Elektron Syntakt

[ModusOp]

Out of curiosity, is anyone using any kind of hardware for arrangements?
or is everyone arranging in a DAW?

Wondering if you could use something like the Blokas Midihub to transform Syntakt Midi track notes into program change messages, then send those back into the Syntakt. I feel like you’d be able to create an arrangement, but you couldn’t have a pattern repeat, or else you’d get stuck in a loop of sending the same note (program change) over and over? But combining this idea with Trig Conditions would be fun to come up with more spontaneous arrangements that aren’t the same every time. Think I’ll have to experiment with this!

[drxcm]

Does anyone else feels the syntakt sound really dull from the demos ? I'm not sure why but i'm not impressed at all and i know one or two other ppl who arent either.

The dataline video sounds liveless to me even tho it's somewhat nice

Yup - I hear what you hear too. I cancelled my preorder after watching a bunch of videos and coming to the same conclusion.

Seems like a fun box otherwise but I know this will bug me!

[dubonaire]

I’ve mentioned this before with my experience with the Digitone. These boxes have bad sound.

You’re nuts. The Digitone sounds amazing. I’ll admit Syntakt doesn’t sound great but if you don’t think Digitone doesn’t sound great I think it’s more of a personal issue.

Possibly, but it’s interesting that I’m not alone in thinking that.

I thought the digital parts and the DAC circuits of the Syntakt and Digitone would be identical.

[pix]

I liked the creative possibilities of the digitone but it always sounded mushy to me and I sold it because of that. From the youtube demos the syntakt seems slightly better but I haven't heard any convincing drum sounds from it yet. I think it might work well as a synth/glitch box though. And as a midi sequencer and hub for other gear.

[Sinamsis]

I recently snagged one, and I hesitate to comment on sound quality because it seems I'm always happy with sound quality of things that others hate. Haha. But, you know, it sounds fine to me. I really like it as an all in one sketch box. Definitely cool for glitchy synth sounds. As a sequencer it's great. So yeah, I can't complain. But I do agree that a lot of the Elektron boxes have their own specific character, and it is often dark and can get muddy. I feel that way about the Analog Rytm. Oh, and I do find a lot of the analog drum sounds are more to my liking in this box. It has me thinking of swapping my Rytm out for a Digitakt.

[pix]

they'd look super nice in one of those mixingtable dual stands

[drowld]

Tbh it’s probably a super fun and great box and with processing afterwards it can sound stellar. Imm just bummed that they can’t manage to make it sound good standalone. Maybe they want to sell some heats ? Haha

[dubonaire]

Tbh it’s probably a super fun and great box and with processing afterwards it can sound stellar. Imm just bummed that they can’t manage to make it sound good standalone. Maybe they want to sell some heats ? Haha

Well I’m not sure you can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

[Nelson Baboon]

in my curmudgeonhood i find myself amused by people stating factually that instruments don't sound good. I mean, we're not talking technical specs - we're talking subjective assessment of the sound. Many people like the sound, so by definition, it sounds good to them.

I personally never got on with the sound of the machinedrum and the monomachine, but then people that I respect tell me that they sound great. So, really all I can say is that i have certain tastes in sound which doesn't match theirs.

I suppose analogously, there is the judgement of whether a thread is good or not. I find it hard to differentiate this thread from a gearslutz thread. What exactly is the difference between this one here, and the type of gearslutz thread that people make fun of on this forum? (again, i imagine that this is subjective).

I guess I'll just have to look at the manual, or ask a friend who has one of these, to assess whether i might be interested in one.

[enno]

Uploaded a sofa dub, trying to show some of the noisier / more inharmonic sounds

[Voltcontrol]

Uploaded a sofa dub, trying to show some of the noisier / more inharmonic sounds

Sounds promising to me, like the sofa dub.

[phasebash]

I personally never got on with the sound of the machinedrum and the monomachine, …

I suppose analogously, there is the judgement of whether a thread is good or not. I find it hard to differentiate this thread from a gearslutz thread.

