00:00hey everybody welcome back um in this
00:02video i get asked a lot actually how i
00:05use the syntax i've done a whole bunch
00:07of syntax videos you can check out the
00:08channel to to see some of those people
00:10ask me a lot how i actually use it and i
00:13travel a lot for my regular job and so i
00:15take the syntax with me now i used to
00:17take the deluge even more but now i take
00:19the syntax with me as kind of a sketch
00:21pad so if i'm on an airplane or if i'm
00:22in a hotel or i can use the the syntax
00:25to sketch out ideas or if i just feel
00:28like messing around with music something
00:29that i need in the device that goes on
00:32trips with me is you never really know
00:35where inspiration is going to hit you
00:37and all of a sudden you come up with
00:38something that's really cool but if it's
00:39in a device that's impossible to get out
00:42of or use later on if that's a huge pain
00:45you're not going to use that device as
00:46much or you're just not going to flush
00:48ideas out you're going to go yeah well
00:50i'm never going to do anything with this
00:51so i'm not going to put any extra effort
00:54into it one of the things that i really
00:56love about the syntax is its ability to
00:58integrate back into my studio workflow
01:02when i get back into my home studio and
01:04i'd like to show you a couple of the
01:06ways that i use the syntax integrated
01:09with my hybrid home studio setup in
01:12order to take those sketched ideas that
01:14i do when i'm traveling and actually
01:16start to flush them out uh in my studio
01:19using the syntax and things that only it
01:22can do so first things first i have my
01:24syntax here i have it hooked up with
01:25audio cables to my studio sound system
01:28here and i'll just play for you this
01:30little thing that i came up with when i
01:32was sketching out things while i was
01:43so it's a multiple track
01:46uh idea some of them better than others
01:49some of them much worse than others and
01:51what i love about the syntax is i can
01:53bring this in and i can kind of sort
01:55through these later on really really
01:58easily in my home studio using
02:00overbridge and ableton live to connect
02:03the syntax to my other hardware so first
02:06things first we're going to disconnect
02:08the audio cables because we won't need
02:09these anymore because one of the
02:11beautiful things about overbridge is
02:12that it sends audio over usb as well as
02:15sending midi over usb so one cable into
02:18this usb port in the back make sure that
02:30and make sure that the box that says
02:31overbridge is checked and so that way
02:34this will then talk to your computer so
02:37now we're going to move this over to the
02:40move everything into ableton all right
02:42so now that we've got the usb cable and
02:44the power supply plugged into the syntax
02:46we've got ourselves on our track next
02:48what we're going to do is go into
02:50ableton and we're going to open up
02:54template that we've built and i'll go
02:57through a little bit about how i built
02:58this template in just a minute but if
03:00you'll notice this template has
03:03one thing that's a syntax and then it's
03:05got a couple of my most used hardware
03:07synths the sub 37 and the poly boot that
03:09are already all set up so that as soon
03:11as i open this these are ready to go
03:15so the syntax you'll notice here has
03:17this little circle around it that means
03:19that it is a group and if i open the
03:22it blasts across the screen
03:25because the syntax group is actually a
03:28whole bunch of different things but the
03:30most important one is overbridge so if i
03:34click on this first one which is syntax
03:37down here on the bottom you'll notice
03:38that there is a plug-in that says syntax
03:41and if we open that up this is the
03:44syntax overbridge plugin
03:46and this is bringing in the audio and
03:49the midi from the syntax via usb then
03:53what i will do is i'll create audio
03:58is actually we'll ignore this one for a
04:00minute let's go to this st1 which is
04:04um when i created this one
04:07you'll notice that we have audio is
04:09coming from syntac midi which is this
04:12general so it's the audio in
04:18and when you select that as your option
04:21that track that has the overbridge
04:23plug-in on it it then gives you the
04:25option to individually select whichever
04:27track you want so track 1 through 12 of
04:30the 12 tracks that are on the syntax you
04:32can select the effects track the delay
04:36or the input so if you had something
04:38coming in to the right and left inputs
04:40of the syntax running through the
04:42effects block you can then select this
04:44input as its own channel so what i did
04:48here was i selected track one syntax
04:52and then the audio is going to
04:58group channel and then from the group
04:59channel it's going out to the master
05:02what this allows me to do is put
05:06general processing on the whole thing if
05:08i choose to on that channel um as well
05:11as on each of the individual channels
05:13so then once i have that initial track
05:15done all i do then is command d
05:19which duplicates that track and i'll
05:21duplicate it out 12 times all the way
05:24across to get the 12 channels and then
05:26i'll just go into each one and select
05:33track 4 track 5 6 7 all the way out to
05:36track 12. then i also have the effects
05:40here then i have the delay reverb track
05:42and then i have the external end just in
05:44case i had something plugged into this
05:47and then as i mentioned before i have
05:50external synthesizers that are already
05:54so this is my syntax template so as soon
05:56as i come back from a trip i can then
05:58just plug in my usb cable
06:02open up this template and instantly each
06:05of the 12 tracks is sending to their own
06:08track in this template so if i was to go
06:12ahead and just hit play now here
06:17you'll notice that every single track
06:21has its own input its own level
06:27so that already is pretty cool because
06:29then you can track each one of those in
06:32individually uh you can add effects
06:36within ableton if you want you can
06:38process things different ways you can
06:40you know add compression you can add
06:43limiters you can add whatever you want
06:45to each individual channel or to the
06:48uh mix that's coming from your syntax so
06:50it's a great way to kind of finish up
06:52your master of your track but it doesn't
06:55end there one of my favorite features
06:57about the syntax and one of the things
06:58that only the syntax does
