Bad Gear – Elektron Digitone

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Welcome to Bad Gear, the show about the world’s most hated audio tools. Today we are going to talk about the Elektron Digitone. Does this digital synth sibling of the Digitakt and Syntakt finally make FM synthesis accessible to synth noobs? Does the awesome Elektron sequencer of this FM groovebox / drum machine make a difference and why is it technically less powerful than classic 80s synths like the Yamaha DX7?

Thanks to Klangfarbe for helping me out with one of their Digitone floor models
https://www.klangfarbe.com/
https://www.instagram.com/klangfarbewien/
https://www.youtube.com/user/KlangfarbeCHANNEL

Chapters:
00:00 Intro tune
01:15 Overview Elektron Digitone
01:36 Audio Engine, FX
01:52 Arpeggiator
01:59 Resonant Filters
02:11 FM Engine (and Elektrons modern twist on it)
03:20 Envelopes
03:33 Initial Onset
03:42 LFOs
03:49 Rant
04:18 Trademark Elektron Features ™ (Microtiming, Conditions, Parameter Locks)
04:55 Limitations (Polyphony, Pattern Length,…)
05:19 FW Update Issues (might only be the Digitone I have here)
05:29 More Limitations (Velocity, Data Management, missing Digitakt Features)
05:53 External In, Midi Tracks, Preset System
06:06 DX7 Compatibility (or lack thereof), Sound Quality
06:24 What else???, Thanks
06:42 Hate
07:06 Jam 1 (Techno)
08:00 Jam 2 (Downtempo, LoFi)
08:55 Finale (Drum and Bass)
09:28 Verdict

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28 thoughts on “Bad Gear – Elektron Digitone”

  5. Yeah, Elektron tends to become more "applish" now. I really hope they will not dump the FW evolution and will give A4 users at least Arpegiator P. locks (to fake ratchets). For some reason (I guess it's a pure marketing shit, I hate this) they've made A4 castrated. You can't do ratchets while it's already in 99% of more affordable synths (not analog groove boxes unfortunatelly!). And you even can't set BPM over 300! 🙂 So faking ratchets is pretty complicated. My opinion is that this groovebox is mostly suited for some concrete genres like progressive techno, house and some others.
    Need to say to be fair: I'm very new to this gear and need to learn a lot but I already see these limitations and it makes me a bit angry. As it costs pretty a lot.

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  13. I think hardware FM synths should have modular layout with large touchscreens to display structure of a patch. No menu-diving, and no limit of how many modulators or mappings you are going to attach to, say, an operator. Like Sytrus VST but with modular layout. And it should have filters and resonators.

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