Given that there’s a thread about Syntakt machine predictions, I thought it would be fun to speculate/dream about possible Digitakt machines too, now that 1.50 has shown that this is the direction Elektron is taking with it.
Here are a couple of ideas:
Granular machine - A simple graintable synth mode with parameters like stereo width (spreading the grains across the stereo spectrum), grain size, grain shape, density, etc. Would free up the LFOs for other stuff. Could also have a sub/sparkle knob that controls the amount of up/down-pitched grains - I’m envisioning a fun animation showing a submarine morphing into a rocket ship (sizzle) for the pitched grains.
Stereo machine - Perfect for resampled musical loops, pad chords with chorus and other effects, etc. If 8 voices is a true hardware limitation, this machine could just take the neighbor track. Technically this works a bit like the two tracks being connected, sharing the same envelopes and LFOs. If there’s a way to push beyond 8 voices, this stereo machine wouldn’t need to steal 2 tracks - which could open the door for some paraphony too if one is allowed to dream even more.
Granular would be cool. But I would really like the Octatrack’s slice mode. This mode is cool for loops and sample chains, but not as much for flipping samples from records that aren’t necessarily going to be on a grid.
I was feeling this too until I realized that the quantized loop recording puts any sample flip one resample away—chops in one shot mode can go on the sequencer as desired, then resample into a chain that works perfectly in slice mode… just a thought…
Yeah. I usually pull little chunks from samples rather than one long bit. So I was experimenting with just parameter locking the parts that I want, putting them on one sample and then resampling. That or just chopping stuff on my Sampletrak and then sampling the loop.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have it than not. And it’s also really great for things like sample chains and making little multisampled instruments. But I really wish that I could just edit the start points or at least choose an odd number of slices.
Wavetable machine would not cost a lot in cpu. I mean today the DT is not able to it quite properly without clicking, and surprisingly the Model Sample is able to made it quite well.
So with minor tweak, it’s doable, and that would allow tons of sample packs.
They should hire Wim Hof to be the voice of that and also add a Bored Machine so whatever I’m working on sounds even more boring so to reenforce the message from the Motivation Machine.