Struggling with Digitone

Hey folks,
I’m a few weeks into working with the Digitone 2 and… honestly, I’m with mixed feelings.

There are some things I really want to love — the sound, the possibilities, the sequencing — but I’m finding myself more frustrated than inspired. I’d really like to hear how others experience it, especially those who got past this stage.

Here are the main things that are bugging me:

Only 3 LFOs per track — and they get used up fast. Even basic things like LFO to pitch, then to filter, and I’m already almost out of destinations.

No general-purpose envelopes. You get AMP, one for operator A, a weird shared one for B1+B2 and filter. no way to route an envelope to other destination.

But… I could live with that, if only live automation recording felt smooth.

but the recording feels inconsistent. Sometimes it captures what I play, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it plays back sounding totally different than what I recorded. Not sure if I’m doing something wrong, but it’s killing the flow.

Parameter locks are powerful but don’t feel fun or organic when working with pads or melodic stuff. On drums and percussive sounds they’re great, but on longer sounds it feels mechanical and tedious.

At this point I’m torn:
On one hand, I hear people making music on the Digitone that sounds exactly like what I’m aiming for — deep, textured, emotionally resonant stuff. So I know it can be done.
But the workflow is not clicking for me right now. It feels more like programming than playing.

Did anyone else go through a phase like this and come out the other side?
Any mindset shifts, tips, or ways of working that helped it open up for you?

Thanks in advance — really curious to hear how others relate to this machine.

I’ve had multiple Elektron boxes and for some reason the smaller ones always felt that way to me…more like programming…since they are somewhat like trackers, that makes sense.

When I had the A4 mk2 and using it for more melodic stuff and sequencing my Peak, even though the midi out isn’t fully fledged out on the A4, it seemed more like a nice melodic sequencer with less “programming”.

I do love the Digitone mk2 for a lot of reasons but I do understand your point of view.

1 Like

This is a serious question: is this your first hardware synth / sequencer?

12 Likes

It sounds like you’re bringing a lot of experience and expectation with you into the DN2. Elektron boxes, in general, have their own way of doing things. FM, in particular, has its own way of doing things. So Elektron FM boxes are strange ducks.

I’d suggest, instead of looking for the familiar ways you’ve approached problems on other synths, set aside your knowledge and meet the DN2 on its own terms. Work through the manual as if you were a n00b. Learn its way of doing things and its limitations. With that foundation, creative solutions to problems will start to come to you. Only then will the box really start to “click”.

5 Likes

Quick tip: if you’re using an external midi controller, you can use the Velocity, Aftertouch and especially the Modulation wheel mod to create macros and add enormous variety to your sounds.

3 Likes

I have also korg opsix

Ok, so when you make the comparisons for what you’d hope for out of this device, would it be safe to say that there was a hope that Digitone was a more powerful FM synth which would fill some gaps in complaints you have towards opsix, or are these more related towards your experience with using VST’s and a DAW? You’d like some more of that workflow but with a hardware interface?

I ask because of all the hardware I’ve used, I can’t think of one thing which has everything that I want in one box. It’s a bit unfortunate, but as a hardware user, you start to make compromises with limitations. Sometimes this is inspiring, sometimes it’s a mood killer.

I think the only device I’ve used which has very smooth parameter automation is the modern MPC, I’m not saying it’s the only one, but it’s the smoothest I’ve used. In regards to sequencing, the elektron sequencer is singificantly more powerful.

As far as FM, I think the opsix takes a different approach and that the digitone takes a bit of getting accustomed to. The power is locked behind what you do with it rather than what it shows on the surface.

How long have you been using digitone now? Couple of weeks?

Do you feel the limitations are in that you can’t express your ideas with what’s available, or does it feel more like the interface is foreign and so you’re not sure exactly how to get what you want given what you see on the surface of the UI?

I think there’s a difference between understanding something and knowing it can’t do what you want, and then not getting what you want out of something because you aren’t sure of the correct way to accomplish it with that tool.

Speaking of tools, like a carpenter you know? Some tools have to be held in a certain way to work best. Some things go better in one direction than another, new pieces of hardware are similar to that. I think that if you aren’t enjoying the way that it works, it may not be the right piece of hardware for you, but I also doubt you’ll find a hardware synth / sequencer that operates with the depth of what you’re after all in one box.

Some of the fun is in finding ways to do what you want or to get what you want out of it. Sometimes it’s just best to admit that we are not prepared to put in the amount of effort to get there, or find the workarounds, and to make sure that we decide these things within the return period.

For me, elektron devices are indispensable for the creative process. I may not make an entire song on digitone or digitakt, but the foundations often come from ideas born of that workflow.

Sometimes I work on another piece of gear and have to move everything over to the elektron box to accomplish what I hear in my head, or that I know the elektron can accomplish easily. This is not to say that it wouldn’t benefit from more features, but that the feature depth is only as important as how adept you are in using what is in your toolkit.

I’d dig deep into some tutorials and don’t compare it to other hardware or software, see if you can find someone doing something you like with the digitone 2, something where the sound impresses you, and learn how they’re doing it.

I think a path may emerge and if it doesn’t, then you’ll be confident that you gave it your best shot.

Good luck.

10 Likes

You’ll never get that out of elektrons that dont have slide trigs. Which is basically all of them after octatrack.

Are you using an external midi keyboard/controller with the mod matrix? My guess is no. Maybe try that.

All elektrons are step sequencers. Pretty much trackers, that go horizontally instead of vertically.

If you dont like that way of doing things. Thats ok, you dont have to.

