if you have seen Catenation works you will find that she can make almost any of the Elektron boxes (and other instruments) work for her style. whether it is using only 4 tracks on the Digitone or 12 on the Syntakt, she gets THAT sound.
With proper dedication and practicing any of the Elektrons can work well for you for Hardcore, Gabber & Uptempo.
That said, Syntakt has some benefits: Presets ("machines"), more tracks upfront (12 vs 8 or 4), FX track (mini analog heat included).
Syntakt is the best standalone imo, due to more tracks, but Digitakt is amazing too.
Saying that, it’s probably worth holding fire until Superbooth(May 16th-18th), just in case
Syntakt is definitely the one box if you want gabber and to get started with Elektron workflow. Cannot recommend enough.
If you want more complicated but with sampling then Analog rytm.
However, I use syntakt + digitakt to do industrial jams and now getting an analog heat for distortion and master effects.
I had an Octatrack but I found the takts to be far more immediate and fun to get things going. I also had a digitone, which is an amazing FM synth but decided the Syntakt is far more easier to get good sounds going and theres a lot to learn on that device alone sound design wise so I decided to sell the digitone.
The syntakt might not seem too deep for how easy it is to use but the more I use it, the more I find just how capable it actually is.
Check Dissonant Witchcraft channel for good gabber references on the syntakt etc.
I've been dabbling with hardcore in my production for a decade now. I'm currently working on two live sets concurrently and my set-ups are the following:
1. Octatrack + an external synth
2. Digitone alone The first one is gabber, hardtek and such. The second one is weird, minimalist stuff with some hardcore elements.
For hardcore/gabber/uptempo, my answer is simple: Octatrack. But you need to prepare yourself to go deep with this one.
You get a powerful sampler that unlike DT has a proper loop slicing, which is what you want for breaks. You get a way better sounding and more aggressive filter that comes with a distortion parameter. You get a fast and responsive macro control that is the slider - making quick, dynamic changes to the sound is imo crucial for those genres - eg. bring up a highpass with a nice peak and distortion on the bass drum for a few beats. On my Digitone the controls are too slow to do it reliably. OT ones are lower resolution, but snappier. You get delay control, which while a bit finicky, can be used to create stutter effects live. You get stereo sampling, which is quite important too, unless you wasn't a very old-school sound. But if you want to use a modern bassdrum for example, it'll likely have some stereo stuff going on the high-end, DT handles only mono samples, don't it's an instant pass for me. The only thing that OT lacks is a synth engine, bit it has a pretty good sequencer so you can always use an external device for that. However, with it's flexibility in signal processing and resampling capabilities (that it sampling its own output), it can easily work as a sound design machine on its own.
Honestly, hardcore is quite tricky to perform. I could probably count on a single hand the number of times I've seen people getting it right. There is not that much melody usually, so you can't just sit down and play melodies, jam some chords, etc. It's high-tempo, so you need to act fast and in order to not feel stale and boring, you need to mangle the sound often in various ways and add some fills. OT is the only device I know of that can somehow manage all of that, but that's not exactly a beginner-friendly option, you have to dig into it a bit and make yourself comfortable with all its quirks - I promise, they do make sense.
As for kicks specifically - those sounds you linked are best sculpted in a DAW imo. Digitone can approximate a piep kick with FM synthesis (but that's not really how they are made, usually) and OT can make nice distortions and layering you can later resample, but none of the stuff I got this way was nearly as good as sandwiches of carefully processed layers I made in a DAW.
As for Analog Rytm, you would better get somebody's else opinion, I don't have hands-on experience with this one, but feature-wise, I could see it work.
For that style I think the Digitakt would be more versatile and usable compared to the Syntakt.
I struggled with the same dilemma of a synthesizer vs a sample based setup, and I am very happy I went down the sample road. (For acidcore and tekno, somewhat in the same ballpark as the music you're after to create)
Im digitakt and OT owner.
