Thinking about Digitone in preference to Syntakt

[Jacob]

Thanks for the reply! I’m going to look into it but still have my fingers crossed for internal poly;)

[Ryan]

For everything else there’s Mastercard

[cutlery]

The A4 is really great, but maybe has more depth than you are looking for right now. For melodic parts I like it a bit more than the Syntakt, at least when the digital machines are set aside. They pair pretty nicely together, but that isn’t quite what you asked.

[Humanprogram]

I can confirm the RK-002 works fine controlling from DT to ST for polyphony. (If I remember right if filters out transport controls by default, though, which is inconvenient.) I almost replied at length about it. It does work, but on the ST doing RK-002 polyphony introduces just enough friction that I seldom reach for it—somehow designing a sound as “mono”, then copy-pasting every change to hear as “poly”, maybe I need more practice with polyphonic sound design, but the sounds I wind up with don’t exactly blow away the ST’s chord or 2-oscillator machines tuned to an interval. Then there’s having to plan in advance any live tweaks to the sound (RK-002 does pass both CC and sound macro info MW/AT/BC/PB to all polyphony channels, which is nice).

All this to say: can confirm it works, but it’s not a magical hack that has me feeling like I got away with something or like it would replace a DN for folks who are considering one with a Syntakt.

ST + DT or ST + DT + Nymphes are my own ideal setups …

[reeloy]

…if ur into ableton frequently u got the sampling planet more than covered…with or without a dtakt…
and if ur looking for an external synth to spice and speed things up, want vast sounddesign options u can’t get lost in too deep, like with a dtone, but are into the klak klak zack zack elektron workflow anyways, syntakt is the perfect choice…

running both takts in combo with some daw, is all it really needs…no matter what ur up to sonicwise…

[Jacob]

Thanks for the detailed reply

[PentalagusMusic]

Not sure, friend.
I had a somewhat relatable Elektron journey going from Model:Cycles to Digitone to Syntakt.

I feel that if I had really committed to the DN I would still have it, but the immediacy of the MC (now replaced with ST) really gets me rolling making music.

As much as I am into the digital and FM machines, the analog synth machines on the ST really really grew on me too. SY Dual VCO can do some crazy stuff with FM and ring mod interactions.
And the new SY Raw machine can sound massive and thick.
It’s basically killed any interest in any other analog mono synth for me

Sometimes I wish I had kept the DN for the polyphony and arps, but the Opsix is gelling with my brain better as a sound design fan.

I am not knocking the Digitone by any stretch though I think it can sound beautiful, I’m just more into immediacy.
The Syntakt’s init sounds can be dialed in to taste so quickly.

[PentalagusMusic]

@Jacob

Thanks for the reply! I’m going to look into it but still have my fingers crossed for internal poly;)

That’s high on my wishlist as well!

[Switchzik]

Also on the fence on getting one of the 2, I’m still leading toward getting the DN.
On the paper the ST is actually perfect (analog, digital, immediate, …)
But so far I haven’t heard demos showing a softer side of the Syntakt that I like on the DN. I’ve the feeling it always lend into a full 12 tracks techno, drumachine kind of set but I would like to listen more of abstract, deep, atmo, less crowded tracks.
Any playlist/youtube to share ?

[gekkonier]

micdrop

[PentalagusMusic]

I usually lean toward dance stuff, or kind of video gamey sounds, but here is one of the softer things I’ve made if I can self promote a bit.

Pulsarstars • Elektron Syntakt & Korg Opsix

[Jacob]

Substan (youtube) has some pretty gentle/beautiful ST videos. I also think the first Dataline ST demo has some silky ambience at times.

The good news is there is no wrong choice here (between a ST or DN).

Edit: some vids

resurrection ... elektron syntakt ... ambient

liberation from time ... elektron syntakt ... ambient

The Syntakt Experience

[DonovanDwyer]

Substan is one of those artists that make every Elektron box sound like him (awesome)… his DN videos are very similar in terms of tone and vibe.

Jogging House’s DN vids and soundpacks are also great at showcasing the more ambient/mellow side of FM. I wonder if he also has the ST now… @boboter?

[Switchzik]

Thanks @PentalagusMusic and @Jacob I’ll listen them.

[qlamerand]

@DonovanDwyer

I wonder if he also has the ST now

Probably as he did a soundpack for it Soft Spoken

[DonovanDwyer]

Well there you go

[lowph]

@DaveMech

Give yourself two weeks to gather all the sounds, that you’ve created since you bought DN, that you really like. Save them to the +drive in a clean bank with a good tag structure. Then proceed to sound design the rest of the two weeks to sound design sounds from types that you tend to use often. Save those as well. Until you have about 128 sounds.

Then start a new project and load all those sounds into the sound pool. Then give yourself another two weeks to create loops with the sounds in sound pool. You can easily sound lock them to get a lot of out a single track. (You could even go as far as using the midimapping functionality for this). Would even suggest setting a timer for this (half an hour per loop).

I love how the OP is like “I don’t know which box…” And Dave Mech straight up gives them a homework assignment!

[boboter]

Yep. Sound pack and EP including perfomance videos made with just the Syntakt. It‘s a cool machine for sure.