Augmented chord

Elektron Gear Syntakt
#1

Hi.

Does everyone knows if the syntakt chord mode can play augmented and diminished chords?
I am not that great with chords and was just wondering if its called differently?

Btw, I soooo miss polyphony on the Syntakt. Chords play such an important part in music.
Especially at the idea finding process.
This is reason number 1 that I am always ending up pushing the syntakt aside too early and ending up working in my DAW. Something I am actually trying to avoid.

I am new to elektron products and that might be probably a pretty stupid question, but how high are the chances there will be an polyphony update? Below 0? :))

my workflow so far is playing my chords on a simple phone app (even my phone can do polyphony :grin: ) and trying to transfer them manually into the syntakt chord track. But its far from fun :confused:

Sorry if I let my frustration out a bit too much :sweat_smile:

Maybe someone has better workarounds or workflows in order to deal with chords on the syntakt?

#2

There may be chord oriented machines but I am doubting there will be polyphony on all machines. Who knows? Maybe try a DN if you like Elektron and want polyphony?

Anyway I don’t have a ST but on the DT I have copy and pasted the same sound across tracks, tuned as desired, and you can change notes per step to create chords. Bit of a pain for everyday use but I’ve used it in a track or two. There is opportunity to do things traditional poly playing can’t do if you’re willing to program it.

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#3

I would work out the chord progression, and I think you could sequence parameter locks to change chord quality, and tuning.

Not the best for jamming, but I’m sure it’s a good workaround. You could use the chord progression as the foundation of what you’re working on.

Another thing would be have a project with a dedicated row of the different chords in the scale position, you could play it out, and write what needs sequenced. Or just bounce it via overbridge, and do the rest of the parts on the other project.

Just spitballing ideas to try to help.

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#4

I’m guessing that “dim7” is a diminished seventh chord, and the chords with “#5” in their name are augmented (sharp fifth)? I don’t have Syntakt, but I had Model:Cycles for a while, and the chords are the same.

I don’t know that there is a workflow solution to your frustration. You either get used to it, work with less of a focus on chords and more on melodic lines and counterpoint, or you get a supplementary box and program chords there. I’m not expecting a polyphony update.

#5

Phones have way more powerful cpu’s than the elektrons :wink:

I use a Blokas MIDIhub to do “round robin chords”. I can play the keys on a specific MIDI channel and the midihub splits the notes on track 5 to 8 on my Syntakt. I use these tracks as a “four voice poly synth”.

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#7

It’s not a CPU restriction. It’s a design decision.

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#8

There are augmented chords : “M#5”, “m7#5”, “M7#5”
There are diminished chords : “dim7”, “mb5”, “Mb5”, “m7b5”, “M7b5”,
And somehow related, may I suggest a utility I made to ease the use of chords inside a scale A chord Max for Live utility

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#9

The Syntakt Chord Machine can be surprisingly capable. It may be worth playing around with it more. It has a LOT of different chord voicings (including augmented chords, sus4s, diminished chords and a bunch of more extended chords as well) plus the inversion control changes the character of each chord significantly. Also don’t forget each chord can be pitched up and down using the Tune control.

The secret to making the Chord Machine come alive IME is p-locks. You can change the chord type, voicing/inversion, root note (via Tune) for each individual trig (plus other controls such as waveform type). I’ve found it’s pretty easy to get a chord sequence going across four bars (or 8 or even 16 bars at half or quarter scale in the pattern length settings page) that can do the same role as (for example) a pad played on a polysynth. If the Syntakt had a modulation effect alongside delay and reverb I’d have a lot less reason to turn to my Hydrasynth for classic polysynth duties.

Also don’t forget that each of the 8 digital tracks can use any one of the digital machines. So you’re not limited to just one Chord Machine per pattern, you can have up to 8 running simultaneously which would be a serious amount of polyphony (lots of chord voicing potential with 32 voices to play with!).

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#10

Thanks everyone. I feel a bit more confident now. Those are some nice ideas to get around it.
And augmented and diminished chords are there as well :partying_face:

Still missing a true polyphonic track though, but I guess that will never happen. It seems like its more a business strategy then a design choice. You want samples? Here we have the Digitakt for you. Oh you want polyphony? Please get the Digitone. You want analog and samples? get the Analog Rhytm… There is always an almost essential feature missing which you can find in one of their other products :sweat_smile:

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#11

Yep. That’s pretty much the idea. The three boxes (DT, DN, ST) are designed to complement each other so you end up buying all three :slight_smile: That can be pricey… but worth it because all three together is a monster combination.