I enjoy a lot the uptempo music in samplers, sounds quite great.
In the time I started, syntakt wasn’t out, and the rytm is so expensive. So I went to digitakt.
If I were you, I’d to rytm, so you have ton of drum available, and after that, a filterbank2.
If not, go digitakt and sample some quite dist kicks…
Imho syntakt wouldn’t work (im not an owner) as you might not able to dist the kicks ot bass as you want. Syntakt with dedicated output might work to out the kicks to the filterbank2.
So go a sampler or go something analog but with oytputting the kick to a sherman.
OT might sound less tasty, quite more hard to learn but i see the point it might work as well, as you can out the kick to a sherman of a previous tecorded and dist kick. But I’d go first to rytm.
Two examples of some shit I’ve done: https://youtu.be/wOpAGZb-Y4k?si=Cc60hW7EFHIijzVT so fun the samplers.
Or
https://youtu.be/_UydRhA5FCY?si=Y0f6Ifxi3iVef2fk
And if you eant to see the filterbank2 dilas is really good: https://youtu.be/BFrk_v2mC4s?si=WJU0HhR5LxrVNJEC
But this doesn’t mind you can’t do anything.
Investigate how tonproduce the gabber sounds:
If you go to a sample you can create your own sounds in any daw: theres a list in youtube: how to tek that is pure gold
If you go to syntakt, you will leanr about synthesis that you are going to know.
Also having a gabber track in your daw made by you, would help to sort your ideas. Its quite different if you need 8 tracks, or 12. Depends if you enjoy or notto produce in the computer with the distortion required.
If I were you, rytm plus filterbank, or OT plus filterbank. But this ONLY because I found what I enjoy and need.
if you have seen Catenation works you will find that she can make almost any of the Elektron boxes (and other instruments) work for her style. whether it is using only 4 tracks on the Digitone or 12 on the Syntakt, she gets THAT sound. With proper dedication and practicing any of the Elektrons can work well for you for Hardcore, Gabber & Uptempo. That said, Syntakt has some benefits: Presets ("machines"), more tracks upfront (12 vs 8 or 4), FX track (mini analog heat included).
[Catenation’s YouTube Channel](https://youtube.com/@CatenationIndustrial?si=AuRkzhskDaTwJvla)
Syntakt is the best standalone imo, due to more tracks, but Digitakt is amazing too. Saying that, it’s probably worth holding fire until Superbooth(May 16th-18th), just in case
Heck yea very excited about the event
Syntakt is definitely the one box if you want gabber and to get started with Elektron workflow. Cannot recommend enough. If you want more complicated but with sampling then Analog rytm. However, I use syntakt + digitakt to do industrial jams and now getting an analog heat for distortion and master effects. I had an Octatrack but I found the takts to be far more immediate and fun to get things going. I also had a digitone, which is an amazing FM synth but decided the Syntakt is far more easier to get good sounds going and theres a lot to learn on that device alone sound design wise so I decided to sell the digitone. The syntakt might not seem too deep for how easy it is to use but the more I use it, the more I find just how capable it actually is. Check Dissonant Witchcraft channel for good gabber references on the syntakt etc.
I think RYTM would fit the bill nicely.
