Live streaming Syntakt. Topic is dub chords. Using multiple machines vs using the chord machine:
discussion in YouTube chat, or at:
https://www.elektronauts.com/t/adam-jay-syntakt-dub-chord-livestream-starting-shortly/171722
6 Likes
Had my first real play with this tonight, it’s quality.
Don’t know why but I always found making drums boring, almost a means to and end so I can get on to making bass lines and layering endless melodies where I found all my enjoyment. An almost “that’ll do approach”. But I’ve spent 3 hours in this just making drums and drum sounds and just made a “that’ll do” bass line so I could get on with playing with the drums. Total opposite of how I’d normally make tracks.
The synths are not as immediately inspirational to me as they are on DN (probably cos you can’t just drench it in lovely chorus …) so abit more work to do to get em sweet, but it’s somehow more fun.
DT and DN were like impressive tools to make electronic music I wanted to make, syntax feels less like a tool, it’s challenging me to do stuff I’ve never done before, really enjoying it.
Oh and I’ve really been enjoying the chord mode, watching the reviews I thought this would be me least enjoyed/used engine buts it’s probably my favourite just now, just so many ace sounds and again sounds that I’d never make or come across just using my DN.
16 Likes
Sorry if someone already posted this and I missed it, but this is certainly one of the best videos I’ve seen on the Syntakt.
12 Likes
Wow I’ve seen many videos and listened to so much audio from the Syntakt; it’s sooooo sick. Holy hell.
3 Likes
I’m totally sold on Syntakt. But it won’t replace a Squid for MIDI sequencing. That thing is a monster! 
4 Likes
Good video … no waffle … summarises everything well, not a moment wasted.
I did find it odd though that he wants to load his own wavetables, but he spends a minute or more near the end insisting it is not and never will be a sampler. For me there’s not a lot of difference between user-loaded wavetables and user-loaded samples for playback. 
3 Likes
I think he was trying to be very clear about what the Syntakt is and isn’t - for people expecting something else…never stops us for asking for more though 
2 Likes
I don’t know, I really hate making music with samples but I enjoy wavetable synthesis (I would really love if a future ST update would provide this feature), I know you can generalize them as the same thing but conceptually for me they represent two approaches to generating sound. But I get your point.
2 Likes
I understand what you’re saying in musical terms. What I probably should have said was: not a huge difference in implementation difficulty (so far as I can guess, not working for elektron). So if he’s asking them to add user wavetables, I don’t immediately get why he’s so insistent they will never add user samples.
2 Likes
It has just arrived yesterday. I shot an unboxing (the worst ever you seen🤣 ) and make my first pattern with it (music on unboxing video from that pattern).
2 Likes
Adding samples to Syntakt might quickly turn in to a can of worms for Elektron. If they added a simple sample-playback machine, people would within seconds demand more like “please let us sample like the Digitakt”, or “please add support for stereo samples”, or “what about slicing” and whatever. I think he makes a great point when he says something like (and I’m paraphrasing here):
“The Syntakt is a drum synth. It is not a sampler, in the same way that a Peak, a TR-909 or a Model D is not a sampler. If you need a sample-based drum workflow, shut the F*** up and buy a Digitakt or whatever”.
And I totally agree. All these feature requests in regards to sampling take focus away from other more realistic (and more drum-synth-focused) feature requests. Elektron has plenty of samplers in their lineup already.
5 Likes
Oh, absolutely … I get that.
Fair enough, but that means Syntakt is likely not the one do it all box for me. WHICH IS FINE. I’m not complaining. Elektron chose a certain course of action and it most likely means that box is not for me.
EDIT: The only reason I’m even talking about samples on the syntakt is the apparent contradiction in the review above.
Maybe conceptually, there is not a lot of difference. But hardware/software-wise, there is definitely a large difference. A wavetable could be stored with just a few bytes describing the wavetable and since the Syntakt already supports a wavetable you can scroll through, adding the feature of user-supplied wavetables, would not add a lot to the storage requirements although UX would be a bit strange considering the current UI. The same hardware could be used to play user-supplied wavetables, unless the current implementation is implemented with the hardware, not via software (unlikely I think).
Samples are a completely different beast. The storage requirements are much higher, the UX would have to completely change, hardware would have to already be able to support it (which also seems unlikely, as it’d add to the BOM costs and was not there at launch) and finally writing software to support that would be a huge task, compared to adding different wavetables to the already existing feature.
Maybe not impossible that there will be samples in the future, granted that the hardware is in place already, but judging by what I said above, I think it’s highly unlikely that we’ll ever see samples supported by the Syntakt.
3 Likes
The only reason I’m even talking about samples on the syntakt is the apparent contradiction in the review above. I’m not whinging about their omission. 
The only reason I replied to your post was because I had just read your post, hinting that there was a contradiction when I think there is none, as from hardware/software perspective, the two are very different
1 Like
I just ordered one. I must admit I recently sold my Rytm MkII because I wasn’t keen on the hihats but the form factor of the Syntakt has changed things slightly as it’s something I can use around the house or take out more easily.
I’m still not convinced about your assertions on the difference, though I must admit that I hadn’t considered the difference in size between wavetables and samples. I was not expecting (because I’m not demanding anything) a version 2 of the hardware with a bigger memory to accomodate samples. All I was speculating about was, given the hardware constraints, what’s possible, and really what’s the conceptual difference between user-loaded wavetable and user-loaded samples
The UI/UX would have to change for both.
To get a user wavetable into the existing SY CHORD might, for all we know, mean a radical re-write of the algorithm. Might even turn out to me more work than a simple sample player.
I’m also thinking it’s unlikely (and I’m not going to cry about it) but more from the point of view that if they DID implement a sample player machine (of the level of M:S or even less), there then would be a cascade of requests for recording, slicing, stereo, pitch shift without tempo change, “how can you release something this limited in 2023” etc, etc, ad nauseam.
3 Likes
no - you’re right. Squid will be staying in the studio… but for live use Syntakt will be plenty just to sequence the Easel Command…
Yeah, I completely get that.
On a side note, I have had all the currect production Elektron units at some point. I never really thought of any of them as groove boxes in the traditional sense. A groove box to me (IMHO) is more of an, as you say, “do it all” thing. There are other vendors that make such units, and mostly I find that they are jacks-of-all-trades, but they rarely excel in any task and their workflow is not as fast as the Elektron way.
What I really love about Elektron units is the fact that they focus on one particular concept and execute that really well. They might have a groove-boxy flavour to them, but they truly shine when one embrace their primary intent. Digitakt is a sample-based drum machine. Octatrack is a sample-mangler. Syntakt is a drum-synth. Digitone is a poly-synth. Use more than one box if you really need to cover all the bases.
5 Likes