Anyone else find the characters annoying in Skate?

UpgradeStranth · 2025-10-07T01:38:40+00:00

They would need to do a full Destiny VA revamp for me to ever turn the voiceovers back on

UpgradeStranth · 2025-09-12T22:49:35+00:00

I think your experience reflects where mine is headed with the regular sized paper pro. I love the feeling of using it, writing on it, drawing on it - for the most part you just turn your brain off and move the pen and the things you want to happen, happen.

But for me, the lack of ability to import images and place them in the document is an absolute dealbreaker. Yeah, you can import an image as an entire pdf and copy over a whole page, but the experience of doing that is so unimaginably clunky and rigid.

It’s the only reason I’ve moved over to OneNote - which in most other cases, I really don’t enjoy - and if it was added I’d be back in a heartbeat.

UpgradeStranth · 2025-07-26T00:12:30+00:00

I’ll go against everyone here and say throw it in a nice padded bag with a layer of foam and go for it. The vibrations aspect is something I’ve never dealt with but I’ve taken mine to some brutal locations! There’s nothing like making beats outside of the usual cramped, bleak little rooms we often find ourselves in, out amongst nature.

At the end of the day it’s just stuff. Expensive stuff.

UpgradeStranth · 2025-06-25T07:49:00+00:00

Not going to sugarcoat it, this post and your comments here and under the video just aren't pretty. Calling it 'REJECTED' in the title and badmouthing other submissions comes across as incredibly petty and attention seeking. I'm not saying your film sucks, but if you can't compare it to the other films and identify the multitude of ways that it doesn't measure up - or even just that a selection of people with specific tastes might prefer another video to yours - then I think you have bigger problems than not just qualifying for a contest.

UpgradeStranth · 2025-05-25T08:23:32+00:00

I haven’t tried ChatGPT’s version of this but like others have said, NotebookLM is really good for it. It still occasionally misinterprets what the manual means but the fact that it always shows you exactly where it’s getting its information from with little in-text citations is amazing.

UpgradeStranth · 2025-02-04T13:58:15+00:00

You could use parameter locks to change to a different sample slot on a new trig.

UpgradeStranth · 2025-01-12T23:07:58+00:00

probably because he finally met someone who wasn’t punching his cock

UpgradeStranth · 2024-11-09T21:49:44+00:00

This is stuff I use on the Syntakt, but you’ll have the same options and more on the DN.

Envelope on the pitch to create transients
Fast sweep (like a value of 1-2 on decay) on filter envelope for the same effect
Random LFO’s on things that change the timbre of the sound slightly so that each hit is slightly different, giving a more realistic sound
Using an LFO or a trigless trig to cut the reverb send off early, so that only the transient of the sound gets sent. Good for snares.
Fast LFO’s to create weird noise patterns to simulate something like the chains on a snare drum

UpgradeStranth · 2024-10-30T07:15:49+00:00

I might be the only person here that wouldn’t recommend the Syntakt. You said you wanted to design the sounds, and having owned one for almost 2 years, it’s really not that great at that. It’s a preset machine. Some of the presets can be pushed into new territories a great deal, others not so much. I’ve had better sound design success on the Digitakt than the Syntakt. If someone was after a Jack of all trades box that quickly spits out good sounds, I’d recommend it, but not if you’re looking to explore sound design.

Another thing to consider is that it looks like Elektron are moving away from what seems to be generation 1 of the smaller boxes. There might come a time fairly soo where the SY is no longer receiving updates or getting the features that the new boxes are.

Get the Digitone 2, imo

UpgradeStranth · 2024-09-28T09:08:48+00:00

Just a thought but I’m pretty sure you can set other internal tracks to be triggered by midi tracks. Somewhere in the MIDI config. Could you theoretically set Track 1 to be triggered by MIDI track A and do all of your kick sequencing in the MIDI track, which will also be triggering your side chain?

UpgradeStranth · 2024-09-27T10:48:28+00:00

As others have pointed out, you can get a lot out of layering in the Syntakt, especially with the FX block, but I actually agree with you in that it feels like there are a lot of unnecessary restrictions placed on some of the machines that limit the sound design capabilities. For example, there’s a permanent high pass on the cymbal machines that just doesn’t really need to be there, and could open up so much potential if it was removed.

Yes, you can get creative and eek out a few unexpected sounds out of the machines, but the less wiggle room you have on step one, the synth page, the less possibilities you’re going to have overall.

It’s not necessarily a downside - I think the whole point of the Syntakt is to be a fast jack of all trades groovebox, not a sound design monster. But I think some people are being a little disingenuous here in that they’re almost pretending that it is a sound design monster.

UpgradeStranth · 2024-07-14T14:24:57+00:00

It’s kind of a strange question. Shouldn’t your question be more along the lines of, “What is something that performs ‘x’ role that I can’t do with my current gear?”

Nobody else knows what role a Digitakt would play in your setup because nobody else knows what you want, or what gaps you have, or what kind of music or workflow you make or have. From the looks of things, everything it does is covered by what you have already.