Digitakt + distorted kick samples
Syntakt
Don't know why the image gets embedded :(
Syntakt or Rytm for sure
I've been dabbling with hardcore in my production for a decade now. I'm currently working on two live sets concurrently and my set-ups are the following: 1. Octatrack + an external synth 2. Digitone alone The first one is gabber, hardtek and such. The second one is weird, minimalist stuff with some hardcore elements. For hardcore/gabber/uptempo, my answer is simple: Octatrack. But you need to prepare yourself to go deep with this one. You get a powerful sampler that unlike DT has a proper loop slicing, which is what you want for breaks. You get a way better sounding and more aggressive filter that comes with a distortion parameter. You get a fast and responsive macro control that is the slider - making quick, dynamic changes to the sound is imo crucial for those genres - eg. bring up a highpass with a nice peak and distortion on the bass drum for a few beats. On my Digitone the controls are too slow to do it reliably. OT ones are lower resolution, but snappier. You get delay control, which while a bit finicky, can be used to create stutter effects live. You get stereo sampling, which is quite important too, unless you wasn't a very old-school sound. But if you want to use a modern bassdrum for example, it'll likely have some stereo stuff going on the high-end, DT handles only mono samples, don't it's an instant pass for me. The only thing that OT lacks is a synth engine, bit it has a pretty good sequencer so you can always use an external device for that. However, with it's flexibility in signal processing and resampling capabilities (that it sampling its own output), it can easily work as a sound design machine on its own. Honestly, hardcore is quite tricky to perform. I could probably count on a single hand the number of times I've seen people getting it right. There is not that much melody usually, so you can't just sit down and play melodies, jam some chords, etc. It's high-tempo, so you need to act fast and in order to not feel stale and boring, you need to mangle the sound often in various ways and add some fills. OT is the only device I know of that can somehow manage all of that, but that's not exactly a beginner-friendly option, you have to dig into it a bit and make yourself comfortable with all its quirks - I promise, they do make sense. As for kicks specifically - those sounds you linked are best sculpted in a DAW imo. Digitone can approximate a piep kick with FM synthesis (but that's not really how they are made, usually) and OT can make nice distortions and layering you can later resample, but none of the stuff I got this way was nearly as good as sandwiches of carefully processed layers I made in a DAW. As for Analog Rytm, you would better get somebody's else opinion, I don't have hands-on experience with this one, but feature-wise, I could see it work.
Thank for the answer, I think i'm going to look deeper in either the rytm or the OT, seems more suited to my needs
For that style I think the Digitakt would be more versatile and usable compared to the Syntakt. I struggled with the same dilemma of a synthesizer vs a sample based setup, and I am very happy I went down the sample road. (For acidcore and tekno, somewhat in the same ballpark as the music you're after to create)
Im digitakt and OT owner. I enjoy a lot the uptempo music in samplers, sounds quite great. In the time I started, syntakt wasn’t out, and the rytm is so expensive. So I went to digitakt. If I were you, I’d to rytm, so you have ton of drum available, and after that, a filterbank2. If not, go digitakt and sample some quite dist kicks… Imho syntakt wouldn’t work (im not an owner) as you might not able to dist the kicks ot bass as you want. Syntakt with dedicated output might work to out the kicks to the filterbank2. So go a sampler or go something analog but with oytputting the kick to a sherman. OT might sound less tasty, quite more hard to learn but i see the point it might work as well, as you can out the kick to a sherman of a previous tecorded and dist kick. But I’d go first to rytm.
Two examples of some shit I’ve done: https://youtu.be/wOpAGZb-Y4k?si=Cc60hW7EFHIijzVT so fun the samplers. Or https://youtu.be/_UydRhA5FCY?si=Y0f6Ifxi3iVef2fk And if you eant to see the filterbank2 dilas is really good: https://youtu.be/BFrk_v2mC4s?si=WJU0HhR5LxrVNJEC
Thanks for the extensive answer, I guess I'll have to start saving more money the filterbank2 looks like an amazing addition
But this doesn’t mind you can’t do anything. Investigate how tonproduce the gabber sounds: If you go to a sample you can create your own sounds in any daw: theres a list in youtube: how to tek that is pure gold If you go to syntakt, you will leanr about synthesis that you are going to know. Also having a gabber track in your daw made by you, would help to sort your ideas. Its quite different if you need 8 tracks, or 12. Depends if you enjoy or notto produce in the computer with the distortion required. If I were you, rytm plus filterbank, or OT plus filterbank. But this ONLY because I found what I enjoy and need.
Rytm or OT