How I Drone on the Elektron Syntakt

[@OscillatorSink]

If drone on the Syntakt is your thing, you should check out my new EP which is entirely recorded on the Syntakt: oscillatorsink.bandcamp.com/album/the-shuddering-machine The download of the EP includes the project files for the syntakt too. Oh, and Ekekron released the new 1.2 firmware 2 hours before this video went live (great timing!) and it looks like from the videos I've seen both SY Raw and SY Swarm are "True Drones" and they both sound amazing for this kind of patch! Wish I had known about this update about 3 days ago when I recorded the video, but such is life!

[@zipnone1996]

we'll just have to hear you do another one with the new machines!

[@Hysteric_Subjects]

Oh dude I know I saw that series of events unfold in real time and cringed on your behalf lol

[@Hysteric_Subjects]

It’s okay we are all patient for part 3 ;)

[@mosesve1]

WHY on earth are you not supplied with an early release of their firmware updates too? You are going much more in-depth with this machines than any other youtuber:

[@OscillatorSink]

@@mosesve1 I've tried to get Elektron to speak to me, but sadly they won't even answer my emails. It's fine though, I'll live!

[@RedMeansRecording]

Wow that's cool AF

[@OscillatorSink]

no u r

[@shuaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

wow wow wow, this video is incredible! It has opened up a lot of creative potential for me and really encouraged me to just play more with the Syntakt. Thank you so much. I went ahead and extracted the list of dronable machines from the video for quick reference. Putting it here in case anyone wants... True Drones - SY Swarm - SY Bits - BD Hard (a) - BD Classic (a) - UT Noise (a) - SY Dual VCO (a) - SY Raw (a) Gate Drones - BD Modern - SD Basic - SD Vintage - PC Carbon - CP Vintage - CY Alloy - SY Chords - SY Tone - SY Toy - BD FM (a)

[@OscillatorSink]

I'm glad it's sparked some ideas!

[@Kopekemaster]

This was honestly one of the most beautiful and relaxing videos I've ever seen. The combination of your soft commentary overtop beautiful drones made this entire video a piece of music in my opinion.

[@OscillatorSink]

Thank you so much!

[@letsgetyucky]

one of the most informative syntakt tutorials out there

[@OscillatorSink]

Cheers! Thanks for watching!

[@inkfingers]

I had no idea these kinds of beautiful drone textures were possible with the Syntakt. The master filter sweeps sound amazing. Thanks for sharing this! Once again, I have learned so much about a new machine by following your unique and creative use of it.

[@paulmerkelbach452]

This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you so much!!!

[@jungstrauma4]

at 10:00 on digitakt it works to let the trig trig one time and then take the trig out of the sequencer while letting the sequencer run:) or you could make drum drones (i love very much): very fast sequencer fully filled up with trigs. (you can make interesting structures by taking some trigs out...) if the sequencer is fast enough and you put different pitched trigs you can basically play kind of "chords" (or nice coloured drones) like two colours on a rotating disc combine to one... good explanation. thank you for this video. greetings from drone dresden

[@gmmk-sadf]

wow! the long wait has payed off! i am impressed of your high quality educational content.😮

[@OscillatorSink]

Thank you! I'm glad it's worth the wait.

[@OneAndOnlyMe]

Learned a lot from this video about Syntakt, thanks!

[@TylerOKC]

Phenomenal video, sir. Thank you. You've broadened my horizons with this piece of kit.

[@OscillatorSink]

Thank you, that's very gratifying to hear!

[@brya1290]

Made me want a Syntakt even more than I already did. Fabulous stuff

[@OscillatorSink]

Cheers!

[@telegraph_hill]

regardless of the literal feature du jour, I find your videos to be supremely helpful. thank you!

[@OscillatorSink]

Thank you, I'm very happy to help!

[@petra1417]

Many thanks for explanation of the things I was exactly looking for, and could not find anywhere

[@antonv13]

If you hit, FUNC + … > Setup > Sound, and set the Filter Keytrack to 100. You can play notes on that band filtered noise machine.

