That’s right. Simple, crusty and nice sounding 12 bit samples. P-locking of the retrig parameter opens up for tonal sounds as well. I had a lot of fun with them in the MD.
It’s a sound palette that I’m unable to get from the ST.
The other “sounds worlds” are already covered imo:
MD TRX → ST analog machines
MD EFM → Most of the digital drums in the ST are FM-based. Different from the MD FM machines, but they cover a lot of the same territory imo (notable exception: the MD EFM hihat machine, wonderful and much better sounding than the ST digital hat)
MD PI → these are fairly weak and limited in the MD imo, and I don’t see a need for them in the ST. Some new physical modelling machines with more potential would fantastic though.
Would love some more digital hihat, ride and cymbal machines. Samples on the analog machines like the Rytm would also be awesome. That would really boost some sales!
With no hardware sequel planned, and presumably most new development now focused on the platform introduced by Tonverk, perhaps this release will be the software equivalent of a Syntakt II so that Elektron feel they can park the form factor at Digitakt II, Digitone II, and Syntakt v2.0 as they head off into new ventures. In other words it will be about feature parity between the three boxes, where applicable.
Absolutely. My main gripe was that the PI machines didn’t feel very flexible. The parameters not really changing the sounds a lot. Far from the workhorse that any of the EFM machines are. I hope that any new machine that (hopefully) might be added to the Syntakt on Wednesday lends itself to experimentation and flexibility.
Yeah, if we are allowed to dream and this happened, I would consider using it as the main drum machine of a DAW setup.
Would be awesome if they took some inspiration from Nord, Korg, LXR-02, MD etc and focus more on quality assurance to deliver immediacy together with quality – or verkshöjd as we say in Sweden. Right now the Syntakt mostly a side ting, but it’s got a lot of potential.
There’s nothing wrong with using 12-bit samples on a device like a synth or drum machine where there’s no dynamic range. It’s all about signal to noise ratio.
Even 8 bits gives you 48dB signal to noise, plenty good enough for most “sampler” tasks or compressed pop songs.
Disclaimer: I’ve written a lot of sound/audio software so my wish list juggles a few factors, one of them being development time. The less development time needed, the more likely it is to get done, especially at this stage in the life cycle. This means I’ve left out features that I’d like to have but would need a lot of work to add them.
I’ve also left out things like “sampling” (they’re not going to do that, they want you to buy at least two Elektron boxes) and things that would be so limited by hardware constraints that people would complain anyway (eg. compressor because wouldn’t work an any of the analog parts).
So: First part… 1) Link tracks to sound pool
Add a feature to link a track to the sound pool so if the sound poll changes the track will use the new sound. This allows seamless changes between patterns when you’re tweaking sounds and finally makes song mode useful.
Tweaking the sound of a track that’s linked to the pool should also update the pool automatically.
A simple on/off Juno-like chorus would do, no parameter editing page needed.
Level up: Add phaser/flanger effects too.
3) More LFOs/envelopes.
Another LFO and two ADSR/AHD envelope generators please.
Envelope generators let you do ramps. The release phase should be able to go “upwards”.
4) Add a classic VA synth machine
I really miss having a PWM+other waveform synth. This combination is the basis of almost all old-school synths, eg. Polymoog, SS Pro-One, Roland SH-101, Juno, Jupiter… and many others … but the Syntakt can’t do it.
eg. A PWM wave plus a separately tunable/mixable sawtooth:
I don’t think they’ll add full polyphony to the Syntakt (and I’m not sure I really want it) but lack of polyphony is definitely a problem (see below).
I’m thinking of a way to improve Syntakt without needing any changes at all to the sequencer (which is what would take all the development time).
So with that in mind…
5) Polyphony
Problem: It’s almost impossible to use sounds with long decays on Syntakt. The next note played on a track always chops off the previous note, usually with a horrible loud click or thump .
You can mess with trig locks in the sequencer to try and minimize the clunks but it’s really limiting to have to cut off previous sounds and doesn’t help when trying to play with an external keyboard.
Fix: Allow tracks to be linked to neighbors in “biphonic” or “triphonic” mode. Voices on linked tracks can be used to play notes in round robin or a user-selectable note-stealing mode.
You can play “chords” by using microtiming or whatever. The main point is to kill the clunks and allow nice long releases.
Boss level: Max out every last cycle in the DSP, every gate in the FPGA to create a couple of freely assignable digital voices that can be attached to other digital tracks in biphonic/triphonic configuration. This could even reduce the overall development time by simplifying the changes needed to the rest of the system.
and…
6) Real polyphony/track layering/unison modes
If we have biphonic/triphonic tracks then a lot of other doors open up…
Regarding the synthesis topic, it would be nice to see something like Nord Drum approach: selectable and configurable attack, body and noise components. Just three components allow to make any drum sound. ND is not really deep in terns of tons of parameters, but very flexible. I keep one as a sound module to sample, but it would be nice to have such sound design capabilities in syntakt.
So, tomorrow is the long awaited ST update. Why did it take so long? Did they rewrite the code from the ground up to maximize the ST to its full potential? Did they develop neat new Machines?
…
This is not a complaint at all (I love the ST as it is), I’m just curious to see, in between all the new releases and updates, what they were planning for the ST. I kind of imagine that it’s going to be a substantial update.
They’ve released multiple Digitakt II and Digitone II FW updates and brought up a new sampler from buggy launch to early but stable FW since the last Syntakt OS. I think they’re keeping busy.
Well, looks like the sales were still going strong even without updates. Any significant update is there for a sale push which in this case is happening rather then Syntakt II.
I am more curious what they have planned for the flagships . . .which are still in the lineup, expansive and updates are overdue.
AR got that big update like a year ago, they said they tried to add a 2nd LFO bug couldn’t pull it off. A4 might still get one more feature update before it’s just bugfixes and retirement.
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