Elektron Digitone II Evaluate: Worthy Successor to a Basic

The unique Digitone is one in all my favourite synths ever. To some which may come off as a little bit of a backhanded praise as a result of, properly, the Digitone isn’t only a synth. It’s a robust multitimbral groovebox with probably the most versatile sequencers available on the market. To me, its 4 tracks and eight voices of polyphony might really feel a bit limiting. Plus it’s not precisely the very best at drums. This led me to sticking the Digitone on a stand the place I simply deal with it like a desktop synth managed by a MIDI keyboard.

The Digitone II, no less than on paper, appears to resolve a few of these issues. It now has 16 voices on 16 tracks, plus there are three utterly new synth engines that increase its sound palette, together with one utterly devoted to percussion. That is all along with the identical kinds of sequencing, modulation, and filter enhancements we already noticed on the Digitakt II (8/10, WIRED Recommends), however identical to its sample-based sibling, the Digitone II has obtained a big value hike to $999. With the unique now going for as little as $350 on the used market, the selection between the 2 isn’t essentially that minimize and dry.

{Photograph}: Terrence O’Brien

This Is the New Sound

Earlier than anybody panics, the four-operator FM engine from the unique Digitone remains to be right here. Whereas I’ve seen some individuals recommend that it doesn’t sound precisely the identical and that the unique has barely extra grit and character, I believe these individuals are hallucinating. I’ve loaded a number of presets designed for the unique Digitone on the Digitone II, and I can’t inform the distinction between them. It’s value mentioning that, sadly, you can’t load Digitone II presets on the unique Digitone, even when they’re utilizing the unique FM sound engine. There are apparently some technical variations between them beneath the hood however, no less than to my ears, they don’t appear to have an effect on the sound.

{Photograph}: Terrence O’Brien

The opposite three synth engines are the place the Digitone II actually separates itself from the unique. Along with the unique FM engine (known as FM Tone within the new mannequin), there’s FM Drum, which tweaks the unique sound engine to raised swimsuit percussion. Wavetone is rather less glassy and will get sounds much like what you’d discover on part distortion and wavetable synths. It’s nonetheless decidedly digital, however not as harsh as FM. Then there’s Swarmer, which supplies you super-thick sounds which might be nice for leads and organs by stacking six detuned oscillators on high of the primary one. Lots of my favourite new presets make wonderful use of the Wavetone machine, which is ready to convincingly replicate basic electro and Krautrock sounds.