I started my elektron journey with a digitakt. I now use a rytm for drums and am yearning for the DT again, mainly because of its immediacy. The kit system on the rytm isn’t vibing with me like i hoped either - difficult to move kits w/ samples across projects. I’d definitely miss the performance/scenes if I went back to the DT tho.
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Kits is another thing I’m looking for tbh, I know there’s pros and cons for each, but sometimes it’s annoying when you have a song worth of 4 or 5 patterns on DT, then you realise you want to change a kick sound and have to go through and change it everywhere!
You seem to have the elektron bug like I did. I ended up getting AR, A4, OT mk2 and DT, DN
There is something about the Rytm mk2 that makes it my favourite of all the elektron stuff…
I guess it’s because it has analog and samples and all the extra features…I come up with my best track ideas on it also
I find the A4 mk2 and AR mk2 the ultimate combo because they have the same kit structure.
They are all good it depends on which ones you want the most and how much you are willing to spend
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Keep DT and get A4ii - A4 is not really anything like MiniXD (I have both), the A4 is a four track mono sequencer in my mind vs a poly synth, meaning alongside a rhythm unit you can have bass line, sequencer lines, solos, and even a track with lots of sound locked analog drum sounds … they are both immediate machines and feeding the audio from the Takt into the stereo in of the A4 will provide a lot of FX integration too …
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It seems like with overbridge it’s even possible to feed a Takt track through one of the voices of the A4? IE I could create analog kick and send my digital sample through there and blend it with the analog sound?
Kits are simple. I don’t know why so many complain… kits are saved to the pattern so you can share them with other patterns or have its own kit… you do need to save them manually
thats all you need to know.
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yea they seem simple enough! same with parts on OT, not as crazy as they seem (at least from manual they make sense 
)
But yea, I can see why kits can be annoying if you accidentally change all the sounds of a song without realising, but then also the other is true, they can be useful because you can change all the sounds of a song easily 
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my workflow relies on moving patterns between projects, which is very tedious on rytm if you have kits w/samples
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Rytm is a really good drum machine.
Even if some don’t like the analog machines, I think that with some work you can get amazing sounds out of it, especially if you marry them with samples.
A4 is a synth that asks some more dedication. 4 voices is limitations on the Poly side, but still cool to have. As 4 monos, it’s really great. As a drum machine, it doesn’t percussion easily (envelopes are so good) but is lacking some retrig (or arp plocking as a turnaround).
Mk2 is highly desirable IMO, the added features have quite some impact.
Now you might also try sequencing your actual gear, and sampling all you can. That would be my first step.
Then you can sell it and get this dream drum machine you seem to have in mind 
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Decided to get the mini XD out and hook it up to DT.
I was mesmerized by the 20% discount and 1 item left in stock locally tbh, so I’ll sleep a few more nights on it and see. Maybe someone else will buy and that’ll provide me an answer 
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Same. I don’t seem to run into as many dead ends with it as I do some of the others. Performances, Scenes, Mute Trigs, Kits, Analog Engines, and Parameter Slides are what really make it a complete instrument to me. It’s one I don’t ever see leaving my setup (Octatrack falls in that category too).
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I had an ARmkI but sold it because I didn’t really like the analog drum sounds but tbh, it was certainly me not knowing how to handle it and they added new engines that I didn’t have the chance to try so if the analog side is important to you, you should check videos only using the analog side (so no samples)…
I have the A4mkI and I love the drum sounds you can get out of it but it’s not a drum machine so you don’t get retrig/ratcheting functionnality, no compressor too…
I have the DN too but I miss the performance feature of the A4. DN/A4 do not sound the same at all so having both makes sense to me (A4 being a multitimbral synth with 4 mono tracks and some polyphony if you ever need to - more than the other way around).
You could however set modwheel, pitchbend, aftertouch and breath control to control not one but 4 parameters each, giving you performance like features (either you use an external synth or perhaps you could control those from a MIDI track on the DT by using some kind of midi loopback?). It’s not as straight forward as the performance mode in the A4/AR but you’d get something quite similar.
One thing the AR has that no other Elektron machines have: velocity pads.
I think that can bring a lot to the table and give you new ways to express your self in a live performance but you could buy some midi controllers that can do the same for way cheaper if that’s the only feature you’re interested in.
Is the AR(mk2) for you?
- do you like the analog engine?
- do you think you’ll use the pads (& velocity that goes with it)?
- is the form factor (big!) ok?
You said you’ve been using DT everyday so selling it seems a bit adventurous. A wiser choice would be to keep the DT and get a A4(mkI second hand). DT/DN/A4 would make a nice combo (sample based drum machine/digital fm synth/analog subtractive synth).
I see a lot of comparison between DT/OT(certainly because both are samplers that can control external gear with MIDI) but couldn’t find one comparing DT/ARmk2. I’d love to see a video comparing them if somebody has both!
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I read this thinking surely not! But you’re right. Not a single comparison video afaik. The sampling parts are very, very close, but I too would love to see a comparison such as taking the exact same set of samples and processing them on each machine to see how much ‘analog’ is imparted to the signal etc etc
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Yeah, it was a surprise to me because when I YouTubed this, I thought I would have at least 3-5 results but nope… There’s not so much ARmk2 dedicated videos either to be honest (compared to DT/DN/OT). DT/ARmk2 seems indeed to have quite similar sampling functionality but even that, I’m not so sure. Seeing how the analog side changes the sample would be indeed a very interesting video!
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Definitely. I’ve exhausted all of the AR Mk2 (and Mk1) videos on YT. Now I’m just left with the absolute dregs of shitty ‘jams’ that have had about 3 views in 5 years haha. Let’s hope an Elektronaut will read this and give us our fix! 
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Bo Beats done a fairly basic comparison in his review of ARMk2.
But as you say, it would be really nice to have a dedicated “here’s a sample played through one, now here it is on the other”
Here’s the time stamp for anyone who’s not seen it ( can’t imagine there’s many that would be interested in buying that haven’t watched this! )
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Thanks for all the answers, I will sleep on it a few nights and see how I feel.
The money is obv an issue as I don’t earn money from music so it’s just a hobby and feels strange to spend so much on something that I don’t “NEED”. But it also seems like it could be the last drum machine I’d ever “need” (at least for a very long time) so it could be seen as an investment.
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I didn’t see this one!
Unfortunately it’s a bit lightweight on the sampling/workflow comparison side (but the main review was about the ARmk2 so it’s understandable). And I think a few updates of the ARmk2 changed a few points he made! we need a full in-depth comparison with the latest firmware haha
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Haha yea every review complains about lack of sample/filter visualization etc which is now present;p and no reviews ive seen show the dual vco feature
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I don’t really use the the sampling function, I only really load samples from transfer.
But I think it’s exactly the same as the digitakt…
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