[@OscillatorSink]

(unless they updated the calibration in a recent update) the analog filters don't track the chromatic scale correctly though. I enquired about it when I first got mine and elektron confirmed that it didn't track scale (and wasn't meant to).

[@Hysteric_Subjects]

Always love your input! With the two new synth machines going to be a fun holiday

[@OscillatorSink]

Sure will be - I just wish they released them 3 days earlier.

[@Hysteric_Subjects]

@@OscillatorSink yeah saw that go down and felt a cringe on your behalf, knowing you worked on this a bit and prob schedule release of it in advance

[@OscillatorSink]

@@Hysteric_Subjects it's especially annoying because swarm in particular would sound fantastic as a drone.

[@smalltown2223]

I was looking for a bit of gear that would be good for drones when you come along and tell me I’ve already got one upstairs. I use mine for pop music but now I can drone on and on and on. Nice one, saved me some money your video. Top of the class! 👍

[@petri..]

In about 20 minutes I will head to my car and drive to the shop and get my Syntakt, the hype is real! Your video demonstrates well what a fantastic and diverse instrument this machine is, GG! 👍🏻🔥

[@OscillatorSink]

Enjoy your new synth!

[@petri..]

@@OscillatorSink Thanks a lot! 🙂👍🏻

[@Dudeson26]

Truly an amazing video! Spent the whole night playing drones after watching this

[@OscillatorSink]

Drone on!

[@ZetaCarinae]

You are very, very good at explaining and exploring synths.

[@OscillatorSink]

Thank you!

[@carlofavero5712]

Thank you a lot for the video. I won't buy it, but this was the only video which made me want a Sintakt. Great job as always.

[@videosarchive8058]

A huge thank you for sharing the knowledge and creative inspiration. Much gratitude 🙏🏽

[@OscillatorSink]

Thanks for watching!

[@_monoaural1993]

Just beautiful. ❤️ Watched the whole Video. Because i want to Drone too with my Syntakt. I think i have to rewatch 😅

[@thesurgingmass]

Amazing work. Love all of your videos!

[@OscillatorSink]

Cheers!

[@_weltherrscher]

Thanks a lot! Very insightful for an absolute newbie! Thankyouthankyou!

[@jantuitman]

I was waiting for this one , thanks

[@OscillatorSink]

I hope it was worth the wait!

[@jantuitman]

@@OscillatorSink yes, absolutely! 👍

[@Hardest]

Thanks for the tutorial, never thought about the digitakt as a drone machine :)

[@Kung_Fu_Jesus]

Syntakt by any chance?

[@HashPram]

Awesome. I've been looking forward to watching this. The digitone video explains a bit about the composition process but I did indeed encounter quite a few of the problems you mentioned when I tried droning on the syntakt. Couple of minor points about the machine lists. The BD FM machine is a gate drone machine (no infinite decay on the machine envelope, but it will stay on forever if you hold down a trig key), and SD Hard isn't a drone machine at all unfortunately. Its decay is very long (I didn't measure it, but somewhere in the region of a minute or so) but not infinite.

[@OscillatorSink]

That's annoying, the SD Hard is a copy paste error - it also appears in the correct list. BD FM is just plain wrong, don't know how I missed that.

[@HashPram]

@@OscillatorSink it's a minute mistake that doesn't undercut the main point of the video. Don't sweat it : )

[@hugonidaguila]

thanks that was very inspiring for me as a Syntakt user

[@Willem5911]

Thank you for this very good tutorial.

[@OscillatorSink]

Thank you for watching!

[@flaviobanterla]

Wonderful approach to the Syntakt, thanks a lot! 👏🏾👏🏾

[@OscillatorSink]

Thank you!

