of sound design possibilities without slide:( I like to look at what it lacks as a positive though. This often leads to new ways of working that can get unexpected results.