LXR02 SUCKS! Syntakt or Digitone?

Wut!? The sounds of course! :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m still unsure how polyphony works on the Digitone II, everybody seems to gloss over it.

It says 16 voice of polyphony, is that total or per-track? ie. If I play a three-note chord on one track do I lose two other tracks?

Maybe. I didn’t. It is something completely different than ST or DN. ST is nice though. Model:cycles might also work for you.

Just curious what you mean by this. Does your LXR-02 not sync to Logic via MIDI, or perhaps you’re talking about the latency between audio coming into your DAW from the LXR-02 and the internal audio of music in Logic itself (this would be a similar problem with any external gear).

If it’s specifically drums with a little crazy synthesis to go with it, Syntakt. It’s the best machine I’ve ever owned and ready for the lynch mob , better than my octatrack in terms of sound and immediacy and fun. I’ve not owned the digitione 2 but fully aware of it and if it’s deep sound design you want, the digitone 2wiped the floor with the syntakt. But the analog drums are truly some of the best ever, I stand by that

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I know almost nothing of fm synthesis, but despite this I am trying for monthes not to buy a DN2. But with these examples it’s almost impossible!
How did you create this 9 seconds distorded kick/bass sound (penultimate one)?
Only DN2 distortion? Is some fm magic involved?
Just because of your sounds I may buy one :smiley:

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Sort of but not really.

Polyphony is about how many sounds can sound simultaneously. So if you had all 16 tracks all sounding at once (unlikely) then yes you’d ā€˜lose’ 2 tracks (called voice-stealing) if one of them was using a 3 note chord. Although you can reserve voices so it’s more likely you’d have it set up that the voices would be stolen from the chord.

But more likely you don’t have all 16 tracks sounding simultaneously, and so it would have no negative effect.

Conversely, voice-stealing can actually be used to creative effect - it’s something I enjoyed about the more limited number of voices on the OG DN, it’s like an organic, dynamic pattern randomiser.

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That’s what I wanted to know, thanks!

Amazing how hard it is to find that info…

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Syntakt sounds dirty as hell, if you make it do. The snare and clap and kick just slaps.

Syntakt is easier for live usage, i.e. less parameters. But can do a lot with layering.

DN2 is the better choice when you want 8 Bar progressions, and more flexibility… but its more work.
I love DN1 too. Fm bass can be very subby and audible at the same time

If you pet other gear, Syntakt is better, if you want a one stop shop get DN2.

The bitcrush synth engine is you friend for growly bass shots. (Syntakt) Maybe get a Dn1 and a Syntakt 2nd hand, probably cheap to have.

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The water is muddied a little by the fact that you have seperate tracks for the multi-timbrality which makes it ā€˜feel’ like you have 16 instruments - but it is still a single instrument - I can see why it would be confusing.

If you decide to go OG DN, but don’t want to make your drum sounds from scratch, there’s are two great sound packs by @darenager who are among the best drum sounds I know:

The nice thing is you can still play around with parameters for variations, maybe with performance macros, without having a clue how these sounds were made.

I think four tracks on OG DN should be fine if it’s just a drum machine for you.

All of that being said, ST is way more immediate and has loads of machines focused on drum sounds that will get you there a lot faster. Plus that analog FX block for additional crunch.

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Just in the interested of clarity since ā€œsoundsā€ could be interpreted in different ways, there are the concepts of polyphony and multi-timrality:

Polyphony: how many notes can sound at once (e.g. the Prophet 5 has 5 voices of polyphony, so it could play a 5 note chord, but it can’t play more than 1 sound at a time, therefor it is not multitimbral).

Multi-timbrality: How many different sounds something can produce at one time. My Nordlead 2 is 4-part multitimbral since it can play 4 completely different sounds at once. It is 16-voice polyphonic in that it can play up to 16 notes at one time across those 4 sounds.

With the Digitone II it’s a bit confusing since I believe it is both 16-part multitimbral and has 16 voices of polyphony.

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I know almost nothing of fm synthesis, but despite this I am trying for monthes not to buy a DN2. But with these examples it’s almost impossible!

You don’t need to do FM on the Digitone II, it has four machines: FM Tone (that is FM yes), FM Drum (which you can use in a subtractive way and ignore the FM part or use it only a little :P), Wavetone (two osc subtractive, has PWM, Ringmod, noise and so forth) and Swarmer (Supersaw).

That’s one track of FM Drum :wink:

All of those videos and sounds from me are direct-out from the Digitone II (same is true for the Syntakt ones). There’s no post processing or overbridge, just the synth itself.

Just because of your sounds I may buy one :smiley:

I have soundpacks :wink:

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One way to put it: It has a maximum of 16 voices (polyphony), and each voice can have its own sound (timbre).

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I had difficulty syncing via Midi.

Just to troubleshoot, did you adjust the BPM parameter in the PERF menu to either EXT or MID (if on the most recent firmware 1.71)?

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I have not, I’ll try that later tonight. But from my research I’m gathering that the Digitone2 although rich in sound design isn’t as menu-divey?

I think I’m going to go Syntakt. Found a few aftermarket. I’ll have the digital machines as well as the 4 analog tracks, best of both worlds and then couple that with a Digitakt for sampling…Eventually I’d like to try out the Digtone2. Sounds beastly.

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Im looking into ā€žquickly get goingā€ synths in Nord Lead A1 and the Syntakt :slight_smile:

Good luck have fun!

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Have fun, and remember to check out the Science Labs started by @Nils

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