I could never afford a Machinedrum or Jomox XBase when they came out, I was graduating high school or going to college at the time. All my drum tracks in the 90s-00s were built from sampled manufacturer audio demos of the XBase and Machinedrum. Then, it went out of production.

I recently started up again making tunes, the breadth of the Machinedrum was what I wanted, the Analog Rytm wasn’t it, sold that.

The Syntakt checks all the boxes for me. Really can’t wait to see how its tones play through the process, so far it seems promising. I appreciate how Elektron recycled their IP into this new collection of features.

[ATW]

The Digitakt sounds excellent to my ears. Will those with both the Digitakt and the Syntakt report back on how they compare?

[anselmi]

The Syntakt checks all the boxes for me.

Screenshot 2022-05-08 at 20-42-53 florian pilz bad gear - Google Search.png

[electricfence]

The Syntakt checks all the boxes for me.

Screenshot 2022-05-08 at 20-42-53 florian pilz bad gear - Google Search.png

I saw just the top of his head as I was scrolling and I quietly hoped it would be a new Bad Gear video.

[dubonaire]

Uploaded a sofa dub, trying to show some of the noisier / more inharmonic sounds

I like the sound of the kick in that, and some of the short percussions sounds.

[dubonaire]

in my curmudgeonhood i find myself amused by people stating factually that instruments don't sound good. I mean, we're not talking technical specs - we're talking subjective assessment of the sound. Many people like the sound, so by definition, it sounds good to them.

I personally never got on with the sound of the machinedrum and the monomachine, but then people that I respect tell me that they sound great. So, really all I can say is that i have certain tastes in sound which doesn't match theirs.

I suppose analogously, there is the judgement of whether a thread is good or not. I find it hard to differentiate this thread from a gearslutz thread. What exactly is the difference between this one here, and the type of gearslutz thread that people make fun of on this forum? (again, i imagine that this is subjective).

I guess I'll just have to look at the manual, or ask a friend who has one of these, to assess whether i might be interested in one.

Like you, I tried to like the Octatrack, and I also tried to like the Digitone. I had an experience with the Digitone, that I was using it with DJ headphones while traveling and thought it sounded great. When I tried to integrate it into my studio it just sounded dull and flat, as others have described. It could just be personal taste. but it seems I share that taste with others.

Some sounds coming out of the Syntakt seem OK, as I've posted above, but I also hear the same dullness and flatness in some other sounds. I would like to like it, it has a lot of potential. I don't like the crammed multi-layered interface in this Elektron format and maybe it's me, but if I walked away from a composition for a few days I had no idea what was going on with the P-locks etc when I got back to it. I didn't really like the feel of the buttons on the Digitone either.

I think it's OK to post views like this.

[Nelson Baboon]

i think that you are distorting my points. I would not claim that the octatrack or the digitone sound dull and flat. etc. I was mainly pointing out the subjectiveness of some of the sonic judgements posted here.

it's true - i didn't get on with the md or the monomachine, but i've liked the sonic quality of instruments since then. i thought the digitone sounded pretty damn good, actually, but i just wasn't into that kind of working at that time. i find myself very interested in the syntakt at this point. I certainly am not going to judge a synth by the demos. I've learned over the years that this isn't very fruitful, though usually the danger is in inferring that I will like the sound more than I actually do.

of course it's ok to post negative views, but the similarity to gearslutz to me is post after post after post of negative opinions based on nothing other than demos. I mean, it's ok for you to post that, but personally i don't give a fuck that you hear "dullness and flatness" from other people's music posted on youtube.

[Sinamsis]

I don't like the crammed multi-layered interface in this Elektron format and maybe it's me, but if I walked away from a composition for a few days I had no idea what was going on with the P-locks etc when I got back to it.

One thing I truly like about the Elektron boxes is that I feel like knowing one allows me to use the others with reasonable ease. The Octatrack might be the exception. But the sequencer seems to be mostly uniform across devices at this point, as is copying and pasting, etc. I've grown to favor Elektron devices because of this ecosystem. I accept some other short comings because over all it's a little more efficient for me, and with limited time efficiency is a big priority.

