To me it was strange that Cenk said in almost every demo video from Namm that they had a lot of problems with the Digitakt. Now i can imagine what he might have meant with that. He definitely knew about the buggy os. Heās a pro and worked on the machine for hours.
Not that I have facts, but I would guess elektron has the best initial sale of a product in their history.
Cenk is doing a great job in selling a product even if t is half bakedā¦
I think they all knew exactly where to go and what to avoid in the superbooth presentations.
I would call all of that very clever and well made marketing.
And you do not want to know how much I fkn hate these marketing driven, cash driven companies.
And by looking alt elektron they went this way and sell half baked products as the momentum of the demand was at a peak and the only way to go is to sell and keep looking for whatās coming nextā¦
Sort of arturia styleā¦
Letās see if bad reputation is something that makes them change their strategyā¦ I doubt itā¦
I am happy with my OT, sold my AR after it failed too often when I kicked in some STROM Performancesā¦
OT and MM and probably MnM are great, I used the MnM not for long enough to get an opinion.
None of those three crashed everā¦ Am I a lucky guy or is their build quality something good from the past that elektron abandoned now?
Sorry for bashing but I find it annoying and will happily go on reading here for some months before I even consider buying a DT and it will definitly be not a used one as I hope for some hardware fixes they will build in silently in the coming DT generationsā¦
in an alternative universe there exist countless posts yammering on about why tf this device is not released yet.
Guess what - it wouldnāt have been perfectly flawless either.
Possibly might have been a good idea to label the early OSes as beta though, just to meet expectations.
Yeah, a clear āThis is beta. A lot of major bugsā declaration would have made it a totally different story. I see no reason for not doing this except not wanting to lose sales/arrogance. Which is a pretty gross way of using peopleās trust/money. If this isnt the case then nothing stopping Elektron explaining whatās happened and why. Pretty easy to communicate these kind of things in todays world 
Youād never sell an album download with a full Tracklisting and then tell buyers āoh half of itās coming later, could have told you that but I thought Iād make that decision for you, youāre fine with it, chillāā¦ Well youā couldā do but it would be a dick move. Hardware companies get a ton of slack in this kind of grey area for various reasons. DT feels like it just took it a little too far.
Iāll be sceptical buying fresh Elektron stuff in future if this kind of non-disclosure/silence is the way theyāre going about things now. And all the buttons in wrong places stuff is just bizarre, did they bring in homeless people off the street to help them assemble/QC
Professional curiosity here - even though weāll probably never knowā¦ As someone with a background in software engineering Iād love to learn more about how Elektron develop the OS of their machines. There must be so much stuff that is common between their machines that Iād expect a lot of reuse going on. I imagine some sort of platform/library with all the fundamental stuff, like interacting with the hardware, etc. with some high level, machine specific stuff built on top of that. Now a working MIDI sequencer they have in the OT OS. And yet some functionality that has existed in other machines for years seems flawed in the DT. Of course thereās always the topic of integration that can cause new issues to pop up, but still it seems odd to me. Thoughts?
yea I dunno itās not so simpleā¦ sure, they are total pros with midi, but integrating it with the sequencer / sound engine so it runs nice & tight etcā¦ itās gotta be a piece of work.
about releaseā¦ also not so simpleā¦ thereās all these interacting parts, hardware development, production/assembly stuff, warehouse logistics & distribution, software development, future products planning etcā¦ multiple projects going onā¦ so if thereās a delay with software for example, such as the early issues with the Digitakt right now, does it warrant grinding the entire process/company to a halt?
Frankly, the one valid showstopper problem in the current OS is the crashes on incoming midi clock. The majority of issues people are reporting are RTFM-related (my +drive has no samples / what is a sound), or smaller ones which are absolutely in line with what we have seen with the other machinesā¦
the misplaced buttons thing is unfortunate, but heyā¦ itās easy to fix & people get free t-shirts
imo.
That assumes Elektron knowingly released a half baked product though. I guess thatās the crux of the matter. If they did, then by all means go to town and tear into them but I still believe Elektron released a product believing things to be in line with past releases (ie. 95% complete but a few minor bugs to iron out).
