no idea what you’re getting at. I just mentioned the price in Europe is all as I seen it on thomann. I think it’s well priced personally. 🤷
I guess you were aiming that at someone else.
Im just seeing a general vibe on products (and this product in particular, here and on youtube comments) where Elektron products are being compared to much cheaper products with broader features and people complaining that somehow these products are still too expensive when Elektron is famous for having very high priced products with questionable lack of key features.
Its like people complaining about the roland s-1 not having enough polyphony, like bro this costs 150 usd it is already punching way over its weight.
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You’re right, there’s definitely differences. Talking about the EU price which is steeper than US price.
DT1 is a more premium build. There’s things it doesn’t do (like native polyphony) for sure. But as a sampling sequencer it’s arguably better in a lot of ways. The 12 XT is made of a lot cheaper materials etc. At 400 ish it would have been a better deal. DT1 (second hand market!) can be had for less than 500 atm, and around 500 in a few.
You mentioned SP-404 mk2 which is in that 400 category and also has better build and an incredible amount of features.
Not bashing 12 XT at all. I think it’s amazing, just voicing my disappointment in this price.
SP-404 mk2 has awful workflow its literally like learning a new Street fighter character everytime you pick the device and its sequencer is way worse than the lofi-12 xt one.
The build is absolutely the weak point of the device, but the plastic “cheap” feeling doesnt change the fact the pads are super nice and the instrument is solid, I have had livens and despite looking super cheap they were solid, drop em more than once, carried them around without any case or protection and never had any issues with them.
Also comparing second hand prices to official prices is useless. Second hand prices have nothing to do with cost of production of an instrument.
If you wanna be fair you’d have to compare second hand price of the lofi-12 xt in a few months vs DT1.
For now at official retail price there’s no competition.
The price is fair, you’re asking for something that doesnt exist and wont exist anytime soon.
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Fair points!
TBH I prefer XT to DT, and the build quality is fine to me.
Long and potentially boring elaboration
I never really got on with the DT form factor, the track mutes in particular drove me mad, I also did not like the way the DT emphasised samples a bit. Plenty of people love the DT and rightly so, because it is a great instrument, just not for me.
I was late to the Sonicware party, in the back of my mind I kind of dismissed their gear as low depth, simple but fun little devices, a bit like Volcas (ironically which I quite like, especially Volca Sample) So I didn’t pay that much attention to the various youtube videos. Then a few people on here started talking about how Smpltrek was pretty good, so I decided to check one out, I was quite taken with it and some of the features, so decided to check out some of the Liven’s, I got a 8Bit Warps first, loved it, so then added a LoFi12 which is also IMHO really good, then I got a XFM which is pretty cool, then a TextureLab which I didn’t really like (given my dislike of granular synthesis and shimmer reverb WTF was I thinking!) so sold that one.
When the Kickstarter was launched for the XT I almost immediately backed the early bird LTD Edition, I was hoping it would be an expanded LoFi12 and in many, (but not all) ways it is.
The build quality of all their gear is fine, the Livens are quite lightweight and some of the design choices do make me cringe a little, but all that is secondary to the enjoyment they give me. The XT and Smpltrek are quite tiny, the small encoders are precise enough if a bit fiddly if you have larger hands like me, the screen is obviously very small, about the size of a watch face, but just about readable when I wear my specs.
TL;DR In summary I’d say if you have overlooked or avoided Sonicware gear for similar concerns, maybe give one of them a try sometime if you get the chance. In a lot of ways they remind me of Elektron, but a bit cheaper and a bit less prestigious, but actually very nice in their own right.
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just this morning i was thinking about how the XT feels like what I wanted from the DT. my interest grows
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Same here, I need to watch more videos and I already have a MPC and SP, so this is more like GAS unless there’s something I’m missing or some amazing feature.
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my GAStionalization is that i can use it in the same places i used to use my M8. the ep133 is just big enough that i dont care to bring it along to whip out in the five minute times i have scattered around my work day, but the XT seems just the right size for that
I think this looks like a cracking bit of gear. Not something I need in my setup at all, but interesting nonetheless.
If it didn’t have the sample length limits that it does have, I’d have been tempted to push it up the wishlist.
Yeah it was originally meant to have 300 seconds sampling time, but they nerfed it to 40 presumably for technical reasons, after they had backers, bit disappointing, but they did add a few extra fx (though arguably they’d have done so anyway)
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40 secs in total?, or you mean per sample?
Per sample. But probably not every sample, IIRC 64mb total project memory divided by upto 256 samples.
Edit: Rough calculation 3.45s per sample if you fill all 256 slots.
pfff 40 secs per sample? Thats good, I can’t imagine a scenario where I would need to sample longer than that. Else do it old school and pitch up 12 octaves and then pitch it down again.
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For me the 300s was interesting for say recording an analog synth being tweaked, then chopping into sections, and have a different one play each time pattern loops, but as it does not have conditional trigs then it isn’t so much of a problem.
The SmplTrek should be able to do that.
It’s the same hardware so the concept of the XT seems to be limiting functionality to avoid overtaxing the hardware and narrowly focusing on the basic sampler aspect.
It can to a certain extent, but it still doesn’t have trig conditions, I have asked them for it to be implemented though, I think it would make Smpltrek and LoFi12 and Livens appeal to a wider base, if they did implement trig conditions.
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Possible update that could address this?
I do like the XT a lot from what I seen so far.
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I do feel like the encoders would eventually be a bit annoying to tweak live considering how small they are but I mean… they’re encoders you can absolutely change them for slightly bigger ones.
Thats a bit more difficult for the screen. But it does look readable enough.
any indications as to how long the intro price will be around? thats a nice price