How it’s organised · Digitone II guide

3.1IntermediateManual §4 p.15, §4.1 p.15, §4.2 p.15, §4.2.1 p.15, §4.2.2 p.15, §12.1 p.65

Sound architecture

Knowing the order things happen in takes the guesswork out of sound design. It explains why overdrive in front of the filter sounds different from overdrive after it, and how the delay can end up in the reverb. The Digitone II has 16 audio voices. Each one runs its own chain from synth machine to pan, then everything meets in a mixer that feeds two master effects on the way out.

Inside one audio voice

Stage	What happens	Where you set it
1. SYN machine	The synthesis engine chosen for the track makes the raw sound.	`SYN` pages — The SYN pages, Machines overview
2. Bit reduction	Lowers the bit depth. Its place is fixed, straight after the machine.	`BR` on the `FX` page — The FX page
3. Overdrive, sample rate reduction, base-width filter	Each of the three can sit before or after the filter machine, chosen separately: `OD.RT` for the overdrive, `SR.RT` for sample rate reduction and `BW.RT` for the base-width filter.	`OVER`, `SRR` and their routing on the `FX` page; `BW.RT` on the `FLTR` pages — The FX page, The FLTR pages
4. Filter machine	The selected FLTR machine, shaped over time by the filter envelope.	`FLTR` pages — The FLTR pages, Filter machines
5. Amp	The amp envelope shapes the voice’s volume over time.	`AMP` page — The AMP page
6. Pan	Places the voice in the stereo field.	`PAN` on the `AMP` page
7. Out	The voice goes on to the mixer, and its own send amounts feed the chorus, delay and reverb.	`CHR`, `DEL` and `REV` on the `FX` page

Send effects

The chorus, delay and reverb are send effects. Each voice sets how much it sends to each one, and every effect’s output comes back into the mixer (Chorus, Delay, Reverb).
They can feed each other in one direction: the chorus has its own delay and reverb sends, and the delay has a reverb send.
Their settings belong to the pattern, so every preset in a pattern shares the same chorus, delay and reverb; only the send amounts differ from track to track (Editing send FX and mixer pages).

Master section

The mixer brings together the 16 voices, the audio arriving at the IN L/R inputs, and the chorus, delay and reverb returns (Internal mixer, External mixer).
The mixer feeds the compressor. COMPRESSOR ROUTING in the SETUP menu decides which tracks, inputs and effects it works on (Compressor, The SETUP menu: kit and track settings).
The master overdrive comes last, just before the main outputs and the headphones. MOVD on the FX MIXER page sets how much of it the kit’s audio tracks get (FX mixer).

From the community

Digitone II — At A Glance
Elektron
The official tour: Hissquiet and Jeremiah Chiu take turns showing off the machines, the sound and the new features.

Review: DIGITONE II vs OG Digitone // Everything new in Elektron's Digitone 2 // Detailed tutorial
loopop
A detailed tour of everything new compared with the original Digitone — half review, half tutorial.

3.2BasicsManual §5 p.16, §5.1 p.16, §5.2 p.16, §5.2.1 p.16, §5.2.2 p.16, §5.2.3 p.16, §9 p.29

Projects, patterns, kits and presets

Everything you make sits in a simple hierarchy. The +Drive is the long-term store, a project is the session you’re working in, and the patterns inside it hold both the sequences and the sounds they play. Knowing what lives where tells you what needs saving, and what changes when you switch pattern.

Each level

+Drive: Built-in non-volatile memory. It stores up to 128 projects and the +Drive preset library — up to 2048 presets that every project can use. Saved kits are kept here too (The +Drive library and the pool).
Project: Your working state: 128 patterns plus general settings and states. The loaded project is the one you edit, and the Digitone II starts up in it every time you switch on. Save, load and manage projects from the SETTINGS menu (Projects: load, save and manage).
Song: Each project has room for 16 songs, which arrange its patterns (Song mode).
Pattern: The main container. Eight banks of 16 give 128 patterns per project. A pattern holds its kit — one preset per track — the sequencer data such as trigs and parameter locks, the TRIG page settings, and the BPM, length, swing and time signature. It also holds every parameter setting of its MIDI tracks (Patterns and banks).
Kit: Every pattern has one kit: 16 presets, one per track, plus settings that apply across the kit, such as levels, the compressor and master overdrive, the send effects, control all, compressor routing, track layering and pattern transpose (Loading, saving and managing kits).
Preset: One track’s sound: the settings on its SYN, FLTR, AMP, FX and MOD pages, together with its track settings in the SETUP menu and its arpeggiator settings. Presets live either in the active project’s pool or in the +Drive library, and the PRESET MANAGER handles both (The PRESET/KIT menu).
Pool: Part of each project: up to 128 presets kept on hand for preset locks (The +Drive library and the pool, Preset locks).
Track: Every pattern has 16 tracks, and each one can be an audio track or a MIDI track (Audio tracks, MIDI tracks and machines).

Capacities

What	How many
Projects on the +Drive	Up to 128
Presets in the +Drive library	Up to 2048 (8 banks, A–H, of 256)
Patterns per project	128 (8 banks × 16)
Songs per project	16
Kits per pattern	1
Presets per kit	16
Tracks per pattern	16, each audio or MIDI
Presets in a project’s pool	Up to 128

3.3BasicsManual §5.3 p.16, §5.3.1 p.16, §5.3.2 p.17, §5.3.3 p.17, §6 p.18, §16 p.85

Audio tracks, MIDI tracks and machines

All 16 sequencer tracks start out as audio tracks that play sound through the Digitone II’s own engine. Any of them can instead become a MIDI track that sequences other gear. What decides it is the track’s SYN machine.

Audio track: The default for every track. It holds one preset: the settings on the SYN, FLTR, AMP, FX and MOD pages, plus the preset’s settings in the SETUP and ARPEGGIATOR menus (The SETUP menu: kit and track settings, The arpeggiator). Any SYN machine other than MIDI makes a track an audio track.
MIDI track: A track with the MIDI machine assigned. It makes no sound itself — its sequencer data goes out over MIDI OUT or USB to control other instruments. Setting one up is covered in MIDI tracks: sequencing external gear.
Machine: A module with a specific job that you can swap for another of the same kind: SYN machines are the synthesis engines, FLTR machines the filters. Each machine brings its own parameters, picked to suit it (Machines overview, Filter machines).

What each PARAMETER key opens

Page	Audio track	MIDI track
`TRIG PARAMETERS`	Trig settings such as `NOTE` and `VEL`	Trig settings such as `NOTE` and `VEL`
`SYN`	The synthesis engine’s parameters	Settings such as `CHANNEL`, `PROGRAM` and `AFTERTOUCH`
`FLTR`	The selected filter/EQ machine and the base-width filter	CC value and CC select settings for CC 1–8
`AMP`	The amp envelope	CC value and CC select settings for CC 9–16
`FX`	Bit reduction, overdrive, sample rate reduction and the send effect levels	Nothing — the page is empty
`MOD`	LFO parameters	LFO parameters

Edit a track

Press TRK + TRIG 1–16 to select the track.
Press a PARAMETER key to open that page group.
Step through the group’s pages with UP/DOWN, or press the same PARAMETER key again.
Turn DATA ENTRY knobs A–H to change the parameters. Press a knob down while you turn it to move in bigger steps.
Hold the PARAMETER key to see every value on the page at once.

Key combinations

TRK + TRIG 1–16: Selects the track to edit.
PARAMETER: Opens that parameter page group for the active track.
Press PARAMETER repeatedly: Cycles through the pages in that group.
UP/DOWN: Cycles through the pages of the open parameter group.PARAMETER pages
Hold PARAMETER: Shows the values of every parameter on the page.
FUNC + SYN: Opens the MACHINE menu, where you choose the track’s machines.

Every page and parameter is explained from Editing track parameters onwards, and each machine in Machines overview.

3.4BasicsManual §9 p.29, §9.1 p.29, §9.1.1 p.29

The +Drive library and the pool

Presets come from two places. The +Drive library is the big shared collection that every project can reach, and it’s where kits are kept too. The pool is a small set of presets stored inside one project, in its Project RAM. You can load a preset to a track from either, but only pool presets can be preset-locked onto individual steps.

Library versus pool

	+Drive library	Pool
Belongs to	Every project	One project, in its Project RAM
Presets	Up to 2048, in 8 banks (A–H) of 256	Up to 128
Kits	Stored here	Adding a kit to the pool adds its 16 presets
Load a preset to a track	Yes	Yes
Preset locks	No	Yes — the main reason to use it
MIDI presets	Yes	No

Add presets to the pool

Press PRESET/KIT to open the PRESET/KIT menu.
Highlight MANAGE in the PRESET part of the menu and press YES to open the PRESET MANAGER.
Highlight each preset you want in the pool and press YES to select it.
Press LEFT to open the PRESET SORTING menu.
Highlight ADD TO PRESET POOL and press YES.

For how projects, patterns and kits fit together, see Projects, patterns, kits and presets.