Syntakt or Digitone

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#21

Keeping the M:C and getting a Digitone gives you a very nice little two piece setup straight away, no mixer required. M:C can do drums/percussion, Digitone can do the synth stuff. I’ve found that although you can make the Digitone do “everything”, it gets a little cramped, not because of the 8 note polyphony limit (which is enough pretty much most of the time) but only having 4 sequencer tracks. Getting something else to do the drums allows the Digitone to shine, and believe me it does. It sounds awesome…

I sold my M:C before getting a Syntakt, the Syntakt more than replaced the M:C for my needs. I initially held off buying one because having a Digitone already, I thought the lack of polyphony on the Syntakt would be an issue. Well, it hasn’t been an issue whatsoever, I guess the Syntakt steers me towards making tracks where polyphony isn’t needed!!

I’m finding the Syntakt to be an absolute blast and it’s the best “one box solution” out of the 3 for me. You’ll have a good understanding of how the machines work, coming from the M:C and it is amazing how much content can fit into 1 pattern because of the 12 sequencer tracks. The analogue machines complement the digital ones very well too, adding a different flavour to the sound whenever you need it.

All of the Digi boxes are completely safe bets imho, you really can’t go wrong. No help whatsoever I’m sure but that’s how it is my friend!

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#22

Okay, although there are a lot of threads about this:

It depends on the genre.
I don’t have a syntakt, so I can only talk about the digitone here:
If I do hard techno (kick with rumble, snare/hats, bass, eek eek eek) its more than enough.
That applies to simple, minimalistic music.
Often I use it as poly synth, because, it’s awesome.

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#23

I adored my M:C and wrote a lot of stuff I’m proud of on it. I always hoped a ‘pro’ version would come out. I got a Syntakt and that’s exactly what it is.

When I want to do chords and not use the chord machine, I’ll load up 3-5 instances of the same sound and make ‘chords’ that way. The higher track count allows for that. It’s kind of a hassle, but I don’t mind. Been doing a live residency using just the Syntakt and an Octatrack, which I think is an amazing combo.

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#24

I got the Syntakt and the Digitone recently in the same time.
At first the Syntakt was waouh, it’s incredibly versatile and sound good. The Digitone was less impressive, I made only thin sound.
But then, I find the Digitone more and more interesting, I achieved to make really great sounds with it, insane arps, retro vibes chords, etc… Digitone is a better synth than syntakt, Digitakt is a better drum machine than syntakt.
So, my pick is simple : Syntakt if you go standalone, Digitone if you plan to get a Digitakt or you already have a sampler for drums.
But the real deal to go standalone : Digitakt.

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#25

Just buy the Syntakt and see if there’s anything missing (like polyphony). You’ll be used to a lot of things on ST like the digital machines. But you’ll also have plenty of new things to discover, like the analog tracks, FX block, and just the general workflow and options of the digis compared to your MC. Maybe you won’t miss anything. If you ever do, you will maybe have saved up a bit of money for DN or a cheap poly like Nymphes or a Roland boutique/compact.

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#26

Pretty sure that is Elektron’s entire product design and marketing strategy boiled down to one sentence…

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