As a Brit, I know all about austerity but seriously, I would love a genuine explanation to why Elektron’s recent products have such low polyphony and track counts in 2018, is there a shortage of DSP in this world i’m not aware about?
Yes a valid question.
No analog components in the new boxes so not sure why either?
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If you are looking for 128 notes polyphony and 64 parts, then there are workstations for that.
If you want some bad ass boxes as part of a techno system then that’s elektron.
That’s my opinion and it seems that’s the design teams opinion as well.
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I would imagine it is either purely design choice or a how much are we selling this for related decision
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Maybe it’s a reaction to the excesses of previous generations. 
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Does it really have to always be one extreme or another?
I personally never ever heard anyone complaining about machinedrum having 16 tracks
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Coldfire love mostly I think.
Maybe it’s a case of by limiting their boxes, it’s essential to purchase more than one to get jiggy with it
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Hmm, the only product currently out there that fits the bill would be a Deluge (minus the FM capabilities that the DTone has to offer) as I’m looking for small form factor. Workstations aren’t what i am after nor a controller tethered to a computer.
All I am saying is why a machine only having 4 tracks of 8 notes of polyphony is acceptable in 2018 when the price of DSP processors have dropped considerably say, compared to 5 years ago.
Sure you can plock all day long but what if i want my sounds to decay and overlap without having to give up a couple of tracks or polyphony to do so, why so meagre?
I have run Rasperry PI boards with custom PD patches pumping out more juice than what the DT or DTone current can do
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Even worse specs than that - only 8 notes of polyphony shared among 4 tracks. (If I’m not mistaken)
That being said, I imagine, for Elektron the issue of polyphony is tied to the sequencer parameter locks. Even with the Virus I understand that polyphony takes a real hit the deeper you go into the sound design.
Yes that’s true, 8 notes shared among 4 tracks!
Sequencing monophonically is something I’m ok with but sacrificing polyphony because the machines are crippled to not handle overlapping of a sound without voice stealing within a pool of 8 simultaneous notes is a cheap design offering
Elektron products are Elektron products.
The seemingly-arbitrary “limitations” are actually creative-design choices, in many cases.
Sometimes, they are functional, as well.
Perhaps, a 16-voice poly FM synth-engine would have saturated the mix-buss. Maybe a lot of DSP power was devoted to anti-aliasing or oversampling. Who knows? Who cares?
The point is that the Digitone is its own little thing and doesn’t try to be a DX7-in-a-box.
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Thanks, I needed an apologists perspective… everything is fine, nothing to see… move along please.
I’m not asking for the world, all i am saying it doesn’t cost a lot in the realms of DSP (Price to performance ratio) to provide only slightly more without having to compromise the “Elektron” way.
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I’m sure if it was just a matter of throwing more DSP into the mix, they would have. Chips are cheap, programming and engineering are not.
Hmm, to program additional lines of code to allow more polyphony isn’t the real issue here. I think Elektron are dated and stuck in a regressive mindset personally, this is the frustrations I’m having with their currently range of products, they could be absolutely amazing but instead, they feel crippled.
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I don’t really know how to answer this question without sounding like an “apologist”… but I personally don’t think the point of Elektron synths is the polyphony. Having said that, I come from a tracker / chiptune background where polyphony/voices are limited and channel economy is important. Part of the reason why I like Elektron gear in the first place is because it has similar limitations to chip hardware/trackers.
Anyway, obviously I’m wrong and the digitone should have 32 tracks, each with 128 voice polyphony 
edit: I love voice stealing tbh
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Sure, but then wouldn’t it also cost twice / 3 times/ insert how many more voices you want as much
I grew up in the era of trackers myself, released a few jungle tunes in the 90s (Octamed anybody?) but yeah I get that’s the Elektron way, my first machine of theirs was the monomachine which I absolutely adored but I also love layering sounds and although yes, 8 voices in a machine of 4 tracks with plocks can provide loads of options but wouldn’t it be great to have a 32 voice machine sequenced in 8 tracks?
Didn’t a lot of Electron’s [early] staff come from the same background and that where the Sid station came from?
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