Hello! If there is another topic on that please, link below. I want to ask about what is the better to choose? Currently i am looking for Digitakt 2 however i see on the market that currently Octatrack MK2 used is in the same price or sometimes cheaper comparing to digitakt 2. What it’s your opinion on that? I want to use it more for the hip-hop, house, electronic music, maybe ambient stuff
There’s a number of pros and cons for either of them, but one thing to keep in mind is that DT2 apparently doesn’t have proper manual slicing. This might be a major factor if that kind of detailed work is a major part of your workflow, it’s something that the excellent Jon Makes Beats does a lot in his hip-hop instrumental tunes, so I thought it would be worth mentioning.
I would focus on the features and capabilities that would be the biggest benefit/detriment to the kind of workflow you would like to have. It’s slightly tricky for us to recommend which one would be better either way without knowing a bit more about your requirements.
Do you have other instruments that you might want to sample or live record? The OT has two sets of inputs to record from which might be a really nice thing to have. It also has two sets of outputs, the cue outs can be used as a send to an external effect unit, which for me is a pretty essential feature but for you it might not be an issue.
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Backing up my 64 Gig CF card, managing, does not take much. Is it the same for a 20 gig +drive on the DT2 as far as speed transfer, or is it faster?
I tought that with Digitakt 2 will be implemented slicing but as far as i can see on the videos there is no such function yet. Maybe it will in the future. Currently i have Poylend/Dreadbox Medusa and Digitone and for sure i want to sample them. Also maybe something from VST so there is so much input in OT and for sure they will be used
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you could resample (cut the startpoint,…) and save one shots, and build from there on another pattern a grid, that you resample and load into your performance pattern. is bad for memory if you have extra long slices in mind.
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It depends on what you want to do. For me it’s the OT all the way for sampling and mangling. But I’d use the DT as “just” a drum machine to go with my OT in order to free up more tracks on the OT.
The OT is a proper sampler, but it’s not a great “drum machine” for me.
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From working with both Digitakt and Octatrack
Octatrack works better with performances with its scenes, fuller external processing abilities, live looping, and live sampling
Digitakt feels a lot easier to program dynamically with its 8x2 sequencer and more direct conditional control.
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For me, the major advantages of the DT2 in comparison to the OT are the great UI, double the amount of audio tracks, easier sampling, master compressor and distortion (without sacrificing a track), velocity mods, and the high likelihood that we’re going to see lots of great new features added to it in the coming years. As mentioned in the posts above, you can do some things on the OT that won’t be possible on the DT2 due to the hardware (fader, multiple ins and outs). But if you don’t need those, I’d say DT2 is the better long term investment.
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i like slicing, but i feel like resampling individual pre-processed sounds as new, shorter individual samples, putting them in their own bank, and using the new “tracks” trig mode to sequence/record the manual triggering playback live is much more intuitive for that type of workflow. you can make your own “drum rack”, albeton-style or mpc style i guess
resampling multiple individual chops into one sample “chain” and using slices seems like a workaround most of the time, rather than an ideal solution for me anyway. either for the scenario i just described, which is how i like to work with “chops” or smaller segments, or some sort of on-grid time stretching or drumloop playback which can also be handled in a fine tuned way with individual samples in most cases or you can just use the grid and repitch/stretch machines on the dt2 for those things
You can use slices for more than simple playback. Put it some randomisation for example. Sample chains are awesome for something like hihat variation that you trigger randomly. Way more possibilities than your slight velocity variations. That’s not easily possible with sample-locks.
as far as playing them live, i dont see a difference. modulating them or p locking them i guess i fail to see the advantage of chains as well (for functions that the existing dt2 machines cant already achieve)
OT MKI > ALL 
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I’d say go for the Octatrack if:
- Your house / hiphop music relies heavily on resampling other music (check out Ricky Tinez’s videos). The audio editor is a great tool to slice your samples and you can stream directly from the card (without having the limitations of the RAM).
- You would like to go deep with live looping/mangling your sounds. Especially for ambient stuff this is amazing to play with.
- You would like to perform live with it (live-looping, scenes)
- You like to use an external effects in which case the cue outs and extra inputs are a godsend (and probably my biggest miss for the DTII).
If those things are not super important for you, then I’d say go for the DTII: Get the latest & future technology from Elektron in a very appealing package. It is more straightforward to learn and will save you from some mental wrestling with the OTs limitations (8 tracks, parts, 80mb ram,…)
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Is literally written in the box of each device:
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Drum computer: designed to create beats/patterns, fast and powerful to program. You can feed it by sampling, now in stereo.
