The DN2 looks like it’s a very impressive package with plenty of added features in terms of signal routing, filters and sequencing. Plus voice count. Tempting. Isn’t it?
Having just re-bought the OG DN three weeks ago I made up my mind what I am going to do with it. Sell again and order the new one? Keep? Howl to the moon?
Here’s my (very personal) stream of thoughts
I really love FM
I haven’t reached the limits with the DN yet
That’s one of the reasons I bought it again
I like the DNs form factor and the mostly accessible, simple interface
I never been running out of voices (yet)
I’d love a compressor/saturator but it doesn’t need to be built in
I love to have as much control as possible over sound design
Machines are compromises – I prefer fine grained access to parameters
There’s for sure more to be added. Let’s hear your thoughts …
tl:dr
I’m happy with the OG and no regrets having bought it just few weeks ago. Don’t consider it a waste of money or worse. If you ask me again in a couple of months it might have changed.
On the one hand, I’m nowhere near reaching the limits of the original, and a lot of what I love it for is the FM sound design capabilities (which haven’t changed much in the DN2). I’ve seen some amazing tracks people have created with it, that I’m not even close to.
I also love pairing it with other devices to provide drones, kicks, or pads.
However, one of my main gripes with the DN was the 4-track limit. I was used to working with the DT beforehand, so got used to e.g. putting kick on one track, hats on another, snare on another, pads on another, lead on another, texture on another, etc.
With the DN I had to get my head around putting multiple sounds on one track, and the hassle that goes with that - it felt more like a workaround than a good workflow.
So the DN2 solves that issue (and some others), but whether it’s worth it for me, I don’t know.
to be a more serious and not so obtuse. The new one looks great, but the OG (which i´ve seen go as low as $350) is a great value!
and if i am going to say something negative about the DN2, its that 16 voices for 16 tracks feels low.
if Elektron would have added more modularity to the sequencer (internal midi routing) having tracks affecting other tracks and what not, then that “limitation” would have felt less.
absolutely. 16 voices is nothing to sneeze at but in the context of 16 tracks, it feels kind of limiting.
Edit: Again, its about mindset, because you could set up one pattern to be a really complex song by just programming each track to you hearts content and then traverse the song by using mutes.
so you could have each track use up 1/4 of the voice count but only ensure that you have 4 tracks active at a time. Could be a very direct way of making music and keeping a song contained and focused, instead of spreading it out over several patterns.
And then you could very easily mix match different elemnts of the song as well… this is actually getting me kind of hyped
I was definitely of a similar opinion wrt the Digitakt 2, as an owner of the DT1. Not having a DN1, I find the upgrades in the DN2 very compelling. If I did have a DN1, I probably would feel the same as you B_LD.
I don’t think they are effective devices as an upgrade route, particularly the DT2, but I think that they are mostly superior and a sensible choice if you have the funds to pay the extra.
The big winners for me are the 16 tracks and 16 voice polyphony assignable however you wish, the chord input screen, and the 128 steps. Even without the new machines, that’s a massive amount of flexibility. It would also now make a better sequencing machine for my existing setup than my DT1, with 16 possible midi tracks and double the assignable CCs.
If money was no object I would order one right now.
Yeah if you’d be using it mainly for melodies / longer tailed stuff it’s very limiting but with FM drums and such + voice stealing you’re probably able to go quite far.
But when I’d be pairing it with a DT2 I would be using it mainly for tailed stuff
Never felt that this was a real limitation – but I’m used to soloing with A4 and I got pretty complex tracks out of it making good use of soundpool and parameter locking.
Was only a matter of time till we got this thread :D. I’m reminding myself that a lot of thought and experience went into my current setup, so shaking it all up with DN II would be kinda stupid and I might run into well known “issues” soon. If I was only starting out or knew I had a month with loads of time for making music and learning it, this would be the one for sure.
DN II sure has a lot to offer and it’s very tempting. But right now, I could only justify buying it if it became the undisputed center of my setup or the only machine I used. I don’t see that happening, since I’m only starting to feel comfortable with my ST-DT2-Nina setup. Having 128 steps and polyphony is a main reason for me to upgrade, but I already have that in my DT II sequencer, which has four MIDI tracks assigned to my Nina. More trig conditions would also be useful, I would mostly use them for drums, so it’s sad ST didn’t get them. But it’s not like I only make shit without these, so I’m trying to not get too used to them on DT II.
Besides, I relied heavily on DN sound for about two years and became a bit tired of it. I still love it, but don’t want it to define my sound the way it used to. I recently made some great beats with it on a train ride, and I think they turned out so well because I only had four tracks and had to use plocks, so there was enough room for sounds to breathe. Back home, i recreated these tracks on ST with eight tracks, and I preferred the sound to DN. If I want to have that wonderful tone, I can still grab my DN. If it’s not at the center, eight voices and four tracks are more than enough. It might actually be a lot better in that role compared to DN II, since it’s easier to navigate and less likely to bog you down with all of the options it offers. On top of it, I don’t want to learn all of the new functions right now when I could just make music and discover the possibilities of my current setup.
What I’ll have to decide over time is whether I want so slim down my setup again and focus on one or max two machines. I can see the DN II + DT II combo being pretty productive, with DN II as the songwriting tool and DT II to fire up some stems, vocal samples and field recordings. But knowing myself, I would probably miss more knobs and feel a bit disconnected with MIDI controllers, which is why I got the Nina to replace DN as my main poly. So what remains is the elusive one box, which is tempting, because I tend to be most productive when only focusing on one Elektron. But without an additional pair of outputs and (mostly) send effects that aren’t on the individual OB tracks, I’m skeptical I would see this through to a final recording. But I can see myself wanting to radically downsize since juggling a setup with several devices can also be challenging if you don’t spend enough time with it.
Yeah, I see most people get around it - I think starting with the DT as my 1st Elektron device just got me used to have more tracks than I needed available, so never really used more on that sound per track there.
If this isn’t a joke… The yellow screen is completely fine for our eyes, any screen actually is, the issue is not looking away from screens every so often which causes strain (but that would be the same if you stared at papers for 10h/day without a break).
I think that this is true, and I find sound locking for flexibility a compelling and interesting workaround of sorts, and it ends up producing interesting results. That said, I don’t find those solutions in any way more compelling than a greater diversity of tracks and voices, and I will always use one sound per track over many at every opportunity when not working under self imposed conditions.
That said, when I look at a device like the DN2, I don’t think about it as a standalone device, I think of it in the context of my setup and I would be using it alongside a DT1 and an AK at all times.
This is an interesting ‘upgrade’ they almost feel like different products to me (obv without yet having used the DN2).
The DT2 seems to me like an upgrade in pretty much every way over the DT1, but it retains the core DNA.
To me, the DN2 has become a much better groovebox for making full tracks. Or a much better FM drum machine given the voice increase, however I don’t think of the DN1 as a groovebox. I know it CAN do that, but I think of it as much more a 4 part 8 voice multitimbral synth. I think the swelling of the track count here, the loss of the direct access buttons etc just takes away a little of the ‘focus’ of the original.
So it you want a do it all groovebox, the new one is hugely improved. If you want a FM synth to pair with other things, I think the OG is still a fantastic instrument and more than enough for the purpose.