I am seriously hesitating between both since they are the same price.
I love to mangle a lot of samples together to create textures or sound effects and beats after individually screwing up with each sample, think Mount Kimbie style
or Gold Panda
Digitakt sequencer and parameter locks are probably going to be more creative and interesting than MPC but you’re severely limited on track count (8 on Digitakt vs unlimited on MPC). If you want to create solely sample based music you may be better off with an MPC than Digitakt.
If you can try both though that’ll be the best deciding factor. You may not get along with the workflow of one which can be the deal maker/breaker.
With Plock you have 8 tracks x 64 samples trigs. More than enough to make a full track.
Plus, Digitakt is an high quality piece of gear, very well polished and it don’t be replaced any time soon by a new product. The hardware/software integration on Digitakt is very smooth.
You understand, I vote for Digitakt but I’m a fanboy my review don’t really matter.
I have a Force and had a Digitakt, the Digitakt/Elektron style of step-sequencing is amazing.
Although you can swap samples per step on each track in order to utilize more sounds you need to keep in mind that each track is only monophonic so long samples will be cut off by new samples being triggered on the same track.
What are you currently using to make music and mangle your samples?
I have the MPC Live and digitone so I can only speak of the Elektron sequencer. It’s amazing compared to the MPC, lots of happy accidents and creativeness. The MPC on the other hand can do it all and does it well.
Not an easy decision, both awesome, good luck!
For starters, modulate start, end and loop position of a sample with an LFO or P-Lock
I see the MPC vs. elektrons as a division in style/design.
American vs. Scandinavian I.e bombastic/extravagant vs. minimalistic.
MpC has everything in spades but it’s implementations are quiet crude. Elektrons aren’t that high speced. But it’s functions are implemented very smart. Basically the same ethos as it’s counterpart in interior design.
I am using solely ableton. Still will and love it but i want a companion to sketch out sound craziness on my couch or at the park then use ableton for proper arrangement and dressing it up.
Alright i see, how about potentially creating a soundscape with those 8 tracks and then resample them on one track to liberate the 7 others and add upon it ? It’s more for sketches and sound mangling, true arrangement i will do in Ableton.
Octatrack would do better ? (not sure i could afford it yet but just curious)
Digitakt’s got character in spades. MPC don’t.
Even though it’s looking at the Mpc Live/Octatrack I think it’s worth taking a look at this Video from a few years back.
It’s really difficult trying to evaluate or compare the 2 different feature sets and sequencers of the Akai and Elektron. But It’s the different ways of doing these things that need serious consideration.
If you’re going to continue using Ableton for arrangements I’d go with the Digitakt.
Yeah you can resample no problem. However the sample editing features on the DT are limited.
If you’re using Live right now I really don’t see any advantages to using the DT.
You’re going to get a different workflow and get to be away from your computer but that’s about it.
I just want out of my screen and still be able to sketch no matter where i am.
Like sometimes i don’t want to take my canvas and paints out so i’ll just chill in the garden with some pastels and a notepad.
I have owned an MPC Live and currently own a Digitakt and a Digitone. This post is about my journey from the Live to my current Elektron-centric setup.
First of all, the MPC Live is an absolutely beast. It is basically a DAW in a box and then some. I have done many successful live performances with it and I was never “unhappy” with it.
But I also had a Novation Circuit and a Circuit Mono Station that, to be honest, were more “in the moment” inspiring to me. I kept coming back to them when I wanted to just “make music”. The MPC Live was requiring a LOT of planning and such for live shows, less planning if I wanted to just jam with a couple of Circuits and a Circuit Mono.
Then, more and more, I was getting into the way the Circuit Mono had more dedicated controls and parameter/sound locking to let me make crazy stuff either mono or paraphonically. I decided I wanted more of that immediacy, but with more voices and tracks. This is when I started revisiting the Digitone as a possible purchase. Shortly thereafter, I pulled the trigger and almost immediately fell in love with Elektron’s way of doing things. It just clicked with me.
I still had the MPC Live, but it started getting less and less use except for sample-based patterns. I also was making an effort to avoid long looped samples. Then I did a couple of live shows with JUST the Digitone and the Circuit Mono Station (plus a Keystep), no samples at all. It was more “minimal”, but everything sounded even more lively to me, more punchy and fresh, and I was getting a lot of good feedback, including from some other electronic performers.
So after spending some time weaning myself from samples and NOT using the MPC Live for a while, I decided to get some sampling back in to the mix, but in a more purposeful, controlled way where I wasn’t as dependent on them for my overall sound. I didn’t want to get back into the MPC because it was a whole solution and workflow thing that didn’t really click with what I wanted to do anymore.
Enter the Digitakt, which has the Elektron workflow that I already loved, mated perfectly with the Digitone, and is a sample-based drum machine/sequencer that inherently keeps me away from falling into the “loops” trap. In many ways, the Digitakt is less “powerful” than the MPC Live, but what it DOES do that’s so special makes it an inspiring sampling/sequencing creative workhorse that I have made SO much more music with than the MPC Live.
BTW, I sold my MPC Live the very day I took delivery of the Digitakt, but I had already poured through the manual and watched a zillion tutorials, so within minutes, I was up and running and making music to verify that, yes, this WAS the droid I was looking for.
Okay, all that said: Elektrons and Digitakt work amazingly well for ME, but someone else might feel that the MPC Live fits their style and needs much better. Music making gear is very subjective, and one person’s holy grail is another person’s doorstop. MPC Live and Digitakt are not really that similar, other than they both sample and sequence and let creator’s create music.
If you want one all-in-one box and the MPC suits your workflow, it is very hard to go wrong with the Live. Me, I went a more focused component route with the Digitakt, Digitone and a Circuit Mono Station as my current live setup.
Bear in mind that resell value is pretty good, so if you make a decision and later come to want something else instead, it won’t be that big of a deal. That’s exactly what happened to me, as I bought the MPC Live used and resold for exactly what I originally paid, which then paid for my Digitakt purchase.
tl:dr - I went from MPC Live to Elektrons, but your mileage may vary.
What the Digitakt will let you do is just mess around and have fun. You’ll make some cool beats but to get a full arrangement out of it will take a lot of work. It doesn’t have an arranger (song mode) like an MPC or DAW has. It really works well for a live performance tool so if you like playing and performing you’re music you might be good. But if you’re looking to have the full music making experience like Live has then you’ll be disappointed.
It’s a fun to play sampler / sequencer. It has its limitations. Ideally if you can borrow one for a week or so that’d give you a good idea because it takes a bit of getting used to how Elektron does things.
RandomSkratch It’s exactly what i want actually!
Nothing will ever take me away from Ableton’s faster than light arrangement workflow, all i need is a box to work on ideas, crazy ideas and patterns that i would later arrange and dress up in the daw.
I think i’m sold on the Digi to be honest!
And yeah, for as long as i’ve heard of elektron product i still see the digitakt and the bigger ones at a crazy high resell value it’s quite shocking to be honest. I think the octatrack mk2 used to resell around 1200eur a couple years ago, it barely lost a hundred on it since…