Machinedrum User Appreciation

yeah I've seen references to both a machinedrum and monomachine randomiser.. I think awepittance had a reaktor ensemble.. phling as well I think? I never tried to obtain either one but it would be pretty cool for wacky IDM

yeah I've done my share of experiments with the MDUW when I had one, mostly sysex-based generating patterns/kits... unfortunately the MD can hang / crash when sending sysex while the sequencer is running, so I never released anything.

I did release an app for the Analog Rytm though, Strom:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/strom/id907044543?mt=8

it's got a randomizer for kits, a pattern generator, and sample transfer..

I get the idea, I love the random patch generator on Waldorf synths.

But just set up random machines on each track, hit random trigs on all or live record the trigs by bashing all 16 randomly then re use and set up track 16 as ctrl al machine and do the instant ae trick ;)

Sometimes I just don't know what type of kit I want to use, and making kits from scratch seems like a fiddly process. Maybe I'll have a go at writing something like this.

?

So you just tweak preset kits?

You can get decent stuff of course but they'd be set up pretty standard. I have experimented with things like using 8 tracks of the same instrument and seeing if I can get an interesting beat going, just to learn exactly what that instrument does and how it gets affected when you do the Func+ tweak knob ctrl all thing. 

80% of what I use are what I put in to be honest but like to bolster it up with the internals, usually hats and metal things. A kick here and there if my sample is not enough.

No i tend to make kits from scratch. But often times I don't really know ahead of time if i want to use the FM kick or the TX kick etc, and I feel creatively it would be better if I didn't really know what I was going to get.

Like if I want a hip hop groove I think my brain naturally reaches for the sp12 machines, and I'd like to avoid that sort of thinking if possible.

I started looking into building some software to do this for me before I went out of town and seems like I can backwards engineer this a tad:

https://github.com/adsr/inkfish/blob/master/src-plugin/ElektronMachinedrumObject.java

I don't know why, but I actually enjoy the process of stuffing those 2.5 mb of sample space slowly but surely from the C6 app.

Being old school and careful about your approach is refreshing.

haha yeah it's oddly satisfying

YES, absolutely! Having a small space and knowing it will take an age makes you really careful what you're putting on there. 1 sample can go a long way if you're very selective and have sooo many usable loops and potential tracks on there because of that, whereas I have stuffed my Octatrack I have stuffed it full of loads of odd samples I have done and barely made a decent track on that thing.

right now i'm trying to make a track for the latest watmm sample based compilation by using only the md-uw and i can't remember the last time i had this much of fun in making music...

I've been highly considering chucking some lofi break samples on it and making some jungle with it.. If I fill up the memory does that mean I can't use the RAM machines? I guess I could just have a dedicated jungle/breakcore snapshot..

yeah you have to save some room for RAM. Not sure How much. If you have the plus drive though it's easy to just flick between sets so I just fill around 75% just incase.

Just reread, yeah you have plus drive ha

I spent over four hours today making this, my first woodworking project since high school:

Phew. It's not perfect, but it's surprisingly solid once the ends are screwed in to the machines. I can understand why these stands are so expensive to buy now though, haha.

Also, it took me an irrationally long amount of time to actually get these onto the machines, and then when I put in the final screw I realised I could have just attached the ends with the hinges unscrewed lol

I have made a few different frames for 2 and 3 high but they end up being annoying to work at those angles. So I have 2 next to each other and the other 2 in a draw underneath to pull out so they are all together. I could and have lazer cut some out before but my lazer cutter caught fire and died last month. I'm not sure that angle is enjoyably ergonomic, let me know ho you get on or whether you end up scrapping it like many of mine.

Yeah I'm thinking the machinedrum at the top may be a bit fatiguing to use when developing sounds/patterns, but this is mostly for live use, where I need it to be portable/compact. I'll see how I go in the studio; I may end up modifying it so it can be used in a couple of different configurations..

Having the two in the stand has got me playing with the monomachine again. It sounds so great with the machinedrum, and I'm not even scratching the surface of using them together yet.. I'm trying to figure out how I should set up the audio routing, because I eventually want to start incorporating some squelches and such from nanoloop mono, and without a mixer if possible. Perhaps nanoloop into MM input, and MM main out into an MD input machine. That way the MD has control over MM's signal for wacky rhythmic filtering etc.. ahh it's a tricky one!

