Elektron Syntakt

I am coming from a SQ64 + Volcas background. So this is slowly becoming my love to hate device - but also my main groovebox.
Pros:
- Incredibly productive! It's just much more easier to sketch out an idea on this device and built something resembling a full song, using the new song mode! This is becoming my main tool.
- 16 tracks with decent quality sounds - you can built anything
- 2 LFOs per track + a sequencer that records knob moves - we can get wild results!
- somehow the overall sound is very good and polished, even though track per track Korg Volcas are far superior. E.g. compare Volca Drum or Bass to the Syntakt Sounds. Volca sound far superior. However the end result sounds much more pro and full with Syntakt. It might be the 16 tracks, or the LFOs/motion recording.

So while I am using this constantly (and probably for this reason as well) there are things that I absolutely hate:
- pattern based save/load functions- this means that all your song improvisations etc essentially needs to reside on a single pattern (16 different tracks) or else its getting extremely difficult to keep things organized. Korg SQ64 is far superior to that! Please add track based save/load. I think the pattern based workflow is totally unusable and simply rubbish. You end up composing in a single pattern with a 16 track limit.
- No capability to save kits - this is related to the above. Makes live composition across patterns difficult
- Sound wise - I have reevaluated whether I would sell my Volca Drum or not - Volca sounds simply on a different league - much better! But as said the overall mix somehow sounds better in Syntakt.


Conclusion: I would definitely buy it again. Hardware is great but the software needs a lot of small improvements to reach its full potential - especially in terms of performing with this live or improvisation. Is it for you? If you are looking for an all in one device (with some weak drum sounds, synth sounds are better) definitely. Is this for a beginner? May be. While deep and it packs so much features together that probably if you can invest time I would start from this one