Introducing Syntakt

[aMunchkinElfGraduate]

@rklem

“Single tones” with long release should at least not cut each other off.

I could probably live with this limitation, based on how I use my DN. I allocate one voice to the drum track and try to avoid voices suddenly cutting one another off (which sounds like crap). I am willing to impose that limitation on the drum track because I need the other 7 voices elsewhere, and because I’m not trying to make epic drum parts. If my DN had a 9th voice, I might allocate a second voice to the drums.

I suppose if you have a monophonic voice on the kick drum, and the successive kicks are far enough apart, you don’t have to worry about overlap. A little bit more difficult when successive sounds are close together.

But, what about creating a legato melody? On the piano, legato can be achieved by creating some overlap between successive notes. In other words, more than one note may be sounding at a time.

I am curious how users who’ve been consciously or unconsciously using polyphony/voice-sharing on their other devices…are going to react to this limitation of the ST. One obvious change comes to mind, the need to be more disciplined about avoiding sudden cutoffs on the tails of sounds.

Others have pointed out that polyphony can be created by stacking monophonic voices. For me (with my beloved Digitone as my frame of reference) I consider this to be a tedious PITA on the ST. I would have to copy the settings of one voice into another, assuming I want the same sound or timbre from each voice. And then, if I decided to change the sound, I’d have to repeat the process. Then there is the filtering and balancing of the chord-members. All that switching between voices. What a nightmare.

That leaves the chord machine. I am waiting for a demonstration of what is really possible. For example, what is the workflow for arranging a Bach chorale on the ST? Early adopters of gear like to tell you how you can do anything on that gear. But what about something in particular? In other words, how a machine approaches a well-defined outcome is more instructive than playing random-turn-the-knobs on all its features.

[echothief]

Retrokits RK002 cable will give you polyphony on either the digital tracks or the analog VCO tracks, it worked well on my DT, AR and OT.

[Hinterlands]

I guess what I am trying to say is that at least half of common synth terminology is made up by marketers so there isn’t such a clear set of terminologies. Paraphonic was made up by either Korg or Roland for instance (I can’t remember which company but it was invented for marketing purposes). They put it in some ad copy and it ended up getting adopted with other companies. Same with multi-timbral.

Anyway I hear you. Syntakt doesn’t take the same approach to polyphony as Digitone etc.

[djst]

@echothief

Retrokits RK002 cable will give you polyphony on either the digital tracks or the analog VCO tracks, it worked well on my DT, AR and OT.

That’s great to know, but personally, I’d rather just plug in my Hydrasynth and sequence it with a midi track. I’d love it if the Syntakt would just copy the way they handled track/polyphony allocations on the Digitone, but even without it, I’m not too worried about it personally.

The arp and chorus on the other hand, those are sad omissions for me personally.

[baris]

The family just got bigger

[LyingDalai]

Have some fun with what polyphonic means on this thread:

Paraphonic synths are polyphonic by definition

Last night I couldn’t sleep for some time, and while I should have read instead of facing a screen to get a chance to fall asleep again, I wasted some time on the internet, terrible mistake. But I came across a post by Marc Doty / Automatic Gainsay where he explains that paraphonic synths are by definition polyphonic. So far it had been crystal clear in my mind for a long time that polyphonic meant (and only meant) one fully articulated voice per note, thus excluding paraphony. Reading th…

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@echothief

Retrokits RK002 cable will give you polyphony on either the digital tracks or the analog VCO tracks,

RK002 seems an interesting workaround…
What about RK008? Do you know if it can do what RK002 does?

[aaanicholls]

I wonder if a firmware update could allow the headphones out to only output select tracks?
Mini cue out almost
More realistic maybe the fx track could be routed to the headphones out only?

[avantronica]

@aaanicholls

I wonder if a firmware update could allow

there’s not anything that can be accommodated wrt this as the headphones out is directly linked with mains (as on most other elektron devices and confirmed recently here by a designer)

[LAMPED]

For those who have this hooked up with the DT and DN - how are you chaining them up?

I thought about the ST ahead of DT to use the DT compressor with the ST but I want to make most of the effects block on ST so I’ve DT into ST and DN last (mainly cos I like to play notes/chords with my right hand so have DN further right on my desk….). The ST effects block really makes DT samples n single wave stuff sound so much nicer.

[mynewcolour]

@Choice_Studio

THAT MAKE SENSE

NOT REALLY

[blasterjake]

That sounds like a good setup. I was thinking of, when I get my Syntakt in a couple days, put my Microfreak, into DN, into ST, into DT for compresssing everything. I wonder how everyone else chooses to route theirs.

[bibenu]

@rklem

The Chord machine is not monophonic. I don’t see a reason for not adding a unison mode to it, which allows for overlapping voices.

@bibenu

Sounds reasonable, but OTOH it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find that the present chord algorithm relies entirely on all the notes being derived from a common pitch (e.g. something like: all the pitches playing are harmonics of some other note), meaning that a switch to overlapping notes would mean writing and entirely new machine.

And it turns out that the “polyphony” of the chord machine is generated “by changing the operators ratios to make the chord”, which means that it’s highly unlikely that this chord machine would get a true polyphonic version … it would be a re-write.

[haircut]

Where is the archived “Elektron - new sounds from a new place Episode II”?

[plragde]

I don’t think you should read too much into the extemporaneous speech of an Elektron employee doing PR work, especially since he probably got a contact high from the guy next to him. The Model:Cycles manual describes the Chord machine (and I haven’t seen any indications that the Syntakt SY Chord machine is any different, except for offering Unison 1) as “A chord and unison cluster that utilizes the 4 FM operators as individual voices, with a sweeping wavetable for timbral complexity.” No need to speak of ratios, especially since the selection of chords gets into some pretty esoteric jazz chords, for which the precise tuning is probably the subject of heated debate somewhere. It’s a major rewrite because the M:C and AR (whose codebases were adapted) don’t offer polyphony.

While we are on the subject of machines taken from M:C, the Perc machine from it has become PC Carbon in Syntakt. I don’t think I’ve seen any explanation of “Carbon”, have I missed something?

[MaKZbV3K]

I don’t usually pre/back-order synths but I think I’m blood oath bound to 'takt-style devices now so hello backorder.

[plragde]

It’s a Web-based “community radio station” in L.A., they probably don’t work on weekends. I’m sure it’ll be up Monday or Tuesday. The previous one was up quickly because it was first sounds. I didn’t see anyone livepost it here (I just forgot to tune in).

[bibenu]

@plragde

I don’t think I’ve seen any explanation of “Carbon”, have I missed something?

It’s a carbon copy of the M:C one ?

[plragde]

Very good!

[MaKZbV3K]

Tangent but they’re doing a Member Drive atm. From what I’ve seen they’re almost always working but not always for site maintenance / archiving…

[plragde]

@max_b

Kind of like how your coffee maker cannot also toast bread

Given the reports of how it runs hot, I’m sure the Syntakt can be used to toast bread