Kicks, claps, snares, DVCO, FM, even chords… I feel like it’s way easier to dial the sound I like from these machines, indeed.
My good old Rytm is making a strange face…
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There’s a discussion for Syntakt only tracks, you might want to drop it there if it fits 
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is there any way to move it?
You can post an Hyperlink from this thread to the other one or Remove this one and post it in the other.
I see Elektron will now be at Superbooth.
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1st hand experiences likes and dislikes
I decided consciously that I will buy the ST – and using backward induction and some bravery I decided the time is now (pandemics, inflation etc. taken into account) and ordered at the new kid on the block (ProMusicTools, Munich) - because they had it in stock. Bravery (or risky behaviour?) turned out well - great after-purchase communication, great packaging and 2-day-delivery! 
First impressions ((the box in the box) in the box)
- veeery nice new-style-artsy-elektron-packaging (like with new digitone, m:c, rytm mk II)
- veery nice 4-color-print poster
- smaller AC/DC converter
- high quality USB-cable - now in gray
- built quality just as with digitakt, some enconders are not 100% smooth, but 98%, that should suffice
- the box has no handle anymore, which is a pity, but handles did not go so well lately with Elektron – so I understand
2nd first impressions (the machine itself, powered on)
- I like the new color scheme
- labels in gray and purple are readable
- OLED display in white works well with it and helps to distinguish the feel-alike-boxes in the dark
- digitakt muscle memory kicks in immediately
- sounds ok-ish, but lets tweak it
after some hours of hyperfocus
most importantly
- it’s a keeper
- it can sound much (!) better than most preset patterns suggest (which are very one the digital side and sort of mid-frequency-pronounced) - dub techno - here I come
really great
- new sequencable FX-track!!!
- animations
- 2 LFOs per track!!!
- new solution for velocity and other stuff (Mod pads)
- MIDI sequencer
- sound lock (different presets in one track)
- ADSR envelopes
- chord mode options (tweakable via LFO!)
- free tuning for microtonal stuff (albeit not easily transposable as of yet)
- waveforms
- input mixer
- input to sequencable FX chain!
very good
- sequencer as known from the digitakt with all its polymeter- and polyrhythm goodness (but still in limits) and known quirks
- sound of the reverb
- the “bits” mono-synth (digital)
- FM drums similar to those on the m:c (very great 808-ish basedrums, snares, hihats)
somewhat disappointing
- jumps in the adjustment of the first milliseconds of the envelopes are too big (if it needs to be 127 steps - perhaps make it log to improve temporal resolution in transition phase?
- that fantastic new bitcrusher (yes, OT, I’m talking to you!) only available in one instrument and not as part of others or track FX or main FX
- although this is clearly not meant to be a drumsynth only (look at all those scales!) - still no possibility to transpose tracks (like the DT)? (the DN can do)
- such great C64 sounds and - no arp??? (or I haven’t found it yet)
- balancing sounds difficult esp. when mixing digital and analog ones
- analog HH only on one channel (CH/HH choke with sound locks – ok, I get it – but, c’mon - what’s with 606-ish cymbals over a hihat pattern?)
- sound of the drive FX of the analog FX chain
really missing
- extra EQ for analog drums (yes you could repurpose the FX track, but would loose drive and filter control)
- master smoothing FX (like compressor)
the obvious
- no songmode
- kits? (there seems to be an option?)
- no battery (yes you can use the USB-to-Elektron converters and a powerbank and some users have modded their DT machines with a built in Li-battery, but…)
improvable
- accessing the sound-lock-feature (the way it is now it is very un-intuitive - even for Elektron standards)
- hold func+A “tune” jumps only only +/- 12 - please implement jumping in musical intervals, or at least semitones
- filter-resonance on most instruments sounds pretty much like 1990s-digital-filters (not so much in a good way)
wishes
- transpose (destructional; or non-destructional via track or pattern parameter)
- arp
- one polyphony instrument (like the chord one but with direct input of the respective chord or interval instead of dialing it in)
- that exact (!) bitcrusher as track FX or master FX (the analog drums would love it!)
