I just got the Digitone and I have very quickly found this lack of voices a serious impediment to using it.
Are you guys saying there might be a chance that Elektron could increase the polyphony via the OS?
I wish they would have made a Pro version too with double or more polyphony…
^ Interesting, care to elaborate on how you have found it an impediment? I don’t have one so I’d be interested to hear some criticism of it amongst all the glowing praise. Are you attempting to do full multi part pieces with it or, big chords, or what? Voice allocation settings not helping?
I have a simple patteren with only 3 tracks but I get sharp clicks here and there. They are not heard when I mute other tracks (no clicking in any of the tracks alone). I have to look a bit more into it but don’t have time now.
I just set all tracks to dynamic. No clicking, no real issues with stealing. Voices of course cycle out as is expected, but it tends to handle it gracefully.
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Glad to hear that J3RK.
I have found that the clicking is caused by one of the tracks loaded with the sound Boshtypad DL and is perhaps not caused by the voice stealing but it gets worse when other tracks are playing along with it. I went through the patch and it seems to be the LP4 filter that does this clicking. It disappears when I switch to any other filter type.
I’m glad it wasn’t as bad as I thought but my question whether polyphony can be increased through the OS still stands.
I think it’ very unlikely, also users are requesting new features ( slide & portamento) that makes more sense.
Seriously, eight voices is more than enough. The Digitone has massive potential… it’ll be interesting to see what people come up with over the next few years. To the people complaining that eight isn’t enough, I’m sure there’s a viable alternative with all the voices you need. I’d love to see / hear someone exploit this box to an extent / anywhere close to its full potential. People be crazy.
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Has anyone else experienced sharp clicks while making patterns? In some patterns I get clicks every 16th beat and on others it’s only now and then. I still get them when disabling the filter on each tracks but it happens more often with filters on. I’m getting worried that I have a faulty unit.
already talked in the bug thread, try adjusting arp lenght & trig lenght, this worked for me on a few patterns, but some clicks remains, checks the audio ins input and for now a bug is confirmed by elektron , also the env attack at 0 are really clicking ( but this is by design move to 01 or 5 attack time).
also on arp heavy tracks allocate static voice counts may work.
Thanks Holografik. I hope this can be solved by Elektron.
Sorry about my complaining, I thought the clicking was caused by the voice stealing.
I’ve been working with Digitone all day and it is really starting to grow on me. Getting some great sounding tunes out of it!
Just to name some classics: The best (subjective personal opinion) work of Aphex Twin was mostly made on a computer, to do it exclusively on hardware like in his latest records you need a sick amount of hardware instruments and utilities, lots of time , space economic and mental resources to make it work.
Same for Venetian Snares, my favourite albums rely heavily on Renoise, cubase, fm8 . Even now he uses Renoise mostly for sequencing hardware and effects
And modern electronic music in general, like it or not, is almost exclusively sequenced and designed on computers, Iglooghost as an example: https://open.spotify.com/track/4qsjJPhWgBHzRmCqK7Ef9s?si=DCtcssBGRkSo5bOLybEodQ
doing that record only on hardware would have been a pain in the soul, to the extent of probably never be released
Arca :
https://open.spotify.com/track/1eHvsswoES1tAnOJKgFP7S?si=fGldRPswTZ-88MZMCZVN-g
https://open.spotify.com/track/1s1oHtay11nJ0vlr7urohU?si=48IAkxc4QTShJApdEpF1aA
Even pop music like Fka Twigs
https://open.spotify.com/track/77DmJDLYeHbzA3cqgvGiqV?si=jQ-vacP9Ry6FH4PWBbRxGg
It may seem simple , but how would you make those sound on hardware an sequence those textures in a gracefull way?
Surely someone can tell me " bahh, I don’t find this music appealing so what’s the point, I don’t care, 4 tracks is enough" But that would be neglecting the reality that most modern/innovative producers these days do need, or want, or appeal , and make use of processing power for layering sounds, sequencing weird evolving textures or whatever it is.
