Chord Machine sounds dull

[natehorn]

lovely work!

[luuk]

An evening of spare time, so did another one. I really like the one-machine limit

lil bit of eq cause a bit to much low end, slightly limited. What machine next?

edit: a reminder, if you don’t want parameters to change when using ctrl-all, just lock them to the trigs (i find it very useful to limit the chaos of ctrl-all)

[sezare56]

Chords machines only. Hard to mix ! I gave up, maybe I’ll improve this track later with other machines…

Syntakt - Only SY CHORDS (8 tracks + Fx Track)

[triandgle]

@triandgle

It’s a wavetable created using additive synthesis. Read @Ess’s post, it’s quite informative if you want to know more about the Chord machine.

I love it, by the way. In my view it’s a unique way of adding some harmony to my songs.

EDIT:
Couldn’t find the actual post of @Ess I was referring to, but here’s one instance where he talks about it. I might find the more comprehensive post later.
Model:Cycles - #1565 by Ess

More background info from @Ess on the inner workings of the Chord machine (albeit on M:C, but I don’t think that matters much).

Model:Cycles Q & A with Ess

The CPU is a Coldfire MCF5441 with up to 385 dhrystone 2.1 MIPS @ 250 MHz … Same one as in our other current lineup of products sans the Octatrack. (But before anyone asks - no that doesn’t mean we can run anything on everything, it’s a general purpose CPU and it does very different things across all machines.) All DSP is done in assembler. Our process for this project was that first I made prototypes in Max which I made Max4live Devices out of and sent out to all my colleagues. We then collec…

[clickclack777]

It´s more of a house piano / organ / trance stab wavetable setup. At least on Cycles. Which I don´t mind.

[clickclack777]

You can always layer it with a noise channel now that you have more channels than cycles.

Model:Cycles Tips & Tricks Thread

I managed to create a pure noise source with the tone engine that can be useful to layer drums. Preset attached here Pitch: 0 (+24 for brighter noise and -24 for darker noise) Decay: 32 (adjust to taste. Short decay below 8 for drum click) Color: 15 (grittier at around 1 and below) Shape: 127 Sweep: 127 Contour: 0 (higher settings makes it more lo-fi/grittier) Volume: 80 (higher for snappier sound) Punch: off Gate: off LFO Wave: Random (last one) Mul: x2k Dst: Pitch De…

[sezare56]

@clickclack777

noice channel now that you have more channels than cycles.

More channels, and machines.
Thanks for the tip, but there a 4 noise generators available with analogs, and the SY BITS which seems perfect for that purpose, adding noise and 2 tunable oscs to a Chord.

[clickclack777]

Well, then there is nothing to complain about I remember the days when we were twisting and morphing machinedrum cymbals machines into textured chords. Now there is even more defined machines for each purpose.

And in case people feel limited by the current engines, buy a Digitone. Syntakt is after all a drum machine with limited synth capabilities.

[sezare56]

@clickclack777

Syntakt is after all a drum machine with limited synth capabilities.

Much better synth capacities than MD for sure. With MD UW at least you can use single cycle waveform you can tune (3 values = 1 semitone iirc).

Concerning Syntakt and I guess MC, the behavior of envelope because of monophony is the most annoying imho, if you want to use slow attack and release, for pads.

I sold my Digitone for the Syntakt, I’m not sure to buy it again…

[clickclack777]

You went and did what?! I bought another Digitone for higher polyphony. Some unison sounds max out the eight voices.

[Prints]

@clickclack777

And in case people feel limited by the current engines, buy a Digitone. Syntakt is after all a drum machine with limited synth capabilities.

I just recently got an OP-1 Field and it also has limited synth capabilities… more limited than the Syntakt imo, but it can create all types of lush poly sounds. I think Elektron needs to try harder.

They could easily create another chord machine with brighter waves, detune, and an ensemble/chorus effect. I’m actually expecting this because it so obvious. We’ll see what happens.

[clickclack777]

Yeah, but then again, we are comparing a machine for double the price that wants to do it all against a drum machine that bangs the OP-1 out sonically. Even Cycles achieves that IMO for 200 euros used.

[sezare56]

Doesn’t seem too hard to add a saw, square any brighter waveform ! If you listen/see carefully last waveforms, they are identical from 124 to 127. For me it’s enough to improve it, but maybe some people would complain…

[clickclack777]

You won´t be able to sweep it with and LFO since the transitions would be hard which wouldn´t match the rest of the “wavetable”. Would be better to add them close to the softer versions of those shapes instead (by holding FUNC + waveform you can scroll in-between them today)…if needed. I´m not complaining

[clickclack777]

But that feature will probably never be added because…

…with one machine. You need to buy another one.

I honestly got a bit disappointed discovering that the crunch and lo-fi sound of the Cycles machines had been “refined” in the Syntakt. I have some really nice patterns that just sounds Meh on the Syntakt. Bought the ST for the added functionality.

How close is Syntakt to Cycles?

Sitting here with an M:C but without a Syntakt, listening to much posted music, the thing that stands out for me is the Chord machine. Would you say it is also very different, or less different than the others?

[natehorn]

Yea it feels cynical to say but I’m fairly sure this is a business as much as a product design decision.

It’s not that they couldn’t provide more poly functionality, it’s that it would eat into the GAS you have for the Digitone.

Elektron are absolute masters at giving you 90% of what you need whilst leaving that 10% on another box.

[AdamJay]

I’m still praying for the day the Syntakt gets some kind of poly-track link functionality. Because DVCO or SY Bits or SY Toy x3 would be dub heaven through those digital and analog fx/filters…

We should all spend time mentioning this in the the-syntakt-feature-request-thread

[bibenu]

I’m still praying for the day the Model:Cycles gets SY Toy

[AdamJay]

put it in the MC request thread! Add your voice! And the clap machine too!

[bibenu]

Already done (back in April) :). I honestly don’t really expect it to happen, but it would make my day if it did.