Electron Digitone II Review: Dignified successor of a classic

The original Digitone Is one of my favorite synthesizers ever. For some who go out a bit as a backhand compliment because the Digitone is not just a synthesizer. It is a powerful multitimbral groove box with one of the most versatile sequencers on the market. For me, his four tracks and eight voices of polyphony could feel somewhat restrictive. Besides, it’s not exactly the best thing about drums. This led me to glue the Digiton to a stand in which I simply treated it like a desktop synthesizer, which was controlled by a MIDI keyboard.

The Digitone II, at least on paper, seems to solve some of these problems. It now has 16 votes on 16 tracks, and there are three completely new synth engines that expand their sound palette, including one that is fully devoted to percussion. All of this is in addition to the same types of sequencing, modulation and filter improvements that we have already seen on Digitakt II (8/10, Wired recommends), but just as with its sampling siblings, the Digitone II has received a significant price increase of $ 999. Since the original on the used market now only corresponds to 350 US dollars, the choice between the two is not necessarily the cut and dry.

Photo: Terrence O’Brien

This is the new sound

Before someone panic, the four-operator FM engine from the original Digitone is still here. Although some people suggest that it doesn’t sound exactly the same and that the original has a little more grit and character, I think that these people are hallucinating. I have loaded several default settings for the original Digiton on Digitone II and I cannot see the difference between them. It is worth noting that unfortunately you cannot load Digitone II on the original Digiton, even if you use the original FM sound engine. There are apparently some technical differences between them under the bonnet, but at least for my ears they do not seem to influence the sound.

Photo: Terrence O’Brien

In the other three synth engines, the Digitone II really separates from the original. In addition to the original FM engine (called FM tone in the new model), there is FM drum that optimizes the original sound engine so that it corresponds to a better percussion. Waveton is a little less glassy and gets noise similar to phase distortion and corrugated synthesizers. It is still extremely digital, but not as hard as FM. Then there are Swarming that gives you super -thick noises that are ideal for leads and organs by stacking six deceased oscillators on the main amount. Many of my favorite -new default settings use the Waveton machine excellently, which can convincingly replicate classic electrical and Krautrock sounds.