07:01is that each one of these 12 channels
07:03can be either an audio channel or a midi
07:06channel now there may be a track and
07:09i'll give you an example within this mix
07:11here if i mute out everything except
07:14track five here track five i wasn't
07:16super excited about the individual sound
07:18that i used but it was something as a
07:20placeholder for an idea so if i play
07:26right so you hear that individual track
07:32now if i don't particularly like that
07:35sound that's on track five but let's say
07:38i like the sequence now
07:40maybe not the best example because it's
07:41a really simple sequence of only two
07:49the the pattern that i've created and i
07:52like you know the length of the note i
07:54like any kind of repeats that i have i
07:56like any of that stuff but
07:58i don't like the sound what the syntax
08:01does that's really amazing is if we go
08:03into the synth machine to decide what
08:06synth that is if we double click that we
08:08get this menu so we've got all the
08:11choices of all of the different drums
08:13here and then we've got the
08:16synth sounds we've got bits chord tone
08:18toy so this was on tone i tried some of
08:21the other ones didn't particularly like
08:22them but if we scroll down one more it
08:25takes us to midi so if we hit yes
08:29track 5 is now a midi track
08:31that same pattern is still there that
08:36sequence is still there
08:38it is now a midi track so what we can do
08:42is if you hit function and press this
08:44first encoder that tells you what
08:46channel you want to send the midi to
08:49so for example in my template here i
08:52know that the sub 37 is on channel 11
08:55and i know that the poly boot is on
08:58midi wise they're already set up to
08:59listen to those channels so if i was to
09:03send this to channel
09:07now when i push play
09:14sequence that i had here with the sound
09:17that i didn't like so much is going to
09:20and i can go through my presets on the
09:26the filters i can adjust the sound i can
09:30do whatever i want until i find a sound
09:32that i actually like
09:34and if i don't particularly like that
09:36one and i want to try it out on the poly
09:37brute i can just switch to channel 10
09:42and now when i push play
09:46now that's being sent to the poly root
09:49and the audio is coming back in on the
09:56i had muted all of these other tracks on
09:58here but if i was to bring back in let's
10:00say the kick and bass and the hi-hat
10:02with that poly brute it's going to play
10:05all of those on their regular syntax
10:08tracks and it's going to play track 5
10:11from the polygroup the midi is sending
10:13to the poly boot and the audio is coming
10:25if i bring in the others
10:37and let's say i want to try it out with
10:44all i have to change is the channel that
10:54you'll notice that it muted the midi
10:55send now so it's not sending midi and
10:58there's nothing coming through on the
11:00polygroup channel or the sub 37 channel
11:15if i mute all these out again i can show
11:17you now one of the great advantages to
11:19being able to use this again in ableton
11:22and with other hardware
11:24is i can use different effects if i want
11:28so i have a couple effects ends that
11:30were on here or if i wanted to bring in
11:33another effect let's say i wanted to put
11:45so you see it allows you to try out a
11:47bunch of different things that you might
11:48not have been able to do if you were
11:50only doing it in the box but having
11:53everything readily available easy to
11:54bring around 12 tracks available to you
11:57makes this a fantastic sketch pad but my
12:00favorite thing about it
12:01is the fact that it integrates back into
12:04my studio so readily as soon as i get
12:06back home so this is why i love the
12:08syntax its ability to go effortlessly
12:10from on the road sketch pad right back
12:13into a studio environment at home and
12:15integrate right in and have that be
12:18useful immediately now if you're not
12:21using ableton or another daw where you
12:23can set up overbridge you can still take
12:26advantage of these exact same functions
12:28you would just do that through your
12:30hardware setup so the same midi out that
12:32you would use using a regular din midi
12:34cable can send the din midi out to
12:37a splitter can send it out to multiple
12:39synths can send it out to individual
12:41sense whatever you choose and that
12:44switch from audio track to midi track
12:46within the syntax still is just as
12:49effective whether you're using a
12:51strictly hardware setup or whether using
12:53a hybrid setup like i do i would also
12:55mention that the reason that i was using
12:58the deluge prior to getting the syntax
13:00was for the very same reason is because
13:02it's very easy to make that same switch
13:03within the deluge the biggest difference
13:05for me and the reason why i switched to
13:07the syntax as my you know portable
13:10travel work hotel sketch pad is because
13:13of the overbridge integration and the
13:17multi-track audio over usb and send that
13:20out really easily into my daw and again
13:25in one take track in all 12 tracks of an
13:29idea and then flesh them out within the
13:32daw into a finished track with the
13:34deluge what i needed to do was mute
13:36tracks and record them in one by one
13:38although i was still able to send the
13:41audio to midi and do that switch i
13:43wasn't able to do multi-track audio or
13:45multi-track audio over usb now other
13:48devices in the electron line also use
13:50overbridge the difference is the ability
13:53of the syntax to swap from an audio
13:55channel to a midi channel with basically
13:57just one click allows you to audition
14:00other instruments audition other
14:02hardware into the thing that you
14:04sketched out when you were on the road
14:06and for me and my particular workflow
14:08that makes this machine super powerful
14:11if you're interested in checking out any
14:13other videos about the syntax you can
14:14check them out over here they're going
14:15to be linked up above to get a little
14:17bit more background information of some
14:19of the functionality you can also go
14:21over to the beau beats channel and i was
14:24a guest on his channel for his summer of
14:27synths just a couple weeks ago and he
14:30and i did a video together where we did
14:32a whole bunch of syntax tips that might
14:34be helpful for you as well thanks to
14:35everybody who's been supporting the
14:36channel and i hope to see in the next
14:38video in the meantime take care of each
