I think I had 60 days to trade in at the store which have passed, but I realize I got super into sound design and I keep seeing people do crazy videos with the DTone.
I always wanted a kind of desktop synth but thought I would get away with Operator for FM, and this one is just so interesting to me.
I have had the DT for 4 months and only used it for about 20 hours where I even used my Behringer synth for maybe 100 hours.
I realize its capabilities I just have a hard time with making synth patches ITB then trying to get single cycle waveforms and all this extra work.
I honestly feel silly because I wanted a digitone for almost two years and then my friend convinced me really well to get the takt. lol
Yea youāre right, Iām usually weary of buying used stuff over a certain price but I mean 600 USD for a digitone used and screen protector on canāt go wrong.
Iām one of those people that needs to stop worrying about potential risks because thereās even risks buying new equipment.
how long over the 60 days are you with the store? maybe theres a slim chance that if you explain your conundrum they might be super kind and allow an exchangeā¦? worth at least asking perhaps. but failing that, just sell the DT to fund a DN. i never particularly took to the DT and got rid pretty quickly (not that it isnt great, but not for me), whereas i love my DN to pieces, and hands down (even tho obvs its apples vs oranges) its the deeper, more fun, crazier machine
I realise money may be an issue but could you find a way to fund a Digitone and keep the Digitakt? They are amazing together. I bought Digitakt before Digitone was released, only by a few months and I was a bit pissed when the Digitone appeared as itās much more my kind of thing. The Digitakt got used but not as much as I use it now as a pair with the Digitone.
I think the main question you need to ask yourself is are you not using the DT because itās not really your thing? Or are you not using it because you donāt know samplers very well?
When I first got a digitakt I had hardly used samples/samplers at all and it felt like an almost endless void of work to put together a good set of samples I liked. Once I finally got over that hurdle things became much quicker. Things I really dont reccomend is adding like 1000 single cycle waveforms at the same time or giant sample packs. I personally ended up enjoying sampling longer waveforms off synths and then finding loop points or doing granular type stuff to it more than the single cycle stuff. The few single cycle waveforms that came on the digitakt I learned cover about 90% of the ones I would want.
That all said maybe it is just not your thing and you will prefer a Digitone.
Digitone and Digitakt are brother and sister. They want to live together. Tearing them apart is no good behavior. Just sayinā. But first learn one thoroughly.
I hear you re the regret, but let me tell you this much: the Digitakt is an AMAZING device and if you drop all regret and show it some genuine love, attention and engagement it will show you love back, no doubt. Itās also perfect as a first hardware sampler and it can do a lot in terms of sound design (and it sounds great!).
When I first got hardware I started out with a synth and eventually got the Digitakt for my birthday in a moment of indulgenceā¦at first I felt like me and samplers just donāt gel (I missed the felt immediacy of a synth, every move does something, no need to load anything to get a sound etc). But then I approached it the same way @bwo described it in the post aboveā¦I took 5-6 samples and I loaded them up and started messing around, challenging myself to see how far I could take those samples. Less is more at the beginning with a sampler. Eventually the whole concept grew on me and today I own more samplers than synths
Explore messing with field recordings, recordings of your own voice, household sounds, sample your synth, the birds chirping outside, your washing machine turningā¦and then see where you can take those sounds. Small moves (in terms of parameters on the Digitakt) can make big differences. I think of samples not as mere recordings but waveforms of the natural worldā¦they are one movement of sound that is waiting to be explored in detail. One can zoom in, zoom out, slow it down (and resample), speed it up (and resample :)), loop parts, flip it, affect it with FX, filter it, and resample it all into a new root sound from which new branches can grow. The magic happens in the details.
So Iād second the voices that say no need for regret, get to know your Digitakt and eventually the moment will come and the opportunity will arise for you to ADD a Digitone to that mix and be a happy happy lucky man
(Plus: the DT holds its value quite well, so selling it is always an option :))
Itās my first hardware sampler, and sometimes I hear family or room mates say āwas that song yours?ā so I guess Iāve been having fun with it, but thats speaking of house. I really really love oneohtrix type stuff and been meaning to get into generative stuff with it but didnāt expect it to be so hard even though people joke about ambient on the DT
Thanks for the inspiration, I guess I always obsess about tuning stuff but I also 90% of the time am right the first time how I select it. Iām so used to having a tuner or something built in that Iāve even been running it into ableton tuner when resampling. I actually have a behringer neutron right now and havenāt fully integrated them both but Iām sure a live jam with no overbridge could get wonders.
You need to just dive deeper into the DT. At first I didnāt think much of it, but the more I used it, the more I discovered how much that little box is capable of. Itās a desert island box for sure. Obviously a great drum machine, world class sequencer, but also by using single cycle wav samples, an extremely capable synth/rompler. Or, if youāre still hung up about it, Iām sure you can find someone to do a trade with.
100% I would say you are almost exclusively better off recording things into the Digitakt live. I just always bring my cell phone with me to the studio. As part of my setup one of the channels on my DJ mixer is setup so I can just plug in my cell phone and record whatever I want to the DT immediately and get started.
I agree that I wouldnāt load giant sample packs of anything onto the Digitakt except maybe like a reasonably sized drum hits pack. Youāll just scroll endlessly previewing samples.
I do have some Legowelt vintage synth sample packs on my DT but I like mangling samples and I have a decent idea of what I can get out of a sample with the DT these daysāthat came from hours spent on the DT figuring out what all it can do.
Also, donāt underestimate the Digitaktās ability to sample itself internally (resample). This is where you will get the really powerful sound sculpting abilities because you can apply changes with the DTās features, record, and apply them all again in a different way. Record again. Ad infinitum.
I think this is a common theme with the Digitakt, and Elektron workflow/sequencer in general. Itās a challenging device to get into, and took me a while to get that āA-ha!ā Or āEureka!ā moment with my Digitakt.
But when it came, so did I. Nasty.
Full disclosure, I bought the Digitakt and Digitone Keys at the same time because I wanted them to play together - ebony and ivory, perfect harmony. So I didnāt have to choose one or the other.
I see them both as critical for what they do alone, to each other, and with my other gear. If You have the Behringer synth and havenāt controlled it with the Digitakt midi yet, you have lots to explore.
I have other samplers, and with any sampler my favorite workflow is sampling an all new, fresh set of samples at the start of a project or pattern for an all new feeling of inspiration.
With the wealth of available tutorials and how-to videoās from masters of the Digitakt available to us, my vote is a deep dive into your DT to fully understand its capabilities, to use its midi to expand your analog synth, and embrace all that sampling has to offer. And yes, if you sample something and create music with it, you can honestly say to your friends and peers āI created thisā.
Take the next six months to run through every inch of that machine, while simultaneously figuring out how to pair down spending and save $25 a week = $100 a month = $600 at the end of that six months.
Then buy a gently used Digitone and sample the hell out of it! You will then have a killer 3 piece setup. DT & DK with the Neutron banging out a killer 256 step baseline commanded by the Digitakts 8 midi tracks.
Reading this thread has been reassuring. I just ordered a DT after debating for weeks on either that or the Digitone. I am not too familiar with sampling, but hopefully that will all change once it gets here. In the end, I know I will most likely do what you advise, and save up for the Digitone. For now, I canāt wait to plug it into my Model D and go nuts.
Great song, I love this era of OPN. I remember finding him on Youtube and just losing it, hadnāt heard anything quite like it at the time. My Digitakt comes Tuesday and I canāt wait to try stuff out like this.
