The unique Digitone is considered one of my favourite synths ever. To some that 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 strong multitimbral groovebox with one of the 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 unravel a few of these issues. It now has 16 voices on 16 tracks, plus there are three utterly new synth engines that develop its sound palette, together with one utterly devoted to percussion. That is all along with the identical types of sequencing, modulation, and filter enhancements we already noticed on the Digitakt II (8/10, WIRED Recommends), however similar 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 continues to be right here. Whereas I’ve seen some individuals counsel that it doesn’t sound precisely the identical and that the unique has barely extra grit and character, I feel these individuals are hallucinating. I’ve loaded a number of presets designed for the unique Digitone on the Digitone II, and I cannot inform the distinction between them. It’s value mentioning that, sadly, you cannot 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 underneath 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 may be FM Drum, which tweaks the unique sound engine to raised go well with percussion. Wavetone is rather less glassy and will get sounds just 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 provides you super-thick sounds which are nice for leads and organs by stacking six detuned oscillators on prime of the primary one. Lots of my favourite new presets make wonderful use of the Wavetone machine, which is ready to convincingly replicate traditional electro and Krautrock sounds.
