Interesting. This is a single analog osc drone through the FX track.
I used one of the LFOs on the balance param to get extra overtones.
Not too bad for 1 voice out of 12
Interesting. This is a single analog osc drone through the FX track.
I used one of the LFOs on the balance param to get extra overtones.
Not too bad for 1 voice out of 12
Sonically the best thing Iāve heard from it so far, really nice
I think the āproblemā is just simply that all machines have the filter on by default
Does it not have an INIT function?
If not, it could be a feature request. FUNC+___
Yeah there is so much variation you can get from the dvco. I canāt stop making presets with that machine. That almost plastic raw bass sound is incredible, I love it. You can also get a nice bass synth from the plastic bd with a similar timbre but I am in love with the dvco
Digital synths all make great bass too. Itās a great bass synth
I donāt get the hi hat critiques either. I use noise for every hat sound on my rytm and I do the same on the syntakt. The syntakt machines do sound like improved versions of the rytm machines to me. But there are much more options here for different noise and tonal source material. Thatās whatās lacking on the rytm. You can sample, but itās not the same as synthesizing your own percussion imo.
90% of my kits on the rytm are either noise, impulse sounds, or some other form of filter ping with meticulously crafted envelopes, saturation, and filter parameters. So it feels to me like the syntakt is a massively improved rytm. I do love the rytm sound with the vca, the drive and compressor. But I feel like the kick, snare, clap, impulse, noise machines are all much better. More synthesis sources, more sound design options, and improved sounds
I was prepared to be disappointed, and you can find reasons to be upset about certain aspects, but overall this is an incredibly inspiring drum machine and multi synth groovebox. I canāt seem to even force myself to care about any of the new superbooth stuff when I have all of my absolute favorite things all in one Elektron box
And like all Elektron machines, it endlessly rewards creative experimentation. It goes as far as your ability to push it
Personally like the hats
I like all the synths too.
Fun little box
Then you just have to turn off the time stretch and itās gold!
Not everybody likes just noise for hats (for example me)
Yeah I have only spent a matter of hrs ā days with the ST so far but it is heavily pulling me towards more dark, dub and organic sounds. A sick contrast to the hifi (potential) chaos of the DN.
Very much synthesis simplified and ample filtering and fx.
It can sound HARD.
Iām really enjoying it.
Syntakt can do good hats.
With the extra help of the filter, amp and 2 LFOs, the analogue and digital hihat machines can sound pretty good.
But you can make good hats out of the different snare machines, the clap machine, the noise machine, even the tone machine can make good hats.
Itās not even that much ballache.
And this is coming from someone who hated making hats on the M:C.
Itās never gonna make good 909 hats though, because itās not a sampler.
For me, layering a noise shaker I make with analog voice UT Noise (shave HPF and machine attack), and an analog hat machine, and a good bit of bandpass filtering gives me āusableā hats.
Some would argue that it comes at the loss of a track, since I have to use two machines instead of one.
And to them I say every usable synthesized, non-sample hat I got out of Rytm or MD took 2-3 tracks, and at least with Syntakt, 12 tracks is about 3-4 more tracks than I really need anyway. And 5-6 more tracks than I need if I take better advantage of sound locks.
But yea I also think this romantic idea of doing full tunes on one box, when most of us have plenty of other boxes at our disposal, is a fraught ideal.
Really the single box tunes that Iāve made that truly felt finished were made with 7 tracks of Octatrack (8th being a master track). Plus, like OT, Syntakt still needs bus compression and some multiband limiting. So is it truly an all-in-one dream box? No. That would be a laptop.
And ya know what? ST USB out stereo core audio into my MacBook Air, with some low latency plug-in processing and a classic Roland xox drum rack sure sounds good.
Agree on all counts. Actually I quite like the other hats that are offered as well. Iāve had a Rytm (and Digitakt) for a few years and have learned it in depth from a sound design and sequencing standpoint. If you know the Elektron tricks you can really make the Syntakt groove, whatever it is that you are attempting to make. Ok, yeah itās not going to make the most warm analog sounding chords Iāve heard, but thatās what I have an OB6 for. And the chords that it does have, though limited, are freaking dope once you are adept with parameter modulation.
Really it is sort of the same philosophy of modular systems (though in a much different package). Simple building blocks that can be modulated to produce things that you wouldnāt make with any other machine. Operative word is ācanā - if one doesnāt like the Elektron workflow, itās not going to create very unique sounds, and thatās ok. Our brains all work differently.
If anyone is having trouble getting the digital hats to sound right, donāt forget to play with the inharmonics and modulation params on the SYN page. And also donāt forget that you have TWO filters. Use the first one to sculpt the sound and attack, then use the 2nd (base width) filter to clean up unwanted frequencies. Also remember that you have TWO LFOās so one of those can be used to add extra punch to your transients and you will STILL have an LFO left over for longer-form modulation!
I donāt even understand how you synthesize hats without noise. Isnāt that all they are? Maybe sing ring mod style high freq oscillations, of which you have many options here as well? Is there something Iām missing? Are you asking for samples?