EDIT: I think I misunderstood what you were saying. Ha, this is definitely true, but I feel like it's true for most complex compositions. At least with a p lock you press and hold the step and it shows you what the locked values are. I guess past that, it doesn't really matter to me, I can always go back and redo them if I don't like what I'm hearing.

[dubonaire]

I don't like the crammed multi-layered interface in this Elektron format and maybe it's me, but if I walked away from a composition for a few days I had no idea what was going on with the P-locks etc when I got back to it.

One thing I truly like about the Elektron boxes is that I feel like knowing one allows me to use the others with reasonable ease. The Octatrack might be the exception. But the sequencer seems to be mostly uniform across devices at this point, as is copying and pasting, etc. I've grown to favor Elektron devices because of this ecosystem. I accept some other short comings because over all it's a little more efficient for me, and with limited time efficiency is a big priority.

EDIT: I think I misunderstood what you were saying. Ha, this is definitely true, but I feel like it's true for most complex compositions. At least with a p lock you press and hold the step and it shows you what the locked values are. I guess past that, it doesn't really matter to me, I can always go back and redo them if I don't like what I'm hearing.

Across four tracks though... it was very opaque to me.

[Nelson Baboon]

what complex sequencer, other than a computer grid view, allows you to see the sequence and all the modulations? What really do parameter locks have to do with it? Because of their very nature, how would you design it so that it would be easy to see how they work?

I do wish that (not only for the elektron sequencers) there would be computer editors for this stuff, but hell, i just hardly think that the elektrons are unique in this respect.

[Sinamsis]

I don't like the crammed multi-layered interface in this Elektron format and maybe it's me, but if I walked away from a composition for a few days I had no idea what was going on with the P-locks etc when I got back to it.

One thing I truly like about the Elektron boxes is that I feel like knowing one allows me to use the others with reasonable ease. The Octatrack might be the exception. But the sequencer seems to be mostly uniform across devices at this point, as is copying and pasting, etc. I've grown to favor Elektron devices because of this ecosystem. I accept some other short comings because over all it's a little more efficient for me, and with limited time efficiency is a big priority.

EDIT: I think I misunderstood what you were saying. Ha, this is definitely true, but I feel like it's true for most complex compositions. At least with a p lock you press and hold the step and it shows you what the locked values are. I guess past that, it doesn't really matter to me, I can always go back and redo them if I don't like what I'm hearing.

Across four tracks though... it was very opaque to me.

I don't disagree. But when I'm working in the DAW, and I start automating, there are a whole lot more tracks with automation to confuse me. i think that's the nature of complex arrangements. I also don't lose sleep wiping a step or even a track and starting from scratch if things are getting hairy.

[Sinamsis]

what complex sequencer, other than a computer grid view, allows you to see the sequence and all the modulations? What really do parameter locks have to do with it? Because of their very nature, how would you design it so that it would be easy to see how they work?

I do wish that (not only for the elektron sequencers) there would be computer editors for this stuff, but hell, i just hardly think that the elektrons are unique in this respect.

Even a computer grid view won't show you all the automations at once. It's easy to miss things, at least in Ableton, in my experience. At least with p locks you can press and hold the step and visualize all locked parameters for a given page.

[Nelson Baboon]

well, yeah. i'm just saying that there could possibly be tools on a big screen that would help visualize what was going on. but then again, one of the things i love about good sequencers is that i don't know precisely what is going to happen. it is an interesting question though - if they were to design a tool that would help you discern as much as possible how a complex set of p locks was set up, what would it look like?

[dubonaire]

what complex sequencer, other than a computer grid view, allows you to see the sequence and all the modulations? What really do parameter locks have to do with it? Because of their very nature, how would you design it so that it would be easy to see how they work?

I do wish that (not only for the elektron sequencers) there would be computer editors for this stuff, but hell, i just hardly think that the elektrons are unique in this respect.

Probably not. But I know like me you didn't like the Octatrack, and I didn't like the Digitone either. It wasn't special enough for me to get over the learning curve I guess and I prefer bigger machines. I hope you have better luck with the Octatrack this time around.