Using Syntakt and Sp404 MKII as send effects?

Elektron Gear Syntakt
#1

Hi all,
Basically what I’m trying to do is take my old tracks from Ableton, run them through the syntakt analog fx for the warmth and from there into the SP404 MKII for compression and some final touches.

So far haven’t been able to figure this out. The problem is I don’t have access to an Audio interface, so everything would rely on sending the audio to ST through USB, and receiving audio from the SP through USB.

I can’t select Syntakt as an audio out device. Not sure why.

Is this even possible? Has anyone had anything similar happen?

Thanks in advance!

#2

Typically you’d need an interface with at least 2 stereo pairs out so you could send the dry signal from ableton on 1/2 to your external FX then and listen to the returned wet signal through 3/4.

With that said I think you could get this to work by listening through the SP’s headphone jack. Check the syntakts usb config. Think it’ll need to be set to usb audio and not overbridge. Be cautious of creating a feedback loop and mute the channel monitoring/recording the SP’s audio.

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#3

Thanks for the reply!
I’ve set the USB config to audio/midi instead of overbridge, but nothing is coming into the ST.

Basically I’m just trying to route the whole track through ST and SP to use the analog drive and compression from SP. I won’t need to route individual tracks in this case.
Nevertheless, can’t get the sound into the ST. I’ve tried most things that can be found online but none of them work for this specific use.

#4

This maybe might work? You don’t even really need Ableton after the first step.

  • Write out the Ableton two-track mix to wav.
  • Save that stereo wav to a pad in the SP (I’d just drag it to the pad using the software).
  • Connect SP outputs to Syntakt in, and Syntakt outs to SP in (monitor through SP headphone jack).
  • Play the track from the SP pad through the Syntakt external instrument channel and whatever effects on the Syntakt you want.
  • Resample the SP external input onto a new pad. This should get you the Syntakt-effected track on a pad. It may be that “bad things” happen if you monitor the SP’s external input. So probably don’t do that.
  • Set whatever SP effects you want, and then resample (internal) the Syntakt-effected pad to another pad. The result would be your final “master”.

You could try a technique like this on any old sample or short loop to quickly get a workflow down. Good luck! While I have both machines, I’ve never tried to do this.

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#5

Thanks a lot for the in depth guide!!
I managed to get it to work… At least partially.

I set up the Asio4All driver on my laptop, chose syntakt as the output through usb.
From syntakt, I routed the input through the FX block and as the main out to Sp404.
On the SP I used compression, lofi and the 303 vinyl sim to process the audio and resampled it to a pad.
And after that I just exported the pad to SD card and back into my laptop.

The main issue, as it seems, was the input settings on the Syntakt. I can’t recall what I did there as it just magically started working after turning a couple knobs :slight_smile:

Nevertheless thanks to everyone for their input! No pun intended

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