- change sound manager that way it can be filtered for instruments that can be actually loaded to the current track
- relative send to analog FX track (remain part of the dry signal)
- any ratio for track meter (1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/7 … 1/15 … 23/1, … 7/1, 6/1, 5/1, 4/1, 3/1; 2/3, 2/5 … … …)
- microtonal scales
- trig condition: “NOT(X:Y)” (pause every Yth repetition, starting with the Xth)
- live transpose via keyboard (pads) for selected tracks
- microdelay (+/-) for every track
- active steps feature (like new volcas)
-
cascading filters (like a simple 12db LPF after every filter do reduce unpleasant side-effects of working with bleep-blop sequenced resonance)(EDIT: friendly forum members just pointed me to the existence of a second filter page in the digital instruments - which contains a BPF!!!
)
bottom line
- really great box with lots and lots of the Elektron goodness
- owners of DT will feel at home immediately (with the good stuff, and also with the quirks and edges: you will make the same mistakes as with the DT, well, at least you know them, reload pattern can be really dangerous)
- will shine with overbridge and extra EQing of the single tracks
- owners of DT and (DN and/or m:c and/or volca drums - as sample input or sequenced directly) may achieve (mostly) the same results with a very similar workflow (without ST)
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Holy shit. this is cool.
I wanted not to want one…
but well…this video and Dave Mech teach a better one.
- copy pattern
- Press [Ptrn] + empty slot + paste. Hold 4 seconds.
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Thanks a lot!!
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Anyone here have syntakt AND analog heat?
do you believe the analog drive of ST can replace the saturation of the heat?
What has really struck me is that my year with Pulsar 23 has really changed how i look at devices… With Syntakt and its Master FX, i much rather see it as a whole running evey track throught he FX block and then copying the BD track trigs to the FX track trigs, and then having some fun wit the amp and filter envelope… i find this to be a really great and accesible performance feature. i can drop the intensity by adding some attack to the filter ADSR for instance.
i mentioning this cause my initial wish was that Elektron would have added a second stereo outpuuts instead of inputs. but after using the master FX like i mentioned above, im not so sure… i like it as its own contained echosystem of sounds.
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The effect of the analog drive can go from very subtle to harsh, it doesn’t cover the whole Analog Heat palette but I rather like it as is.
I think appreciating a distorsion is a very personal thing.
True, I used to own an analog heat, but ended up selling it. Mainly because I found myself only using the saturation algorithm.
Which algoritm of the heat does the ST analog drive come closest to?
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It’s more on the left side of the Analog Heat, but can go rather harsh when in the hands of @Fin25 ^^
It also depends a lot of how loud the AFX bus is impacted by the inputs.
I’ll let more distorsion savvy people answer this one.
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Surprisingly tough question to answer, if I’m honest.
If I was going to guess I’d say it was probably closest to the Enhancement circuit, because it feels dirtier than clean boost, but doesn’t bloom out (technical term) the lows as much as the Saturation circuit, but doesn’t lose too much low end as you crank it up.
This is only a guess though, as the drive on Syntakt is just one knob, but I don’t know what or how many things the knob is affecting compared to the Heat, where I have a pretty high level of control over lots of parameters, which obviously has a massive effect on the sound.
Ultimately, it’s its own thing. I won’t be selling my Heat because of it, that’s for sure.
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Can you apply the analog effect only to the Master output rather than the single tracks?
Yea, to me it can actually sound like a few different circuits since it is totally dependent on how hard you hit it.
You can get a full clip distorted sound with track levels all the way up. Keep track levels down a little and you get into enhancement/saturation/clean boost. Keep in mind that a mix of 12 tracks can really hit it hard. Gain staging is important.
And fortunately, like the heat, the filter comes after the drive circuit. So you can sculpt what it has done at the drive level, after the fact. This is where the Analog FX Block’s double notch, and low pass notch filters really come in handy.
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I just wanted to chime in after having the Syntakt around for a few days. First, I’ll note that I’ve owned and sold both the Digitakt and the Digitone. Neither really clicked with me and I never found my way into the promised workflow that other’s talk about all the time. I found sample management and the lack of kits on the Digitakt to be challenging and I think the DN would have been a much better fit for me had I bought the keyboard version as I really wanted to perform keys parts into it as opposed to using the chiclets…
So anyway, for me the Syntakt is a completely different experience. There’s something very elegant and simple, in the good way, about how it all comes together. For some reason, it’s really drawing me in and I’m grasping workflow much, more more easily than I was ever able to on the DT or DN. I think maybe the fact that the sounds are so easily realized or discovered is the largest part of things. Everything you need is all right in front of you. Things sound great from the get-go and it’s fun, even in my relatively early process of learning the machine.
I’m really pleased I’m finally getting Elektron workflow for the first time.
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