Fellow Syntaktors, it’s finally time for the SY Bits Science Lab.
Syntakt’s digital version of the typical dual oscillator mono synth is a very flexible and capable machine. It also makes a big difference that there are eight tracks available, so I’m expecting entire symphonies this time
No symphonies here but I did attempt to make more percussive sounds to back up some plinky tones. 8 tracks of Bits all sent through FX for drive and a little random lfo modulation on the reverb decay just to see what happens lol. Put through Grand Finale in Cubasis per usual:
7x Bits. Inspiration was Metroid style retro videogame soundtrack atmo
Lots of modulation of the OSC wave and modulating the speed with the other LFO. Portamento aplenty as well. And some SRR modulation for the lo fi fx and stuff. Fun times
OMG SY Bits! What a treasure trove! Certainly one of those machines that could be the basis for a complete instrument. I realize I’ve totally neglected it.
I ended up doing some Röyksopp plagiarism here…
Eight tracks of SY Bits. Drums and percussion on three tracks, bass on one, arpeggios on two and strings on two. All going through the FX track for “glue” and EQ. No external processing. Three patterns with some muting. FX track filter fade-in at the start.
Love the sound and it’s great to meet another fan of the original Metroid! Unforgettable childhood memories I was thinking about trying to recreate its Brinstar theme the other day but I don’t think I’ve got the necessary dedication and skills
I’m counting this as a failed science experiment. I had the idea of modulating both tune and detune with a square lfo at different speeds creating intervals and then do that on three tracks and then somehow make that sound harmonious. And because some of them where modulated in triplets I was only making work for myself getting the other tracks to have that triplet swing feel as well… Anyway. 8 Tracks of SY Bits.
No experiments are failed imo as long as you learn something in the process, or come up with some nice sounds
Your idea implies that Sy bits can offer 16 note polyphony, which is interesting. Maybe it’s easier to implement with simple p-locks of the detune parameter?
I like the sound of this. It feels like it took you some place you didn’t expect. I tried similar experiments with the MD long ago, and I think it was worthwhile, albeit difficult to keep track of all the notes. A bit of work for sure
That’s absolutely true. Hence my reservation and calling it a bit of a failed experiment. I’ve warmed up to it though
But while I was reading your comment I had a thought of maybe simplifying the idea a bit and just using a bunch of stacked fifths with the odd p-lock here and there for voice leading…
Also 8 tracks of Bits - I wanted to build chords using the A4 oscillator tuning trick, though in this case it takes two tracks to build a four note chord. So used 6 tracks for chords, one for bass, one lead. Added a couple tracks and the reverb to the FX block and used amp volume trigs on the reverb to try for a chopped-sample effect:
[Still rather distracted by TV after the recent updates…]
This pattern was at a dead end, then I started copying one of the tracks and offsetting the trigs and the tuning. Mainly using Velocity with the mod macros.
Next time I will remember that if you set the probability per trig, you can’t then reduce global probability via Ctrl-All. Or is that a bug?
It’s a good way to drastically simplify a pattern .
Eg … if you have a crazy bassline with lots of notes , set a 100% chance trig on a few of the notes
So even when you dial it down , those specific notes ( or other parameter locks ) will continue to trigger
Probably obvious … I don’t want to mansplain stuff
Yes, in this case it’s that I’ve got into the habit of always locking the probability on trigs themselves rather than at the track level, to allow use of Not PRE whereas I wanted to thin out the trigs and didn’t have any fancy conditions.
Anyway, was pleased that a dead end turned into something better.
What a treasure trove! Certainly one of those machines that could be the basis for a complete instrument. I realize I’ve totally neglected it.
And because some of them where modulated in triplets I was only making work for myself getting the other tracks to have that triplet swing feel as well… Anyway. 8 Tracks of SY Bits.
