The Elektron Digitakt II is a 16-track drum computer and sampler with no card slot. Every sample that reaches it goes through the free Elektron Transfer app over USB. The device converts files to 16-bit, 48 kHz on arrival and stores them on a 20 GB internal +Drive that persists through factory resets.
That’s a different mental model from most samplers. There’s no microSD to pull, no USB stick to plug in directly, no file system to browse from Finder or Windows Explorer. The Transfer app is the only door in or out of the +Drive, and understanding how it works is the whole prep workflow.
The key specs
The Digitakt II accepts WAV, AIFF, and MP3. Files are converted to 16-bit, 48 kHz during transfer. Stereo files stay stereo. Mono files stay mono.
Each project holds up to 1,024 samples loaded from the +Drive, with 400 MB of sample RAM available. The +Drive itself is 20 GB, which is enough for a substantial library without much ongoing housekeeping.
The five sample playback machines on the Digitakt II are Oneshot, Werp, Stretch, Repitch, and Grid. Which machine a track uses is a project-level setting, not a prep-stage decision. You don’t need to prepare samples differently for different machines.
Setting up the Transfer app
The Transfer app is a free download from Elektron’s website. It runs on macOS and Windows.
Before the app can see the Digitakt II, the device needs to be in Transfer mode, not Audio/MIDI mode. On the device, hold FUNC and tap SETTINGS. The USB mode setting is there. Set it to Transfer. Without this step, the app launches but won’t detect the hardware.
On macOS Sonoma and later, there’s an additional step. The Transfer app needs USB device access, which you grant under System Settings → Privacy & Security → USB Devices. If you’ve installed the app and it doesn’t see the device even with Transfer mode enabled, that permission is the first thing to check.
Once the app detects the device, your +Drive contents appear on the right side of the window and your computer’s file system on the left. Transfer is drag-and-drop from left to right.
Format requirements
The Digitakt II is more forgiving about input formats than most hardware samplers because the Transfer app converts on arrival. Drag a 24-bit, 96 kHz AIFF in and it comes out as 16-bit, 48 kHz on the +Drive. You don’t have to do anything special to get files into a compatible format.
That said, letting the Transfer app do all the work has a tradeoff. The app’s conversion is competent, but for critical material (kicks, snares, samples where transient snap matters) converting yourself before transfer gives you control over the resampling. You know the output is exactly what you intended.
One thing the app doesn’t handle automatically: channel decisions. If you have a stereo file where the two channels carry very different content (a field recording, a live stereo recording with hard panning), the Digitakt II gets both channels intact. That usually works fine since the device has stereo audio tracks. But if you need to sum to mono or make a pan decision before the sample hits a track, do that before transfer.
MP3 transfers work, but arrive at whatever quality the encoding had. For anything transient-critical, WAV or AIFF will get you cleaner results.
Folder layout on the +Drive
The +Drive preserves your folder structure exactly. If you drag a folder called kicks/ containing six files, you get a kicks/ folder on the +Drive with six files inside. The Digitakt II’s sample browser walks the tree, so nested organization works the same way you’d organize audio on a computer.
The Transfer app creates an auto-named destination folder for each session: /transfers-YYMMDD. Files you drag in land there unless you navigate to a different location in the right-side panel and drop them directly into a specific folder.
For one-off transfers, the auto-folder is fine. For maintaining a library with consistent organization, navigate to your target folder before dragging. That distinction matters once you start looking for samples on the device and find everything in /transfers-241003/ instead of your labeled categories.
A practical folder scheme for the +Drive might look like this:
kicks/
hard-kicks/
808s/
snares/
rimshots/
claps/
hats/
open/
closed/
loops/
sfx/The Digitakt II’s browser navigates this exactly as you’d browse files on a computer.
Loading samples into a project
Samples on the +Drive don’t automatically appear in a project. You assign them. Each project has 1,024 sample slots, and those slots are how tracks reference sounds.
To assign a sample, navigate on the device to the track you want, go to the SRC page, and browse to the file. The sample loads into RAM and the track references it by slot number.
The 400 MB RAM ceiling is considerably more room than the original Digitakt’s 64 MB, but it’s still a real budget. At 16-bit, 48 kHz stereo, you’re using roughly 188 KB per second of audio. A four-second stereo sample takes about 750 KB. With 400 MB available, you can load around 530 seconds of stereo audio per project before you hit the ceiling. Longer samples and multi-samples compress that budget quickly.
