Please, please never! This only works with virtual/emulated products. But not with analog hardware. See Korg, Roland, Akai, Teenage engineering.
And there we already have characteristics like “arbitrariness”, “software bugs”, “sound dropouts due to insufficient computing capacity”, and so on.
Then we end up with many devices with the same internals and only visually different control panels “Hello Korg, Hello Roland”. Or always the same device in different versions. “Hello Akai”.
With Elektron, a whole bunch of specialized circuits are used. Analog OSCs, analog filters, etc. This leads to limitations but also guarantees a unique sound character.
Syntakt with its 8 digital voices is already pushing the limit. Hopefully, this limit will never be exceeded.
In the basic configuration, the 8 voices all sound individually meager. You have to animate them, layer them, send them over the FX track. Then the device starts to shine. Elektron masters the game perfectly.
In a complete emulation, it would remain sonically dull.
Same here, I‘d also love that. So I totally get where @GurtTractor is coming from as well. I also agree that it would make a difference if you didn’t have to use a powerbank. I just don’t know if the market for this is that big, let’s call it on the couch producers who want a professional high end device. Especially if they kill the market for selling us several machines. Maybe if they just made this device 3.000€, but then a lot of people would be outraged, probably including us.
And then I read @mfk‘s post and think that it’s probably better if Elektron stick to separate products with a clear vision and design ethos.
a handheld?
For ergonomic reasons, I think that would make sense. It would make the device more convenient to use. It would also make the device weigh less.
I don’t know…
It does multiple things, but excels in none. Although, devices with sampling+synthesis+batteries do exist and people love them (m8’s, OP’s, etc…).
Those kind of machines are good compromises (good compromise: when all parts are equally unsatisfied).
Specialized Machines is a better approach IMO.
Yeah, like I‘ve added in my post, I‘m not sure if this is such a good idea. It would have to be some kind of updated Monomachine I guess, with either a clear focus on FM and the DN and ST machines. Or some virtual analog component. And the sampling capabilities of Rytm. Not sure if this alone would get people that excited 
.
I would love to see what Elektron‘s plans were up to the pandemic. I‘m sure things have changed a lot since then. And I‘m sure it’s pretty tough to figure out what the next move will be. The audience sure has changed a lot during the pandemic, as it did with lots of hobbies like videogames or bikes. Now it’s kinda going back to normal, except that it’s not, because there’s war, inflation, component shortages and uncertainty.
I think there’s still quite a bit of potential left in the Dynamic Performance Sampler concept. I’d love to see an OT successor that has the ability for tracks to modulate each other via one of the LFO waveform options, it would open up so many possibilities from basic sidechain stuff to crazy FM weirdness.
Not an argument because 1) I don’t have a say in the product design 2) I have zero insight and 3) I wouldn’t mind more portability…
I keep looking at these boxes and don’t see much way to make them smaller without changing the inputs/outputs especially MIDI ins/outs.
Part of the reason or problem could be that they are performance devices and from the beginning they didn’t want to compromise on components (as I’ve read in old posts from regarding design and cost of SID).
Competing products that are slimmer usually skimp out on MIDI connections, and or sacrifice playability for button combos or menu dives.
I started using Elektron devices a couple years ago now and I’m still surprised that these Elektron peoples got it right, while Korg, Roland, missed key points. That list is longer, but just keeping the “accepted” ones here not to derail the speculation train.
Again, not saying it shouldn’t be different but I do wonder if it could be different. I think they explored that with the model series and from comments I’ve read, it seemed to not go over so well on release?
Digitakt in stereo and polyphonic with proper storage. Proper time stretch
a couple digital synths and extra fx.
A battery, speakers and keyboard built in👌
Digitakt keys, different product entirely 
it’s funny that no one mentions the probably most requested feature at the time
I dream of a recreation of the MachineDrum and Monomachine.
Same layout, yes. The tricky bit is the labelling. As that is different as the buttons are the same, but do different things on the different devices.
After being an early adopter of digital DJ’ing way back when. I tried to always shoehorn my DJ setup into things like a launchpad. It works, but it’s much easier to have a dedicated layout that is labelled.
If people want Elektron to go down the box with downloadable machines route. They’d need to work out how to do the labelling, whether it’s on the screen or with screens underneath the buttons / encoders. I don’t know.
This analogy makes little sense because it suggests big compromises, i.e. that the Syntakt would somehow become a much less awesome groovebox if it got the Digitakt sample machines added to its already excellent workflow… which of course it wouldn’t.
It would be just like the current Syntakt only more useful. Nothing about the insanely fast and immediate workflow would go away. In fact, nothing about the current Syntakt features would change. The buttons would literally work 1:1. It’s just that if you selected a sample machine, it would expose different functionality for that track.
Subjective.
Syntakt has a lightning fast workflow right now. Adding a sample engine means adding sample management and +drive management. It also influences consistency. To give an example: On the syn page, Decay and overdrive are always on the same spots. Loading a sample machine means having to replace those with other parameters unless you want a severely lacking sampling machine. In turn that will influence the usefulness of control-all and also affect muscle memory.
Adding more stuff just for the sake of having more choice is not necessarily a good idea.
I would not want an exact copy of the Digitakt machines in syntakt. Maybe a simplified sample playback machine with a few sound mangling parameters would be nice. No sample start/length/loop. Just a one-shot machine with a few sound design tools to destroy the samples in various interesting ways would work. Decay time, and overdrive should stay.
I’m sure that the people at Elektron could design the sample engines so that the consistency was retained across all machines. Doesn’t need to be a 1:1 mirroring of the Digitakt layout but should follow the conventions set on the Syntakt.
Yes, sample management would obviously be needed for sample machines. There’s no way around that.
Obviously my entire wish is based on the assumption that Elektron would build it in such a way that it works with all design philosophies of the Syntakt. But with added features like resampling in stereo etc. Never going to happen. But I just don’t think it would automatically translate to some boat/car compromise. Not at all.
I think everyone is barking up the wrong tree hoping for sampling on the Syntakt. It’s the Digitakt (and possibly Octatrack if we believe the now deleted Cuckoo comments) that needs replacing here. Syntakt as a design is done and sampling won’t be added imo. Syntakt is already damn close to wiping out Rytm, so sampling on Syntakt would make Rytm completely redundant in many people’s eyes, especially given the price of the latter.
I also realized recently that I was getting really frustrated with owning several boxes (digitakt included) that kind of fill in the gaps of each other but that don’t totally satisfy what I really want to achieve workflow wise. Having bought an mpc one plus recently and seeing how much more that thing can do for less than the price of a new digitakt, it dawned on me how more a manufacturer like Elektron could do if they just made a powerful sampling and synthesis groovebox. I know Rytm technically does both, but I don’t see many people using that as an all in one song generator.