Amen to that
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Fantastic idea.
Any of the delay algos would be much nicer for the digi boxes, even the free freq echo, sounds much cooler when changing delay times.
dream combo imo.
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I wonder if theyāll ever add āper trackā FXs to the digi boxes. I think that might be quite a lot of difficult work given that currently the FXs are sends.
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sonicware lofi 12xt has one per track as well as send FX. Have to imagine itās possible but the hard choice is really what other feature they canāt enable due to tying up those DSP resources.
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Be careful. I tried Isopropyl Alcohol on sticky Digitone buttons and it stripped the black paint off.
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Data point w/r/t TPE stickiness: I just bought an X-Rite Colormunki Display colorimeter, a device with a soft-touch coating, which would have been manufactured in 2011 or so. The box had never been opened and the shrinkwrap was still intact. When I took it out of the box, the thing was so sticky I could have hung it on the wall.
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I mean, thatās how OT works, so no biggie 
Ah yes youāre absolutely right!..
Okay come on Elektron!
Replying to another thread, I started brainstorming. I havenāt thought this out at all; this is just an idea and a quick sketch in Affinity Photo.
Four stereo tracks with OT-style crossfaders and four macros for each. Each macro could send MIDI to any of the digis and control built-in effects. Crossfaders could control all macros at once. This would be basically 4x Octatrackās effects control section + 16 macros + FX box.
With this, you could quickly create performance templates for a setup of four stereo boxes (for example, DT2, DN2, ST, and AHFX). Parameters could be assigned/locked like on any Elektron box (hold button/encoder and adjust parameter). Add quick template swapping for live shows and this could be a fantastic performance controller.
FX page controls built-in effects.
MACRO page controls macros.
MOD page should probably be MIX page, where the macros knobs would control volume, pan and two AUX sends.
With so many connectors on the back they would probably need to use 1/8-inch jacks. But anyway. This is my daydream today.
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Digi* III, Syntakt 2 - similar to prior devices but with changes to UI (minor), polyphony, synthesis machines, FX, and perhaps USB-C and battery power.
Model:* II - as above, only with a more limited capability and plastic build.
Open source app for cars where you can load up a Digibox light and make sequences on your android auto or apple carplay while the car is driving for you. āFreeā advertising.
I doubt they have any interest at all in enabling polyphony for digitakt or syntakt devices. Both are marketed quite directly as ādrum computersā with sampling or synthesis respectively. Itās interesting that the digitone is already a polyphonic device but still has the track layering feature while their mono devices donāt have this, which I think shows that theyāre really intending for you to use the digitone in all situations where polyphonic play is required. Likewise, the option for true synthesis on digitakt and sampling on syntakt has been requested since both were released and neither has seen this implemented across many quite substantial FW updates and new features.
More FX, effects per track, maybe some more elaborate options such as tonal movement in the euclidean sequencer or a syntakt arp all seem pretty plausible to me but the only way I could envision sampling coming to syntakt would be like in the microfreak, a minimal pool of <6s samples with no recording or resampling that are used from a wavetable sort of structure or a simple one shot sampler at best; anything more elaborate directly stops a lot of customers from buying a digitakt. On digitakt I could also see them implementing a structure with wavetable and/or simple granular synthesis since a lot of people are wasting LFOās to achieve this now but I donāt see them providing an FM machine or anything like that when they have much better real synthesizers they want to sell you. When you look at Syntakt, Digitakt, and Digitone as a trio they together comprise a fairly complete HW setup but there is very intentional reduction in crossover capabilities between them. This was Florian Pilzā primary complaint about the Syntakt, seeing it as intentionally being just short of an ideal standalone box by not having sampling or polyphony and no good reason for Elektron to change that about it.
One product I might see them doing that with would be combining model:cycles and model:samples into something closer to a circuit tracks; that would also be much more likely to have a battery and would have neutered sequencing and synths and sampling capabilities but be better for the home musician on a budget who just wants one thing. The digi boxes are visibly built with professional musicians and producers in mind and pro markets donāt mind product differentiation if it means the product will be great at the thing itās supposed to do.
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I never got the clamouring for a sampler on Syntakt. Itās simply a best of M:C and Rytm synthesis machine with some extra bells and whistles. Sampling should be added to a new version of M:S but they seem to have abandoned the lower end of the market for Ā£/ā¬/$ 900+ machines. Then again I canāt see them competing on price and features of P-6/SP-404 MKII.
Makes perfect sense if you want just one machine to do it all (sampling and synthesis).
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I get you. But bottom line, they aināt going to. Never promised it and it will eat into Digitakt sales so.
Edit: On a flagship, it could make sense, but then weāre talking Rytm prices if not more in todayās prices.
That may be true that it never happens, but interestingly enough the plan at one point was for Syntakt to be a mini rytm with sample layering. It was a competitor (Korg drumologue) that offered a too-similar package and convinced them to make it a rytm cycles hybrid instead, rather than internal competition with their own DT. Or at least thatās what their UI designer said in an interview, more or less.
Wishfully, I can see the Syntakt getting more sampled transients or samples, it would compete more with DT1 than DT2, and DT1 is no longer sold so it doesnāt matter.
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Me neither. But just a simple no frills Sample Player machine? I would think about repurchasing a Syntakt in that case.
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Very interesting about the Korg. I had no idea!
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Fx page idea for digi boxes like in this video
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Watching a small presentation from Vintage Labs on YouTube about the Monomachine I couldnāt help but writing you all my thoughts which go beyond Elektron. Letās just say that I go way back when this whole techno thing started (yes Iām old) so please allow me to share this. Hold tight and read through.
In any scene there are those who lead and those who follow.
āAccording to market researchā said no leader nowhere.
āI have a visionā is what you would expect.
The Monomachine & Machinedrum were visions from people who dreamed of a different reality. And the artists that used them didnāt do ads about them.
Then came the A4 and Rytm and it was cool.
For the small format Elektron instruments I thought āstrangeā. Why are they making smaller devices? Artists need big devices with a great interface, portability was never a discussion back in the day. Where are you going to take your device? On the beach? WTF. Back then our 909s would be either in the studio or in the club. But I guess owning a computer that fits in your pocket does change the way you see the world.
Anyway, from all the small format devices I thought that the Syntakt (yes you heard well) had the most potential. But then it just fell in a void. No leadership, no vision. Just market research and how do we make people buy more Elektron. Could the ST become a vision equal to Monomachine? Not really. But the basic idea was good. Create something that has many synthesis modes, 4 analogue drum tracks, 2 sampler tracks, a build-in fx processor and a tube compressor. And everything in the A4/Rytm format with performance macros and insane amount of LFOs for modulation. Am I dreaming? Obviously. But this is where it starts.
Let your imagination run free. How does the ST look like in your dreams? Please share.
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