I’d say if your focus is sampling + midi sequencing stay with digitakt, unless you really want to run samples through analog filters/drive. If you’ve heard the rytm synth engines and like them it is worth a shot.
The AR is a not-all-sweet-spot synth, you make many sounds which are terrible, and the distortion and compression are key to getting the best out of it. Almost every individual sound needs a touch of overdrive or it sounds kind of flat. I would say it is pretty “deep” though, considering all the machines you get, # of parameters. and the master fx. However it is not deep in the multi filter/lfo type way. But I’ve used snare machines as bass drums, etc…
People complain about the pads but I think they are good for playing/entering 4 bars (as opposed to extended live drumming as you see in mpc videos), and they can give the engines the dynamics you need in an actual sequence. If you prefer step sequencing that might be another reason to stick with DT.
The advantage of the RYTM over the DT you guys said don’t worth the price difference in my opinion. It’s more than 2x the price of the DT for an analog filter and distortion…
DT is more instant…and AR takes more logistic pre planing for kits, performances and scenes, you also have to be careful…you can edit a pattern to sound good and mess up another pattern with the same kit…so you loose some of the instant and easy workflow…
But Damn the AR is much more capable…i have them both…and plan on keeping both…
Ah, but the Rytm affords you the ability of fluidly switching the playback direction. (Ie. Interpolating from a start of 0/ end of 120 to a start of 120/ end of 0 while looping)
^ this + param slides + aftertouch/ macros gets you to some very interesting places that the DT can’t.
I was using a Rytm mk1 but ended up using samples 95% of the time, and while they sound great through the analog filters/distortion/compression, I wanted something cleaner. Got a Digitakt and it’s much better for my purposes, granted I don’t care about song mode and the performance features of Rytm.
The Digitakt is not at all a downgrade from the Rytm. Rytm can be an upgrade from Digitakt if the analog stuff and other advanced features are interesting to you, but DT has plenty of unique qualities which make it special.
Hmmm. I’ll check out the sound engine, surprised to hear people aren’t too keen? Is it just tricky or just not that great. I was all up for using the computer and ob when I purchased DN and DT but now I’ve scrapped it.
Honestly, I think the reason why some people aren’t keen on the analog side is that ultimately, a drum machine is comprised of paired down synth voices, and you can never please everyone when you limit things. There will always be people who vocally disagree with which parameters were chosen to be included. Fortunately for those people, the A4 really meets those needs, and that’s why you see people call the A4 a fantastic drum machine.
Having recently upgraded from the DT to Rytm MKII, blending analog and samples has really upped my drums. Also, it is really nice to be able to just craft a sound instead of hunting for the perfect sample.
I have also reproduced several of my DT tracks on the Rytm MK II (kind of a tedious process…), and they sound identical, and I did not run into any limitations. One of my tracks heavily modulates sample start/length for breakbeats, and I was able to reproduce it without issue.
The things I would recommend people think through are:
Do you want to deal with kits? To me they are a blessing when mixing a final track, but others hate them
Do you mind needing to mess with the analog engine settings even when working with samples? If you are using samples 90%+ of the time, this is wasted time
Do you need to control external MIDI gear? I have a DN, which meets this need, but I would not recommend the A4/Rytm as a MIDI brain
I have an MPC2500, which isn’t going anywhere, so I have a brain and multi out stereo sampling. The Elektron sequencer is much much faster for me when it comes to percussion though. The CV out would be more useful.
Ideally I’d use a mix, it’s 12 voices through 8 mono outs? It would be a big advantage to be able to step lock the analog sounds. The drum sounds the Microvolt makes are so punchy, like a DFAM or something much softer, but obviously one a time so I can’t keep it live.
I’ll look into it and read the manual, but I wonder if the drum machines could be unusual enough? Can you get a bit weird with them? Or are they x0x styled?
My experience exactly… so I sold the Rytm and bought the Digitakt. Later I was fed up with the 128 samples limit (chains are possible but it’s still a hack) and the lack of direct controls and bought a model:samples instead. So I effectively found happiness in a machine that costs 4 times less than the one I had first.
I’ve got both, and if had to choose would keep the Rytm mk2
Kits make you feel like you are making a track and not a pattern…
many other features make it better too… 4 choke groups are a bit much though…
With kits you can also retain performance modulations across patterns, whereas if you switch patterns on the DT/DN, you will be losing any control-all adjustments you’ve made to the current pattern. I imagine this would either keep me more pattern-locked when structuring “songs”, or more hesitant to venture off via control-all (out of a concern for cohesion).
Honestly don’t sell or replace the digitakt. It would be absurd to replace a tool you love for the dream of something better. I have a digitakt, and candidly it’s not an upgrade to go to an AR or any other box.
I would compare it to an SH-101. It’s simple enough to be a beginner’s synth and people who start with one will get good enough to want more features. They “trade up” to something more complex only to make more or less the same sounds (possibly with polyphony) but with less familiarity or usage of the features, and rediscover how much they enjoyed actually using all the sliders of the SH-101, and the deeper understanding they gained from the other synth somehow expands what the SH-101 is capable of. The Digitakt synth engine may seem vanilla on the surface, much like the SH-101, it’s still capable of going from “east to west” in real time thanks to its sequencer and its ability to sample anything.
If you can’t afford a new Elektron without selling the DT then keep making music on the DT.
If you want more elektron boxes, I am for that.
