If you are looking at PT you may as well take a glance at the M8 tracker also, M8 + a fader fox perhaps, it is just a super flexible sampler, latest update got better slicing also. I think I still prefer the DT though having both, just much faster to sculpt sounds on for me. Auto normalization on DT isn’t really so bad imo, you can control the level of the sample pre and post filter as well as the track sound level, normalization shouldn’t effect the sound other than more noticeable noise floor but lowering the level back down should be the same in theory.
Epilogue: I didn’t buy a Digitakt.
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I could see it not being for everyone. Especially if you want to REALLY dig into sample editing, mangling, etc.
If you want sampling that’s easy to work into synthesis and sequencing, good hands-on, on the fly setup, etc. the Digitakt IMO is the best. I think it’s more about getting more out of a simpler, but flexible architecture, and less about overall depth of editing etc.
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I studied tons of videos and tutorials and reviews of the Digitakt and the MPC One. In the end something about the MPC One won me over. It does look like it has some odd workflow quirks but overall I loved the immediacy of it and it seems like it has levels of depth, so you can quickly bang out some sample-based stuff, chop things, process them etc. very easily but you can also go deeper with editing and effects and the synths etc.
I’ll mention one thing in particular that had been a bugbear of mine on the Deluge especially when trying to edit kits. On the MPC, the modal screen for sample editing stays intact and displays the settings/parameters for the last pad you pressed. Press another pad and it stays in the editing mode but updates the editing screen to show you the settings/parameters for the sample on the pad you just pressed. That way you can edit a kit (for want of a better term) really quickly. The Deluge just had a few too many key combos to achieve the same thing. Probably peculiar to my own way of working.
Anyway, I think I’m taking a bit of a risk as there are some aspects of the MPC that I know will bug me (hell, the first time I looked for videos/reviews I looked for ‘MPC Beats’ and I died inside!) but I’ve never owned an MPC so it will be interesting to explore something new. I do still think I need to own a Digitakt at some point though the more I read and investgated the more I realised it isn’t quite the ‘cut down Octatrack’ that I imagined it was. Having said that it’s clearly a very capable machine in it’s own right.
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I find this immensely helpful. Cheers!
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It sounds like the case is closed in terms of this thread’s original title, but in case anyone’s interested in more Digitakt thoughts…
I think the notion that the Digitakt is easy or immediate can be a bit misleading. Yes, the Digitakt can do some things super fast: You can sample directly into it, you automatically get your filter/effects/modulation on every track, the Control All feature is awesome, etc. etc.
But once you start really working with it, the experience is similar to the big Elektron boxes. You’re going to be paging from screen to screen, you need to wrap your head around track and pattern lengths, set up your P-locks, probability/conditions, etc. all that good stuff. The Digitakt is a complex instrument like any other Elektron and demands your attention if you want to make the most of it.
I mentally max out at 2 Elektrons in a setup, and find 1 is best. The Digitakt can be an amazing brain for a setup, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it as an ancillary drum machine or for someone who wanted to jam/improvise with beats on the fly. You can certainly do those things with the Digitakt, but there are probably better tools for the job (TR-8s comes to mind).
On that note, I really enjoyed the Model:Samples in the short time I got to play on one. It’s so nice to have all those parameters up front, easy to grab at any moment — really helps you move quickly with those trickier things like P-locks. So sometimes when people are considering a Digitakt, I think the Samples might be more up their alley, despite it being less “immediate” on the sampling side.
To clarify “less immediate” for anyone reading this thread and thinking about a DT/M:S: The Model Samples can only be provisioned with own samples via USB and a computer, the Digitakt can sample directly from its inputs.
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This was the killer for me. I quite liked the MS but no sampling ability quickly made it stale for me. Our affair was brief 
