made the mistake of selling mine when I bought the model samples, and immediately regretted it until I purchased another one… the model samples and cycles are keepers but the digitakt is a brothers keeper, will never make that mistake again.
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I’m realising as I’ve used the Takt for a few hours now, across the course of two days, that coming back to the Elektron sequencer and the Digitakt specifically, I’m using it in a very different way than last time I was serious about a kit from Elektron.
All the detours to other kit have taught me entirely new ways to approach music making on devices of the kind, but since I’ve been on Elektron for so long, I also know their specific workflow and the sequencer like I know an old friend.
So it’s like coming back to something I’ve known for some time, but with new skills and experiences, now applying those in ways I just couldn’t do before. So I mean, I don’t know if I’m keeping the Digitakt, I got it for a specific project to which I knew it’d be a good fit and the store was kind to lend me one, but it’s clear to me that which I’m doing with it now, I couldn’t have done for two years. Not because of the Digitakt, the stuff I’m going for would’ve worked on the 1.0 firmware, but just how I use it.
All the dust and dirt from years of travel from one kit to another, is paying off, one way or another. I think that’s something worth remembering when we all run to lecture people on why they’re getting new gear and to settle with what you got. Curiosity is a strong driving force for learning and while getting gear is bad for the wallet, it is part of learning and growing and sometimes, one should certianly not settle for just the stuff one has and learn it properly. Because if you do, you don’t know what you’ll find if you don’t set out and explore new things.
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I completely agree with the first comment that everyone’s agreeing to, it’s super clean (and dynamic). To me though, I sold it because it that. I’m not that good of a painter yet to completely paint a blank canvas in any direction. And I don’t use a computer to prepare my samples. So for my taste I like the “worse” sounding OT. It gives the rougher character that I can’t paint fully by myself yet. (Is Elektronauts my Bob Ross in this metaphor??)
I think it is one of two related reasons. The gracious version of me believes that it is a hardware/software limitation. that they designed the electronics and sound architecture for very specific tasks and run them at very close to their limits. There have been a few topics where the devs have said how close they are to maxing out the hardware capabilities. It might not even be the hardware specifically. It might be that the sound engine is set up in such a way that it as not possible without doing significant work to it, which costs time and money.
The less gracious version of me believes that it is to help distinguish the digitakt from the octatrack and the digitone. There are certainly aspects of the digitakt that seem specifically to keep it from competing with the octatrack too much, like it’s storage limits. (1 gig really was not enough in 2007 much less 2017) Maybe I am just spoiled my my eurorack module that can just take a full microsd card.
I really love the routing signals through the digitone’s effects, and it makes more sense for the digitakt to serve that role than the digitone. I think that if they were going to add that feature they would have done so already.
Also speaking of the compressor I really wish you could route only certain channels to it. that would make the sidechaining aspect actually really useful. I feel like that should be an option in the audio routing settings menu.
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Yes, I think you’re right. There’s a few things the Digitakt just can’t do and clearly a few things Elektron won’t let it do. Both make sense.
The one thing I miss is proper stereo monitoring of the input, to let me route my Prophet 12 through it and the compressor, to the output. No need for stereo sampling, I get the mono vibe of it all, but for external routing only, it’d be cool.
But current rig is cool as is, no matter.
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Absolutely. It is especially annoying because if you route computer audio to it via usb the monitoring is in stereo, so it seems very possible.
I understand the argument that you want the monitoring to be the same as what you are sampling, but you could just add that as a toggle on the record screen. That is the main problem with using my model cycles with it.
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Yep. Totally agree.
Sorry this is a parenthesis but I remember making music on first akai samplers with 1.44 floppy…
Funny to see 2Go are now a “limitation”.
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I remember working on floppy’s too 
The internal memory of the DT is 1GB if I’m not mistaken but the project sample memory is 64MB, which is not a lot by any standard
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I thought it was 2gb, maybe I’m wrong. 64mb is good enough for drums. I do find it funny when people say it’s not enough, MPC2000 was 32 mb max and stereo.
The one criticism I have is the way transfer just strips the right channel. I found for stuff like cymbals you’re a lot lot better off using RX or similar and doing a SRC/Dither(Change Bit) then Mix to Mono, it’s not a subtle difference, maybe on low percussion you won’t notice, plus that should be mono anyway.
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For sure, I’ve made a whole ambient album from one project, pads everywhere, perfectly capable
Yeah, not sure why it doesn’t just sum to mono. I bounce all my samples to mono and convert before I send them to the DT.
Also, just found out it can digitally sample in standalone mode, wasn’t aware of that, via whatever is coming down the USB. Midi splitter/looper cable just arrived too.
edit: The loopback is insane, I don’t think I’ll be trading this in for a AR after all.
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You can properly side chain using overbridge so its not a hardware limitation, sadly a software one.
IE you can route specific channels to main to put them through the comp, then other “bypass” it. Then you can set the s/c source channel to your kick channel orwhatever
I got it to get out of DAW environment, and it served as a healthy creative boost! Both using it but also going back to DAW, so get the best of both.
I also got an ipad as a digitakt friend, small and versatile
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That is a shame as I almost never use it with my computer and haven’t tried overbridge.
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Ive really been trying to avoid the computer but honestly OB is a game changer for me. Multitrack recording is just so useful. I tend to basically use Live as a mixer. Usb cables instead of audio cables everywhere too is very nice. Also I have DN + DT which is 4 inputs for other gear. That couple with my komplete audio interface gives me a neat 8 audio ins for other gear
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The amount of FX you can use with ableton and a midi controller is awesome too. Just a laptop, launch control xl and the DT is a great minimalist techno setup.
Maybe it is a problem with my system and I have little experience with daws, but the latency has made it not useable in my attempts. I have tried various audio drivers, various buffer sizes, and haven’t been able to get something that I can actually perform without the timing messing me up, and I’m not particularly sensitive to latency. I am using reaper, which might be the issue, or maybe it’s my computer, as I am sure people don’t actually work with the level of latency I have been seeing so it must be an issue on my side.
I am lucky enough to almost entirely make music away from the computer, as it is just a hobby for me so I don’t really need the professional capabilities a daw offers. I find myself recording my songs as complete performances to stereo and call it a day. I almost never multitrack, unless I want to change effects on a part live.
Anyway, here’s my first piece on the Digitakt now that I’m on it again, made specifically for a project I’m working on.
This is all Digitakt, using a few Chase Bliss pedals to resample loops through its hardwired inputs and field recordings I’ve picked up from around my home. Main lead is recorded from a Prophet 12 into the Takt and all other sounds are Digitakt factory samples.
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I like it!
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