Hi
I am really confused about the fx send levels with reference to the external audio.
On the AMP page of the FX track, I can see DEL and REV send levels. Also on the 3rd page of Mixer, I see DEL and REV send levels.
What is the exact order of the effects level being applied?
Also, I see the delay icon is grayed out on the AMP page of FX track, when delay is routed to FX BLOCK, and see “!Delay is routed to FX” message. What does that mean?
I don’t understand completely your question, are you trying to figure out how the gain staging for FXes work?
It might help you to check page 17 of the manual here: https://cdn.www.elektron.se/media/downloads/syntakt/Syntakt-User-Manual_ENG_OS1.0_220424.pdf
It’s the circuit diagram showing the signal path, to understand what it means to route the delay and/or reverb to the FX block you can check page 61 that has an explanation why it becomes greyed out.
I do recommend reading the manual, not necessarily front-to-back but skim through some sections and read the parts that interest you, over time you get a complete overview of the synth by using it + reading about what seems esoteric to you.
The FX track is the analog effects: overdrive, filter, VCA. The Delay and Reverb are digital, and discrete signal paths.
The DEL and REV controls on the [AMP] page for all tracks is the level of signal sent from that track to the Delay and Reverb.
The 3rd Mixer page is showing the level of the DEL and REV effects in the overall mix. Think “return level”.
The FX track can send to the Delay and Reverb. Also, the Delay and Reverb can be routed to the FX track instead of the master buss. If you sent from the FX to the digital effects and then returned to the FX track, you’d create a feedback loop through the signal path with the greatest gain power (overdrive, VCA), which would be dangerous. So the Syntakt wont let you do it. You can EITHER send from FX to the digital effects OR return from the digital effects through the FX (or neither and just use them all as three independent effectors). So when they’re greyed out in the AMP/Mixer pages it means you can’t use that signal direction because you have one of the incompatible routings configured.
Huh? According to the manual(emphases are mine, and note the inconsistency in the numbering),
13.6 MIXER PAGE 3
12.3.3 DEL
Delay Send sets the amount of audio from the INPUT L/R inputs that is sent through to the delay effect.
It seems to me that this is yet another effects send level.
You’re right, sorry. I wasn’t looking at my ST or the manual when I wrote that. I thought “page 3” was what is actually “page 2” and forgot the existence of the real “page 3”.
Yes, it’s the send from the Ext. In channel to the Delay and Reverb.
So for example,
I routed the external audio into the fx block.
On the 3rd page of Mixer, I set DEL send level for External Audio to 100.
And on the AMP page of the FX track, I set REV send level to 100.
Does delay get applied to the external audio first and then reverb?
They are in parallel, reverb is only applied to the delay if you set the delay (on the delay configuration) to send to reverb, if you don’t send the delay to reverb you’ll get a return from the delay and a separate return for the reverb. If you send the delay to the reverb then you will get delay with reverb applied (delay return will be just the delay and the reverb return will have the delay sound in it).
For this, you’d get the Pre-FX block external signal sent to Delay, then the FX block signal sent to the reverb (say, with drive or filtering before the reverb). You wind up with 2 different signals going to the 2 send effects, and in the mixer page, you can set levels on FX block, the external ins within the fx block, the delay level and reverb level.
I think in general they’re send effects with the most flexible possible routing (excluding feedback loops. The Audio Routing page (in settings or in Pattern > Audio routing) also lets you get 100% wet signal on tracks by sending them to FX but not Main.
The routing and modulation possibilities are really broad, but thinking of FX block of Drive>Filter>Amp (insert) and Delay/Reverb (sends) as having different kinds of routing that helps I think.