I’ve been slowly getting tired of my A4 and I’m thinking of parting with it after my band’s new album is complete (it’s all over the album). I’m trying to decide what to replace it with and my current thoughts are either an analog poly (prophet rev2 perhaps) or the Digitone. The only thing that’s really keeping me from the DO, however, is the lack of song mode. If I’m buying an Elektron device, I want to be able to use it standalone to sketch out tracks and such, which, for me, requires song mode. Do we know if or when the DO will be getting a song mode?
Send it song position from your OT?
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The whole point is having ONE unit that I can carry around for writing and such. Having another unit means carrying two units.
I thought the lack of song mode would bother me but at the end of the day the DN is so much fun and useable that it’s not that big of a deal to me anymore.
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Monomachine has a song mode. You could also invest in an Electribe EMX/ESX which also have song modes, but the virtual analog sound is not the best quality in my opinion. I love my Digitone for sketching out song ideas and the lack of an official song mode never deterred me from creating complete projects with it. You can make multiple patterns and chain them together or what I do, I just track it into my daw and arrange there. It doubles as a top notch midi sequencer for other gear as well!
If you are doing more conventional band type songwriting, I’d say that the DN isn’t great on the sequencing side with the lack of shared kits between pattern (which is IMO worst than the lack of song mode)
If you’re used to writing multi-patterns songs on the A4, you’re gonna hate the DN as it’s hard to keep it smooth when switching patterns (you can copy your sounds between patterns, but if you change the filter or another parameter on pattern 1 and move to pattern 2: bang, parameters will be reset to their original settings, no possible sound continuity between both…)
As a sound module it rocks though. If you’re playing it from a keyboard or an external sequencer, it’s a really awesome synth/drum machine. But honestly, the limitations don’t make the elektron sequencer shine on that machine if you wanna perform real song with development and not just do 4 bar sketches on it (or at best a couple bars more if you stretch like a mofo with trig conditions).
I use it to sketch out tracks just fine without a song mode. Pattern chain and Pattern Master Length are your friends. It doesn’t need song mode.
I looked strongly a the A4 myself and found it’s sound very boring in my opinion. The DN has surprised me, I’m very pleased with it.
Here’s an example, DN does half the drums and most of the melody, and I basically do nothing apart from watch it play through the track.
What I’m saying is if I’m going to buy another elektron device I wanted to have all of the features that my current electron device has. The profit would just be replacing the analog synth parts of the analog four.
That’s a Laptop, I think. Maybe one day someone will make a proper DAW in a box, OT comes close but nobody has done it right so far. Honestly your best bet is iOS, which has a couple really fully featured DAWs and tons of soft synths that can effectively replicate the DN. You are stuck with iOS updates and not every app will stand the test of time, but you seem like the love em and leave em sort of synthesist so maybe that isn’t a deal breaker.
For me, sketching in pattern mode and then arranging in Ableton is perfectly fine.
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Elektron is pretty notorious for not including everything it could in a machine so you have to buy multiple machines.
You won’t have song mode in a digitone, but you will get midi sequencing, unlike the A4. This seems irrelevant to you, but because of this I’m pretty sure (I don’t own a digitone) you can connect the midi out to the midi in and create a pseudo song mode by p-locking program changes. Can a digitone user vouch for the viability of this?
DO = DigiOsc DigiOcto?
They don’t even clearly explain how to hook their own machines up to one another in manuals. They also never advertise getting an additional box for features x,y, or z. With the dt/dn lack of song mode, there has never been any input from elektron telling people to buy another box for the feature. It’s only ever other users saying this. Elektron has actually said they are hoping to implement a viable alternative to song mode on the dt/dn.
I don’t understand why people propagate this nonsense Of being forced to collect all the elektron boxes to get certain features. Roland and korg don’t always include a song mode (tr8s doesn’t have one, electribe users had to beg for one). But only elektron gets accused of leaving it out to force other purchases.
Midi in to midi out will get you a pseudo song mode on both the digitone and digitakt. Pattern chaining is also quite useful
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Pattern chaining isn’t held in the memory after a power down but program changes are though right? (That’s my understanding, and why I suggested it.)
But right, I think a majority of the people criticizing elektron for these things are doing so in good faith. I know that I am. It sometimes seems arbitrary, like A4 not being able to have different lengths per track, while the octatrack does. Or the A4 not being able to re-trig notes, while the OT does. I think it’s that we expect more from Elektron than Roland or Korg.
But I do see where you’re coming from, and that each machine IS complete how it is. IMO, a good way to look at an Elektron machine is it being an instrument to play rather than a programming tool like a DAW.
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I think the point of the Digi* series, as they currently stand, is to not have all the features of the larger devices. It really seems like Elektron has built and targeted them as more accessible machines.
So if you want feature parity with the A4, then Digitone, as it stands, will not meet those criteria and likely never will. But it’s a great great great sounding unit and can still do so much on its own. But there is a lot of the richer feature set (parameter slides, sequenced effects track (can be hacked with midi loopback), the richer A4 pattern chaining, multi-destination LFOs, performance macros, and so on) that is absent.
But the Digitone is also so compact and usable and approachable and pretty darn fun. And it sounds terrific. Its form factor is really making me want a Digitakt despite still having no real need for one.
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I wanted a reliable motorbike (Japanese) but with the thundering sound of a Ducati L Twin engine.
Turns out that doesn’t exist.
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Digitone is the most fun elektron. There, I said it 
Edit: Of those I own of course. Can’t speak for all to be honest…
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Lies! It’s a tie with Digitakt.
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Another all in one box to consider is the Deluge.
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Or an Akai MPC live. There’s a song mode.
I believe the OP is looking for a synth.
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