Elektron Intros Digitakt Eight-Voice Digital Drum Computer & Sampler

2017 NAMM Show: Elektron today introduced the Digitakt, an eight-track digital drum machine and sampler.

Elektron says that the powerful digital sound engine, compact size, back-lit buttons and crisp OLED screen make it ‘a portable and focused instrument’. It offers eight dedicated MIDI tracks, all featuring Elektron sequencer tricks. 

Specifications:

  • 8 internal audio tracks
  • 8 dedicated MIDI tracks
  • 1 × Digital multi-mode filter per audio track
  • 1 × Assignable LFO per track
  • Delay and Reverb send FX
  • Sampling capability
  • 64 MB sample memory
  • 1 GB +Drive storage
  • 2 × ¼” input & 2 × ¼” balanced output
  • 1 × High Speed USB 2.0 port
  • MIDI IN, OUT and THRU ports
  • Overbridge support

Pricing & Availability

Digitakt will be available for purchase this spring. Pricing is to be announced.

43 thoughts on “Elektron Intros Digitakt Eight-Voice Digital Drum Computer & Sampler”

      2. Read on their website

        “A digital and highly flexible sound engine, sampling capability, a live-friendly sequencer, the means to control external MIDI gear.”

        This will be a “drumsynth” and “sampler”

    1. “A digital and highly flexible sound engine, sampling capability, a live-friendly sequencer, the means to control external MIDI gear; Round it off with a super crisp OLED screen”. Quote from the Elektron site – so I think this answers @scott and @sean. $650 also a figure touted at CDM.
      Cheers

    2. Its apparently not only a drum machine and sampler but ALSO a full fledged 8 midi channel Elektron Sequencer to sequence your other gear.

      1. Where did they say that ? Hasn’t even been a demo that. But I reckon you’re right. It’ll have the same sample engine as Rytm. Though the inputs do suggest sample recording capability.

  6. 64mb of sample memory per project and 1GB of storage… This is really disappointing, considering the Octatrack has 80mb or so and has swappable, high capacity flash storage.

    Seriously, I love Elektron and I recognize that I don’t know anything about designing and manufacturing hardware like this, but it’s extremely difficult to believe that the RAM needs to be THAT low to keep the cost down.

    Ignoring that, can’t wait for some demos!

    1. I don’t think it is just the price of the RAM.
      You would then need to build all circuitry with other chips and embedded program to access it and use it, and still implement all the complex functionality Elektron machines have. I cannot know this, but some of their tricks might rely on specific kind of architecture they developed over the years.
      Think about it the new MPC’s have 2gb of RAM but those are made like a computer, so it’s a totally different architecture, different way to work and design the device.
      I remember the interview of the guy that developed the DrumBrute, he said they thought about sampling device with digital synthesis like on a computer, and he also said that to have this processing power you need to get chips that cost several hundreds of dollars each when you get batches of just a couple thousands pieces.

      I am sure someone that know better than me could explain more.

      And me too I want to hear!

      1. No synth engine no. Maybe though it can create some synth sounds looping short samples and adding effects.
        Octatrack can stream long samples from flash memory and this not, has scenes to do morphing of sounds, patterns and effects.

        I see this digitakt as a successor of the first korg electribe sampler, the es1. Great little machine, simple and effective.

  7. I don’t perhaps need this as I got Rytm and MD, but this looks great! When you’d use it with other Elektron machines, I’d lose my mind with that 2x 8 row sequencing. Understand the compact size though.

    I really hope that there are really bonkers different machines to choose from!

      1. dear god yes. im sure there are many that dont have a problem with it, but sample management is the main reason i sold the octatrack.

  8. So, this does drums, plays back samples, records samples, supports overbridge AND sequences external stuff. Very strong candidate at this price range. I am totally frustrated that Elektron has not added external sequencing to Rytm -which I own.

    1. If only Rytm could sample and sequence external gear.

      My theory is that it could be implementable, but they don’t need to do it – the device sells anyway.

      1. I agree with you. They evidently have other priorities to allocate their resources, like the overbridge or this new drum box. But still, a simple implementation would add huge value to rytm with relatively small effort.

    1. Hi Andrew. Their product presentation guy mentioned 650 Euro in a sonic state NAMM video report, explaining that the product is all Digital, hence cheaper to develop and produce.

  12. there is very little info about this box still, and i would think that it could initially ship with base features and many many features could be implemented in OS updates. but it’s very exciting to me and it seems their new products are pretty well future proofed, which is why it looks like they’re replacing some of their other boxes with these new ones. and i don’t think the decision to make it all digital is just to keep the cost down, they already have two other analog machines, Rtym and A4 so it makes sense to do an all digital box, specially for a sampler. excited to see / hear more about this.

  13. Looks like they were feeling some heat from Squarp’s Pyramid. So they took the Elektron angle, did part Pyramid and part their own stuff… One thing the Phramid seems to kill on is the LFO (midi) capability, which is one area Elektron needs to do better. It will be interesting to see what kind of midi out LFO tricks it has…

    In 9 months after all the bugs are worked out and new “engines” are added this may be pretty cool…

    1. oh man, if its any way similar the pyramid i’d buy. the sequencer is all im interested on. the drum machine part/sampler is like a funky bonus

      1. I own all the Elektron machines in addition to the Pyramid. Knowing both architectures, I highly doubt they’ll come anywhere close to the sequencing abilities of Squarp’s Pyramid. If you want a good Elektron sequencer for external gear look at the Monomachine or Octatrack.

  16. This thing would be a deal with just the midi sequencer. Add in live sampling, and digital drum synthesis from Elektron, you have so many features. This is gonna upset sales of Pyramid, and Engine for sure.

  17. Considering a lot of companies are realizing seperate outs matter . This is very poor output wise. The MPC stands over this product by a long way.

  19. Half an Octatrack. Disappointing for me but they are trying to get established at a more accessible price point, especially since anything sold to the USA might soon have a 35% tariff on it.

  20. In addition to the obvious, Elektron gear always has amazing MIDI control capabilities. I’m sure this thing will be full of understated features.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *