Hello,
I have a Digitone, Digitakt, Typhon Dreadbox and Keystep37. It’s a great setup, I love the Digitone mostly though as you can create some deep sounds and it’s great for ambient music which is what I like.
I’ve been watching videos on the Syntakt and I see the new patch can help with drones too.
I nearly pulled the trigger on a good effects pedal (Microcosm or Poly Beeboo or Zoia Empress), but then for a little more I could get a Syntakt…
What are your thoughts?
Im going syntakt / Octatrack / Digitone Keys. Will use keys version also as MIDI controller to slim the setup down
Only had a brief play but had an infinite (no) decay swarm drone going which sounded nice
Similar-ish setup. I love the DT I have but the OT looks good, but all I hear is step learning curve.
I wondered if the Syntakt would push the Typhon out too or could it have a place.
I find the OT is not all that bad - in fact straight forward once you find a good YouTube vid per topic. The mystique around it makes it fun in a bizarre way!
I added the Syntakt to my Digitakt/Digitone setup and for me, it is very complementary. I had wanted some real analog in a Digi form factor for years, and had been using my Circuit Mono Station as a single voice substitute, so when the Syntakt came out, it was an instabuy.
Turns out, the Syntakt does a lot more than just the analog voices, but it still doesn’t have much overlap in with the Digitone in terms core sound generation. I think Elektron nailed it in terms of three boxes that are somewhat ideal together.
Having the Syntakt frees me up to use the Digitone more creatively for its polyphonic and FM sweet spots while the Syntakt now handles more bread and butter drum and melodic duties (even though Syntakt can get weird sounds as well).
It also frees me up to use the Digitakt for more obvious sample-based material instead of having to plan around what synth and drum parts would be shared between just the Digitakt and Digitone.
This has been my experience, YMMV.
Great to know thanks! Are you using a midi controller with all 3 or using the midi thu’s to link it all?
I use a Keystep for playing and recording sequences that need it. I typically use either the Digitakt or Syntakt as the master clock/sync out and usually do pattern changes manually on all three so I can mix and match parts from the different boxes. Now with song mode on board, I’m experimenting with some more structured parts syncing.
I did have everything set up so that I could do passthrough and use the Keystep to play parts on different machines using channel select and some MIDI config. I need to set that up again once I settle on how I want use the arranger and the order I want to chain the boxes together for this next round of sets I’m working on.
…since any combo of elektron devices beyond three at once in use is kind of too much, ur still good, consodering to add a syntakt to ur sonic ballpark…
essential remains…one sampling device and one synthesis device…
syntakt is kind of a best of swedish hits compilation machine, when it comes to synthesis and would complete ur digiformat collection…
but hey, once ur there, there is absolutely no real reason to get another one on top of that…
ur into endless gas OR into deep diving and really knowing ur tools inside out…
one is consumerism, the other is truu creator country…
and that’s simply too different planets…
I just got a syntakt, I havent played them together yet because Im busy and learning the syntakt alone but they are made to be together.
You havent much space for drums on digitone, though you can do anything. The syntakt lack the DN chorus and the digitone needs the analog voices of the Syntakt.
Plug the out of the Syntakt in the DN and voilà.
The new machines of the syntakt are just making it even more valuable. It’s just a perfect world.
This is kind of where I’m at too. I’ve received pushback on this position (3 is enough), but IMO, owning the DT/DN/ST is a lot of sonic power, and adding any more Elektrons on top of those wouldn’t have as much musical ROI for me. If I grabbed any of the flagships, I’d have to look at them as upgrades and one or more of the Digis would have to go. Analog Rytm? The DT (and maybe ST) would go. Octatrack? DT would have to go. Analog Four? ST would have to go (although some of the digital machines are dope). I think the only survivor in any of those scenarios would be the Digitone due to its unique versatile approach to FM and easy polyphony up to 8 voices.
That being said, it’s all hypothetical since for the time being, the three Digi boxes really hit my personal sweet spots of power vs ease of use. With the exception of sound generation and voice management, having three boxes with basically identical UX is incredibly easy on the brain/muscle memory and accelerates things when I just want to get down to business making music.
That said, hard to fault anyone for wanting more Elektrons. They ARE dead sexy, and I get that some folks are more “collectors” than I, or maybe have more enjoyment from learning new boxes, or even have more varied complex music making needs than me, such as using the OT as a mixer and in support of more complex sampling and effects needs.
But personally, three is a magic number, yes it is.
YMMV
What about thinks like an effects pedal or do you think that is covered too?
I wonder if the Typhon Dreadbox wouldn’t have a place if I got the Syntakt, but the Syntakt does so much more.
What about effects on the Syntakt or space for a pedal too?
I’m not much of an external effects kind of guy, I tend to rely (mostly) on what’s in the units. Sometimes I might put my EXH Platform (stereo compression and dirt) at the end of the chain, but that’s about it.
But some folks are into external effects, like specialty reverbs for ambient washes, or Analog Heat for more controlled effects and compression, or whatever. That’s cool too. But external effects can also be its own GAS rabbit hole, which I have so far avoided.
This is very true.
…running mainouts through pedals, make only sense if u want that mainoutput work as one effected thing…so, any overall complete sum, including a total rhythmgroup plus harmony content of any kind will only work for on rare/special moments with just a certain kind of pedals…
any kind of pedal magic is way better placed in some sort of mixing enviroment, where u can decide what’s gonna be effected for real and what’ not…
details do the all essential difference, end of the day…
no matter how great a pedal is, all running through the same delay or distortion or whatever might sound great at first, but turns out to be nothing but a limitation after a while…
all paralel processing’s magic comes from paralel…blending a totally processed signal into it’s clean version…so if ur into fx pedals, u better have the option to mix/send instead of just insert/hardwire them…common dry/wet ratios are nice, but don’t do all the trick, usually…
exceptions here are those rare outboard fx that offer a separated wet gain AND a dry/wet ratio…like the heat…which does great as an insert effect because of that little xtra detail…
I got the Syntakt yesterday, so far I’m happy with it. Comparing to the Digitone it’s more streamlined and limited in terms of synthesis, but sounds better to me.
Mostly for drums, basses, and mono leads. You can use it as a main bus, since the analog drive can tame annoying frequencies.
One thing you may find useful is the analog multi-mode filter, but on the synth part it’s very limited. The synth machine has like 3 “wave shaping” parameters and that’s it.
Nice one. Thing is do question it still as I have the DN and DT for drums and Typhone Dreadbox for the analogue mono synth stuff, but it does look very good.
You really won’t need the Typhon anymore once you have the Syntakt, especially now you have SY RAW
Just the Digitone alone is an amazing machine. I’m getting techno for days and paired with AH even better.
Yeah, I can relate. I haven’t really been using my Circuit Mono Station at all since I picked up the Syntakt. I originally got into Elektron years ago because I liked the Circuit Mono in terms of sequencing and control, and Digitone gave me much more of that, but with 8 voices instead of one paraphonic voice. FM, of course, so that was a sonic shift. Then added the Digitakt, but still kept my Circuit Mono in the loop for that real analog sound.
But now it’s full circle. In the ST, I now have not 1 but 4 analog voices, and bonus, 12 additional digital voices, all with Elektron sequencing. Now, especially with the 2 new machines, that CMS just doesn’t have the draw for me. Because of its single voice, I can imagine a Typhon gathering a bit of dust under similar circumstances.