Elektron Digitone Keys 37-key 8-voice Digital Synthesizer with Sequencer

The Digitone Keys is an FM synth with a more conventional analogue filter back end - giving sound designers (like me) what has, in the space of just a few days, been something like manna from heaven. I'm old enough to remember soldering discrete hand made oscillators and filters in my schools e-music lab to feed our 2 inch tape deck, but I'd long ago sold off the few Moog-like sounding hardware synths of my past, convincing myself that with more and more horsepower under the hood, computer based software synths were the way to go. There remains a lot to be said for this perspective. Computer based synthesis is far less expensive than filling equipment racks. I currently have better than twenty sample, granular and wavetable based synths, not to mention umpteen gazillion filters and plug ins. My favorite software synths of late include Hauptwerk, a sophisticated pipe organ sample player-- you can play a sampled instruments that Bach played 300 years ago! -- Chris Watson's environmental recording based Geosonics (on Kontakt), Iris II, and now Circles, all of which can run concurrently and not begin to tax the 10 Core Xeon W iMac Pro on my desk. If I lean toward sample based synths (granular and wavetable, for example, it's because my work in sound design uses lots of my own environmental recordings. Nonetheless, when I read that Elektron was offering a keyboard version of Digitone, I jumped for it. Whilst I might like a better display (at $1200 list, is an OLED too much to ask for?), I know the rough graphics are part of the vibe, but the fine text js actually tough to read, and all the clever mutating symbols in the filtering section are a waste on this display. The body is well executed steel, with a matt black finish that resists both fingerprints and dust. The encoders, buttons and wheels all feel very solid, and the backlighting is not just gamer style good looks. It's a useful feature: there's a colour shift when items go to the second level of control, and a third "warning" colour set that comes into play when using the keyboard, pitch and mod wheels to control other midi devices - yes, it can do that, and CV in and out as well. Adding even more to its flexibility, virtually every control can be reassigned to suit the user with dozens of parameters to choose from. The three octave keyboard has a pretty standard light synth feel, with good velocity control. After-touch is available, but the sound design has to call for it. Some of the presets use it, some don't. The owner can add it to any preset - controlling one of many parameters -- noise, harmonics, panning, pitch. etc. The actual feel to the aftertouch is polar opposite from the light touch of the keyboard. It seems to take a bit more pressure than I'd like. The keyboard can be shifted 4 octaves in either direction. Three octaves in each direction are indicated by leds, while the 4th in either direction is indicated by a dimming of the last led. This is a total key range of 11 octaves, and enough keyboard to take users out of the normal range of hearing in either subsonic or ultrasonic directions. The keys physically jut out over the keybed. While they're well protected by the steel case, If using with a gig bag, I'd find a piece of foam to place under the keys as they extend out, just to be safe. They don't feel especially vulnerable, but why take a chance. One little known fact is that in addition to the two 1/4" input jacks (unbalanced!) to receive external audio, when the unit is connected to a computer via USB, it also functions as a standards compliant audio interface functioning at up to 96KHz/24 bit, making it super easy to run samples from a Mac -- even from iTunes, or network based data streams like YouTube -- through the Digitone's various filters and what not and on to a recording track in the DAW of your choosing. I use Studio One, but I tried it and it works equally well with Logic Pro. When used this way, you control the levels using the various filter levels and the Digitone's Master Volume. Having this audio and midi capability means that it's also possible to easily operate computer free. Bottom line: This is a sound designers dream machine, combining the best features of FM in an easily understood work flow, while still offering subtractive features like LFO controlled filtering etc. For less technically oriented users, it offers the arpeggiation and sequencing abilities and workflow that have made Elektron famous, along with presets in such a variety of styles that many users will likely look no further. Learn the workflow once, and the whole range of Elektron machines is open to you, from the budget "Models" line to the flagships: Octatrack, Rytm, and Analog Four. If this sounds good to you, go for it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Take some time to read the user manual and learn about the algorithms! This synth is ridiculously powerful and fun!