And to make things clear, I don’t think we are discussing wether “you” or “me” are happy making minimal techno or sequencing one track/drums. If someone is good with four tracks it doesn’t mean everybody should be “more than satisfied” with that, or should simply go through (the hassle of, in an age when processing power is dirt cheap) buying and sequencing 3 digitones with no ffing song mode at the same time.
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Thanks, I’ll check those out…
I might seem one way or the other but really I try to stay neutral, especially when it comes to other people’s preferences. Sometimes I bring things up that seem one sided just for the sake of conversation…
In the end I just do what I do and other people do what they do without any better/worse/right/wrong attached to either way… I use hardware and a computer… 
I am looking forward to Simons response from the other thread where various people questioned why there is the 8 voice limitation on the Digitone
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There’s never going to be a single piece of hardware they can let you create super complex layered arrangements like the stuff you posted. But I bet all those artists used some pieces of hw during the writing/recording process (except iglooghost) and they were probably less powerful than a Digitone. Why does it have to be all or nothing? Having a hybrid setup has never been easier.
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Here’s just one example of what’s only possible with the immense power of a computer & daw
To me it’s simple.
The Digitone isn’t a general purpose computer running DAW software. It’s a focused instrument.
It doesn’t need to do everything, and it doesn’t need to do it 50 times over. It does precisely what it does, and I feel like that’s why it’s valuable, and why so many people are enjoying using it.
You can debate whether it should be 128 note polyphonic all day, but it isn’t. It does what it does, and it’s still a very interesting, fun, unique little instrument that can do a surprising amount despite it’s limitations and focus.
When was the last time you had fun using a workstation?
There are different tools to do different jobs. There are also tools that attempt to do everything. (some better than others)
I’m not saying a couple extra notes of polyphony wouldn’t come in handy once in a while, but I think that once you play with the Digitone, learn it’s quirks, learn the tricks, then it is capable of more than one might initially think.
For $700 it really does a lot. You can get other boxes for less, but they aren’t built like this. They don’t have the same depth while maintaining usability.
Elektron make bigger boxes that do more too. I think the direction that these smaller boxes were intended for is lost on some people. Nobody else makes a box like this for this amount of money. It’s really as simple as that.
That also doesn’t mean everyone needs to like it or find it invaluable to their process. If you need a DAW + Plugins to achieve your musical goals, then that’s cool. Use it. I find that useful myself. However, as someone that does systems administration by day, and designs circuits at night, I find that if I want to sit down and be musical, getting away from a computer is a lot more rewarding. (for me)
I don’t think every instrument needs to meet every musician’s goals and sensibilities.
I think a company (ANY company) should feel free to design their instruments how they see fit. Someone will find them useful, and find that the particular instrument gels with how they do things.
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And that is exactly what I have and use. And I still stand by the point that it doesn’t make sense to tell somebody on a forum that 4 tracks of fm is enough and 8 voices a lot in 2018
It also doesn’t make sense to tell someone that it isn’t enough in the context of a specific instrument. It may not be enough for one person, and that’s fine. That person will find something else to do the job. What year it is really doesn’t matter all that much either. Criticism is fine. Saying that the instrument doesn’t work for me is fine. However, justifying that by what year it is seems silly to me.
Show me another box that does exactly what the Digitone does for the same or less money, or twice what it does for twice the money (within the same synthesis contexts). There aren’t any.
I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind here, just offer a counter point from my point of view.
I don’t think Elektron means for the Digitone to be anyone’s ONLY device. It seems well suited as a companion to the Digitakt. Between the two of those, there’s not much that can’t be accomplished.
What’s kind of cool though is that even despite the DN’s limitations, it CAN actually be used on its own if one is a bit creative with their workflow. That’s saying a lot about it as a package. Even though plenty of PM/FM synths came before this, the point still stands that there is nothing currently or in the past that does exactly what the DN does. There were some synths with more polyphony. There were some with more operators. Blah Blah Blah. There was never, and still isn’t something else that does exactly what DN does. So, that makes it unique.
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And yet I’ve just finished a track today with the DN only.
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