Digital Cymbal Machine sounds dull

Elektron Gear Syntakt
#1

Cy Alloy is actually kinda cool. In the idea.
If it wouldn’t sound so dull and have a character that is really off-putting and ruins every piece of music it’s in.

Edit - Skip to good hihats from anything other than cy alloy: Digital Cymbal Machine sounds dull - #6 by Jeanne

I want my cymbals and hihats to be brillant, just like real cymbals, hihats and rides are. Hence I use it for anything but, and instead the analog machines, Sy Tone or Sy Bits.

Gregory Coleman’s “Amen” Break and Atsushi Hoshiai’s TR909 cymbals* are great examples for (still not hifi) but brillant sounding hihats, rides etc. that make everyone happy including me.

It would be wonderful if Syntakt would get a new cymbal machine, inspired by such sounds - they have the technology already (Machinedrum)!

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(Since some of the ideas expressed in the “Chord Machine sounds dull” thread have been introduced in amazing FW updates, perhaps this deserves its own thread, so i made this.)

*https://articles.roland.com/atsushi-hoshiai-tr-909 - how have I always wondered who’s hand hit who’s cymbal in millions of tracks!

21 Likes
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Chord Machine sounds dull
#2

I too hope for another digital cymbal and hat. To my ear the culprits are the Radio and Shimmer frequencies, and I was recently trying FMing them both with the LFOs at 2k rates to make them sound noisier.

The best I’ve gotten for a hat, followed by (grimace) a cymbal:

I’m curious about others’ best strategies for hats on Syntakt generally, on the alloy machine or otherwise…

4 Likes
#3

Don’t know if that’ll sound cool on the Syntakt, but on the Rytm AMing hat and cymbal machines helps. I usually use a square wave lfo at 2k, a little depth helps with brightening up, a little more goes into distortion territory.

3 Likes
#4

Yes, I also fm’d alloy with the LFO, this is one of my best:

Here’s nother one without LFO usage:

… still both have some of this weird plastic “shhhh” quality left, instead of “sssss” :stuck_out_tongue:

… and a SY TONE hihat …

11 Likes
#5

slappers, all of 'em

1 Like
#6

Some recent and less recent findings.

SY BITS (one of the ‘drum spells’ presets)

SY Dual VCO

PC Carbon

4 Likes
Can Elektron please start selling MachineDrums again?
#7

Between these 3 machines I prefer SY BITs for that purpose. Square wave; tune, detune modulated by square lfo(s), hipass filter ?

PC Carbon is interesting here but there is something I don’t like on the attack. PUNCH on ?

I also like SY TONE…

1 Like
#8

Yes, and it’s my favourite too hence it’s on top. Depending on the context, it can sound quite familiar, a bit like the “Age Of Love” hihat. Unfortunately SY BITS squares aren’t as bright as the analog ones.

The Dual VCO one is great in other contexts. I actually do like the Carbon one, and I guess punch was on.

The funny thing is, I hate PC Carbon’s attack - even at zero - in general. And when I do use it, I use a slow amp attack to hide that ugly attack. But in this example, I found it interesting at least. And the ringing hihat sounds the most metallic of them all.

Edit:

Some tweaks, really liking that one: It sounds so close to my favourite I made on Volca Drum … actually if someone had played this to me, I would’ve guessed it’s the Volca Drum. Attack is set to 10, even for the closed hat.

PC Carbon 2.0

sy bits one combined with carbon’s high end - doesn’t quite fit (i tuned them later to be a similar ‘chord’ but can’t record it right now, it was still not a super fit though)

Dual VCO in practise, bandpass instead of highpass and combined with an analog hat for the high-end, the ‘cymbal’ is Sy Bits

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#9

SY BITS sounds really cool

1 Like
#10

Using the analog hihat I have here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKCXBSqJrUg but layering it with a Carbon one … two variants … with a ride attempt :wink: All other instruments just to make a bit context

7 Likes
#11

Sounds pretty good as hihat, but maybe decay is too short for a ride? Maybe you have a particular ride in mind?
Sounds good anyway. :wink:

1 Like
#12

Thanks, the ride is just a bonus anyway :wink:

1 Like
#13

another pc carbon hihat, which sounds like Pulsar 23’s hihat

If we could only deactivate that obnoxious attack (did it again with a long attack). Would be amazing if some machines would just get some more options in the setup menu. For example, random phase (i sacrifice an LFO for every sound just to emulate that in some way).

11 Likes
#14

Set out to experiment some more with these but soon ran into ugly plops with cy alloy when the decay is cut off by the next trig. Is it just me having that?

(Too tired to record and upload right now. Could do tomorrow. )

#15

Try to turn off Amp envelope reset. And don’t waste your time with Cy Alloy :zonked: Any other analog or digital Syntakt machine does better cymbals.

1 Like
#16

100% agree that it would be awesome

For a digital + analog drum machine of this calibre, it would be nice to not have to combine it with another device, just to get that 909 hat/ride vibe

1 Like
#18

2x cp alloy. HH and cymbal/ride. For the ride, lfo envelope on radio to get the tone moving. HH, lfo envelope on amp vol. Both punch on.

I think there s some stuff to be had from alloy but the parameter space is so huge and the sweet spots so small…

Also the pitch and tuning have a big impact in non-intuitive ways.

4 Likes
#19

Yeah, and since there’s no random oscillator phase setting at least, it’s like “why would anyone use such a bad one shot sample”. FMing alloy helps with that already, if that LFO is free running, but it’ll never not be grating and bad. That would be another idea, that it’s possible to exchange the oscillator’s sound for alloy, the wavetables for chord machine etc. …

The closed one’s attack has a bit of a closed 909 hihat vibe, though!

2 Likes
#20

Another alloy HH. I find that putting just a little hold lfo on syn tune helps mitigating the sterility of it.

2 Likes
#21

Sorry for the off-topic question, but I’m curious which machine you’re using for your bass line here. It sounds great!