$999, elektron.se

With the Digitakt II having sold out its first batch within a few weeks, it was only a matter of time before the developer would unveil upgrades to other instruments in its range. Being the first Elektron unit of its kind, the original Digitakt drum computer and sampler will forever represent a key chapter in its developer’s history, so it’s natural for version II upgrades to have begun there. But now comes a sequel for the Digitone – Elektron’s characterful and powerful take on FM synthesis.

• READ MORE: We dare you to try and reach Elektron Digitakt II’s limitations

As a reminder, the Digitakt II represented such a vast leap forward from the original Digitakt that Elektron could plausibly have separated the two with another version in between. The Digitakt had 1GB of internal storage; the Digitakt II, 20GB. The Digitakt accommodated 128 samples per project; the Digitakt II,1024. The list goes on. No wonder the Digitakt was Reverb’s best-selling piece of electronic gear in 2024. Will the Digitone II expand the functionality of its own predecessor to a similarly far-flung level?

In short, yes. New synth engines, new filter types, more tracks, increased modulation potential, more effects: you name it and it’s probably been upgraded or expanded. Similar to the Digitakt II, the Digitone II’s physical alterations are — for the most part — fairly subtle, but they hint at big upgrades under the hood. And in case you were wondering, yes, its internal memory upgrade is similarly massive; with a RAM memory capable of storing up to 128 projects and a preset library capable of storing a whopping 2048 presets we posit you’re unlikely to run out of space any time soon.

What’s new on the Elektron Digitone II?

A dedicated FX button has appeared beneath the Digitone’s eight encoders, and the SYN 1 and SYN 2 buttons have been condensed into a single SYN selection button, given the inclusion of more synth engines. As with the Digitakt II, a dedicated keyboard button has appeared on the left of the panel, along with a dedicated Song button. And once again, the OLED screen has done away with its previous model’s yellow graphics in favour of (the arguably clearer) white.

Most conspicuous on the Digitone II is the absence of the original’s four coloured Track buttons on the panel’s lower right-hand side (now replaced with Arpeggiator, Note edit and Transpose buttons), and now all Trig buttons are black, unlike the original’s piano keyboard-like theme of white and black rows.

It would seem these latter two changes signal a concerted decision to deepen the Digitone II’s sequencing power. The reason the Digitone’s four Track buttons have gone is because that number of available individual sequencer tracks has now quadrupled to a formidable 16— meaning tracks are now selected with the 16 Trig buttons. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same selection process as on the latest Digitakt, and that’s hardly a coincidence.

Atop this, the Digitone’s 8-voice polyphony is now doubled to a sequencer-loving 16, and any track can now be used as a MIDI sequencer, capable of triggering up to sixteen notes per step along with sixteen assignable MIDI control change messages. Whew!

My MusicTech review of the Digitakt II noted the now-ubiquitous influence of the so-called ‘Elektron workflow’, which is very much present and correct in the Digitone II. Those familiar will recognise things like the oft-lauded parameter lock (where each trigger can have its own unique parameter settings), and different recording modes (Grid Recording mode, Live Recording mode and Step Recording mode). But all that hasn’t stopped a few other functions further endowing the Digitone II’s transport options and general playability. The overall sequence length doubles that of the Digitone, allowing 128 steps.

There’s also a Euclidean sequencer; a sequencer that places a set number of events as evenly as possible over a set number of steps— the odder the better— for generating unpredictable syncopated patterns that evolve on the fly. I find the interface quick and intuitive, making great use of the eight encoders to allow for playful, simultaneous adjustment of things like pulse generation, track rotation and step count. A brilliant addition and a welcome deviation from a workflow that can easily threaten to become overly gridded. Add to this functions like Trig Probability and you can create sequences that could extend for hours— and beyond— without ever repeating.

What does the Digitone II sound like?

All of this, of course, is before we focus on how the Digitone II actually sounds. We mentioned that Elektron have taken pains to substantiate this model as a sequencer, but if there’s one thing the Digitone Keys taught us it’s that the Digitone was a more-than-worthy, manually-playable synth voice in its own right. The Digitone II only expands on this, and all things considered, would be an excellent instrument even if it had no sequencer at all. Perhaps, we wonder, a Digitone Keys II is also on the horizon.

The Digitone’s already-formidable FM synth engine is happily ported over to the Digitone II as FM Tone, only now it’s joined by three entirely new engines. There’s WaveTone: a classically-inspired two-oscillator synth engine with some versatile wave shaping possibilities, as well as some expansive noise design potential. Next is Swarmer, a massive-sounding super-wave synth based around a singular oscillator with six additional detuned oscillators.

Earlier I mentioned some conspicuous commonalities with aspects of the Digitakt II— these only increase with the inclusion of FM Drum, an FM engine tailored to synthesise drum and percussion sounds, which it does excellently, faintly reminiscent of the Teenage Engineering OP-1’s D-Box. This said, FM Drum is no slouch with melodic tones, only its parameters are geared specifically to folding, pinging and sweeping FM tones and noise. Its four pages of parameters feel a little menu-heavy, as can other aspects of the Digitone II’s workflow, but fair to say things are generally laid out so that whether you prefer to dive deep or stay in the shallows, it’s more than possible to achieve satisfying and creative results.

These engines combine with a similarly expanded filter section, now offering adjustable base-width, multi-mode, comb filters, four-pole low-pass, EQ, or ‘Legacy’ low- and high-pass filter types. Then there’s the per-track delay, reverb, chorus, bit reduction, sample reduction and overdrive, and finally a useful master overdrive and bus compressor.

Is the Digitone II a good buy?

As with the Digitakt II, the Digitone II’s functions are legion. And, also as with the Digitakt II, it hikes the price to an eyebrow-raising $999. Is that really worth it? Yes, not only do we deem this good value for money proportionate to the magnitude of this synth, but it also pushes the Digitone dynasty away from pure FM synthesis and into a completely different category of instrument. Where once upon a time we would have been comparing it to the likes of Korg’s cheaper 6-operator, 32-voice Opsix FM synth, here it makes more sense to place it next to the likes of Polyend’s three-engine Synth; whose comparable but slimmer functionality renders its own $549 price tag more or less proportionate to the Digitone II’s.

However, we’re still waiting for the Overbridge control software to graduate from the beta phase, and the absence of a USB-C port in favour of USB-B is curious, not least from a future-proofing perspective.

Nevertheless, the Digitone II is a phenomenally powerful machine that oozes with potential and once again challenges anyone to reach its limitations. In all honesty, this is no less than what we’ve come to expect from Elektron by now, and who’s complaining?

Key features

• 16 audio tracks ready for synth or MIDI
• 16-voice polyphony
• 4 synth machines to play with: WaveTone, Swarmer, FM Tone, FM Drum
• Storage for up to 2048 presets
• 6 filter types
• 3 assignable LFOs per track
• Effects: delay, reverb, chorus, bit reduction, sample reduction, and overdrive per track
• Note editor
• 128-step sequencer
• Euclidean sequence generator
• 4 Trig modes
• Song Mode to create, edit and play full compositions

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