Has anyone explored upgrading RAM on the DT to more than 64mb? I’m sure it would require writing code as well so the OS would know how to use it. Just curious because it’s such an easy procedure on a computer. And after working on the Model: Cycles, where you can have basically limitless sounds, it sure would be nice to have more than 128 active samples per project.
Since the entire OS is built around the memory / ram. I’m certain it would take code. There are other devices that are open source and would be much easier to fiddle with. Curious how you use samples to where you the the limit? I’ve used like 25 max.
I tend to explore a lot of different “song” ideas all in the same project. Rather than menu diving to go to a new project and then populating it with samples every time I want to start a new song idea. With 16 patterns in 8 banks per project, that’s a ton of space to not use because you need more samples. Plus it’s nice to be able to have a lot of active sounds to choose from immediately when you’re exploring ideas. I know some people go through the extra work to creating single samples with an 8 hit kit inside it, but that’s a ton of work and premeditation. I figured there are probably some programmer types on here who might be able to do the modification.
1 Like
Interesting. I’ve always been more methodical. It’s slower. With @mzero ‘s Elk Herd tool you can always go back and remove unused samples from your project when done. I think I will give this a try! Thanks for some inspiration!
Another thing that I’ve always wanted to try was loading up like 20 kick drum and 20 hats and so on and lfo between the slots. This might be more suited to the OT using sample chains though? Any thoughts on that Elektronats?
I’ve got nearly unlimited exploration ahead of me with the OT and DT 
if only time was not liner and I did not have “work” but I know that’s just an excuse.
Well, it’s easy on a computer, because there it is designed this way. The RAM in the DT isn’t in a separate slot like on a computer, but uses a FBGA package which is quite hard to replace (requires soldering).
Beside the effort to replace it I don’t think the PCB is designed with extra (free) address lanes for larger modules. It would simply make no sense in such a rigid design.
The RAM is the smaller chip (NANYA) on the right side of the coldfire CPU (large chip in the middle):
8 Likes
Ah, well thanks for sharing that!
Actually you can select unused samples in the sample pool right on the DT without any other tools (you push the right arrow when viewing RAM to get to the menu where you replace or unload samples). Maybe that’s new with the 1.2 OS update?
Yeah, I’ve manually sample locked multiple slight variations of kicks, snares, and hats to humanize the sound but haven’t used the lfo to rotate through the sample slots. I guess you’d have to have the depth be just enough that it only cycles through the correct number of sounds.
2 Likes
Heja
So TIMEJUMP: 3yrs later!
Has anyone clever with soldering skills and chip knowledge come up with a solution to upgrade the DT or is working on something?
Because even for when the DT was made, the 64 MB ram was abysmally small and gigs of ram were dirt cheap.
Meanwhile the Digitakt has become a staple in soo soo many live-setups, that the sample workflow really is hampered by the limitation.
// other idea: for Elektron to work on a replacement program, like Synthstrom
did it with their Deluge Screen replacement. Sending in the DT for an upgrade, so it becomes a more usable sample machine! 
1 Like
Weird how many people seem to find it useable with that abysmal amount of ram, myself included.
5 Likes
Apparently it’s not as it’s become a staple in so many live setups. 
7 Likes
It would need to be supported by the device OS/firmware as well.
1 Like
the assumption that the ram could be upgraded with a soldering iron on this type of device seems insane to me,… its not a pc, its not upgrading ssd on a console.
if the issue is purely the amount of ram available … dont buy it… there are plenty of other devices…
ive just bought a mac m1 laptop… its a bit like asking if anyone might get a soldering iron out to upgrade my laptop as its only got 16gig ram.its 2023 FFS … i have no clue how modern circuitboards are made, but hey … i got 32gig ram lying around from an old pc and a soldering iron , i should give it a go … edit a few lines of code in the bios … hey presto…
i mustve forgotten to mute this thread years ago…
1 Like
I would assume that naturally, that this goes along with an upgrade that the FW etc. gets tuned to a HW changes. I think the engineers at Elektron are more than capable of doing so.
So yes, it’s a technical device, it has specs, it’s not a magic-mystery machine and there are dozen, if not hundreds of even older synth that have been able to be upgrade with time and dedication from skilled ppl — or even the company itself, which in this case would be the best solution if this can’t be done in a hackerspace sorta environment.
And yes: mute things (or don’t comment), if you don’t care about stuff at all! Cheers
Well, it seems you’re conflating two things. People willing to open this fairly expensive box and solder more ram to it. And the company doing this as an upgrade, along with a firmware upgrade.
The dyi approach seems pointless without a firmware upgrade, and I can’t imagine elektron would encourage this approach.
That elektron would do this, send it in and we’ll fix it approach seems very unlikely.
As with all feature requests, don’t expect them. And with this, I would give up hope.
3 Likes
Well, my previous comment still stands and I’m not conflating them, I named both approaches as possible solutions. (Hence I also posted it as a feature request too)
And if there’s no info on that, no possible solution in sight to upgrade/alter the Ram to modern standards, then I guess mods should close this thread then. Not that anyone gets the idea of getting audacious with this machine in the future!
Cheers
2 Likes
Sure
2 Likes
1.7.11 DDR SDRAM Controller
Supports 16, 32, 64, 128, or 256 MB of memory using a single 16M 8 (128 Mb), 32M 8 (256 Mb), 64M 8 (512 Mb), 128M 8 (1 Gb), or 256M 8 (2 Gb) component
Mhhh, look like a 2Gb (256MiB) could have been used. The board use a 1Gb (128MiB) most probably 64MiB is used for the code/variable running on the DT and 64MiB used for the sample.
But nevertheless replacing the chip would not enable more ram, you need to change the firmware to make the OS able to use it properly which is not a simple challenge.
1 Like
as i can see on teardown image NT5TU128M8HE is used, its 128MB, so maybe we can try 256 ram chip)
Also octatrack use double MT46V64M8, and may be upgraded to MT46V128M4
Syntakt has two NT5TU128M8HE, so doubles DT RAM, why no sampler?)
1 Like
everything is optimized around the existing limitation. even with a faster chip, even if the machine doesn’t reject it, it won’t perform any differently unless someone were to decompile and re-optimize everything in the firmware to work with the new explanded ram. is there someone who can or is willing to take that on by themself? unfortunately I feel like this is just wishful thinking to even fantasize about it.
Realistically, there is no excuse you can give for syntakt to not have basic sampling without saying the word digitakt in the same breath.
2 Likes
There might be excuses on syntakt to not have sampling ( if we put aside the usual suspect of overlapping functionality).
When you write your synth engine it will require lots of ram to store non obvious stuff like « magic table ». Those table are used to speed up known calculations, in short those table contain result of math calculations to avoid asking cpu to compute them.
Stuff like sin/cos/tan can be put in memory so you fetch the results of the calculation or predict it should be around those 2 value.
Or imagine a table which contain the LFO shape stretch in memory.
You trade memory space for computing power doing this.
When dealing with PC/Mac CPU you don’t care much because the cpu is a Ferrari. But with a 250MHz CPU everything might be good to move your small chip to the moon.
So no, potentially there is technical reason behind not having sample on the ST. If we don’t know how ram is used it’s difficult to say the ram is not used.
4 Likes