Manual quick start

Digitakt II is a sixteen-track drum machine and sampler. Every track can be audio or MIDI, sampling is stereo, and the sequencer runs up to 128 steps. Each audio track loads a SRC machine that decides how a sample is played: ONESHOT plays it straight; WERP, STRETCH, and REPITCH handle time and pitch; SLICE and GRID work on chopped material. Filters are swappable machines too, and each track carries three LFOs with delay, reverb, and chorus on the sends. Kits, trig modes, and an extra sequencer mode were built on top of the original Digitakt workflow, along with more memory and more processing power.

“The Digitakt experience, but multiplied.”— Elektron, official manual §2

The supplied DC adapter goes into the 12 V DC In on the back panel. Give the unit a stable surface and room for cables, and switch every device off before connecting. OUT L/R goes to a mixer or amplifier. Audio you want to sample or process arrives at IN L/R, or over USB, which works for sampling only. For MIDI, the sending device's MIDI OUT goes into Digitakt II's MIDI IN. MIDI THRU repeats that data for a third unit further down the chain. A USB cable handles the computer. The power switch is on the back.

Press [PTN], reach bank A with [LEFT]/[RIGHT], then press [TRIG 1] to select pattern A01. [PLAY] starts it. Press [PTN] and [TRIG 2] while it runs and A02 is cued: it takes over when A01 finishes. [STOP] ends playback. Any track can also be played chromatically. Select it with [TRK] + [TRIG 1–16], press [KEYBOARD], and the [TRIG] keys light up as a piano octave — only lit keys sound. [KEYBOARD] + [UP]/[DOWN] shifts the whole keyboard by an octave. Sampled material reacts strongly to pitching. A voice moved up an octave gets shorter and thinner; a snare moved down turns into a tom. It is a sound-design tool as much as a way to play notes.

With a pattern playing, press [FUNC] + [TRK]. Each [TRIG] key now mutes and unmutes its track: lit keys sound, unlit keys are silent. Which track was active before makes no difference here, because all sixteen are available at once. This is the simplest performance control on the machine — take the hats out for a phrase, then bring them back with the kick.

[TEMPO] opens the tempo menu. DATA ENTRY knob A or LEVEL/DATA sets the BPM, pressing the knob while turning moves four at a time, and knob B handles the decimal. The tempo can belong to the project or to each pattern. Hold [FUNC] and turn knob E to switch between those modes. In PROJECT mode, holding [FUNC] while turning knob A stages a new tempo without applying it — PREP. flashes at the bottom left — and it lands when you release [FUNC]. Tap tempo is [FUNC] plus taps on [TEMPO], averaged from the fourth tap on. On the main screen, holding [LEFT] or [RIGHT] nudges the tempo 10% while you hold it. Knob D is swing, up to 80%, with 50% straight. Metronome settings live in the same menu: METRO on or off, SIG. for the time signature, PREROLL for count-in bars before LIVE RECORDING, VOL for the click level. [TEMPO] + [YES] toggles it from anywhere.

Six parameter pages hold a track's sound, and each has a [PARAMETER] key: TRIG, SRC, FLTR, AMP, FX, MOD. The DATA ENTRY knobs edit what the screen shows. With a pattern playing, select a track with [TRK] + [TRIG 1–16], press [FLTR], and turn knob E — FREQ, the filter cutoff. It is the quickest way to hear that the knobs are live. Pages are recoverable. Hold a [PARAMETER] key and press [NO] to reload that page from its last saved state, or [YES] to randomize it. Holding a single DATA ENTRY knob and pressing [NO] resets just that parameter.

Connect your source to IN L/R and press [SAMPLING]. Knob A picks the input, and the level meter tells you whether the signal is strong enough — as loud as it goes without clipping. Knob D sets the threshold just above the source's background noise, so recording starts when the sound does. Set the record length, switch ARM to ON, and play. Sampling stops when you press [YES], when the record length runs out, or at the 66-second ceiling. Digitakt II normalizes the result on its own. Then trim it: knobs E and H move the start and end points, F zooms, G moves the zoom window, and [FUNC] + [YES] previews through the active track's voice — so make sure an audio track is selected. [YES] saves. Name the sample, confirm, and assign it to a track with [TRACK 1–16].