Is Too Much Stuff Jammed into Digitakt?

I like it. not perfect, but nothing is?

Totally agree. Nothing else in my studio (which is full of gear with flashing lights!) is anywhere as near as bright as the Digitakt. People even comment on it. And yes, studios are often dark places!

I don’t really want to smear masking tape over the keys which would change the feel and impair the legibility of the markings. I know some people have opened up the keys and stuck plastic in, etc, but some of us don’t feel comfortable doing that.

Elektron seems to have used the new generation of super-bright and “fast” LEDs in their latest gear and it obviously has it’s pluses… but it’s also just too much for many of us (and I deeply love and treasure the Digitakt). This is simply something that needs taming in a firmware setting.

It seems like it could be implemented without much hassle on the already maxed out processor in the DT, unlike adding in totally new features like additional pages, added FX or other more complicated requests. At the end of the day I still love my DT.

I just liked the light show but now that you got me thinking about it, I know the yellow blink has to do with a parameter locked step, I haven’t familarized myself with trig conditions but I think that’s what the purple color is for, the green is for mute’s and the red is for retrigs or at least that’s my guess as I haven’t really read through the manual on it to know for sure but I’ve been loving the light show as I usually play mine mostly in the evening on the weekend in a dim setting. So it’s like a little rock show😎

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Purple is for pattern mutes. Ie, muting a track on one pattern only.

Personally I love its size and button rich interface. I just wish they’d crammed in more features!

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I would love some more features too. That maxed out CPU is a bummer, tho. Seems a shame they didn’t think ahead and double the power like the DN seeing as it’s the same price for both units :pensive:

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RAM upgrade :+1:t6:

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Digitakt is literally half empty on the inside … whereas the Digitone PCB fills the interior.
Plenty of room in the DT for an axoloti or battery.

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Maybe in the Mkii :crossed_fingers:

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The OT midi arp is great. Such creative possibities, particular as you can Plock the parameters of the arp.

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I’m so exited! Come on already payday :hugs:

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I think it was Ess who confirmed the DT is almost maxed out CPU wise. Making it critical how they choose to update it, because I guess those future choices get less and less the more they add

What’s arguably a better value, more versatile, ounce for ounce ? Octatrack MK-I or Digitakt?
and…Theres only about a $300 difference in Octk MK-1 to Mk-II now

OT of course! It’s packed with features, many of which users don’t discover for years if they stick with it :wink:

Looking into the future, I predict OP will replace his/her recently sold Digitakt with an Octatrack mk1. OP will play with the OT for a little bit, sell it and replace it with a Digitakt

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Could be, but I would wait for a Digitakt MK-II update first.

The DT really benefits from using an external controller with keys, a bank of 16 lit pads, at least 8 knobs, and 8 sliders. You might be tempted to use the pads to trigger samples on the DT, but that instinct is wrong!!! You need to use them for mutes, the keys of the keyboard will be used for triggering the DT sample channels. When you use the keys, you get velocity sensitive programming as well as pitch control over your samples. Obvious maybe, but perhaps not to everyone. Of course, if you have a larger bank of pads you could have it both ways and there’s nothing wrong with that.

  1. Keys set to auto channel.
  2. Pads set to individual channel mutes.
  3. Eight or more knobs set to control sub-menu parameters for the effects, or just whatever you like that is used often. Sample start and end point, sample loop point, and sample playback mode are good ones to have on a controller.
  4. Eight sliders dedicated to sample track mixer levels.

It’s basically a Digitakt Keys at that point. I tried using my DT with no external controller yesterday, and it is definitely a more time consuming process to build a track without the keys and knobs and sliders. The main thing is how many times you have to enter and exit the “keyboard mode” and mute modes on the DT when you don’t have a keyboard hooked up. I can sort of understand what the OP is getting at in terms of how “busy” your fingers are when you’re using the DT standalone, it still works really well and the workflow is very considered and smooth, but yeah it is a huge workflow improvement when you introduce a MIDI controller.

I’ve used the DT for multiple hundreds of hours, and it is an almost euphoric feeling when you’re building a jam and really in the groove, jumping from page to page and dialing each track in, putting little flourishes in and basically working much faster and more creatively than you could in a DAW. Once you are really comfortable with all that the DT can do, your brain reacts instinctively with the needed tweak or change in an almost trance-like state of inspiration. When I’m in it, I start to feel like the DT is a part of my own body. IT’S INCREDIBLY FAST!!! I really, really don’t think Elektron needs to introduce a Digitakt MKII, this device is approaching perfection in my opinion, but if they were to introduce a Digitakt Keys in the same FF as the DN Keys I would buy instantly.

I know I’m really gushing over the DT right now, but I spent the entire day with it yesterday after getting my new desk installed and I’m more in love with it than ever. Also, this thread has made me think about the DT size and workflow, and I would really love an expanded version with keys and dedicated buttons to access the effect parameters. PLEASE ELEKTRON!

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No. It’s great. I fully agree a LED brightness control will be :grinning:.
If i look at the list of “future firmware request” topic i get the overall impression that a lot of owners like to have even more stuff jammed in.
Im quitte happy the way it is. Took me some time to get used to the workflow but now i can effortlessly use whatever i need that’s jammed in it.

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sounds like I sold the Digitakt too fast, was actually gonna pull it from Reverb, but it was gone the next day, (probably too cheap).
No worries, I’ll get another. It’s not like theyre not available and on a waiting list, like the ER-101 and 301 were. I know of at least 10 people who have bought and sold and rebought their Elektrons over and over.

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