Chord Machine sounds dull

[technolover303]

anyone knows how to achieve this kind of stabs on the Syntakt ? (even with another machine than Chord Machine)

[clickclack777]

With grit, I mean the quality of the original, un-pitched, sound source. Punch is related to dynamic compression. A lower bit, sample rate, noise or feedback can create “grit” or “crunch” depending on taste. But I guess you already know this.

[clickclack777]

Closest would be SY DUAL VCO + another SY DUAL VCO to add the third voice with the balance turned to only hear 1 OSC and track volume turned down a bit to balande the first SY DUAL.

2x SY BITS would also be a good option.

[clickclack777]

I don´t care what it should cost since it is the added value to me, that defines what I think it is worth.

I rarely pay full price for elektron machines. I buy them seond-hand in mint condition. Digitone for £399 + lid seemed reasonable. Same could be said for a Syntakt without the analog part.

You buy them at full retail price and I at second-hand prices. Perfect. Everyone is happy. Lets get back to the topic since we are way off.

[Ess]

@sezare56

Doesn’t seem too hard to add a saw, square any brighter waveform !

Depends if you want it to sound good and/or be useful. It really doesn’t take that many harmonics to make aliasing a huge issue with wavetable oscillators that aren’t oversampled or anti-aliased (both would be costly in terms of processing power)

[sezare56]

@Ess

It really doesn’t take that many harmonics to make aliasing a huge issue with wavetable oscillators

Thanks for precision !
What about a second Chord machine using SY BITS Waveforms ?

Btw since I had satisfying results combining a Chord machine with an SY BITs with fifth tuning…(tracks 6-7, beginning).

Syntakt - Ambient - Trip Hop - Waiting for happiness...

[Ess]

@sezare56

What about a second Chord machine using SY BITS Waveforms ?

I think SY BITS is generating its waveforms and not just using a lookup table. Seems likely that a polyphonic version of SY BITS would be too resource intensive.

[redraceriot]

And I hate it. While there’s something to be said for a machine with a personality, artificial limits force you into complex setups with multiple boxes that I’m just not into. I want another big box that doesn’t hold back!

[Roger]

I think it’ll get updates, it’s one of their best sellers. At least Glide.

[Humanprogram]

I was messing with a scope and spectrum analyzer the other day (mainly to check out D.VCO), but poking around the SY Chord machine, yeah, it seems definitely to be additive (a handful of cleverly positioned sine waves per tone) and that, as Ess has written here and elsewhere, definitely solves the upper harmonics mystery.

In case it’s fun to see:

[Humanprogram]

I’ll add: I use the chord machine all the time, but generally do something beyond synth and filter pages to add depth: give it a 2k exp LFO to tune for an organ-like noise transient, delay-based chorus, or double-and-pan (and detune, and alter a wave) it onto 2 tracks.

[mncrime]

I ended up using it solely for fx processing. It’s kind of more worth it than AH mk2 imo. The extra filters, lfo, envelopes and all that stuff just makes it a great fx box. I like how stable and “clean” the sound processing is. Very surgical before it goes into more of the wild vintage stuff. You can sequence the FX block which is nice and p-locks… saving project program and you have a complete setup of fx ready. Most effects are achievable when you know how even beyond its spec. I would welcome more digital FX built in though! It’s same guts so easy copy paste. Bit crusher, comp… maybe an another delay type, chorus and I could go on. Modulation time based effects would be most welcome. Even some kind of multi type effect of more stuff in one kind of deal. Like when you combine delay with other modulation effects etc…

[Jeanne]

Random stuff:

This was quoted in the current M:C thread, Q&A with the developer of the chord machine and the chord machine’s wavetable:

Model:Cycles Q & A with Ess

(Also asked by other people) No plans so far. It is technically possible, but making a machine takes a lot of work from both me and our DSP engineer Oscar who implements it on hardware (in assembler!) … So a lot of time has to be allocated for it and at the moment we want to focus on other things. No. Lots! This is always the case. I keep finding tricks on the Digitone every single time I use it, haha. It’s just how it should be with a well designed piece of kit. Sure, why not. I’…

And my “hihat machine sounds dull” thread:

Digital Cymbal Machine sounds dull

Cy Alloy is actually cool. Really cool. If it wouldn’t sound so dull and lo-fi and have a character that really puts me off. I want my cymbals and hihats to be brillant, just like real cymbals, hihats and rides are. Hence I use it for anything but, and instead the analog machines, Sy Tone or Sy Bits. Gregory Coleman’s “Amen” Break and Atsushi Hoshiai’s TR909 cymbals* are great examples for (still not hifi) but brillant sounding hihats, rides etc. that make everyone happy including me. It woul…

On another note, I LOVE the direction Elektron has gone with the Swarm machine, just for the fact it’s organic and it’s crispy, not at all dull or lo-fi.

[Jeanne]

Here are some sounds out of the Monomachine’s DPRO DENS machine. There, once chooses three notes and a wavetable, and those wavetables are all superbright. Actually I would’ve set the filter envelope a bit lower. This has a bit amount of distortion in it as well, which speaks to most of those wavetables, where on the Syntakt overdrive leads to bad results with any chord machine wavetable.

It shows at least there definitely would’ve been possibilities to do it differently on the Syntakt.

(When I need chords, I use two tracks of Sy Bits (gives up to 4 notes - see this dubby snippet on insta ) or 3 tracks Swarm …)

[Humanprogram]

@Jeanne

where on the Syntakt overdrive leads to bad results with any chord machine wavetable.

I disagree! Overdrive on the unison mode is one of my favorite ST sounds these days! I think it can sound good situationally on the chords too, especially in transients or p-locked evolutions of a pad, better on some waves than others…

Nice MNM sounds!!

[Jeanne]

@Humanprogram

Overdrive on the unison mode

I was talking chord machine with chords

[scarfypedia]

one of the best sound design tools for the cycles too, I love the unison modes of the chord machine so much I make most of my basses and leads out of them these days

[janbert]

It’s quite interesting. I just had a deeper dive into the Monomachine lately and noticed how powerful this machine actually is. It almost has everything I would have wished for in the Syntakt.

Just as a comparison, the Monomachine has a delay for “each track”. It comes with chorus, flanger, compressor, ring mod, phaser… not to mention polyphony! The DPRO ENS sounds superior to the Chord Machine. The Chord Machine just sounds dull. I could distort it, but then it just sounds distorted, which isn’t always what I want

I do love my Syntakt; it’s weird, though, seeing the path of development lately. People are already happy just to get a chorus or stereo samples these days. It’s bit like with digital synths lately, that can`t achieve more polyphony then their older fully analog brothers. But I guess that’s a different story

Sorry, I didn’t mean to moan . I was just astonished by how those older models like the Monomachine were actually packed with so many features and we are sitting here in 2024 still not being able to play polyphonic.

[Prints]

The Monomachine was created in 2004, over 20 years ago. It has PARAMETER SLIDES, standard FX such as chorus/phaser, nice 12-bit hi-hat samples, and DPRO ENS does not sound lame.

Elektron needs to go back to their roots and at least make things as cool as they used to over 20 years ago IMO.

[Jeanne]

@janbert

The DPRO ENS sounds superior to the Chord Machine.

And that one and SWAVE-ENS both have a stereo chorus inside the machine itself …