Elektron Syntakt

A mixing desk for the Syntakt: all twelve tracks and the FX track across four pages.

The Syntakt works on one track at a time, so changing the balance of a pattern means selecting a track, turning, selecting the next. This puts the tracks in front of you at once. Page 1 is the level of the eight digital tracks, page 2 their filter cutoff. Page 3 is the four analog tracks, level and cutoff side by side. Mute buttons sit under every row.

Page 4 is the FX track: drive, cutoff, resonance and filter type on the analog FX block, then delay feedback and mix, reverb decay and mix. The filter type clicks through its eight settings and shows which one is on.

Set up the Syntakt first. In Settings > MIDI Config, turn on Receive CC/NRPN and set Input From to MIDI. Leave tracks 1 to 12 on their default channels 1 to 12, and set FX Control Ch to 13. Connect the Roto's MIDI OUT to the Syntakt's MIDI IN.

To make the Roto follow the Syntakt's own knobs as well, connect the Syntakt's MIDI OUT back to the Roto's MIDI IN, and set Output To MIDI, Encoder Dest INT+EXT, Param Output CC and Output Ch to the track channel rather than Auto. Mute Dest INT+EXT makes the mute buttons follow too.

Page 2 can be sends instead. Change CC 74 to CC 84 on all eight knobs for delay sends, or CC 85 for reverb. The synth parameters on the SYN page are left out on purpose: what those eight knobs do changes with the machine loaded on each track.

Built from Elektron's MIDI chart in the Syntakt manual, OS 1.42. Not yet tried on a Syntakt: if you run it, press the button below to say it works.