What synth could replace my digitone?

@prydal have a look on YouTube for videos on how to do sawtooth and square waves on the Digitone. Just sticking with them two may be enough to curb your GAS?

Edit: I missed JohnL add a link to a VA soundpack. Nice!

Algo 8, just use the B operator for a subtractive poly or mono synth.

Four of them.

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I had that phase with my Digitone as well. It tooks months before I began to like its sound. Embrace the digital! It can also sound very warm and inviting but those are the boring sounds it makes. Yes, something analog will be better at that because it’s easier to dial in.

I’ll keep my Digitone. If I have a track where something’s missing or I need a new idea, I usually for the Digitone. It is such a versatile box and I love the drums.

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Wow guys thx so much for all that great input!
I guess i will try to get more out of the digitone and check out your Tipps & patches here.

But still am interested in all those other synths that get recommended:D

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If you have a sequencer (like another Elektron box), the Waldorf Blofeld is a great choice. It sounds great, handles many types of synthesis and has 16 tracks (multitimbral parts) sharing 25 voices of polyphony.

You can even save several patches as a « multi patch » to recall 16 of them at once, like a drum kit but with synth patches.

You can setup several tracks to respond to the same midi channel to layer sounds.

My Blofeld is my Octatrack’s best friend.

Edit: also, it’s small!

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It’s a fine synth, I enjoyed it… sound, interface, everything. I made this track with it:

It’s a bit old now so I would be wary of faulty units.

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Yea there arent a great deal of choices to meet the multi-timbral requirement - I’ve gone through this journey myself. Digitone can sound warm and analog but it takes a bit more effort - feels like you’re working against it rather than with it - but it’s definitely possible!

If you can get one for a decent price then the Mutable Instruments Ambika could be a great choice - you can split the 6 voices however you like and it has multiple outputs - it’s like a Juno on steroids and sounds amazing. I recently sold mine and feel like it will be regretted. No onboard effects is its only drawback compared to a Digitone but if you like subtractive sounds and sweet analog filters it’s a brilliant option.

Blofeld suggestion is probably the best one aside from that tbh. Micromonsta 2 is a great choice if 2 tracks is enough - which is essentially a small Virus.

Blofeld is a beast of sound design, can do almost anything… but the interface is kinda slow and weird sometimes, especially in multitimbral mode. Micromonsta2 is great, no flaws. Fast to operate, sounds excellent (oscillators, filters, effects… all top-notch), a real pleasure to play with.

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Indeed, I would not recommend the Blofeld for tweaking sounds live. I see it as a plugin in a box. It’s very much a “design a sound one day, use this patch to write a piece another day” kind of machine for me.

You can assign many things to a midi controller of course, and make sounds that are alive and evolving. Still it is not the kind of tweaking you do on an Elektron device, where it is meant to be messed with while the sequence is running. So, if that’s a need you have, you may need additional midi clutter, which makes it hard to recommend.

EDIT: for clarity.

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Yes, and the Micromonsta2 has assignable controls per patch… very handy in a live situation.

Waldorf M has a (slightly buggy) multi mode with 4 parts & 8 voices. same idea with shifting rhythmic weirdo but gorgeous ethereal timbres except wavetable rather than fm. not as small, but fits in my gator bag and has a vesa mount. no sequencer. i use my dn, blackbox, or dt to sequence it

i get tired of the dn timbre too, despite loving it otherwise. but the M never gets old. constant gold coming out of that thing. and the deeper you go and more you familiarize yourself with it, the more it gives back. combined with the dn sequencer, it would be unstoppable

its basic saw/pulse/triangle waves through the analog filter/vca sounds as analog as any dsi analog poly but it obviously does wild morphing physical modelling-esque tones also

Virus is a way better Blofeld

Although unless they’ve updated it there’s no interpolation when moving between parts A/B - the knobs ‘jump’ which I didn’t like. In fact it was my one and only gripe with it. I contacted the guy that makes them and he didn’t consider it an issue which I always thought was odd. Every other synth I’ve used with potentiometers either uses catch-up or relative positioning (at least as an option). This was a couple years ago though and is easy to fix in the software so hopefully that’s changed :crossed_fingers:

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The Digitone is my desert-island synth and it’s probably the only piece of gear I’ve never considered selling yet! I’ve written a ton of music on it and from my experience it can sound very “analog”, especially with some of the soundbanks available. My favorites so far have been these 4, all of them include some gorgeous warm sounds: Routine by @Floppydisk_Pirates, Haunted Hearts by @boboter , DigiTales by @substan and Lo-Fi drone and Chill by @OscillatorSink . The Geometry sound packs also sound amazing, but I haven’t tried those myself.

I’ve posted a lot of Digitone-only videos on my youtube channel (usually with some fx pedals added), but here are a few of my favorites that explore the warmer side of the machine:

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To the OP, don’t replace, augment? Get a HEAT, or some other analog unit (any of the OTO fx boxes) and you can really warm the DN up.

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It’s funny… I had the same feeling as OP when I first got it, but now that I’ve actually understood how it’s used - this thing is magical!!

So much so, that instead of dropping a few grand on the next GAS guzzler, I’ve instead invested in this Digitone course (Mastering Digitone Parts 1 + 2 — Dave Mech). Instabuy after seeing some of the videos.

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Just great music man! :sunglasses:

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In no small part thanks to your amazing patches! :heart_eyes: :raised_hands:

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I replaced my Digitone with an Argon8m and a Modor NF-1(m), because I had some money to spare. But if I had to decide for one synth, I’d have gone for the Roland JD-08, at that time, it is multitimbral, has lots of polyphony and FX, and it sounds great.

FWIW, I added an MS70 to my Blofeld because I wanted more (and better FX).

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:blush: Man, that really honors me. I’m glad you appreciate my work so much :relaxed: