I'm aware of the differences, mind you:
- Digitone is an FM synth, which really appeals to me because I love the sound of FM synthesis and the way it's laid out and (smartly) constrained makes it pretty easy to dial up interesting sounds fast, at least this is how it looks on videos
- Digitakt on the other hand is a drum-machine & sampler (up to 33s per sample), that can also be used as a simple subtractive synth due to its ability to play samples chromatically and even coming with a library of single-cycle waveforms.
Both have great sequencers with P-Locks, Conditional Triggers, per-trigger swapping of samples/presets, etc. making them much more powerful & versatile than what's on paper. Both have the same data & project structure with +Drive, SoundPool and individual per-pattern settings, both have the ability to MIDI/CV-control external gear. The main difference is Digitakt is 8 tracks, Digitone is 4; but both have 8 voices of polyphony, so with Digitone being able to play chords and Digitakt not (unless you sample them) they're both pretty much on par in this respect too.
I'm looking at them, because I want to liberate myself from the computer a bit & be able to use free time - of which I have very little - productively. I found two things help me get things done: a) tactile interaction with the gear and b) limitations. I discovered that when forcing myself to write some music in Live 10, but using Push2 only which encouraged me to stick to native devices (due to Push2 integration) and to use only 8 tracks so that I don't have to scroll the session. It was a revelation to me! Now, if I can do it even without Push2 and my Surface Pro, then it gets me all excited
So, which one would you start with and why? When I use a DAW I very rarely use samples (other than percussion / drum loop or occasional spoken sample). If Digitone had 8 tracks / 16 voices I'd likely not look for anything more, but buying 2 of them sounds silly hence the idea of getting Digitakt as a companion that excels in something else and has different sound. And I can always re-sample Digitone to the Digitakt when I run out of FM voices / tracks.
I'm also aware that I'm the best person to answer that question, but then maybe someone has some experiences with either (or both) that I've not taken into account?
