Retrieving midi info or parameter values from the Syntakt's sound machines?

Elektron Gear Syntakt
#1

Hey all! I recently picked up a Syntakt, and I love it.

I make a lot of code-based visual art, and I’d love to use the parameters of my Elektron machine to drive that art. Is it possible to read midi data that represents what the various sound machines on my Syntakt are doing? I’d love to know what notes are being played, the values of various envelopes/parameters, etc. This is not the same as setting up a midi track and reading those signals, but rather reading signals from the Syntakt’s sound machines.

If this isn’t possible with the Syntakt, is it possible with another Elektron device?

BTW, I tried to contact Elektron support about this, but the support form was broken.

#2

Imho there’s no practical way to do this with any sense of consistency… especially if you consider the modulation of sounds and the many ways that the sounds can be transformed. Even if you were to somehow fetch the sound parameters of a sound by requesting a dump (if Elektron even explain if that is possible, I don’t expect them to provide any documentation) it would be onerous to process this in a timely manner.

I think the best strategy to easily have a partial handle on the sound parameters would be to define those externally and use the external control of those parameters as your source data for further processing. Obviously there are many ways in which the Elektron sequencer can usurp these endeavours, but it would be a practical way to explore the potential. You’re going to have to have a means to send CC values for the settings you want to animate audibly/visually.

Just a thought, if you do most tweaking and playing live, then you can send the user input out as midi info, but not the sequenced data. So a played note can be spied on as can any tweak of a parameter, those feeds are easy to monitor, but negotiating with the device is on another level of complexity and very far from trivial.

There’s no easy way to do what you want imho and anything beyond the trivial suggestions will involve a disproportionate amount of effort for potential . payoff. Sequencing externally affords you the simplest way to follow the parameter changes.

My 2c, but perhaps await a second opinion or alternative strategies

#3

I’m not so sure it would actually be too much of a burden to use the variables if they were available (It’s more or less what I do both for a living and in my free time), but I appreciate that it’s likely not available. Thanks for the response.

#4

In case anybody searches for this in the future, here’s an update.

I spoke with Elektronaut support. It turns out that the Models: and Analog boxes send midi signals for audio tracks because they don’t have the concept of midi tracks. The digi boxes have midi tracks, so they don’t send midi signals on audio tracks.

This is a bit limiting for the admittedly nice use case where you want an external device to be synchronized with an audio track because it doesn’t consider things like conditional triggers, fills, etc. Elektron said that the feature has been submitted to devs in the past, but there’s no guarantee it will get prioritized.

For the time being, people who want this will have to copy their track to a midi track, and conditional triggers or fills won’t be synced between the two.