Machinedrum User Appreciation

Hi All!

I'm getting a live set together and my Machinedrum UW has fast become the cornerstone of my set up.

Anybody else out there love their Machinedrum?

Bonus points if you wanna share patches.

I use a monomachine. I love it to death. The next purchase is a machinedrum.

funny that, I want to buy a monomachine.

always wanted to get one. So very spendy...

i love my monomachine and md, but recently my Monomachine has been loosing its internal memory like once a week, the battery probably needs to be replaced

Can anybody link some examples of the Machinedrum being used well? It's been a goal of mine to own an awesome drum machine, and now I have enough money for such things I've been looking at this since it seems to be the superior synthesizing drum machine (as opposed to sample based ones) but neither do I want to waste my money.

I'm going to have a 30 minute live set up by week's end with only Machinedrum for percussion. You'll get to hear 707 and 808 samples as well as the inputs and RAM machines in action.

Machinedrums cause cancer. Funny thing, I collect carcinogenic electronic music gear, so if anyone has a Machinedrum they should immediately donate it to me so I can take it off your hands. I'm doing you a favor, really.

For serious about those patches. Anyone wanna trade?

Absolutely brilliant machine. After a year of having it I bought the Monomachine. It's the best pairing in terms of gear I think I've ever come across. Can't wait for whatever Elektron have up their sleeve next.

I own a first generation Machinedrum (without the sampling feature). I used to use it quite a bit but ever since I got an 808 it's been gathering dust in the corner.

I dig this

I h8 u all

  On 12/13/2009 at 5:38 PM, Rbrmyofr said:

I own a first generation Machinedrum (without the sampling feature). I used to use it quite a bit but ever since I got an 808 it's been gathering dust in the corner.

sounds quite boring! I see no reason to let a more powerful machine collect dust in your corner, the Elektron can't duplicate the 808 and the 808 can't come close to touching what the Elektron is capable of. in other words, why not use both? i use a novation drum station with mine and its great. not as good as a real 808 obviously but pretty close

  On 12/13/2009 at 12:36 PM, futureimage said:

Absolutely brilliant machine. After a year of having it I bought the Monomachine. It's the best pairing in terms of gear I think I've ever come across. Can't wait for whatever Elektron have up their sleeve next.

everybody check out a few Futureimage albums at juno.com, some of the finest music i have ever heard using monomachines and machinedrums

*listens to samples of futureimage*

god dammit

*looks at kidney*

I could sell you

Kcinsu, you have an open invitation to come over here to masturbate indefinitely with my machinedrum. I live about 20 minutes from your house by car, probably 40 minutes by BART

it will also give me the opportunity to show off my VL1

:-D

when ya free?

it's a dream drum machine. and fuck, the monomachine. 1500 ? FML

RE: 808 vs MD

I can't ever use just the MD or just the 808 in a track. The symbiosis of the two is just unstoppable. The MD made me stop using my 707 and 909, but it can't touch the raw analog sizzle of the 808. The 808, on the other hand, cannot begin to dream of the digital fuckery the MD puts out.

had a SPS-1 then sold it to get a UW then sold that to get a Nord Modular (again).

amazing sequencer but i found the sound engine lacked punch, the compressor and EQ are a little run of the mill and I found you have to try hard not to make it sound like a MD

the UW is a good idea but I thought not very well implemented for accurate improv use given the interface but I'll confess I didn't dig as deep as I should have done and my KP3 coverd similar ground

my Monomachine (with the KP3) is my fave bit of kit ever but the MD didn't warrant the cost for me maybe because I personally prefer a bit more depth to a sound engine or don't have the need for so many drum sounds at once hence the turn to the Nord

I'm surprised no one has ripped off the workflow of the Elektron's after all these years but they're certainly greater than the some of their parts and I've heard great music done on both.

interesting... so you don't like the synthesis engine then? The flexibility/options, or just the characteristic sound?

I have 2 G2 modulars, and I've been making some homemade drum machines on them. My sound options are much more flexible, I'm sure, but the 4 slots, and 8 variations leave a lot to be desired for variety of patterns/preset switching..

I'm also surprised no one has tried to mimic/ripoff the MD workflow...

while i can understand thinking the EQ and compressor aren't that fully featured, i don't now too many drum machines (synthesis or otherwise) that let you EQ and compress the master bus with such ease.

I'm also not sure what you mean by it 'lacked punch' , compared to what? other digital drum machines or analog drums?

I will agree that the MD sound is hard to completely escape from, but if you don't like the MD sound i would not get one.

Monomachine is a far more flexible beast, and is also great for sequencing patterns and melodies on external synth and drum gear. I use my monomachine to control my Polyevolver, Novation Drumstation, Vermona Drm1 and Eventide Eclispe (i use the parameter CC lock sequencer to fuck with the effect parameters) all at the same time. and while im doing this i can also utilize 6 voices of monomachine synthesis.

how many CCs can you control/lock sequencer with the mono machine?

can't the MD sequencer the same amount of external channels?

  On 12/15/2009 at 12:45 AM, Kcinsu said:

how many CCs can you control/lock sequencer with the mono machine?

 

can't the MD sequencer the same amount of external channels?

i dont know the answer to either question, but the CCs do max out pretty soon in my experience especially if you are real-time recording yourself doing knob twiddling. On the other hand if you manually input/step sequence the parameter locks you can have a lot more freedom and room before you max them out.

And you've got me intrigued now, I am not aware of the MD's external gear sequencing abilities because i've never tried them. The monomachine has 6 whole midi tracks devoted to external triggering ( on top of the already 6 synth tracks) and each one can be assigned its own midi channel. Something similar can probably be devised on the MD but i imagine youd only get to trigger one piece of rack drum gear at most. Plus the Monomachine has a chromatic keyboard step input interface, where the MD does not. So trying to externally sequence say your Nord Lead with the MD would be a bitch using step sequencing, but a breeze using the monomachine's step sequencer. for example the Monomachine will tell you which note and octave you are about to input, and you can stack them to make chords if you put it on poly mod. The nice thing is even if it's on mono-mode for it's internal synth engine, you can stack notes (chords/ polyphony) on each 6 channels of your external midi tracks.

  On 12/15/2009 at 12:26 AM, Awepittance said:

 

I'm also not sure what you mean by it 'lacked punch' , compared to what? other digital drum machines or analog drums?

I will agree that the MD sound is hard to completely escape from, but if you don't like the MD sound i would not get one.

 

 

my old 309 despite being a tad low-fi seemed to have the clout (e.g. heavy Mill's esque techno) that you really have to try hard with on the MD, ok you can get some good bass drums sounds but that snares and hats (synth wise) always sounded a little lightweight and the MnM drums seem to hit the spot in this area except with much better EQ and filters (MD has a nicer distortion tho)

on the other hand a decent mod matrix of some kind is seriously lacking in both Elektrons which is why I like the Nord and especially it's four morph groups which are a powerful combination with the four MIDI CC's on the Monomachines external sequencer tracks so I'm getting the best of both worlds making some really far out expressive percussion sets that you couldn't do with the MD

the downside of the Nord is that program changes take a moment and everything stops as a result and the polyphony ain't great but the treating both the MnM and NM via eachother's audio in's can bring intresting results

if money was off little concern I'd still have an MD but for me I've got the same ground coverd elsewhere with the other digital kit I have