Elektron Octatrack MKII

Depends on what sort of tracks you're after really.

If you're looking for more beats the Rytm is a really interesting drum machine.

If you're keen on further synth explorations you could really start mangling your digitone with an octatrack (which can also handle sampled beats at the same time).

The Octatrack in particular though will give you a good month of head scratching before you start to get on with it.

I been hearing Elektron derailed for a while now, and I guess it shows in their somewhat erratic product development agenda. kinda feels like they struggle as a company, being one of the few out there who really try to innovate, imo

I got my gear jacked a couple years back and lost my octatrack, which is the brain of my live modular rig. long story short, after getting in touch with them through some friends they kindly offered me a new one, but the whole process was inconceivably chaotic, which I later found out it was because they were going through a significant internal reform of sorts, with lay offs and whatnot.

anyway, I've owned an OT for about 7 years, so I vouch for it, and it is an important tool for me. at this point I feel like the Rytm might be the most powerful of the lot, really want to get my hands on one, but at 10k in my currency that'll have to wait. it really depends on what you're looking for, but the OT probably takes a lot longer to get your head around, as it offers loads more possibilities

Looks like it's time to start getting a bunker mentaklity, assume Elektron will probably start dropping support for discontinued products after a few years stock up on MKI spare parts from tech support for future repairs.  Apparently you can buy an entire new MKI control board from them for something like $240 right now, which might be a good investment if you're someone who plans to use the thing for another decade or more. That, a few individual switches and a fader would be a whole lot of insurance.

re: Braintree.... Rytm is the best drum machine of this generation, full stop. people will still be playing them in 50 years, no exaggeration. probably well beyond that. it ain't perfect at all but it's great at doing what it does (tho this obv doesn't suit everyone's wants/needs).

a lot of people also swear by the OT (as tbf points out^ and surely plenty of others ITT) and i'm sure it'd be a really interesting pairing with the Digitone. the OT can do so very much that few other pieces of kit can replicate even partly, certainly nothing really in the same class as it at all. 

if you're wanting a cute pairing with the Digitone the Digitakt is an obvious choice. not as 'next level' as the OT but still plenty of depth to it if you're into some interesting sample manipulation. (should point out of these i've only owned the Rytm, so basing all my rambling on hours of research...YT videos and forum chat  so feel free to ignore me lol ...also got an A4 and it's plenty good but i'm not its biggest fan either)

  On 5/4/2021 at 1:16 PM, TubularCorporation said:

Looks like it's time to start getting a bunker mentaklity, assume Elektron will probably start dropping support for discontinued products after a few years stock up on MKI spare parts from tech support for future repairs.

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i'd love to say no way that'll happen but yeah, the way things are looking it wouldn't surprise me at all if this came to be over the next 5-10 years. good news is that most of these machines are pretty ubiquitous so there should be plenty of a second hand market for not only replacements but repair bits and maybe even people specializing in doing repairs on Elektron kit.

oh,  by the way
 

Wut??

  On 5/4/2021 at 2:45 PM, tbf said:

oh,  by the way
 

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  On 5/2/2021 at 2:44 PM, sheatheman said:

Apparently this is the new ceo. This is funny.

 

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Explains why cenk is ditching

"we believe music has value"

*mindblown*

would be nice if he meant that artists are valuable, and not that his job is to figure out how to intercept and exploit every possible source of income an artist might present him while sharing nothing but crumbles

  On 5/4/2021 at 9:11 PM, Stickfigger said:

It's crazy that elektron has a CEO that views the users of their products as labourers and not commodities

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FTFY

CEOs are CEOs

Anyway, based on what usually hapens when a holding company takes over, I give it 3-5 years before we see the Elektron OctaWolf.

Hallo my name is Beli Uhringer, I am interested in your company of making the electronic klingklang machines.

On a more serious note, I guess this kind of shows that it's not really possible to push the boundaries as a small company. If the financial realities were that they needed external investment, then looks like time has come for that external investment to extract their promised returns.

Probably a larger company could pull off this R&D and manufacturing in a way to keep the devices themselves affordable, but larger companies don't really want to experiment like this if you can have small passionate groups doing that stuff anyway and buy them up later.

lol

youtube comments are chewing Elektron up

shit does look pretty derpy, only kinda matches sorta... and i mean i don't own either of these machines but having a handle attaching at a joint where the power cable connects, and expecting people to hold/carry/rest the weight of the device on that joint seems maybe a recipe for breaking your power connection. but maybe it's really stable/strong, idk man. 

hurts to watch in realtime the demise of a company with so much potential

Model:Cycles rules. I'm enjoying it more than the Octatrack these days.

