Non Specific ST Jank?

Elektron Gear Syntakt
#1

This isn’t really a bugs thing as it’s not consistent/reproduceable but I’ve had a few episodes in the last week where my unit has just seems to have a little moment to itself and I was wondering if anyone else has had this.

Just for context, I’ve got a DT/DN/OT so feel like I’m fairly experienced in it not being specific user error (as in I’ve got a stray envelope or LFO assigned to someone). Anyway, here’s some things I’ve had - powered from PSU3c, not plugged into anything else, no usb, headphones out.

One time, the rate/pitch of the delay chain was modulating noticeably by maybe a semitone or two. No LFOs assigned to anything, no modulation on the synth part - playing it dry produced a solid stable pitch but when sent to the delay, the feedbacked tones wobbled around as if it was a space echo (but not in a good way).

Last night, while playing back a pattern using maybe 8 - 10 voices (a mixture of analogue and digital) the timing started to glitch out - not hugely, just sort stuttery (sort of like if a DAW has too small a buffer size) for a while then went back to doign what it should.

I’ve also had situations where some of the voices willl just turn into weird screachy glitches. If I stop and restart it continues to be weird, then after a few more stops and starts it’ll go back to normal.

Just wondered if anyone else has experienced any of these things - if I had more circumstance or repetition I’d put it in the bugs thread but it’s just sort of random weirdness.

Cheers

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#2

Nope.

I’m still to experience a single glitch, bug or hiccup.

I did used to have a Digitone that was glitchy as fuck for a bit, burning the project and starting a new one fixed all of it.

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#3

Smooth sailing for me thus far as well.

#4

I’ve pushed mine to crazy places. I had an audio drop out issue early on which doesn’t seem to have come back and a somewhat inexplicable thing where it loaded a prior “memory snapshot” when I turned it on (that I fixed by reloading the save I made before I turned it off last time — always save!) and worked with support on both of those.

I haven’t had anything like what you’ve described- timing in particular has been rock solid. Would be good to record what you are talking about if you can.

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#5

I feel a bit like I might have recreated the delay pitch wobble last night - it seemed to be invoked by having one of the analogue voices pitched all the way down but I need to do a bit more poking and see if I can make it happen again.

The other issues I mentioned have not really manifested noticeably though I don’t think.

#6

I’ve got an issue with one pattern where, somehow, the delay eventually self-oscillates and goes infinite on one Bits track if I let the pattern keep running, probably after 2-3 minutes. I’ve triple checked the delay and reverb settings, nothing is infinite and the decays/ feedback are at like 75%. No trigs anywhere increasing delay settings. The delay-to-reverb routing is turned all the way down, as are the reverb/delay sends in the fx block. I have yet to find a solution, other than muting the track. Thankfully it isn’t dreadful at first and adds a small bit of color to the pattern, which will be beneficial when I go to record it.

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#7

Thought this was going to be about Atari STs

2 Likes
#8

I’ve been having this issue too… then when you stop the pattern it does this weird shut down sound lol. It creeps through and keeps delaying and delaying and delaying and volume rises etc… I recorded it last night, listen to the end when i hit stop on syntakt.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd4OCKLg4mM/

#9

It sounds like there may be a P-Lock somewhere on the FX track producing that sound :thinking:

#10

When you say 75%, do you mean that the feeback knob’s value is 75, or that you are at 75% of the knob’s travel (3 o’clock, in old money)?

#11

Encountered that delay thing last night - figured it was my settings so dialled back a bit and all was ok (to my ears). My scenario could just be my settings though so likely a user being an idiot case in my books

I still encounter a distorted output. Everything sounds great with volumes say, 75% or less and also through OB but if I crank the master volume to full many of my patterns get really distorted. It’s almost like the overdrive is getting switched on or something (even though it isn’t set on the FX block). Clearly manageable by turning the volume up on my headphones and turning things down on the master so not a big issue.

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#12

I’ve had 2 Digitones (Normal, and Keys) and both had slightly irritating knob behaviour, where the parameter 0-127 range didn’t seem to do EXACTLY what you were doing with the knob. Either it went too slow or too fast, very unpredictable.

Can anyone confirm how the numbers on screen relate to the knob movement - as in, does it seem to be very instinctive, or slightly unpredictable to arrive at an exact value?

I’m not a Syntakt owner yet of course, and the Digitone knob behaviour (and the famous detecting double-press of some of the buttons nuance!) really put me off enjoying the device.

Cheers! Thanks in advance for any input.

#13

@Fin25 75% of the knob’s travel value/ 3 oclock, sorry. I don’t know what the actual number is and wasn’t near it to check. I lowered it back to about noon and it still behaves the same way.

@algorithmtoo I checked, no P-locks on the FX track. :frowning: I’m sure it’s user-error somewhere, but it’s odd that I abuse delay/reverb on other patterns with no issues.

@Brockstar yup, that’s close to what happens to me! Does yours go on forever if you don’t double-tap the stop button to kill all audio?

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#14

Yes! I also think it may be tied to the delay feedback parameter. Mine was set pretty high over 100, but when I backed it down it went away. So may just be user error?

#15

Oh, interesting. I’ll check my release parameters, I hadn’t thought about that. It’s… weird that a long filter release could cause infinite self-oscillation though, isn’t it? I’m 99% sure mine is user error somewhere and not actually a bug, but man it has been a headache to figure out.

#16

sorry i meant delay feedback parameter… not sure why i wrote filter release but i corrected it lol. Anything over 100 on that parameter seems to oscillate a lot

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#17

Yeah, you’ve both fallen foul of the Elektron mental delay feedback thing by the sounds of it.

Anything over about 90 (which is 12 o’clock on the dial) will start to self oscillate, you need to keep the knob below 12 o’clock otherwise it will start to build up.

Anything above 100 is the beginning of the danger zone.

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#18

Ha, oops! That’s good to know, and I’m guessing I should have RTFM on the delay parameters. I’ll check it out again after work! It’s interesting that it’s so subtle for so long, that opens up some cool arrangement possibilities if the user can time the self-oscillating via the feedback amount.

Edit: actually just checked. I have it set to 101, that explains why it took so long to actually become audible.

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#19

It’s a very balsy way to setup a delay, as a lot of people have set the feedback to like 3 o’clock expecting just to have a lot of repeats but end up with a very out of control and savage load of oscillating delay madness.

I love it.

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#20

I’ll echo this tbh: I only have the Octa and a Digitone and the Octa is no bother, Digitone freezes up frequently.