Honestly tho, you don’t have to touch it to hear it.
However…if an opinion is based on a musical instrument based on its manual….that’s another story. You gotta hear it first man
I mean, I wouldn’t suggest someone should like a painting because of how it was made…it’s how it looks…right? Its the feeling you get from it.
Totally agree with your other point…I’ve never understood hacking on a piece of gear for features it doesn’t have. It’s built the way it’s built. Like it or don’t. It is cool, however, that features get added. But I would never suggest someone buy something for things that may or may not be added. I agree 100% with you there, this is what it does, use for that, no sense complaining about something you knew it didn’t have to begin with. And besides, for example, Syntakt doesn’t have an Arp, DN does, use that. “Oh I don’t have a DN”, your DAW does use that. There’s ways to get creative. You can do a lot!
Re “honest review” : you only get those once someone’s left the company it seems. Your not a salesman anymore. not saying this is the case here but …is it honest? There may be a little bitterness sprinkled in. You can never know.
+1. The world has gone mad that we always want “innovation” in a sense that we think we all “need” something radical different.
That Elektron re-used a proven workflow and format so that anyone who knows how to work with a DN/DT can immediate start with the Syntakt can be considered conservative but also very convenient.
It works the other way around too: When you know the Syntakt, you can immediately use the DT when you need sampling or the DN when you need a polyphonic synthesizer. And all of these boxes are easy to combine.
I’d say well done Elektron. With the sequencable FX track added, Analog FX, enough tracks and familiar sound engines from other Elektrons they just made themselves a cool little groovebox which will be very popular for years to come.
Again, I think Cenk was far from just complaining about it, he clearly made great songs on it and said that it’s nice to have all the familiar sounds in one box. He just said he didn’t think it was particularly innovative, and this sentiment seems to be shared by many. It’s more of a “greatest hits” type of box rather than something truly innovative. Which isn’t really a criticism more than it’s stating the obvious. So I don’t think he’s colored by bitterness when saying so.
Me personally (which is a totally different story), I think it packs a lot of great stuff in a convenient package. My pet peeves are portability (battery+usb-c) and the DN arp. The former will obviously never happen on the Syntakt, but the latter? One can hope. But to be honest, I would have bought it anyway if it wasn’t for the fact that I simply don’t enjoy the M:C sound palette as much as others here seem to do. To me, there’s some nostalgia, like chip tune and the FM of Sega Megadrive (Sonic 3 always comes to mind when I hear the demos of both the ST and the M:C) but I wouldn’t associate that type of sound with a €999 price tag. So I think I’ll just accept that this sound isn’t for me, but I keep listening to the live jams on YouTube and see if someone finally finds some interesting tones that aren’t the bread and butter 2-op FM synthesis tones from the M:C.
Edit: when I criticize the sound, I mean the tone/melody part of it, not the drums. Those mostly sound cool to me, if a little thin at times. But I’m sure they can sound great with some tweaking, filtering and EQing. So as a drum computer with some nice bonuses, it probably ticks all the boxes. But as a groovebox with “drums and melody in full fusion”, I’d say it’s pretty far from complete, especially at this price level.
I mean the “machines” that are meant for other things than drums. Elektron describes the Syntakt as “drums and melody in full fusion” so I meant “melody” in that context.
I’ve wanted a groovebox in this form factor ever since I had the DT - which I sold because sampling is a mood killer for me. So this is the best thing I could buy: sounds great, the machines are powerful and straightforward, it has the Elektron sequencer which I already know inside out and Overbridge works well enough with it, so I can use it in the studio pretty easily.
Yes, I could ask a lot more from it but there’s no machine that does it all, so why bother doing that?
The only thing I wish it had is the song mode because I play other instruments and I can’t be bothered to change pattern while playing guitar or drums - but I knew that before buying it so I don’t think it would be logical to complain about that. I’ll work my way around that and that’s good enough for me.
Other than that, I think Elektron hit bull’s eye with this one and I hope to have this thing with me for a very long time.
I left an explanation in the bug thread here: Syntakt 1.00 : bug reports - #62 by ballener0 Basically it looks like the unit can’t send PC messages from a trig, unless you’re dialing up the PC while the pattern is playing each time. Kind of a bummer because I want to use that to sequence the Syntakt from itself as some kind of song mode, but I guess it’ll have to wait.
My 2c - Cenk is right with his lack of innovation comment, let’s not be Emperor’s New Clothes about this
Syntakt is plainly not that innovative, nor was Digitakt. Digitone was - but they each are no less great in their own way and make people happy.
I don’t think he was having a dig at elektron or the Syntakt - he was just pointing out the obvious.
There are a few little innovations in the Syntakt, but it is ultimately another drum computer from elektron largely reutilising features of past machines.
I too would like to see the next machine from elektron with more fundamental new thinking and innovation. Or I’d be equally happy to see a less innovative but equally desirable next gen Octatrack
Just because it isn’t a technological marvel of radical freshness doesn’t mean it isn’t good
you missed the point. its the instruments creation that is enjoyed.
the instrument may be the brush, but the sound is the result. not need to touch it to hear it. music is heard to be appreciate it. I wouldn’t much enjoy a DJ playing his set…with no sound.
so in that respect, re: the painting…the brush may be the instrument, but if you cant see the art…doesnt really matter what the instrument made.
He (somewhat) likes the drum-purposed ‘machines’ (BD, SD, HH etc.)
He doesn’t like the ‘machines’ so much which are predestined for tonal and/or melody parts of a track (i.e. synths, basses, chords)
and it seems that @djst wanted to partly correct (by making it more precise) a former post by writing this. I am pretty sure, @djst knows that the melody itself is programmed by the user (but in most cases [yes, one can make melodic stuff with BD and SD] using melody-purposed-sounds/machines).
Sort of agree. First hand experiences are certainly better (but need the ability to deposit 1k international money units). My ST tracks sound very different from the presets or videos from other people and I am happy with it. (Lots of work into creating pleasant round dub-techno-like sounds with filtering, EQ etc.)
But - on the other hand, reading the manual beforehand helped me a lot by understanding what to expect and what not to expect. (E.g. I gave the twisted minds blast beats a pass - because tracks in a pattern (BB, SD, HH, Synths) are forced to have equal lengths - that’s not how I work - and if I just wanted to sample 2OP or 4OP sounds I would use Adlibtracker). So here - reading the manual helped a lot.
That’s true. It’s basically a model cycles + AR voices in digi format, nothing too new except the FX block and the modifiers
To expect innovation like what Elektron did to the silver machines and octatrack is unrealistic given the direction Elektron has took with the digi and model machines
I mean look at the octatrack… it’s been out for more than 10 years now and there’s nothing like it out there. I have no clue who came out with the idea but he’s a fucking a genius
So let’s add to the wish-list for the upcoming 10 years of development of this future classic:
glide
additional FX (bit crusher as with the bit instrument)
LFO on retrig time
Kits (just exchange each tracks basic sound while leaving the sequence and preprogrammed trigs as they are)
alternative sequencer reading (per pattern and/or track) - reverse, ping-pong, random (and active steps as with korg)
jump mode
Midi instruments (great idea!)
(Maybe the wish for sampling is a little over the top, even though a sample player-machine for short 8-bit samples would be nice) and voice sharing isn’t necessary IMO)