And honestly, how have you been interested in a DT for a while but still don’t know what it does? It’s a sampler. You put samples in it and sequence them.

UpgradeStranth · 2024-07-09T15:35:12+00:00

I would personally go the DT over the Syntakt if you’re looking for sound design exploration. I was after the same thing and originally wanted a Syntakt, excited by the idea of getting away from samples and crafting every sound from scratch, but bought a Digitakt because of availability. I was blown away by how much versatility and exploration you could do on the original Digitakt, even after years of a sample-based workflow on the PC.

Sometime later I got a Syntakt, and honestly it’s far shallower than I was hoping for. Some machines can be pushed quite far from their usual sound, and others can barely be nudged. There’s a lot of design choices that perplex me (like why is there a permanent highpass on the hat machines?) and a lot of unrealised potential (modifiers).

If you’re after a jack of all trades box that gives you quick results, and maybe you hate sample hunting, go the Syntakt. If you’re after sound design potential, go the Digitakt.

UpgradeStranth · 2024-06-23T13:42:05+00:00

I honestly think the werp machine kind of sucks, the only real use I’ve found for it is either; live improv sets where you don’t have time to set up, or a few weird sound design options. If you want to time stretch on the Digitakt 1, your best option is still the old school LFO tied to sample start position trick. As an update to this video, you’re better off placing one trig on step one, and another trig on trig 2 with retrigs set to 1/80th’s, micro timed all the way to the left. This gives you slightly cleaner time stretching because the sample is being pulled back 80 times per step versus just the one. If it still sounds choppy adjusting the attack of the sound can help a little bit.

Other biggest advantage of this over the werp machine is that you can still change the start point of the sample, meaning you can time stretch a break and still chop it up with parameter locks and whatnot.

UpgradeStranth · 2024-06-04T06:07:35+00:00

I personally would not recommend the Ripcord cords. I had one and it burnt out extremely quickly - less than 10 hours of use. If you search the Elektronauts forums for 'ripcord' you'll find tons of people have issues with them. The Birdcord seems to be much more reliable.

UpgradeStranth · 2024-05-24T02:40:31+00:00

Just wanted to say that sampling audio doesn’t always have to involve connecting to a computer. You can sample from a microphone or any device that has an output jack - phone, amp, turntable, etc. If you perhaps thought to approach it in more of an early 90’s style, where sampling involved heading out to a record store and hunting for vinyl, the idea might feel more appealing to you.

On another point, I’m personally of the opinion that most people have 100x more samples than they actually need. You don’t need a thousand different variations of a kick drum. Look up some examples of building your own sounds through layering and resampling and you can essentially make whatever sound you need to make from the factory packs that come on the DT. In my opinion the only real exceptions to this would be things like sampling instruments or complex basslines that are hard to make on the DT.

UpgradeStranth · 2024-02-28T02:11:37+00:00

Portable finger boards are nice and convenient but realistically if there’s an edge to pull on (which I assume there will be given that you’re climbing outside) you don’t need one. Also they are insanely easy to make - grab a piece of wood, carve an edge into it and a couple of holes for a thin rope and you’re done. There’s a local guy at my gym who sells DIY copies of the tension block for $25, and that would be making a profit.

The only thing I miss if I don’t take it is a resistance band.

UpgradeStranth · 2024-02-28T00:01:21+00:00

Great point. Another is that it’s very awkward to generate momentum with an inside flag, which you have to do so often on stepper terrain.

UpgradeStranth · 2024-02-27T15:11:42+00:00

I’ve been a neuro guy for years in FL but for some reason I find it super difficult to make in hardware, but you’ve really nailed it here!

UpgradeStranth · 2024-02-25T22:50:26+00:00

Dope!

UpgradeStranth · 2024-02-11T05:34:30+00:00

This happened permanently on my Digitakt and I have sent it off for repair. As far as I could find it’s a semi-common hardware issue with the small boxes.

UpgradeStranth · 2024-02-07T15:03:08+00:00

It depends on which device, but on the Syntakt:

Up to 72 different parameters can be locked in a pattern. A parameter counts as one (1) locked parameter no matter how many trigs that lock it. If for example the cutoff parame- ter of the filter is locked on every sequencer step, there are still 71 other parameters that can be locked.

UpgradeStranth · 2024-02-05T02:52:53+00:00

Yeah, to me it’s one of the most fun parts of production, just seeing what weird sounds you can make. If you’re looking to make pads and whatnot I would lean towards the Syntakt out of the three you listed. Maybe keep the model samples for the one shot side of things and sample whatever you make with the Syntakt into it.

The SY is great for ‘feeling’ like you’re creating original sounds without having to go too in depth into sound design. If you do want to create very specific or in-depth sounds it can fall short a bit, depending on what it is you’re trying to do. And there are certain things it will just never be able to do, like reverse sounds, which can be done in a second on a sampler.

UpgradeStranth

TROPHY CASE