It has just arrived yesterday. I shot an unboxing (the worst ever you seenš¤£ ) and make my first pattern with it (music on unboxing video from that pattern).
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Adding samples to Syntakt might quickly turn in to a can of worms for Elektron. If they added a simple sample-playback machine, people would within seconds demand more like āplease let us sample like the Digitaktā, or āplease add support for stereo samplesā, or āwhat about slicingā and whatever. I think he makes a great point when he says something like (and Iām paraphrasing here):
āThe Syntakt is a drum synth. It is not a sampler, in the same way that a Peak, a TR-909 or a Model D is not a sampler. If you need a sample-based drum workflow, shut the F*** up and buy a Digitakt or whateverā.
And I totally agree. All these feature requests in regards to sampling take focus away from other more realistic (and more drum-synth-focused) feature requests. Elektron has plenty of samplers in their lineup already.
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Oh, absolutely ā¦ I get that.
Fair enough, but that means Syntakt is likely not the one do it all box for me. WHICH IS FINE. Iām not complaining. Elektron chose a certain course of action and it most likely means that box is not for me. 
EDIT: The only reason Iām even talking about samples on the syntakt is the apparent contradiction in the review above.
Maybe conceptually, there is not a lot of difference. But hardware/software-wise, there is definitely a large difference. A wavetable could be stored with just a few bytes describing the wavetable and since the Syntakt already supports a wavetable you can scroll through, adding the feature of user-supplied wavetables, would not add a lot to the storage requirements although UX would be a bit strange considering the current UI. The same hardware could be used to play user-supplied wavetables, unless the current implementation is implemented with the hardware, not via software (unlikely I think).
Samples are a completely different beast. The storage requirements are much higher, the UX would have to completely change, hardware would have to already be able to support it (which also seems unlikely, as itād add to the BOM costs and was not there at launch) and finally writing software to support that would be a huge task, compared to adding different wavetables to the already existing feature.
Maybe not impossible that there will be samples in the future, granted that the hardware is in place already, but judging by what I said above, I think itās highly unlikely that weāll ever see samples supported by the Syntakt.
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The only reason Iām even talking about samples on the syntakt is the apparent contradiction in the review above. Iām not whinging about their omission. 
The only reason I replied to your post was because I had just read your post, hinting that there was a contradiction when I think there is none, as from hardware/software perspective, the two are very different 
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I just ordered one. I must admit I recently sold my Rytm MkII because I wasnāt keen on the hihats but the form factor of the Syntakt has changed things slightly as itās something I can use around the house or take out more easily.
Iām still not convinced about your assertions on the difference, though I must admit that I hadnāt considered the difference in size between wavetables and samples. I was not expecting (because Iām not demanding anything) a version 2 of the hardware with a bigger memory to accomodate samples. All I was speculating about was, given the hardware constraints, whatās possible, and really whatās the conceptual difference between user-loaded wavetable and user-loaded samples
The UI/UX would have to change for both.
To get a user wavetable into the existing SY CHORD might, for all we know, mean a radical re-write of the algorithm. Might even turn out to me more work than a simple sample player.
Iām also thinking itās unlikely (and Iām not going to cry about it) but more from the point of view that if they DID implement a sample player machine (of the level of M:S or even less), there then would be a cascade of requests for recording, slicing, stereo, pitch shift without tempo change, āhow can you release something this limited in 2023ā etc, etc, ad nauseam.
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no - youāre right. Squid will be staying in the studioā¦ but for live use Syntakt will be plenty just to sequence the Easel Commandā¦
Yeah, I completely get that.
On a side note, I have had all the currect production Elektron units at some point. I never really thought of any of them as groove boxes in the traditional sense. A groove box to me (IMHO) is more of an, as you say, ādo it allā thing. There are other vendors that make such units, and mostly I find that they are jacks-of-all-trades, but they rarely excel in any task and their workflow is not as fast as the Elektron way.
What I really love about Elektron units is the fact that they focus on one particular concept and execute that really well. They might have a groove-boxy flavour to them, but they truly shine when one embrace their primary intent. Digitakt is a sample-based drum machine. Octatrack is a sample-mangler. Syntakt is a drum-synth. Digitone is a poly-synth. Use more than one box if you really need to cover all the bases.
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i guess the ST also has a digital machine that can do hihats right?
otherwise just put an OT or DT next to it to play a hihat sample
A mnm style Digipro beatbox drum sample set machine would be useful. 128 fixed samples of kit and percussion
At 20:20, did you notice that he said that Digitone has a Master Compressor? Which is false.
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Donāt have a Digitone to know, but he said it was added to both the DT & DN in an update?
Not very 2020 
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Yeah I noticed. But it was a good review either way!
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Got mine home and have played with it for only a couple hours.
Thoughts so far - the machines sound incredible!
Super intuitive to use. Was making a beat immediately. Even my 8 year old figured it out in no time.
After going through the factory patterns itās clear this a full fledged Groovebox and not just a drum machine. Although I wish there were more factory patterns - thereās only 32 I believe. Theyāre a great inspiration and learning tool.
Still wrapping my head around the FX track. I can tell itās going to be a wonderful performance tool but itās also deeper than it appears on the surface. Feels similar to how the power of an Octatrack comes only after you set up scenes to do something creative.
The modifiers was the only thing that doesnāt feel intuitive. They are not so much āmodifiersā that change or modify whatās already in the sequence. But rather alternate performance input modes.
Intuitively I assumed that a velocity mod would modify the velocity of trigs already existing in the sequence. But it seems to simply allow for different levels of velocity to be played in. Not modifying the sequence at all really.
Also it felt like there was some over lap in functionality between the decay parameter in the synth engine and the adsr in the amp envelope. Iām sure thereās a creative use for that that I will discover.
Overall Iām seeing this be a great compliment to any other elektron machine. As itās so versatile. And so far Iām finding it to stand on its own better than the DT, MC or MD!
Looking forward to pairing this with the Circuit Tracks the most. The CT will add that little bit of sample playback that people seem to think the ST should have as well as adding the polyphonic synth tracks that also seem to be an early feature request.
Back to digging into the syntakt!
Thanks Elektron for making more creative and inspiring gear!
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Yes, thatās what I was thinking. Iāll see how I like the digital hats before I decide. I want to keep it small, so the DT might work well together, although if I was adding another machine Iād prefer something with a song mode so OT might be better for that.
same here, got the OT AE and thinking it will pair nicely with ST
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Iām in a bit of a honey moon period, but Syntakt has the potential to become my favorite drum machine.
The digital machines is what wins it over for meā¦ they are simple to set up but have a lot of sonic explorations in themā¦ chords is surprisingly my favorite for bass put it in 4 unison mode and tweak away on the other parameters, youāre bound to get a really cool bass sound goingā¦
Great job Elektron!
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