[@freejazzbone]

love the "buzzy" sounds on the Syntakt, your drone has a kind of an implied Maj9 chord tonality, easily accomplished with 2 note chords, root and a 9th, the other chord tones/harmonics seem to be present, different drone than your legendary Digitone drone, it's all music, eh?!

[@OscillatorSink]

Yes, it's nice that a machine that could be considered quite similar on a surface level can be so different so as to inspire a different approach entirely.

[@javierburriel9976]

You just gave me the answerrr !!! Thanks to share your knowledge 🙏🏻 Do you have more toturial videos about Syntakt ? Thanks a lot

[@OscillatorSink]

There are a few in this playlist (along with the other Digi boxes): kzbin.info/aero/PLzK7ubWUDl-LnEGqkNM6xFOWfN57Srgjr&si=KRdWMMAAJ1l44PXX Also if you're interested in drone on the Syntakt, my new EP was recorded entirely on the Syntakt: oscillatorsink.bandcamp.com/album/the-shuddering-machine

[@moolder]

So beautiful!

[@OscillatorSink]

Thank you!

[@theemaslo]

Amazing tutorial! Thank You very much!

[@hexwavemusic]

This is beautiful! Seems like a perfect way to unwind after a long day. Also I did skip through a bit and might have misunderstood but around 50 min you were tuning the filter and said you had to do it because the filter doesn't follow the keyboard, but you actually can go into setup and turn on filter keytrack to 100 and it will do that! You probably know that tho so sorry if I'm being a dumbo!

[@OscillatorSink]

It will follow the keyboard, but it won't follow it perfectly in tune, even over a single octave - an octave on the keyboard isn't an octave on the filter, even after calibration on the *analogue* machines. I reported it as a bug to Ekekron but apparently it's just how it is. Hopefully they can update their calibration routines by firmware, because the bandpass filter is really lovely sounding.

[@hexwavemusic]

@@OscillatorSink Oh gotcha, yeah that's a shame then!

[@BrunoWiebelt]

wonderfuuuuuul

[@brianreilly6545]

Great info, thx!!!

[@Dissolve28]

I loved your presentation! Thanks a million for the education. Also, can you suggest your favorite drone album out there? I would say my favorite is Time Machines by Coil. In par with Pan Sonic's Gravitoni.

[@aikighost]

Not a drone music maker, but so many useful ideas here. Cheers. 👍

[@OscillatorSink]

Really glad you could take some ideas away from it!

[@christdolphin69]

Aweome!

[@javierburriel9976]

Amazing !!! Thanks a lott ✨✨

[@synkrotron]

fascinating!

[@denizkustu3056]

amazing demo.More opsix drones pls

[@OscillatorSink]

I have something opsix drone related in the works, but it's a big project... Hopefully be in a position to share something towards the end of the year, or early next year...

[@Alan_S_101]

Sounds fantastic sir! Can I ask if you used any post effects? Or are we hearing the raw sound from the Syntakt? Just asking is it sounds really good to me.

[@OscillatorSink]

This is all syntakt, completely raw. The only thing I did in post is duck the aunty's volume when I'm speaking and use a limiter to bring up the overall level of the video, but I suspect that other than a few voice over peaks it's not actually doing any limiting. Any delay, reverb or saturation is coming from inside the syntakt. I posted a few more syntakt drone performances last month (during 'Droneuary') if you'd like to hear some more complete pieces. Those ones have been mastered (EQ and maybe compression) but only very gently.

[@Alan_S_101]

@@OscillatorSink Amazing, that's a real nice sound quality imo. You definitely have great skill on these machines and it's inspiring to watch and hopefully learn. I was having a bit of a struggle with the Digitone with regards to the sound creation side of things and your 'how I drone...' videos have been the best teacher of the lot. I'll get onto your Droneuaries next! Thank you for sharing your tips and tricks, they are gold.

[@OscillatorSink]

@@Alan_S_101 very kind of you to say, and I'm really pleased I could help you find your way with that excellent instrument!

