I’ll have to find out by myself now^^
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I’ve been playing with the Digitone combined with the A4 and it’s fun.
my dark A4 little pattern combined with the Digitone gave me a “Darkcheesetone” pattern haha.
Even though most of the workflow is quite similar to the A4, some functions are not exactly the same so I’ll have to rtfm I guess.
First impressions are good, a lot of lovely sounds in there!
On the hardware side:
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I like the trig buttons on the A4 mk1 better. On the Digitone, they feel like they’re going to break anytime soon or that I’m typing on an old keyboard.
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I can’t really tell when a track is muted or note, too much light compared to the A4.
(But I need to try out in the dark though) -
And finally, there must be a performance mode somewhere but I couldn’t find it.
It’s really easy to mute/unmute(+mix the 6 tracks) on the A4 as they are aligned on the sequencer
but I’ve only found the func + trackX to mute them on the Digitone, not ideal… Hope the manual is going to give me good news on that side!
Those are just my early impressions and even though the above points may seem negative, I had a lot of fun with it!
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Glad you’re enjoying your DN. I love mine to bits. No Perf mode on the DN like you get on the AR etc. I find it pretty easy to mute an the DN. like you say hold Function and hit the track buttons. Two or three fingers can mute whichever track(s) you want. You’ve got your track level knob right above the Function button for mixing duties. Don’t forget that’s on a per pattern basis too.
A handy tip if you’re chaining patterns is copy track sound. Hold the track button and press function + record. That will copy the sound settings for that track to the clipboard. Paste in the new patterns and away you go.
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I used to worry about designing the right sound on my DT Keys, but now i Just hit the random for about an hour or two and always find something I can jam with. 
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I’ve found that BANK + FUNC brings you into Mute mode where you don’t need to hold FUNC to mute/unmute the tracks but still, 8 tracks (with midi) aligned on the sequencer would be much easier.
No Perf mode is a bit of a bummer. For me the Perf mode was like a given in the Elektron workflow so I didn’t even think one second the Digitone did not have such a feature. Well, let’s hope they add this feature in 1.4!
Thanks for the tip!
Haha, I have to try this one!
With a midi feedback (DN Midi out to DN Midi in) you can control the amount of pitchbend, modwheel, aftertouch, breathcontrol on all tracks with DN’s Miditracks.
And in the modulation setup you can define up to four parameters you want modulate with a min oder max value.
This can give you some kind of performance macros like on the A4, which i also miss on the DN.
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And if you set audio tracks on the same midi channel, you can control them all with each modulation knob (modulation wheel can control 4x4 parameters for example).
Yeah I’d also want a new mute mode, new colors, new behavior, but anyway, the actual behavior is really bad. Red for active tracks when holding func, becoming red for muted tracks when you release func?
Not possible to select a track in Mute mode?
Add blinking for tracks with trigs for more confusion (blinking muted or not).
WTF?
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oh that’s why I’m getting confused with the state of my tracks.
I’m not so fund of the lighting under the keys and all the meaning you have to get out of it
but I’m just not used to it yet.
I do like the A4’s LEDs on top of the keys, really easy to see where you’re at. The mute/unmute state in Perf mode is especially crystal clear. If you’re color blind, it works out just well I guess, not so sure about the Digitone on that side.
But I’m a hardcore fan of the analog mk1 design(the screen is better on the Digitone though and I like having a few buttons with different colors). I’m worried some dusts or stuff that should not go there gets its way in and just break the keys though. This is almost impossible with the mk1, they are so tightly built with the hardware, you’d really have to want to get something in.
Would be even better with black knobs / buttons imho. I really like DN design, makes me waht a DT. Funnily it perfectly suits my new Virus Ti I found too big / heavy, I may join them with wood / screws.
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indeed!
The color scheme of the mk1 could be improved but I do like the knobs/buttons with the LEDs on top, too bad they went with this squarish back-lit buttons for the mk2.
The Digitone does look nit though.
nice set btw
Hope I’ll find an octatrack mk1 second hand soon! (or that they announce the mk3 with overbridge and new effects)
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I gave it a test drive with a A4+Digitone jam:
I had to start again a few times because I can’t for the sake of me understand if my tracks on the Digitone are muted or not… is it just me?
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Green = active, Red = off, White = on.
You can also just mute seq tracks, which stacks with audio mutes.
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This is while not holding the FUNC button right?
When you hold the FUNC button is it the same color scheme?
And is it the same color scheme when in Mute mode?
Mute mode is a bit useless because you can’t select a track while you’re in(or at least I couldn’t find how) so I think I’m not going to use it at all haha.
Check the manual for the details, but are you already aware of the difference between global mutes (red) and track mutes (purple)? I think that’s different then with A4.
Sorry if this is nothing new to you, but just in case:
I always use purple mutes, if I want to compose a song structure where some of the DN tracks are muted [added: differently] in every pattern, for example in a break: when the new pattern starts, the purple mutes are saved specifically for only that pattern. Possibly you’re confused because of the two different mute types. If you keep hitting Func+Bank you toggle between the two options.
Judging by the YouTube video you’re already getting confortable enough around the two machines to sing:) Seems like a positive sign 
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I haven’t read the manual yet as I wanted to see how far my A4 knowledge would help me get used to the Digitone. It’s the first time I hear about a purple mute so that may explain my confusion! The manual will be my next step then! I really need to get my mute/unmute state right haha
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I did create the bass sound of the first pattern in the above video.
It was mostly fun but a little frustrating:
fun to turn the knobs at random
and hear the sound changes. A little change can radically transform the sound and it’s easy to get evolving sound with a few knobs move. In a way, I feel freed from trying to create any particular sound so it was just fun.
frustrating because the very first bass sound I made was really nice to my hear and then I move some knobs and was never able to recreate it haha.
But I will say I kinda like the randomness and how easy it is to get something evolving!
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That happend to me too but now, most used buttons on my digitone, FUNC+YES almost every 20 seconds 
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If it even happens to you, I feel relieved haha.
The above song is certainly using some of your patches 
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Amazing video. This sound is on every single Tycho record. Love this.
Wow, so cool! Love your voice 
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