The Digitakt got updates last summer; this winter, it’s Digitone’s turn. Look to full dual mono mode for inputs, filter envelope delay, global FX mix, and other improvements like intensity for the displays, plus – of course – bug squashing.
1.32 dropped yesterday and it’s one of the first big feature updates in a while for the Digitone synth (module and keyboard version).
New:
- Intensity for the displays, on the SYSTEM menu.
- GLOBAL FX/MIX – that means you can set mixer, chorus, delay, reverb, and overdrive parameters globally, not just for the active pattern. Per-pattern effects of course is useful, but so is… not always having per-pattern effects.
- Filter envelope delay – a big deal, in that you can then have the filter envelope trigger at a different stage of the sound.
- LFO parameters have been reorganized, a la Digitakt.
- Optionally you can recall which PARAMETER subpage you were last on.
- LFO envelope now resets in FREE mode, with LFO.T to ON. (So… this is really useful, as it means a bunch of free-running modulation is possible – as on Digitakt, again.)
There are also improved graphics and a bunch of fixes.
It’s not a huge update, but it’s worth mentioning – partly to reinforce that a lot of great hardware is judged not just by its initial release, but the love and care it gets in updates over time. See recent updates from Elektron, 1010music, Polyend, Akai, and Roland, just to name a few.
We need more of that – better that hardware responds to what musicians need and get long-term use than start collecting dust or winding up in landfills.
More:
Digitone OS 1.32 Release Notes
Don’t forget that summer update to Elektron Transfer, too
Digitakt summer flashback:
But there seems to be a pretty strong preference from a lot of folks for Digitone, even for making percussive sounds. I’ll let y’all figure out which Digithing is best for you.
I’m diverging from CDM’s unwritten style guide on how to refer to seasons by simply saying “winter” here, only because Sweden is very much in the northern hemisphere. I’m sure they’re acutely aware of that right now. Hang in there, dear Swedes; hope to see you this summer in the sunlight.