I think that flexibility is a bit of a double edged sword though. It is extremely flexible, but I often feel like I have to work hard to contort it into a shape I like.
I looked for it but didn’t find it, only new, about €900.
1 Like
ahh yeah i must be thinking of the united states used prices. Here’s $575 on 'verb Elektron Digitone 8-Voice Digital Synthesizer 2017 - Present | Reverb
@djst Where did you get the stand for Syntakt that you use in the Oasis jam? I like it.
1 Like
It was a limited run stand from Ikea called OBEGRÄNSAD. Unfortunately I don’t think they sell it anymore.
That’s what I started with and I loved it. I still do. Just can’t justify owning both, I’m not generous enough to myself maybe. 
You really can’t go wrong either way. Given how undecided you seem, I’m guessing you will want to test both. If you can, buy them used. 
1 Like
One more thing to tone down your GAS a bit: neither of them is perfect. I really wish the Syntakt had polyphony and a few more synth machines to push it into new territories. And I really miss the arp.
Similarly, I really felt limited on the Digitone. Inspired, no doubt, but it was hard to make full songs on it.
The solution to both could be to embrace a hybrid approach (Elektron + DAW). With this approach, you can use a Digitone to build song embryos and for its great synth sounds, play with arps and inspiring sounds, experiment with FM and see where it takes you. But then you record that into the DAW and layer other elements on top of it.
If you are comfortable with that approach, the Digitone might even have an edge over the Syntakt because you don’t need more than 4 tracks to build the distinctive parts of a song, and you have ovely sounds, polyphony and am excellent arp to lkag with. Then you can build the drums in the DAW instead. Maybe use one track for some more basic drums and glitchy elements that the Digitone is so great at, but without the pressure to have it try to cover all elements of your songs.
If you really don’t want to use the DAW, I’d argue that the Syntakt has the edge instead. Anyway, I’ve probably said all I can say about this now. Ultimately you need to give either of them a try. 
2 Likes
@djst Yes, I feel kinda overwhelmed and very undecided. In the end, I can make music with any of boxes. I just need buy one and end of story.
I’ll let you know when I buy it. Once again, thank you all for your great help and sorry for my boredom, it’s not easy. 
3 Likes
Yeah, I think generally speaking the digitone works better alongside other intruments than the syntakt does. There are just so many tracks in the syntakt getting mixed into one stereo pair, I think it makes it work amazingly all by itself, but sometimes a little annoying paired with other devices. But that is mainly because I often want separate effects for drums and synth and when I use syntakt I want to do drums and synth with it, I’m not great at limiting myself to just one or the other.
1 Like
Keep looking – if you’re patient you’ll probably be able to find one around that price eventually (I paid about $500 for mine, also with an Elektron decksaver, box, all the goodies, etc.). Also good to keep on top of things here – occasionally a DN will pop up for sale via another Elektronaut!
There’s already a ton of good advice here, so all I will add is that, if you aren’t already, plan on finding some good tutorials for whatever box you chose. That’s made all the difference for me with all my Elektron gear. There’s a lot of material available on YouTube, of course, but for me the best stuff has come from Thavius Beck and @DaveMech – I had the pleasure of spending a few months in private lessons devoted to the Digitone with Dave a while back, and it would be impossible to quantify how much I learned and how much better my music became as a result. I’ve worked with him on other instruments as well, and it’s been invaluable and a total blast. Check out his video series for the Digitone – it’s a bargain at twice the price. Whatever instrument you choose, finding some good tutorials and/or a good teacher may be the key to getting the most out of the instrument – that’s certainly been the case with me.
And before the Digitone, I thought FM in general was pretty hideous. Then I heard some Boards of Canada-like sounds in the demos and thought I’d better let go of my biases and try it out. Very glad I did – among other things it’s monstrous with percussion, many of my sounds I’ve made on the Digitone have been sampled to my AR, and are now part of my stable of kicks, snares, hats, and other smashy sounds. It’s loads of fun to work with.
2 Likes
I believe OP has indicated they are in a country where they cannot find as many good used deals as in the US. Which is unfortunate, but the DN is worthwhile even at full price.
1 Like
When all else fails, I just remember that I can treat the DN like a subtractive synth, but with extra timbres. The flexibility is there if I want it, but it can be simple as I want it to be. Works for me.
1 Like
I generally agree with you, but that only goes so far. Like if I want a PWM square type sound or triple oscillator saw, not so easy.
Sorry OP – managed to overlook that earlier in the thread. Hope you find a good deal in your location!
My two cents:
Part of me wishes I had a Syntakt, so I could offer up a comparison of the two boxes. But perhaps it is better that I’ve devoted so much time solely to the Digitone. It has so much potential.
Putting multiple drum sounds on a track is not hard. I learned how to do it almost immediately as a new Digitone user. And I am pretty technically inept with new devices.
I wonder if some users have become so acclimated to using DAWs (with their endless supply of tracks and audio turd polish) that it has changed their expectations about what constitutes a finished product.
The music I make on the Digitone isn’t that complex. It is used as canned accompaniments for my students. So, eight voice polyphony distributed among four tracks is just fine. I’m not trying to bury the kids in a thick texture, anyway.
Texture: that is the word that best describes my aspirations on the Digitone. I am never looking for a particular sound. Rather, my focus is how sounds work together. I only use presets for the bass drum, snare and hihats. The rest of the sounds typically are created starting with the default sine patch and moving forward from there.
A lot of preset FM sounds on the Digitone are pretty crazy. These sounds are, for me, musically not very useful. I recall someone saying that many instruments’ distinctive tone is defined heavily by the transient at the beginning of the sound. Users on this forum have written sometimes that FM is too crazy, other times that it is too boring. Huh? My ideal sounds for my own tracks is boring with a little bit of crazy around the edges.
Echoing what others have written, for me the lack of polyphony per track-step on the Syntakt is a non-starter.
+1 for Digitone.
2 Likes
I watched some tutorials mostly for Digitone by Miles Kvndra, Ivar Tryti, Oscillator Sink (great video about voice stealing and management), Cuckoo etc… Digitone is a bit older so there is a lot of material to learn online when Syntakt is still new, there are also tutorials for it, although it is much easier to work with it because it has ready-made machines and 12 tracks (there is not as much deep diving through the pages as on Digitone), which does not mean that it is not complex.
2 Likes
Curious if you wound up getting one of the units?
1 Like
Hi, I haven’t bought anything yet because I had other unplanned expenses.
I definitely decided on Digitone.
As much as I like Syntakt and its advantages, polyphony and FM are a must for me.
7 Likes
Nice. Funny enough, there was a new updated DN cheat sheet from Dave Mech this morning in my email. Cheers!
davemech_digitone_cheatsheet_v1.24p.pdf (238.7 KB)
2 Likes
Thanks, also to Dave for the updated cheat sheet.
3 Likes