The handle is somewhat silly but it does seem to qualitatively improve the experience. There's definitely some bias in effect, but the beta testers I've heard from have had nothing but positive things to say about it. I think the AA batteries were a smart choice too. 

It does look a bit derpy but not as much as having a USB brick hanging off it. And it looks a lot better laying on a table, tucked under it as a stand.

The Cenk "It's me or the handle" comment was fucking hilarious though.

I don't think it looks bad, couldn't care less about looks, honestly. it just feels like either a diversion, or worse, them testing the waters into this vanilla business model. best case, it's just them flooding with more products to elevate profit margins without compromising much of development

Looks like some old lab equipment I've had to use at work. Just slap an Anritsu or Rohde & Schwarz logo there and it would fit perfectly.

  On 5/27/2021 at 2:31 AM, tbf said:

hurts to watch in realtime the demise of a company with so much potential

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They were bought out by an investment firm a couple years ago, right? And a bunch of logn time employees left recently, citing disagreements over the direction the company was taking?

It's only a matter of time until they reach the Rhythm Wolf phase.

I think I really should put aside some money this summer and buy some backup parts for my MKI Octatrack while they're sill available.

EDIT: the important thing here is that the promo video looks like a 20 year old Quizno's commercial.

  On 5/27/2021 at 7:28 AM, tbf said:

I don't think it looks bad

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It's $50

It can't charge rechargeable batteries

It doesn't include any batteries.

It's $50

  On 5/27/2021 at 2:00 AM, auxien said:

having a handle attaching at a joint where the power cable connects, and expecting people to hold/carry/rest the weight of the device on that joint seems maybe a recipe for breaking your power connection.

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It doesn't rest on the connector. It clips onto the enclosure without needing the cable connected and doesn't put any stress on it at all.

I was a beta tester for the handle and while I wouldn't have bought one; I found it a lot less goofy than it looks. I don't mind that it takes AA batteries, I have tons of rechargeables from years of using gameboys to make music so

  On 5/28/2021 at 3:40 AM, modey said:

I wouldn't have bought one

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Why wouldn't you have bought one?

  On 5/28/2021 at 5:28 AM, sweepstakes said:

Why wouldn't you have bought one?

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I don't really need it. I bought a tiny battery pack that holds 4x AA batteries not long after I got my Samples, and then got a USB to barrel adaptor which allows it to be powered by a powerbank. I'll likely use the battery handle now that I have one, but especially not having a stable income, I couldn't really justify buying one.

  On 5/27/2021 at 2:33 AM, sweepstakes said:

Model:Cycles rules. I'm enjoying it more than the Octatrack these days.

The handle is somewhat silly but it does seem to qualitatively improve the experience. There's definitely some bias in effect, but the beta testers I've heard from have had nothing but positive things to say about it. I think the AA batteries were a smart choice too. 

It does look a bit derpy but not as much as having a USB brick hanging off it. And it looks a lot better laying on a table, tucked under it as a stand.

The Cenk "It's me or the handle" comment was fucking hilarious though.

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lol

yeah i may pick up a M:C one day, who knows...heard some good fun come out of it before and i think there's a few purposes it could serve for my stuff. but not dying for it or anything

yeah...anything Elektron has a bit of that in-group bubble bias which is sad but has profited the company well i'd assume. chinks in that armor are showing seeing how little truly good reactions this is getting, and a good lot of vocal 'yeah that's not what anyone wanted' comments

  On 5/28/2021 at 3:40 AM, modey said:

It clips onto the enclosure without needing the cable connected and doesn't put any stress on it at all.

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that's good at least

anyway this guy ain't into it, he details why:

  On 5/29/2021 at 12:53 AM, auxien said:

anyway this guy ain't into it, he details why:

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lol that guy didn't want one in the first place, and just bought one so he could shit on it even more. He's going out of his way to post it in as many places as possible. I'm surprised he hasn't posted here. 
 

I don't get why people are so passionate in their hate of this product. Just.. don't buy it? Elektron doesn't owe us anything. They've already made several amazing devices that won't suddenly stop working now that they've released a battery handle that isn't rechargeable.

  On 5/29/2021 at 1:10 AM, modey said:

I don't get why people are so passionate in their hate of this product.

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