So after reading a lot of controversial stuff about Syntakt here I finally pulled the trigger, because at Elektron they seem to listen to their users and constantly bringing new features.
I´ve seen a lot of dull sounding but moreso some fantastic and inspirational syntakt videos (by Dave Mech, Mutlu Karaköse, Cuckoo, Ihor, Stimming…).
And although I will keep my MD forever for several reasons atm Syntakt feels like my 2022 machinedrum and brings me a lot of joy.
So I dislike most of the demo pattern on the syntakt, but there is a lot to learn from them and I really cannot figure out how this is done
Lot of the demo patterns are longer than 64 steps, some of them have intros and then start (A09), some of them have longer melodic lines (A07).
I usually have 128 or 256 step in master length sometime 512.
The scale per track 1/8 1/4 are really useful for melodic content. It’s a game changer when it was implemented on all new Elektron.
Also, I kinda just had an epiphany with scale options myself, though it’s not just Elektron boxes.
I just bought the Pocket Operator Sub, and I put the bpm as low as it can go, and alternated kick and snare on every step. Then I played with the play styles and sound automation to play. I know it’s all gimmicky, but really does sound fun.
And now I can apply that to lead and bass scales on the Syntakt. I forgot all about the scale options.
I use scale per track and conditional trigs a lot, but not to create the longest and most complex patterns, but because I’m kinda lazy and try to avoid using more than one page per track this somehow also helps me keep an better overview over a playing pattern and to time transitions correctly
A common trick (I think) is using the x:x conditions on nearby steps, while one step is maximally notched towards the other, so you can have a “longer” pattern with alternating notes on the “same” step
this somehow also helps me keep an better overview over a playing pattern and to time transitions correctly