Purchased this very recently. Apart from great compositions and sound design, the Syntakt project file has been really useful in helping me explore the potential of the Syntakt beyond it being just a drum machine. (only criticism I've got is this vlog's audio is pretty hard to follow it's so muffled). Anybody struggling to make sense of the Syntakt, I'd highly recommend our friend's vlog - 'How I Drone on the Elektron Syntakt.' This really opened up the sound design capabilities for me. Sterling work sir.

Lovely moods. I need to listen to the full ep asap.

@OscillatorSink

7 ай бұрын

I hope you enjoy it!

This makes me want to get a Syntact

@OscillatorSink

8 ай бұрын

It's right up there battling it out with my absolute favourite instruments. I find it very inspiring.

@sagey79

8 ай бұрын

@@OscillatorSink my one concern is the lack of polyphony, I like doing stuff with extended chords and harmony, im not sure how I would do that with Syntakt?

@OscillatorSink

8 ай бұрын

@@sagey79 a few options: there's a chord oscillator type which plays up to 4 notes, you choose the root, the chord type and inversion, you can parameter lock everything per step to build chord sequences. A lot of the machines have 2 oscillators that you can build up intervals, again you can parameter lock the detune per step to build chord sequences. Just use a bunch of the tracks together to do polyphony - they're 12 of them and all but one can be used to play notes (and actually the last one can if you tune the filter per step). Or a combination of those options!

Nice breakdown of your sound design process on the Syntakt! The EP sounds amazing, love the atmospheric drones and how you keep the songs evolving. Can you explain what you did in terms of mixing / mastering after recording? Any post-processing applied on individual tracks or the master? Thank you!

@OscillatorSink

8 ай бұрын

Thank you! So I was just working on the stereo output from the syntakt, just the usual line outs, so no processing of individual tracks or mixing in the box - the master drive and how all the tracks interacted within it was integral to the feel of the record so individual tracks were out of the question anyway. All the effects are internal to the syntakt, all you're hearing is the built in reverb and delay. I did apply EQ at the master, generally the chain went:TDR Infrasonic (a dedicated high pass filter that manages the subs but has some neat tricks to put energy back in); DMG Equality for doing any cuts to the mid range that were needed to uncloud things, generally only gentle cuts, 2dB,wide Q; Dangerous Bax in m/s mode to constrain the ultra low end to the centre and widen the top end. Sometimes if the low mids were especially rawkus I also used TDR Nova in dynamic mode to dip those frequencies when they got very hot. After that it was bx True Peak limiter to get the level right - for the most part it was hardly doing any limiting as the master drive on the syntakt eats peaks for breakfast! But other than the limiter there's no other dynamic processing - I didn't need it, the master drive was doing all of that for me. Hope that's all clear and helpful! Edit: actually on the final track there's also an instance of Airwindows ToTape6, it's not doing that much, but it was lacking a little density in the mids and that plugin is great for beefing the mids up - it's subtle but I always preferred it when I a/b'd it.

@outerspace-music

8 ай бұрын

Thanks for the detailed description. You did a great job in terms of managing the frequency spectrum - the songs have a nice tonal balance. And it seems that the internal master drive is really helpful to glue things together :)

@OscillatorSink

8 ай бұрын

I think I might have to get an Analog Heat as a final stage for live recordings if my enjoyment of the syntakt's drive is anything to go by.

audio a bit boomy? or my speakers blown up....

@OscillatorSink

8 ай бұрын

I was trying out a new mic and the proximity effect is brutal as it turns out. I back off it later on. I'll switch back to my old mic next time.