I bought a J-6 on sort of a whim after watching a video, mainly with the intention of using it as a chord arpeggiator to try to breath some life into some old gear, and that has been great fun, but I never thought of pairing it with the P-6 until I happened to see Near Tao’s video pop up on YouTube.
I had been GAS’ing for one of those expensive Mellotron Micros for ages, so I decided to sample just a single C note from a few different Mellotron patches (as per Near Tao’s video) and holy sh**, it works like a dream! It’s amazing how good they sound in poly mode on the P-6 with the J-6 running chords and arps, especially with a bit of cassette sim on the P-6. It’s like a lofi dream machine. I’m almost certainly going to be picking up a second P-6 just to keep as a custom Rompler.
Edit: This combo is absolutely fantastic. I just did a sampling run through my Kontakt and Keyscape library. This should not sound as good as it does. It really shines with keys, as you can play a really big octave range. The P-6 adds such a great vibe. Some of the J-6 progressions with the Keyscape pianos are hauntingly good when sampled to the P-6.
It takes a little bit of work to understand the J-6 (namely how the beat divisions work) but once you get it, it’s a killer little box.
Here’s the DT II Specs from the website (with my comments about P-6 in comparison in brackets):
Features
6 × selectable SRC machines:
Oneshot (yep)
Werp (nope)
Stretch (nope)
Repitch (nope)
Slice (kind of but set to a grid)
Grid (see above)
5 × selectable FLTR machines:
Multi-Mode (low, band, high for each pad, plus a Filter+Drive MFX)
Lowpass 4 (see above)
Equalizer (can’t remember, probably not)
Comb- (nope)
Comb+ (nope)
Legacy LP/HP (see filter section above)
16 × stereo or mono audio tracks, or MIDI tracks (technically 48 tracks, midi is not worth bothering with as only granular mode can do basic midi notes on an external synth)
1 × digital base-width filter per track
1 × digital overdrive per track (gain per pad, plus MFX)
1 × digital bit reduction (yes, many flavours)
1 × digital sample rate reduction (see above)
1 × overdrive master effect (nope)
1 × stereo compressor master effect (MFX)
3 × assignable LFOs per track (nope)
Modulation setup for pitch bend, velocity, key track, mod wheel, breath control, aftertouch (not sure but probably a nope)
Sequencer features
128 steps per pattern and track (64 steps)
Individual pattern length per track (can’t remember but I don’t think so)
Individual time scale multiplier per track (see above)
Parameter locks (motion recording and ability to change some parameters per step but also requires extra locks to return to base value)
Let’s be honest. I have bought the DTII some months ago…
Stretch, repitch, werp are barely usable. The different filters apart from Comb ones are not so mega different.
Only 2 FXs, only mono, more then 5x the price. For granular you need to spend another 1200 euros.
I mean I am in love with my Digitone 2 but Elektron must do something with the DTII as the price is not justified at all.
And form the 3 amazing LFO I often use one on the pitch as pseudo envelope…
