Digitakt vs Digitakt II: the hardware, side by side — and what still fits
Every other comparison covers the features. This one covers the hardware. We cut skins for the Digitakt II, so we had to measure the two machines carefully — and the short version is that the enclosure is identical to the millimetre while the top panel is not. That single split decides which of your accessories move over and which do not.
The short answer
Same shell, different face. The Digitakt II uses the same 215 × 176 × 63 mm steel enclosure as the original, so cases, covers and stands carry straight over. The top panel was rearranged, so anything cut to the panel — a vinyl skin or an overlay — does not.
If it wraps the outside of the box, it fits both. If it needs the panel cutouts to line up, it was made for one machine or the other.
Almost every “Digitakt vs Digitakt II” article online compares the sampling engine, the track count and the effects. Those are covered well elsewhere and we are not going to repeat them. The question that is genuinely under-answered is the physical one — is it the same size, and will my stuff still fit? — and it splits cleanly in two along the line above. The rest of this page works through both halves with the actual measurements and the two official manuals open in front of us.
The numbers that decide fit
Elektron’s own specifications list the two enclosures at the same width, depth and height. The only physical difference on paper is about 30 grams of weight.
| Enclosure | Digitakt (2017) | Digitakt II (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions (incl. knobs & feet) | 215 × 176 × 63 mm | 215 × 176 × 63 mm |
| Weight | ≈ 1.45 kg (3.2 lb) | ≈ 1.48 kg (3.25 lb) |
| Casing | Sturdy steel | Sturdy steel |
| VESA mount | 100 × 100 mm, M4 | 100 × 100 mm, M4 |
Sources: the Digitakt II specifications on elektron.se, and the physical-specification pages of both official Elektron user manuals. The identical dimensions are confirmed independently by Sound On Sound, which measured the II at the same 215 × 176 × 63 mm.
That is the load-bearing fact of this whole page, so it is worth being precise about what it does and does not prove. The dimensions match exactly and the casing material is the same. What no source states is that the shell is the literally identical manufactured part — reviewers describe the same footprint and enclosure with a reworked top, not the same tooling. For deciding whether a case or cover fits, the external dimensions are what matter, and those are equal.
What carries over: cases, covers, stands
Because the outside is the same size, anything that grips the outside of the box fits both machines. This is the good news, and it is worth stating plainly: for most owners, upgrading means buying nothing extra to protect or mount it.
Hard lids, gig bags, dust covers, Decksaver-style covers and desk stands are all built to the outer dimensions, and those did not change. This is not just an inference from the spec sheet — accessory makers and owners confirm it directly:
- Protective lids and cases. Elektron’s own PL-2S lid and third-party cases such as the Analog Cases PULSE are sold as fitting the Digitakt, Digitakt II, Digitone and Syntakt together, because that family shares the enclosure size.
- Covers. A maker on Elektronauts who prints his own Digitakt II cover notes it also fits the Syntakt and Digitone because they “share the same enclosure size”. Dust-cover sellers list a single Digitakt cover as fitting the original “including version 2”.
- Stands. Stands sold for the Digitone/Digitakt/Syntakt line are marketed as fitting the whole family; the shared footprint is exactly why one stand holds all of them.
We could not find an owner explicitly confirming that Elektron’s soft carry-bag fits the II — nobody reports otherwise, and the dimensions say it should, but if you want certainty on a soft bag specifically, that is the one fit we would measure before buying rather than assume.
What does not: skins and overlays
A skin, wrap, decal or overlay is cut to the panel — every button hole, encoder cutout and screen window is placed for one specific layout. The II’s layout moved, so a skin made for the original will not line up on it, and vice versa.
This is the part most pages get wrong. They read “same dimensions” and conclude everything transfers — which is true for the shell and false for the face. The parameter-key row grew by one key and the sequencer gained a second row of page LEDs (the exact changes are in the panel table below), so the cutout map is different even though the outline is the same. A die-cut film is unforgiving about that: a two-millimetre shift turns a clean install into a hole over a legend and a button poking through the wrong window.