Whatās the ideal hat synth? Do Rolandās have some kind of magic hat sound? Iām not familiar with those? Noise hats sound like hi hats. Iāve played drums all my life
i dont know if this hurts my case or helps it, but i just made a quick like 5 minute track with all āhatsā using noise from 2 analog ut noise tracks and 5 digital tracks (one sy tone, one sy bits, one cy alloy, two sd vintage)
(it doesnāt change really, just looping 2+4 bar patterns over and over)
*EDIT: now that iām home with my headphones, thatās definitely not what it sounded like before recording. i did not hear that snare body or a lot of the tonal stuff on my machine. not a good example, sorry. but dont let that be a representation of the syntaktās capabilities
iāve never recorded and uploaded something straight from my zoom h5, so i dont know how it sounds. but its an example nonetheless
@subLimb i would add to the above tips that using filter frequency fm on the main and sometimes even base/width filter with audio rate (1k-2k) saw or envelope waves usually helps add a little fuzz on top of the hats as well
the sy tone has feedback and other fm modulation that you can turn to clangy noisy hats, the sy bits has a balance that you can dial in perfectly between pure bitcrushed digital noise & crispy tones with overdrive and sample rate reduction, the sd vintage is actually kind of perfect for hats if you bp filter out the low end with the 2nd filter. it has an inharmonicity parameter that makes things more or less metallic, a sweep, and mod envelope.
look at these options for the fm style snare machine
and almost all machines have an extra dedicated decay filter which will go from swishy shaker sounds to open hats and back to fully clamped metallic clicking hats. plus the second filter envelope on page 2 for even further shaping the attack transient for even more precise dynamics and timbre. the rytm does not have this much control over how you can shape your percussive sounds, in my opinion
The analog engine presets are compatible with the presets engine of Analog Rytm ?
If you hit the bell of a hihat (or cymbal), you hear what it is: a bell. If you hit the side, itās the same bell, just with a lot more overtones and thus nearing to be noise. But still not being just noise
(On a side note, the hihat of the TR 808 are six square waves - tuned to resemble inharmonic overtones =bells)
Actually I donāt even like noise for snares either, it always sounds meh to me @.@
Model:Cycles and Syntakt are doing a good job in replicating hihat/cymbal sounds, but so far I havenāt found a sound as creamy yummy colourful as an actual hihat. But hey, Iāve got my unit just yesterday
I too would like to know if itās a lift and shift or developed versions of these engines. Happy with either but seems likely they would tweak a bit the preset of each engineā¦hopefully.
not just noise, the ring modulated high frequency tone with a sharp transient is bell-like. but also thatās not a typical hi hat sound. itās either closed or open and struck on the edge with the middle of the stick or the top outer part of the cymbal with the tip, which is a clasped, muffled white noise metallic sound or a swishy, slow attack open hat wash noise. there is noise there
i didnāt know that about the 808, but im sure fm oscillators can do the trick just fine with inharmonic overtones
im pretty sure you cant make snares without noise. there is a resonant body component but the rattling metal coils are definitely noise
i guess you said that. but im saying you can accomplish it without much of a bell tone. i see what youre saying though i guess. i havent heard an incredible sounding synthesized bell-like hat, but thatās also not really what i hear on recordings
by the way, im not saying this for the sake of argument. im open to the idea that im wrong, but i genuinely thought that all you needed was noise for snares and hats. what im seeing so far on youtube ārecreating 808 hi hat synthsā is not proving otherwise
ok what about this. i listened to some 808 hats and tried making a slightly similar thing with the SY BITS just now:
i think the bit synth might be the best hi hat machine. i used to prefer ut noise but this is really cool
you can use a square wave or more narrow pulse, and you can dial in just a tiny amount of detuned osc tone before bp filtering out most of it. also, i neglected to do this while recording, but you can obviously hit higher notes for a more ābell-likeā tone which does not resemble a hi hat in this case, but i still thought it sounded pretty cool:
In the end it doesnāt matter, since itās a matter of taste
Electronic noise hihats are not my taste. I like 808 hats, but not for my music. Real-ish hihats are what I want (I also played drums and did mixing and mastering for rock music records). For my music, I want something that has characteristics of the real deal, but is not a sample. And Syntakt so far has several options to get close to that.
The best hihat I had so far was actually on the Volca Drum (!): A combination of ringmodulated sawtooth, modulated highpassed noise and medium pitched string resonance (their āwaveguide resonatorā). The latter being key to turn the noise and sawtooth into creamy, pleasant cymbal-like resonance. Actually the main reason Iād like to have some kind of resonator effect (thereās be lots of options what it could be) in Syntakt ā¦
Edit: Cool SY BITS Hihat!
iād love to try the volca drum. keep forgetting that exists. i think iād like that too
i also think i agree with you. i typically try to stay away from more āelectronicā sounds in general, especially with drums, since i used to be a drummer. ironically, thats what i thought i was doing by using organic noise rather than synthesized bell tones, but i can see your point
if you happen to make a few that youāre happy with, would you mind sharing them? im just curious to hear what your ideal sound would be. or the closest you can get i guess
ā¦ Iāll try this evening or tomorrow to record something ā¦