Octatrack or Digitakt?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#21

I currently have the Digitakt, A4 + AR MKIIs as far as Elektron gear goes, and I find it to be idyllic although I have been considering parting with my Rytm due to its hairy, heavy natured sound… I have gone through two Octatracks.

The Octatrack is infinite and amazing, but you absolutely have to have some sort of planned use case. This is my opinion based on personal experience. You can make basic music on it sure, go into it as a blank slate, experiment endlessly, but that’s not what it excels at. It excels at sample demolition and processing.

I’m considering purchasing my third OT in maybe another year for use as a live looper and processing unit for all my other gear. Other than that, it never fit my workflow regardless of its cryptic interface and flow.

Besides the quick nature of the DT, I prefer whatever finalized sound architecture it has. Call me crazy, but the OT has “a sound”. Perhaps it’s the slightly dated effects, but it always did to me. The DT on the other hand has a sound I adore. Lastly, the MIDI implementation on DT is superior (for my use cases). With my Novation Summit I can have two channels sending MIDI patch changes per step! That is bonkers with a synth like the Summit. A single channel on the DT has 4 note polyphony, classic MIDI CC parameter locking, and patch changes per step. I’m considering a Digitone also in the future just for that insane MIDI set, never mind its own beautiful FM sounds.

Just my opinion. The OT excels in use cases, it is harder to experiment and get something that feels “correct” as compared to the more limited DT.

If you don’t know why you want one, it may not be the best idea… Or it could be! Who knows.

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#22

I forgot another advantage : DT/DN notes can last even if there’s a new trig. With OT, all notes are stopped by a new trig.

I really like OT’s arp, combined with its lfos it can make really subtle things. It has 10 CCs vs 8 for DT/DN but they have 2 additional defined CCs : Modwheel and Breath Controller.
Both have Pitchbend and Aftertouch.

Concerning OT Prog Changes, I used to use a midi processor. Now I have DT/DN…will see if I’ll merge that!

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#23

The same sounds EQued with 2 different vst will sound differently. I don’t get it the “has a sound” of course it has it as any other box.

If you’re talking about the cut on the high frequency it’s actually the best thing a live machine can have and that’s what the OT is: a live sampler. You don’t want blast crazy high frequency on a big system,a good producer will generally roll off high frequency if he/she plan to play live.
The DT on the other side has a boost in low frequency which I think it’s really bad, again in a big sound system you could overkill the low end.
Since these boxes are mainly use for electronic music I wouldn’t use a box that mess up my low frequency.
But anyway just boost high frequency on the OT and “that sound” is gone.

It’s funny how people complain about the OT sound and then they end up cutting high frequency up to 12khz and super low. :joy:
What’s more funny is a lot of these people has old sampler with really small sample rates but they don’t complain about the quality loss, because you know they’re iconic :wink:

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#24

Yes, by default with filter on, and timestretch at a different tempo (timestretch is neutral at the same tempo, OT master).

But otherwise, fx and timestretch off, OT is very neutral. @avantronica made a blind test with apples and oranges : OT AB test : comparison between source / capture

Could you recognize OT sound?

DT has an high eq boost sound…

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#25

I’ve been using the Digitakt for a couple years now and I’m really comfortable with it. Got an Octatrack a few weeks ago to test out with the new OS update. I found that the Octatrack was actually a piece of cake to learn, not that difficult at all. After a couple of days of heavy use I got quite comfortable with it. Resampling with the Octa is a ton of fun, so is the MIDI arp - hope that arp can make is way to one of the Digis one day.

Both have their pros and cons, but for me Digitakt is still king. Working on it feels faster, more fluid and importantly more fun - its limited feature set and streamlined interface is an advantage for my style of producing. Of course it helps that I have used it for years already. As far as sound goes, there’s not much between them: the Digitakt is perhaps less neutral, but I prefer the pitch shifting in the Digitakt for chromatically playing samples, which I do all the time.

Either machine is a ton of fun though, so you can’t go wrong really, it just depends what you want to do with it.

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#26

Ah the +/-2 octaves on DT is a big plus.
Now with OT we can have a wider range with slices (5 octaves + 3 semitones, still possible to pitch), but it requires to prepare samples.

Depends on people, for sure. Just because of the scenes/crossfader thing on OT makes it unique and really superior to many gear to my eyes. Highly precise control of your sound on 8 tracks with 1 fader! :heart:

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#27

I never tested the OT but from what I read, and from what I saw in the used market, it’s probably the most strange machine ever. Some people are absolutely addict to it, some other can’t get used to the workflow and are very disappointed.

I remember 2 things about the OT : it’s a live sampler, and it’s expensive.

So if you are a poor bedroom producer, I think you should try the DT, and if you are a bit more comfortable and plan to do live set, the OT should be better.

(And if you are rich, get both.)

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#28

Plenty of argument points starting with:

But I do not think continuing is worth it. Enjoy your sound!

#29

I ended up with a Digitakt but I’m going to send it back and hold off and get more under the hood of the A4 and AR. The combination of these two are a dream realized for me. The combination of analog shaping and layering with samples or creating basslines with the AR is lovely. An Octatrack would be great for live and will consider this fine instrument if and when I do play live again.

The Digitakt is great though and I can see this as a desert island Elektron box. I can load up one-shots and percussive sounds. But I can do that on the AR too. One of the considerations was to keep it as a one-shot launcher but adding it to the mix with the other two boxes just made mud in the same way I’ve been making mud in the box! I Love how choke groups and conditional trigs work with one another with samples. It’s also jarring to go to two rows of buttons from one row and I love using kits, which the DT lacks.

I’m also realised that I’m not wanting to sequence MIDI entirely out of the box, at least not right now. Perhaps down the road.

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