[@huginn2649]

🙏

[@speedoflife9375]

Help, what might i be doing wrong? When i go into the analog machines you list for true drone, the sy dual vco is there to set the decays to infinite, and maybe another one. But the full list you put in, i dont see that option. I'm new to syntakt, so i might not be displaying something correctly, but i can definitely set it on the sy dual vco.

[@fiercecurry]

hello, I am in process of acquiring either Digitone or Syntakt specifically for creating drone/ambient music. Do you recommend one over the other, considering recent updates and workflows?

[@OscillatorSink]

I actually talk about their comparative merits (and the digitakt) for doing ambient and drone in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bWS7qaZta8uJhK8 I hope you'd enjoy the whole video, but if you're in a hurry I start discussing the Elektrons around 45 minutes in (there are chapter markers).

[@fiercecurry]

@@OscillatorSink thank you so much!

[@autoauto2000]

and now what is the best for droning and experimenting?

[@OscillatorSink]

Of the small box Ekekrons? They're all good and all different. Which is best will depend on your tastes and needs. I used all 3 a fair bit in January when I was trying to create a piece of drone each day, that might be a good point of comparison?

[@javierjredondo]

Beautiful using headphones!! Is there any chance to get these sounds? the song file or similar? I would apreciate it a lot❤

[@OscillatorSink]

Thanks! I just released an album of drones, a number of which were created with the Syntakt. The download of the album includes project files and synth patches too. You can check it out here oscillatorsink.bandcamp.com/album/one-month-of-january (edit - although this isn't on en album I'm pretty sure that this pattern is in the project file)

[@javierjredondo]

@@OscillatorSink I bought it for the weekend, thanks!!

[@OscillatorSink]

@@javierjredondo cheers! I hope you enjoy it!

[@draft74draft65]

Thanks for your videos…. But feeling confused now which one to choose….. syntact or deepmind12? 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@OscillatorSink]

Do you want a general purpose synth or a groovebox/sequencer? They are, in so many ways completely different so ignore the drone part and look at the other features and workflow.

[@draft74draft65]

@@OscillatorSink 🙏…. I’ll go for the dm12 this time. You made sense.

[@daflux7]

syntakt can be like a modular,i heard a ton of sounds of many youtuber, sick toy

[@zipnone1996]

nice!

[@RyanHarris77]

Are these elektron boxes feasible for live improvisation starting from scratch?

[@OscillatorSink]

That's a really interesting question - I think the answer (like with most improvisation) is yes, but with preparation. You wouldn't want to start from the standard "init" patch I don't think, but if you had each track set up in a way that was a good starting point then absolutely it's possible.

[@RyanHarris77]

@@OscillatorSink thanks. I may give it a shot once I get comfortable with the osmose and sound studio 3. I don’t want to add too many things at once. I also have a lyra-8. I can see how syntackt might compliment my other sound sources.

[@ElbowEddie]

You are twisted Mr Sink, Twisted- But I like it:)

[@ElbowEddie]

Oh I'm glad you mentioned the Digitone at the end as I'm a user, plus Octatrack. Always love your posts ❤ I was wondering if you could drone with a 303 clone? 😄 That would be some education for me. Loved the way you used this Syntakt.

[@HelicopterRidesForCommunists]

I totally adore the Syntakt, however I am a little disappointed with the amount, quality, and frequency of updates it gets.

[@thundergate4438]

Nice tutorial OS! I remember taking a similar approach to the intro of this jam: kzbin.info/www/bejne/opPYfGN8bMeBbrM - I hope you don't mind me posting to here, just thought it was relevant to this SynDrone subject. Longtime watcher of your vids, might add a Norand to our arsenal now. ;) - Fletcher Fathoms

[@angstrm]

I fell asleep watching this, which is not necessarily a bad thing after all, I guess 🙃

[@OscillatorSink]

Operation failed successfully.

[@ParFumer89]

Thank you, great video and satisfying sound❤️🥹