Electron Digitone Keys Review

The latest loopop video takes an in-depth look at the new Elektron Digitone Keys.

Topics covered:

0:00 Intro 
1:20 The hardware 
2:10 Connectivity 
2:45 The keybed 
3:05 New controls 
4:20 Five new buttons 
6:25 Eight new encoders 
8:50 FM synth overview 
11:00 Modulation 
12:25 Other FM params 
15:00 Filters 
16:00 Effects 
17:10 LFOs 
17:45 Input control 
18:05 Managing voices 
19:00 Sequencing 
20:30 Param locks 
21:15 Sound locks 
22:50 Trig conditions 
24:00 MIDI sequencing 
24:30 Control all, chains 
25:15 Overbridge 
26:35 Pros and cons 

33 thoughts on “Electron Digitone Keys Review

  1. in 2019 I wouldn’t call presets that react to velocity and aftertouch “expressive”. Perhaps in the 80’s?…Oh no they had that back then as well, 29 years ago

      1. Or buy the MODX 6 for the same price as Elektron is charging for this feature-gutted trash and get a full-blown FM engine, more keys, samples, a vocoder… so on and so on.

        If you think this crap is good, it’s due only to ignorance.

  2. I’m from their hometown Gothenburg and feel the deepest respect for what they are doing. A friend of mine worked for Elektron way back, as a designer, and a couple of years ago I spoke with one of today’s bosses. The Analog Four was new then, and as I had recently met the guy behind the Nord synthesizers (another source of Swedish synth pride) I suggested that they cooperated: to me, two A4 synth engines controlled by Nord’s stellar interface design – a Nordtron 8 – would be a dream synthesizer. I was told that it simply wasn’t in Elektron’s DNA to cater for keyboardists: they did boxes, »machines«, they were Berlin. Fair enough: Elektron was started by an engineering student at Chalmers technical university, not a musician. (Unlike Clavia/Nord: he’s an old rocker who built his first synth for his own band.) Anyway, Elektron later made the A4 KB: a black plastic box with keys that tinkerers may appreciate but no keyboardist that I’ve heard of (a Monomachine KB déjà-vu). And, well … oops, they did it again! But even if I do not understand why – why make keyboards if you don’t care about keyboardists? – it obviously works. People are different, the market is big, Elektron is expanding rapidly.

    1. Look is reminiscent of the Roland SH-2000. But I agree with you, I don’t like the “panel-to-the-left” design either. It feels… asymmetrical 🙂

    2. It makes sense if you use other Elektron boxes….line ’em up behind the keyboard. It also has precedent with their early Monomachine.

      1. yeah that is the biggest thing -weirdness of having the panel on the side aside, if you are playing the keys how is it in any way ergonomic to have to reach over the panel just to use the mod or pitch wheels?

  3. Eh, which one of us can honestly say that they haven’t been drawn to something a bit weird, or that made their friends go “Eeeyeew!”? Elektron is serving their own popular base, same as someone suddenly releasing a fringe Eurorack module or quirky pedal. Mattias nails it; its all in the company’s DNA, which best serves machine-minded players. I’m on the far end as a keys-centric type, but I still like seeing 2-4 Elektrons in a rig. It means that player has a fire going for ’em.

  4. The design is actually very ergonomic. My first synth was a Roland SH-3A and if you were playing bass notes there was no need to reach across your right hand to access a control that was on the far right. Having said that, this does look “glued on” whereas Roland somehow avoided that.

  5. Intriguing – but the layout doesn’t work for me. I prefer a full 5 octave keyboard anyway, especially for splits. The 8-voice polyphony is a bit limiting but more so the lack of a drum machine.

    IMO: the entry-level Roland JD-Xi beats this in pretty much every possible way, except for the randomised sequencer.

    1. The entry-level JD-Xi is absolutely different and has a DJ-style keybed, just to have note triggers. Digitone Keys has an advanced FM engine and one of the best sequencers. For a price…

      1. Digitone does not have an advanced FM engine. It’s only a four operator FM synth per voice of which you only have 8 total spread across 4 tracks. Want a four voice chord? Sure, but now you have 4 voices left. The DX synths had 6 operators and later models supported 32 voices and 16 parts. The sequencer helps but the cost for keys version is highly inflated.

        1. A big part of the lesser amount of operators is that they’re not all sine waves, so it’s easier to get into more advanced waveshapes with fewer operators.

  6. Why wouldnt they design an universal midi controller suitable for all Elektron products, with a dedicated midi control protocol to switch between various function and knobs…

  7. I hate the design – the wheels are too far away from the keys and it looks like you slapped a digitone on the side of a controller.

  8. I layed my hands on it at superbooth. very good keyboard, nice control additions. well done. my only complaint: you cant extend it with a digitone to get 16 voice polyphony.

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