The 20 GB +Drive is separate from project RAM. Files on the +Drive don’t consume project RAM until you assign them to a slot. You can build a large +Drive library and only load the samples a given project actually uses.
Sample chains
The Digitakt II supports sample chains: a single audio file containing multiple samples concatenated end-to-end, sliceable into individual hits on the device. This is the same concept used by the Octatrack with Flex machines, though the implementation differs.
A chain lets you pack an entire drum kit into one +Drive file and one sample slot. The Digitakt II slices the chain into up to 64 segments. The Grid machine (one of the five SRC machine types) is specifically built for chain playback: each slice gets a trig, and you sequence the chain like a step-sequencer grid.
To make a chain, concatenate your individual hits into a single WAV file. Equal-length slices (all the same number of samples) are easier to work with because the Digitakt II can auto-slice a chain at even intervals. For unequal slices, you mark them manually on the device after loading.
A basic chain prep workflow:
- Collect the samples for one kit (kick, snare, open hat, closed hat, etc.)
- Convert all files to 16-bit, 48 kHz (the Transfer app will do this, or do it yourself first)
- Match channels: all mono or all stereo, whichever you prefer
- Pad each hit with silence to reach a common grid length
- Concatenate into one WAV file in your DAW, each sample at a regular position
- Export the combined file and transfer it via the Transfer app
The Digitakt II detects equal-length slices automatically. For chains with different-length slices, use the Grid machine’s manual slice mode.
Digitakt II vs Digitakt I
The original Digitakt is worth understanding because the names cause confusion and the sample requirements differ in ways that matter.
The original Digitakt has eight audio tracks, all mono. Stereo files transferred to it are summed to mono. The +Drive is 1 GB (vs 20 GB on the II). Project RAM is 64 MB (vs 400 MB). There’s no Stretch or Grid machine.
The key prep difference is channel handling. Files prepared for the original Digitakt (already mono) work fine on the Digitakt II, which plays mono files on any track. But files prepared specifically for the Digitakt II (stereo, possibly with important left/right differences) can cause issues if you transfer them to the original, where the channel summing may introduce phase problems depending on the source.
SampleStack keeps separate profiles for the Digitakt and the Digitakt II for this reason. The specs differ enough that treating them as one device creates problems in both directions.
Common Transfer app problems
The app doesn’t see my Digitakt II. USB mode first: hold FUNC, tap SETTINGS, confirm it’s set to Transfer, not Audio/MIDI. On macOS Sonoma and later, also confirm the Transfer app has USB device permissions in System Settings → Privacy & Security → USB Devices. If both are correct and it still doesn’t connect, try a different cable (data-capable USB-C, not charge-only) and a different port.
Files transferred but they don’t appear on the device. They’re on the +Drive but the browser isn’t showing them. Navigate to the folder from the device’s sample browser directly. The on-device browser refreshes on navigation, not automatically after a transfer.
The audio sounds wrong after transfer. Usually a sample rate issue in the source file. Check what sample rate the Transfer app shows in the conversion preview before you finalize the transfer. For critical material, convert to 48 kHz yourself before transferring so you control the output.
Transfer is slow. The Transfer app moves files at USB 2.0 speeds. Large batches take time. Transfer overnight or in smaller sets.
The +Drive is filling up unexpectedly. The auto-created /transfers-YYMMDD folders accumulate if you don’t clean them up. Browse the +Drive from the Transfer app, find old transfer folders, and delete what you don’t need. Deleting from the Transfer app removes files from the +Drive permanently.
Samples disappear after a factory reset. The +Drive persists through a factory reset. If samples are gone after a reset, check whether you performed a complete data wipe rather than a standard factory reset. The standard reset leaves the +Drive contents intact.
A note on batch prep
Most of the setup above is a one-time investment. The Transfer app configuration, the +Drive folder structure, the device’s USB mode settings: you do them once and they stick.
The part that takes ongoing effort is batch-converting a mixed library, especially if samples arrive from multiple sources at different sample rates, bit depths, and channel configurations. For that, SampleStack reads WAV, AIFF, FLAC, and MP3, converts everything to 16-bit 48 kHz with your channel preference set ahead of time, and organizes the output into the folder layout you want before anything reaches the Transfer app.
For a format comparison across devices, the compare formats guide has the Digitakt II alongside every other supported instrument.