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Performance sampler: sampling, chopping, slicing, looping, mixing and remixing on the fly, both internally and with external sources.
Edit: if sampling in stereo turns a DT into an OT alternative, adding a pair of wheels turn it into a bike?
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Also, don’t sleep on presets on the DT2. It’s a bit more work to set up, but could be used to replace the slice mode of the OT. The downside is that there’s only a limited number to be used per project (127). But each preset can be configured in detail and then played with the new preset trig mode.
True but when I had a DT, I’d argue that I didn’t primarily use it as a drum computer at all. Sure I put down some basic beats but I spent most of my time with it creating bass/leads out of random sampled shit and the likes.
To the OP - if you think you will use most of the OT’s features then it remains a great choice. I loved having an OT but I used less than like 25% of it’s features and those that I did use… I think the DT2 would do better.
If the OT had Overbdige and the improved sound engine of the DT’s then that would probably be enough for me to stick with the OT personally but the DT did feel quicker and more instantaneous in terms of results. DT2 is, obviously, more future proof/modern too I guess.
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This is the reason I’m quite happy with OT2 and DT1 combo, no immediate GAS for DT2 upgrade.
That sounds like a longer workaround to just being able to place your slices exactly where you want them. The way Jon Makes Beats uses slices is to spend time initially getting all the slices he wants then he can play them straight away with the slices trig mode to figure out the sequence, seems to result in good hip hop beats which is why I’ve mentioned it as that’s something the OP is interested in. Of course there’s many ways to go about making a track so it might not matter, personally I’m all about live improvisational type stuff so I wouldn’t do manual sampling, but for folk like Jon they may have to re-evaluate their workflow on the DT2.
BTW I’m talking about recording a continous sample from a record or some keyboard playing or whatever, then chopping it up so you have the fragments you want. It sounds like you might be thinking of something slightly different.
I’ve seen this a lot when talking about DT vs OT, and from what I can tell of how the DT1/2’s sampling works I don’t really agree. It’s clearly simpler in that you have less options to choose from, but that doesn’t necessarily make it easier.
Once you set up your tracks on the OT you can instantly start recording from one of the three sources by pressing track + Rec1/2/3, or if you’ve enabled quick record just with Rec1/2/3 while you have the track selected. If you set up a MIDI controller such as a footswitch array you can have even more straightforward instant recording into any of its buffers. You can’t do that on the DT, AFAICT you always have to go into the record page to record a new sample.
Where I think people get hung up on with the OT is with the various settings there like trig types and quantised recording, but honestly I think anyone can figure out that stuff by reading the manual and playing around with it for an hour. It’s true that flexibility can be a double edged sword when it comes to trying to learn a new system, but I’d much rather have more powerful sampling tools and need to spend a bit of time learning them than be stuck with something with limited options. But tbf the DTs are primarily drum machines and they’re not aimed at the same use case as the OT.
DT2 does have threshold triggered sampling though, which would be really nice to have on the OT. But quantised recording and instant record triggering makes up for it a bit and means I get to practice my timing more.
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Selling mine and DT1 sold (mono files and sampling make me sad).
Waiting for DT2 monday !
Keeping OT MKII Black of course. Ultra powerful sampler combo. You can make drums, melodic, noise with both, I still don’t understand why DT would be restricted to drums. It is a sampler. Both can be wavetables synth, and you can make synths with any sound with them. DT2 will free my OT STEREO tracks for more rec buffers playback, resampling with feedback fx…
I’ve been a staunch defender of OT. The gap between OT and DT has been drastically reduced with DT2. DT is much straightforward, mature workflow with DAW integration (I don’t use it), has much better pitch range, more parameters to plock, easier to play melodically with its scales. I’d recommend it over OT for standard electronic music, especially beginners.
For Hip-hop, Dawless setup, sampling and editing chops : OT all the way for me. Its audio editor is really good for hardware. You can scratch with the crossfader (hear @1m30s of song below, made with OT, from 1 hour Shostakovitch piece chopped in OT !)
For modular like experimental stuff with realtime resampling with feedback, crazy crossfader control of many parameters, OT.
Sound control is super powerfull with the crossfader. DT Control All simply can’t beat it.
Sequencing several recorders and buffers is powerful, but I guess we are a minority to use it with its full crazy potential to mangle incoming audio.
For on grid loops slicing, DT is simpler and faster, and allows more tweaking (grid as parameter).
DT slices can be combined with Slots modulation : you can slice loops, and modulate slots to change them, following slices grid. (Doable with OT, but midi loopback or megabreak trickery, see below)
DT2 has velocity mod, slots and slices destination so multisamples can be used.
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