Learning how to make music.
Learning how to use syntakt (or other electronic box)
Two very different things.
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What is a track? Even more, what is a GOOD track?
I don’t think you need to put music on a pedestal, just make what feels good- create a starting point for yourself and work on improving it.
At first, your biggest fans will be your friends and family that are excited that you’re making something(and also the lovely people here on the forum)
As you get better that will hopefully expand. Follow your inspiration.
Personally, my process is- sound design first. And when you create a sound that is neato…I mean…how are you NOT going to take that sound on a test drive to see how it works in a track?!
Don’t overthink it. The most important thing is that you have fun, because that carries more into the music than you think:
And if you’re not familiar with base music theory, then that will certainly help
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Generally for House :
Kick : steps 1-5-9-13
Hats : steps 3-7-11-15
Snare/Clap : steps 5-13
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I would start with « how to input notes on the Sequencer ».
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Welcome, @vit41iq, to the forum. I think you are trying to go too deep too fast. While keeping in mind the goal of making the music you like to listen to, think of the initial stage of learning as focussed on how to use the instrument, without necessarily coming close to that final goal. In your education, you probably have had the experience of starting with simple tasks and progressing to more complex ones. It would be nice if you had some sort of curriculum to follow but I don’t know of a free resource that takes you through that for the Syntakt. Start with a simple beat and a simple melody. Then copy it and decide how to complicate it. Do you want to work on the percussion, do you want to make the melody more complex, do you want to add a second voice? Try one of these in a new pattern, not more (you can use several new patterns to see what aspect you seem to be making progress on). Then merge if it makes sense. If it gets too complicated, scale back and practice on more familiar ground. You don’t have to use everything all at once and there are some features that you might never use. What works is taking a small increment on what you are comfortable with, rather than a grand leap.
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Hi and welcome!
I was in this spot a couple of years ago, and I’ve found it a consistently rewarding and surprising process. The Syntakt and Digitakt continue to surprise with how many ways you can approach them. Great advice above, to which I’ll add:
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I’ve found the idea of the etude a consistently helpful one, learning a sound type or machine or combination by trying to play with it in very simple compositions with limits.
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There are a lot of good resources on this forum, maybe starting with the
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just start messing around, see for yourself what things do, if you have confusion about things the information on it will surely be online. when i got my elektron box i watched lots of media on how people use it differently and picked up a bunch of tricks. a lot of the features you see are ubiquitious to lots of synthesizers / modern daw features and carry over to general experience. experiment a ton, don’t worry about finishing anything or sounding pro, that will come with time. treat it like an instrument that you need to practice to play just like a piano or something.
Welcome!
I can strongly recommend taking one or more structured courses in electronic music making.
@DaveMech has created a series of wonderful tutorials for the Digi boxes that will get you up and running quickly, but also in a very well-structured way. Really can’t recommend his stuff enough.
I am guessing you’ve seen this guy before if you’ve been in the YT rabbit hole for techno production, but if not, he is very good at explaining fundamental concepts and has a number of good videos that are techno-focused:
You also might want to consider setting up a lesson with someone. In fact, I believe @DaveMech does private lessons, as do many YT content creators, like Red Means Recording and EZBot.
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…warm welcome…and puh, just let go…easy, tiger, easy…
ur on the right track…but u got a neverending way in front of u…anyways,and u picked the perfect tool to get there…i can assure u, u goona miss the innocence of these clueless, unintentional times one day…
if u embrace them NOW, u got the chance to really discover and develop ur very own sonic vibe…
read the manual…from time to time…but beyond that, stop watching tutorials for now…
just allow urself to let things happen…relax and just enjoy for a while, wherever it might take u…
closing in on all this and sharpening ur focus is coming for u, if u allow urself to fool around and just have fun with all the happy accidents and lucky dips that are waiting for u in every elektron device…
and don’t tame urself to jsut go for drums at first…no, no…ur syntakt has the perfect 12 single elements that allow u to discover all the sonic essentials that make a whole track…
pick a tempo, pick a scale, enjoy the key modes and off go…follow ur ears and instincts, stay curios and open…on frequent daily bases…and all the rest will follow soon enough…
give urself a few month…what u have not discovered by then, syntakt toolkit/function/ trick wise, only then it’s time to have a closer look on dave mech’s pretty decent tips 'n tricks for in depth real know how…
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Cool topic.
I make short pieces based on scales and simple melodies for my students. This material, I believe, has helped me improve on the Digitone. Because it presents me with clearer “targets” regarding the balance of the parts and the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic momentum of the piece. If I had no material to start with, I would go crazy.
