Hi Elektronauts!
I’m thinking about to buy the digitakt but I have doubts about the kicks. I’m making techno but also I really like glitch sounds, IDM, and similars. Is the digitakt a good box to make techno kicks or will need a external instrument like Vermona Kick or Volca? Maybe would be better for this the TR8S?
Many thanks !
Jūrgen
it doesn’t make any kicks … it just plays them.
The DT is a sampler, so you load your own samples. If you want techno kicks, load in techno kicks. If you want to make your own sounds, you’ll need a drum syntesizer (Analog Rytm, Machinedrum, Volca Drum, Volca Beats, Sonic Potions LXR, Tempest, etc.)
Yesss. Sorry for my english. I’m talking about the sound of the kicks and if is good for techno music. I have seen some videos and the kick does not sound like TR8 for example…
That’s because they didn’t have an 808 sample loaded in to the DT. If you get a good sample, then it will sound great.
Perfect. Many thanks
Don’t buy for the sound, check the features and sequencer! The TR-8s may be a better buy, if the workflow fits better. Check the features and workflow and decide what you want/like. 
no thoughts on the RYTM ???, i route my rytm kick into my OT by itself and throw on EQ and distortions and overdrive the shit out of it for that booming dark techno kick hit, also turn the hold all the way up…
Let’s make sure you know what you are buying before spending, friend, maybe this will help 
The Digitakt is an amazing drum machine, but the type of sound it outputs will depend on the type of sound that is loaded into its internal memory, it has no synthesis capabilities. It has a usable factory samples collection, but if you plan to work with samples, I recommend building your own library. The DT plays back audio files.
Vermona Kick and Volca, on the contrary, are synthesizers with controls and circuits useful for producing kick sounds, they are specialized kick machines. Starting from scratch usually (raw oscillator sound), you use sound design tools like envelopes or filters to transform the oscillator “bzzzz” into a big “boom”.
One way to look at this is the Vermona Kick would allow you to design a kick sound that is yours and yours only, unique to the settings you dialed. If you record that sound (the Digitakt has the ability to import samples with the computer or record from its inputs), the Digitakt can play the recording back and modify the sound with sequencing & effects.
To come back to your initial question, I also make techno and I work with both samplers and synths, but my kicks so far were mostly samples because I have a good enough collection to the sound I want. I say so far, because I’m finding myself playing with NI’s TRK-01 quite a lot lately, great food for samplers 
^ this ^ is great buying advice. Sound quality is high end on both, so to make up your mind you are going to need to watch a bunch of YT videos, or better yet, visit your favorite music gear shop to try them out 
Yes, I was referring to Volca or Vermona Kick as a complement to the DT. I have a Volca kick but I want a more “clean” sound. My doubts were about the quality of the kick (either samples and DT library) and if it is comparable to the kick sound that generates, for example, the RYTHM or TR8s. In the videos that I have seen the kicks do not seem thick and powerful. 
The best option would be the RYTM but it is some expensive for me. TR8s is perfect also, except for the problem that have not a demo song, but the samples are in stereo, this is great! And the DT is a great opportunity to learn something new and this is important. It is also a machine that allows you to do more creative things than the rest (IMO)
I continue with the study of the best option …
I really like this forum, many people helping with good advice! 
Many thanks!
Get a Digitakt.
Go here and buy this- techno kicks forever:
Sample and use the hi-pass filter mode to find the lowest resonant frequency of the kick, adjusting resonance to taste.
Boom!
Well, I would say the “quality” of the kicks is not a question that is relevant to the Digitakt because since it is a sampler, each of its 8 voices has the same characteristics. There is a serigraphy on the machine that says KICK but you can place any sample of your choice in there, this track is not different from the other ones, you have the same options available on all of them.
For the DT library, there might be a thread about that already, maybe try the search ? Otherwise, I’m sure other nauts can jump in to give you an opinion. If you go that route, adding examples of what you are interested in could help.
For other samples, it’s really up to you, what you buy/record. You can use other gear to create your kick sounds, you can use software (as I said, I use TRK-01 for kicks, it’s pretty good), you can get creative and start layering sounds to produce unique percussions. The sky is the limit
If samples does it for you, you can try Wave Alchemy’s free stuff, but of course there are countless other options.
I want to insist on what has been said before: unless what you really want is a cleaner sounding kick synth in hardware form (it doesn’t seem to be the case), you’re most likely looking at a sampler and most of the big names on the market have good sound quality, so the deciding factor is features.
For example, the TR8S has faders, that’s really cool in a live situation, but for the studio maybe not that much for you ? It has no song mode, but do you need one ? Do you really need stereo samples for a drum machine ? What about onboard effects ? Mixing capabilities ? Ho much money are you willing to spend ? 2nd hand ok ? Only you can answer these questions, so try and learn about each machine’s workflow, and what would fit with your way of doing music
Sry for the wall of text 
When going for an 808 or 909 sound I always go to my ‘Samples From Mars’ folder. Better than Wave Alchemy’s and Goldbaby’s imo I also really like their MPC60, SP1200, 606 and sh101 drums.
Yep.
Completely agree with what has been said so far. Load great kicks in and yeah they’ll sound great. It’s a sampler
I’d like to add that you can make great kicks with the Digitakt itself as well with various source material. Or even make good kicks great. I do this sometimes for grooves I build. It involves resampling and layering a lot, or simply adding modulated (lfo) bitreduction for instance. You’d be surprised what comes out sometimes even with subpar source material. You’d need to read up a bit on drum synthesis to get a feeling for it.
Overall DT will push you to find creative solutions if you want to learn.
I layer sounds, record them and have new kicks
You could also emulate what drum synths do with a sine wave and pitch envelope. Resample the heck out of it, add compression, saturation, a little reverb, filter - no limits realy, experiment!
Most drum synths also use a click at the beginning. So find a nice click sample - this can be anything. Make it realy short, remove the lower frequencies with a high pass filter and layer that over your pitched sine wave. Add only reverb to the click. Resample.
Don’t want to spam too much on Elektronauts haha but this topic is such coincidence since I created a video and article for ask.audio last month about creating a kick on DT with basic recordings. They released the article and video yesterday. You can find it here:
Thank you all for the recommendations. All very interesting and clarifying
I will continue deepening in the kick’s synthesis and layering techniques, I will also make a good review of those libraries, they look great!
I have it decided, digitakt is for me! 
TR8s is more for live acts and in this moment DT is more appropriate for me.
So we’re in touch! I’m wishing to share my kicks with all of you! haha
Thanks again!
Jurgen
Yeah, I saw it yesterday, great!