As long as my precious Tanzbär stereo clap is wide, I am happy. 
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The RYTM machines are all analog, so it is a fixed architecture, and adding adding new machines is hard without adding new physical circuits. Syntakt has some digital machines, so those seemingly could be programmed digitally to create something new.
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I know, but the architecture of the first three voices is pretty flexibel, so it would have been easy to add new stuff. Even a Dual VCO was possible.
So with Syntakt digital Architekture would be worse if they don‘t keep a flow of good machines. Like I said I would even pay extra for a legacy set of the Machinedrum ones.
I’m not so sure - remember its £520/$600 launch price (it will go down)
4 pretty decent analogue voices (you can even put a sample mixed with the analogue for attack like the RYTM)
Stereo samples - OK, not that long but long enough for drums for me…and it seems easy to load your own (it just shows as USB drive, no bloody file transfer app needed!)
1 SDK synth that can be ‘anything’ inc a full Polly synth
SDK fx that can be anything, not just reverb and delay!
Full electron style step sequencer and you can a different sample on each beat etc, P lock, motion record, probability, ratchet etc.
4 outputs (assignable)
I think that is pretty good value, maybe even more innovation and unique features than the Syntakt so far with that SDK track and FX.
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I am pretty critical these days because it seems to me its not about good design everywhere, its seems about compromises for pricing and not canibalising on other stuff (elektron)
Exactly, and they gave a lot of sound shaping options with the dual vco, probably milking it for all it’s worth. I certainly wouldn’t expect more from the machine. Analog drum machine voices aren’t usually that flexible, so it’s cool they were able to do that with the dual vco.
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Essentially, in terms of ‘engines’ there is-
4 analogue engines (with some digital attack options)
6 stereo sample engines
1 FM (2 op) engine
1 Noise engines with filter, bit reduction etc
1 Multiengine SDK (comes with full poly VA synth but you can load others)
I actually think that is pretty good to start with!
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But isn’t that exactly what the syntakt is doing?
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I reckon £469/489 street price probably.
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The Drumlogue has been teased for so such a long time that the Syntakt may have copied the Drumlogue
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I think that, due to chips and parts shortages, both have been in development since 1994.
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It sounds like the included fx include a lot of the prologue fx (which are great- shimmer, octave down reverb etc) and as I read it you can have up to 24 fx to select from per FX block - sinevibes have some great fx that can be loaded ( KORG - Sinevibes ) but there is alos a lot of great free stuff.
‘‘For each effect type (delay, reverb, master), up to 24 custom effect units can be loaded onto the drumlogue.’’
What I will say against the drumlogue is that it doesn’t seem to have a lot in the way of performance controls.
Live jammers and improv nuts are going to have to invest in some extra knobs to get the most out of it I reckon.
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It has twice as many as my Syntakt! Arguably more direct control than any Elektron box…
Edit- just counted- 20 large encoders, 11 small (volume) pots, 1 tempo pot and 36 buttons!
Interestingly it has 2 x USB as one is a ‘host’ so you can plug any USB controller in, and it will power it and you can map it to what you like (the SDK engine for example has 24 midi controllable parameters)
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Yes, but a lot of them are just for specific voice parameters. There’s a lot of parameters that will be used a lot in live performance that require a bit of menu diving.
For example, all of the parameters of the user synth track have to be accessed via the four encoders and the various levels of menu.
It’s not terrible, and having a USB host addresses it pretty well, as most people have got one sort of controller or other hanging around.
Like you say though, Elektron gear can be similarly frustrating.
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except the last three are part of a single voice. only one of these can be used at a time.
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Ah, I hadn’t realised that, but I did wonder where the volume pot was for the other tracks! - that is quite a sever limitation (schadenfreude kicking in as a Syntakt owner!)
I wonder if they will ever be able to fix that with a firmware update?
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No it doesn´t tackle the machinedrum nor the digitakt with simple sampling even thou it shure could because it´s much more expensive.
As a guy who lives samples for drum related stuff I was pretty shocked to find that this machine has a mere 32MB for sample loading, which is ridiculous for a machine going for $800CAD. I remember people bitching about the Digitakt’s 1GB, but 32MB!? Oooff!
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I did the same, the LXR-02 is great, and pretty much what I expected from an improved Volca Drum.