You can use digitone as a sound module and control it from a DAW.

2 Likes

A big important aspect of something like the digitone ii is to remember that it’s pretty damn impressive for it to have all that automation and all those steps and locking and conditional capabilities while also having 3 LFO’s with lockable-per-step behavior on SIXTEEN DISTINCT SYNTHESIZERS at once that all have their own comprehensive sound design capabilities. A single digitone track would still be at least on the level of a microfreak in capability and you get sixteen of them. That’s amazing.

Doing all that while keeping the interface relatively fun and immediate is the kind of thing that would have been unimaginable in hardware a decade ago. In the same amount of space as a laptop computer I can have it and a Syntakt combine to provide up to 28 synthesizer voices with effects, mixing, and live performance interactions. This is also happening effectively in real-time, and I’d be pretty surprised if the total product of synth voices and mod sources the average musician used on a track exceeded the 48-per-step that the digitone ii is giving you. It’s also pretty amazing that it’s a 16 track audio interface to a computer when you want it to be. It’s not a computer, it’s a really amazing and great sounding lunchbox with buttons that’s fun to play with in a way computers often are not.

The sound and sequencing were choices they made because they believed those specific options would give you a substantial amount of freedom to do amazing things but not leave you spinning your wheels trying to figure out where in “anywhere” you wanted to go like a DAW with tons of VSTs would. Figuring out how to achieve things you want to do with its constraints can be a useful creative tool that also helps you master the device while potentially showing you a different way that could sound that might actually be cooler than what you envisioned.

6 Likes

Route midi from a midi track through midi out and with a cable back to midi in. Disable send or receive clock/transport though as that’ll freeze it up. Now you have extra LFOs but have to sacrifice a track to get them. Then set the LFO MIDI CC to what modulates the parameter you need smoother automation of

2 Likes

I’ve never really struggled with the Digitone, just struggling in general!

6 Likes

I’ll second Keg’s sentiment here, in that it’s almost always the man, not the machine.

Just listen to the breadth of music that has already been made on this instrument, and we’re just getting started. The timbral and compositional possibilities are legion; indeed, virtually endless.

I just replaced several machines with a Digitone 2, and I don’t waste a lot of time comparing it to those other machines.

Does as it have as many envelopes as the Tempest, for instance, or as many mod slots, or oscillators, or onboard samples? Nope. But it does a LOT of things that I’ve never been able to do before. So many, in fact, that I wouldn’t know where to begin counting.

i.e. The multitude of FX, the continuous waveforms, phase distortion, wavefolding, variable-state filters, parameter locks, the arp, the polyphony, legato and other selectable voice articulations…

Seriously, if you don’t get along with the DN2’s workflow, that’s fair. No one else can quantify that for you. But if it’s just impatience or specific expectations based on the capabilities of other, unrelated machines…

If you want to enjoy the Digitone, you have to let those things go.

Incredible music has been made on far lesser devices.

Cheers!

7 Likes

Note that recording motions of knobs in the sequencer is just a fast way for adding parameter locks, including its limitations: Each step in the sequencer contains only a single value of each parameter and there is no interpolation happening between steps (parameter slides).

Which means the “resolution” of parameter changes is quite low. Using different time signatures (more steps per beat) could improve this resolution, with less beats per pattern as a side effect.

Well, this is a bit true for most Elektrons, they are programming monsters and not very optimised for live sweeps / overdubs / parameter automation recording. But it gets less worse over time when you are more experienced and found alternate ways of doing things (perform these live for instance).

But if live recording is important for your workflow you could also consider an external sequencer like the Hapax. I’ve used the Pyramid for a while with the original DN for the same reason: It handles live recording and parameter automation recording much better than the Elektrons.

4 Likes

You have note and param slides on A4 and AR, as well.

This is a limitation indeed.
There are other modulations here and there though.

And there might be other ways to get some pitch warble, e.g. playing with operators offsets with SY TONE, or the drift and linear offset parameters on SY WAVETONE.

The basic key to enjoy Elektron instruments is using them for what they do / embracing the limitations, and looking for workarounds. Once you know everything it offers, you’re more likely to find your own favorite workflow…

But yeah, limitaitons for sure.

5 Likes

Serious question: have you ever learned/played/practiced an acoustic instrument before moving to electronic ones?

Learning an acoustic instrument mainly teaches you how to adapt to its limitations. Electronic instruments are boundless in comparison but that can sometimes lead to option paralysis and a lack of honing in on the things that make it unique.

As someone who started playing a Casio keyboard almost three decades ago, the idea that three LFOs per track is a limitation is kinda cringeworthy. Make out of it what you will and hopefully find joy in that but don’t assume you will do better with more. Just ain’t the way it works.

5 Likes

maybe it would be good if you could post a few links to videos or audio so that people can get a clearer picture of what you want to do with the digitone.

2 Likes

This is because it doesn’t have param slides.

I really wish the DTII had them also. Sometimes the choppy recording of automation can work in an experimental context but really I’d love to record loads and it sound exactly as I moved things.

I ended up selling my DNII, I thought it was great but that I didn’t need it. I use the DTII on its own now.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t love it - depending on your finances or time you want to devote to it, either keep going or get rid of it, no need to overthink it.

1 Like

I wholeheartedly agree

2 Likes

putting live recording aside, this limitation in resolution of parameter values does not apply to when parameters are automated via overbridge - or does it?

Thank you in advance for clarification.

Maybe drop the assumption that two of the LFO are for the pitch and filter. There is plenty of beauty and drama to be found in other mod destinations.

4 Likes