Coming back to the monomachine after a few months has been fun though. I even managed to get the reverb to sound good enough for a live setup. It's certainly nowhere near the Midiverb III I've been using, but it saves me having to lug another bit of gear around to gigs.

Well done modey!

I'm thinking about getting a stand for my MD as well. No way in hell could I construct something like that on my own.

I found a random jam of the first pattern I made on my machinedrum when I first got it years ago. It's garbage of course but has good memories because I remember every few minutes things slotted into place and I had a smile from ear to ear because it was the first drum machine/sequencer that was doing things that I wanted and more.

I don't even remember recording a jam but thought i'd post it on SC anyway, even if it's overcooked and rubbish.

<iframe width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/299036399&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true"></iframe>

Dunno why you say it's garbage, I think it's pretty good.

  On 10/11/2016 at 4:25 AM, acid1 said:

Is there a way to generate a random kit?

A very clever buddy of mine actually did this.

He made a max patch that basically loads random kits, patterns, params etc. Its fucking brilliant.

https://patchstorage.com/inductive-machinedrum-randomizer/

Please tip this guy beer.

Neat, will give that a go!

Justin Valer just released the latest unofficial MD firmware. I built a megacommand last year which I ended up using not so much, mostly because I didn't bother making/getting a proper enclosure for it so it was a pain to use so that's been sitting in a drawer waiting for me to build it a little house. But I did very much enjoy the FW upgrade for the MD that was released that unlocked an additional snare in the TRX category.

This latest firmware upgrade however is really incredible. Copy pasted from the release notes:

---------------------------------------------

** Three new GND machines are now available. **
GND-SN-PRO is a compatible model for GND-SN, featuring up to 4 sine OSCs.
GND-SW is a sawtooth/triangle machine with up to 3 variable waveform OSCs.
GND-PU is a pulse wave machine with adjustable duty ratio and up to 3 OSCs.
All new GND machines have relative pitches for additional OSCs, and UNISON
capability.

** The following machines gain a new tuning setting: **
GND:  SN SW PU
TRX:  BD SD XT RS CB CL XC B2 S2
EFM:  BD SD XT CP RS CB HH CY
The "EDIT KIT" menu is updated to incorporate the tuning setting per-track. In
addition to SYNTH, MACHINE and RELATE, one can use [LEFT]/[RIGHT] keys to
access the tonality setting in the right upper corner of the menu, and toggle
between "DEFAULT" and "TONAL" with [UP]/[DOWN] keys.

"TONAL" tuning implements a quater-tone equal tempered tuning scale across the PTCH
parameter of selected machines. When enabled, TONAL has the added benefit of
increasing the machine's maximum tuning range.

** TRX-S2 decay and noise parameters sensitivity has been improved" **

** New LFO shapes are available: SINE, REV-LINEAR, REV-EXP, NOTCH and STEP. **

** Trigger groups can be arbitrarily chained. **
For example, you can set track 1 to trigger track 2 and track 2 to trigger
track 3, and thus track 1 will trigger all three tracks.

** Triggers can now be previewed in step editing mode. **
Hold a P-locked trigger and press [ENTER] will preview the P-locked sound.

** Solo Mode **
From the mute menu, you can now toggle between MUTE/SOLO mode with [ENTER].
The toggle also functions as a mute inversion tool, so that you can switch
between two playback states.

** Mute/solo actions are now transmitted via MIDI. **

** Trig Interface (TI) Extended Response: **

------------------------------------------

Just finished uploading it to my MD and fuck me, it's so awesome to have these new machines, lfo shapes, the tonal setting and the solo function. Goddamn.

Download for free from github: https://github.com/jmamma/MegaCommand_Design

No megacommand needed btw, all these features are unlocked on the MD itself.

Absolutely insane.

Yeah, really incredible. I’m subscribed to the GitHub thread so you see all this back and forth between the 2 guys working out the implementation and fixing bugs and the amount of work and dedication and knowledge that’s needed is somewhat awe inspiring. 
 

Oh, forgot to highlight another feature that’s huge for me; plock preview. Always found it incredibly tedious to have to wait for the pattern to cycle to hear if my tweak sounded ok, and then another time, and another, etc. 
Oh! Another thing! They fucking fixed the weird bug where externally triggered sounds had their phase inverted!

what a great day for MD owners!