So, whatās gone wrong? Are things as tits up as they seem? Who knows! But it does seem like there are lessons to be learned from this one whether itās more rigorous software/hardware testing or quality control.
Thatās kind of what I was getting at earlier - I wonder if new box format = new code/platform meaning more of a grounds up approach rather than reuse that may have happened historically. Probably one weāll never know!
You would think software wise the DT is basically a ātweakedā version of the digital side of the RYTM and the midi side of the OT.
Makes you wonder whether the chosen hardware may also be to blame. Maybe they took the cost cutting a little too far with this one. Really hope not for Elektrons sake.
Could you imagine total DT recall? Ouch
The mixed up buttons thing is not trivial to me. Itās a very telling sign.
Free tshirt? Iād consider that an insult.
Are you talking about the physical buttons on the machine are in the wrong place?? (Have an OT so didnāt go near the DT)
All I have to say to that is āWowā.
I love my Digitakt, the immediacy is superb even with a few quirky UI choices that will hopefully be ironed out based on user feedback. Sampling into it is a joy and yields fast useable results with little effort.
However, it doesnāt take much to see that compared to other Elektron releases this feels rushed - I was preorder on A4 and donāt recall this level of showstopper bugs and hardware issues in the initial batches (flaky paint, whatevs)?
Correct me if Iām wrong, this Digitakt release feels different. Donāt recall the same level of nasty bugginess in the Rytm release either, I donāt have one but just based on following the release on here.
Elektron should:
A) make a statement about Midi status
B) clarify the obvious confusion around Sounds v Samples included as āFactory Presetsā
C) urgently address critical bugs that cause hardware freezes, audio glitches and high pitched whines that frighten my neighbours dog
They probably wonāt though because my mate Liam says theyāre a bunch of fkin twts - but so is he, so donāt take it the wrong way 
Edit: Sounds v Samples from the manual description it seems like many of us have no Sounds but plenty of Samples:
When performing a factory reset on the Digitakt, it will overwrite and re-initialize the active RAM project (in- cluding all pattern, sound pool and global data). The +Drive project slot 1 will be overwritten and re-initialized with factory preset patterns, sounds and settings. Sound bank A will be overwritten with the factory sounds.
I am having trouble commiting my passion to anything more than fiddling at the moment, I want to get creative but hate loosing what I have made, since another factory reset is highly likely and there is nowhere to back up saved patterns I have been working on presets only. How long will it be before backing up data is possible?.
i totally agree, its telling !
I bought a Behringer DeepMind 12 when it was released at the end of December. When I got it, it was inside a white placeholder box, no quick start manual, not even the serial number format had been finalized and hence it had a placeholder serial nr.
The above things were all done on the next shipment a few weeks later.
The actual synth, the software, was in a state where you just scratched your head wondering where Behringer/Midas headās was at, releasing that thing. It was in such a bad state, had so many issues and bugs, that it permanently damaged one of my ears (severely so). Random spontaneous loud sound bursts, on a synth with a filter capable of cutting anyoneās head off, and a multitude of other major issues and bugs. I had 2 units briefly, some changes internally had happened between production rounds.
Hihats and other high freq sounds are hardpanned to my left because Uli Behringer pushed that heap of trash out way too early. I canāt work with sounds any longer, other the occasional tinkering around at home. I have since gained new found respect for all other manufacturers. There are issues and there are issuesā¦
By the way, I still have a DeepMind 12 inside a closet. Iām thinking about selling it obviously, but there is a large rattling fan inside it (there are 2 fans in this thing), plus I kinda wanna do a stress-test video, YouTube styleā¦
The lack of communication has really put a bad taste in my mouth with these guys and Iāve sold Rytm, Octatrack and Iāll never buy anything from them again. I have other peers who are all doing very well in the music business who feel the same way. Their attitudes have gotten much bigger than the quality of their products.
Steve
Pretty sure that other companies having better QC & Bug disclosure/squashing than Behringer is nigh on an industry given
Iām almost certain every other company has better QC than Behringer.