The market reflects this. Cremacaffe Design, the best-known maker of Elektron skins, still lists a skin only for the original Digitakt — as of writing we found no Digitakt II version from them, and owners have been asking. Skins do exist for the II, cut to its panel; ours is one of them. The point is not which brand you choose, it is that the two are not interchangeable, so “I already have a Digitakt skin” is not a reason to expect it on the II.
Your old case fits the new machine. Your old skin does not. Same box, different face — check that any skin or overlay names the II specifically, not just “Digitakt.”
The panel, control by control
Reviews disagreed on how much the top panel changed — some counted one new button, some counted two. The two official manuals settle it: the Digitakt II adds two front-panel keys on balance, and rearranges several others.
The confusion is understandable. One well-known review credits only the new keyboard key; another counts an effects key as well. Reading the labelled panel diagrams in both manuals side by side, the second account is the accurate one — and there are a couple of quieter changes on top of it.
| Control area | Digitakt (2017) | Digitakt II (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Parameter keys | 5 — TRIG, SRC, FLTR, AMP, LFO | 6 — TRIG, SRC, FLTR, AMP, FX, MOD |
| Dedicated mode keys | SONG MODE (keyboard via FUNC) | PRESET/KIT, SONG, KEYBOARD |
| Bank select | Dedicated BANK key | Folded into PTN (secondary) |
| Data-entry encoders | 8 (A–H) | 8 (A–H) |
| Trig keys | 16 | 16 |
| Sequencer page LEDs | 4 | 8 |
| Volume knob | MASTER VOLUME | MAIN VOLUME |
Source: the front-panel layout sections of the official Elektron user manuals for the Digitakt and the Digitakt II. The four-to-eight page-LED change is also noted by Sound On Sound.
Netting it out: the II loses the dedicated BANK key and gains three — SONG, FX and KEYBOARD — for a net of two extra keys, and renames a few (MASTER becomes MAIN VOLUME, the LFO key becomes MOD). The encoder count and the sixteen trig keys are unchanged. None of this is a redesign — a Digitakt player picking up the II will feel at home immediately — but for a die-cut skin, “a few keys moved” is the whole story. It is precisely because the panels look so alike at a glance that people assume a skin transfers.
Screen, pads and the back
A widely repeated claim is that the II got a bigger, colour screen. Elektron’s own specs do not support that: both machines list the same 128 × 64 pixel OLED.
What changed on the display is the colour of the OLED, not its size or resolution — Sound On Sound describes the II’s as white, like the Syntakt, where the original’s has a different tint. It reads as brighter; it is not a higher-resolution or colour panel. We call that out because it is the kind of spec that gets copied from article to article without anyone checking the manual — and if you are choosing a screen protector or a skin’s screen window, the window size is the same on both.
Two real hardware improvements are worth naming because owners rate them highly. The trig keys on the II are velocity- and pressure-sensitive pads, the biggest tactile change over the original. And on the back, the audio inputs went from unbalanced to impedance-balanced; the set of rear connectors and their order is otherwise the same, so nothing about your cabling or a rear-facing case changes.
Is it worth upgrading?
This is not our lane — we make skins, not sampling decisions — but the owner consensus is refreshingly un-dramatic: upgrade if you need stereo sampling and more tracks; keep the original if you don’t.
The community framing we saw again and again is a question, not a verdict: do you actually need everything the II adds? Owners who moved up for stereo sampling, the doubled track count and the longer patterns are happy; owners who mostly wanted a tight mono drum sampler point out — correctly — that the original is still a very capable machine. It reads as a genuinely split, low-regret crowd rather than a pile of buyer’s remorse. If you already own the original and it does what you need, “it’s a MkII, not a revolution” is a fair summary.
If you are keeping your original
Nothing here is a nudge to buy the new one. If you are staying on the original Digitakt, your accessories are fine and there is nothing you need from us.
The compatibility split cuts both ways. Cases, covers and stands you bought for the original keep working for years; the machine itself is, by common agreement, still worth using in 2026. The only thing that would ever not transfer is a panel-cut skin or overlay — and that is only a problem if you move to the II. If you are not moving, you are done.
And if you did upgrade: the one accessory that genuinely does not follow you across is the skin, because it is the one thing cut to the face rather than the box. That is the gap we exist to fill — a skin cut to the Digitakt II’s actual panel, not the original’s.