The last couple days, I spent time redoing old projects, clarifying the sounds, the balance, etc. I notice that, when I learn a new technique on the Digitone, I tend to overdo it or use it crudely. Later, I learn how to use the technique in moderation or more discretely.
I disagree with the notion of separating sound design and composition. Sum of the parts is less than the product. The “right” sounds are the sounds that work in the mix. One of the most useful techniques for me, on the Digitone, is, while adjusting the parameters of a single track’s sound, listening to how those changes either clarify or cover…the other sounds. In other words, not judging a sound on it’s inherent qualities, but rather how it plays with others.
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It’s a long journey and the tools will change with time. It sounds like you’ve got a decent understanding of the structure and platform so I would pick one or two simpler tracks you like and do your best to copy them. Just straight up plagiarism. The rhythm and melody are the easy parts and over time you’ll figure out how to mimic the timbres, the mix downs, the small details which is where a lot of personality in these genres really comes from. After you do it a couple times, do it some more.
I wouldn’t stress over the minute synth parameters - they’re macro parameters that are very specific to this one machine. What you should focus on is your ability to listen critically and carefully to your own music, your own art and decide what about it should stay and what needs to change. Listening to your music in the context of the things you’re inspired by and the things you’re chasing. Over time you’ll naturally develop a workflow that’s specific to you and as you continue to make music, one day you’ll look up and realize you have a voice and an identity of your own.
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Thanks everyone for your comments and advice!
What, in your opinion, are the 20% of features/tricks I should focus on which would take me to the 80% of making a decent song?
My view (and just my view) - don’t watch a whole bunch of videos on ‘how to make music’, don’t get caught up in the technicalities of everything before you begin, don’t worry about what you may think you SHOULD be doing
Just start… and when you get stuck, or want to achieve something specific then look something up or ask a question.
Just my two pennies worth, if you want to discover your own voice and way of doing things
Good luck to you - and enjoy!
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My approach:
Make a project, and do some sound design for some bread and butter sounds on around half of the tracks you have available.
Save the project.
Make beats using those core sounds, and allow yourself one or two additional tracks that you can design sounds on the fly.
Duplicate your sounds across all the patterns in a bank.
Make as many beats as you can using those sounds, and either save them if you are happy with them, but more often just dump them and reload the project at the end of your session.
Most importantly, record the result. Listen back to it, especially after leaving a gap for a few days.
Then when you find your hands are moving automatically without having to pause and think too much, start working over multiple patterns, and figure out, either with or without song mode, how to move between one thing and the next.
You ask:
“What, in your opinion, are the 20% of features/tricks I should focus on which would take me to the 80% of making a decent song?”
My answer:
The basics of subtractive synthesis. Learn to take a waveform, use a filter and filter envelope to shape the frequencies, and an amp envelope to shape the amplitude. That’s it. If you understand how these things interact, you can create a great variety of sounds. Then start thinking about modulation with LFOs.
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I appreciate every single comment in this thread, but this one is the most practical for me at the moment! Thank you so much 
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the ones that you’ll feel comfortable enough with, what I mean is that different tricks/styles/approaches work different for every individual, like I said before - it will take time - and what I meant is that you need to find your own workflow that will get you both productive and expressive, try different things, try one-pattern songs, try two-three pattern song, try the song mode, try chaining patterns, you need to try a lot of things to figure out which flow will make you expressive and comfortable.
record your sessions, good or bad, take a day off, listen back, your mistakes will become obvious and next time you play the same song you will do better and better and better.
patience and dedication is the best feature that will take you furthest. and don’t be afraid to do things differently. try overbridge, try recording main outs, don’t get stuck, record and play record and play record and play…
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This.
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Thank you @alechko
This makes a lot of sense, and echoes with my other experiences. I know exactly what you mean.
record and play record and play record and play…
On it! Thank you
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To overcome the limitations of no-polyphony-per-step on the Syntakt, I suggest you learn how to use chords and inversions on the chord track. Can you create a chord progression where the top notes of each chord comprise a melody? For example, a harmonized C major scale on a single chord-machine track of the Syntakt would be something like:
do: C major triad 1st inversion
re: G major triad root position
mi: C major 2nd inversion triad
fa: G 7th root position
sol: C major triad root position
la: F major triad 2nd inversion
ti: G 7th 2nd inversion
do: C major triad 1st position
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Whilst I would try all kinds of rhythms, I would also try the elektron sequencer, it’s as powerful as it gets. Mixing takes practice and some bumps. And just try a few steps on 1, changing the pitch, adding some variation and increasing the attack for some other more pad-like sounds. Use the LFO1 on all parameters and try something you like etc. set different tempos for each just mayhem.
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