Yeah I get it, it’s a pain in the ass to have it shortened to 32 beats, but you can work around it by using multiple patterns and the conditional trigs like you mentioned, or live manipulation of the sequence. A lot of people get stuck in loop hell on the elektrons and don’t use multiple patterns.
Imo the key thing with the elektron workflow is that there’s a way around almost any issue you have, it just might be tedious and annoying. Though there are certainly exceptions to that, like your midi sequencer example.
Upping my own post because I still agree with myself
Sad if the reddit thread is true, but then again Elektron seems have a long history of saying “this won’t happen” to external peeps. Remember a few month ago Tonverk was a canceled project according to redditers that said they had spoke to the team.
ST still is my favorite machine, but I can’t help but notice it’s being disregarded a lot, & the "no ST2"makes me wonder if there’s anyway to know how many were produced and sold (aka was ST a brick) ?
This forum is depressing now, no software updates, no hardware for the foreseeable future. A fleet of boxes that do one thing well but nothing else. Hopefully the fan boys will accept this cold drink of water and reset their expectations. Let’s face it, Roland Akai Waldorf and even Erica Synths have all had huge hits this year.
Feature request - modifier trig mode: performance macros like A4. holding modifier trigs displays temporary screen with 8 perf macros. Each modifier trig can be a bank of 8 macros.
ST is in my eyes the most sexy and snapiest analog and digital drummachine (plus melodic parts) of Elektron.
Its immidiate yet deep, a combination which is always the crown of magical devices.
Its also a perfect companion for DT, TV and DN, ST can do sounds and things others dont and together the sum is enormously bigger than its parts.
@everyone send your requests directly to Elektron. Please.
I just dont know how much they know that they got a machine with potential to be a alltime legendary device.
Its already great. But with minor updates it could be even better.
It must be really hard to develop new digital macro oscillators/ machines and still make their money back on one years old device while trying to sell/update two new platforms and make new devices too.
ST has a cult following of users who like it for what it is and evangelize it. Then you have people like me who think the concept is the most genius and true-to-roots but it needs more sound options to be useful for my music
I wouldn’t have bought Syntakt 1.0. Firmware 1.3 was what finally got them the sale.
New firmware will get the whole of the music community talking about Syntakt again, it will spawn hundreds of new Youtube videos, it’s the cheapest marketing campaign that Elektron can buy.
It would be far, FAR cheaper than developing a Syntakt II.
Speaking as a programmer who programs this sort of thing I can tell you that Syntakt does indeed hava a lot more stories to tell. Anything that happens at the “trig” level (eg. polyphony) barely adds any CPU load, new digital machines add no more CPU load than the other machines (the simple machine I’m after probably reduces it).
8 digital voices (one per track) is a purely marketing decision. That number isn’t a hardware limit, it would have been chosen before any chips were specified or any programming started.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the DSP inside could do more than 8 voices. A 10 or 12-voice Syntakt would be killer if polyphonic/unison modes happen.
The questions are:
a) Whether Elektron has the manpower to do it without taking time away from other projects, and (b) whether marketing wants to do it.
Only thing I realistically wish for in the Syntakt is quality of life features from the DN2: track linking (this one super important!!), better support for scales (i would love a “locked scale” SY chord machine), maybe an ARP (one can dream…), kits and perform kit, better trig condition system, a more “VA” sounding chord machine, more digital FX etc… I would love if they gave the option for more powerful machines in exchange for less digital tracks. I never use 8 digital tracks at once.
The DN2 can gobble up its 16 voices very quickly if you start using unison and chord modes together. 4-note unison with a three note chord is 12 voices with each button press.
But yeah, at least you get the choice. One very weak point of the Syntakt is as a desktop synthesizer with a MIDI keyboard attached. All that power in the box but you can only play it as a monosynth?
So why don’t I just shut up and get a DN2? Because I like the Syntakt’s main strength, which is “all parameters on the same page”. Editing sounds on the DN2, where there’s four or five pages of interdependent parameters, isn’t something I see as fun.
To bring out the Syntakt’s full potential needs a few more machines (which are very quite cheap/easy for Elektron to add) and polyphony across the digital tracks (a lot more work for them, I admit, but…)
If they could do that then the distinction between ST and DN2 would be “fun/hobby” (ST) and “serious/professional” (DT2), ie. how much time you’re going to spend using it.
Right now we’re choosing between “too limited” and “too complicated”, IMHO.
The Midi tracks really needs to be improved, the 4 glued notes are like “what am I gonna do with this ? there is the chord machine for this and even on the chord machine i can modulate some velocity…”
Actually the Syntakt really miss the point of being the main sequencer of my setup. the “microtime” isn’t microtime, it is tinystep… i feel like it ignores some basic needs of downtempo groovy music styles.
It is such basic features for me … And It is even more disapointing when you consider the global quality of the product.
The DN2 and DT2 both have 128 steps which you can treat as double-resolution timing.
But even so it’s never going to be a “main sequencer” if you want to record something symphonic or jazzy with a lot of variations. It’s mostly for repetitive phrases and songs.
Just add Chorus, for crying out loud. The code is available.
Otherwise I love the ST. It’s like a badass TR-606 with a whole bunch of extras thrown in.
Pattern chaining is so easy that pattern length is not the issue, i can even live record on pattern chain … but 4 glued note T_T still crying …
Honestly i won’t spam this thread with my 4 glued note issue … i’m not gonna wait for Elektron staff to solve it either. I just hope one day they will realize how dumb such a limited use of a midi track can be for musicians experienced with midi… and i must confess that i won’t buy another 1000€ unit with such restriction, no matter how interested i was by the DT2 or the OT2.blabla bla blabla
