the watmm GAS thread

now you could buy the monomachine and participate in the upcoming WATMnM compilation ;)

I bought a secondhand PCMCIA SRAM card for my nord lead, just so I could save drum kits. Instead of formatting it when I put it in the nord, I had a scroll through to see if there were somehow any presets in it, even after removing the battery to test it. I guess the removal of the battery resulted in some random corrupt presets, or something. Anyway I made a video of it:

I knew the nord was capable of some weird sounds, but there's some real otherworldly stuff happening there, especially that drone patch at the end which essentially plays itself (I was just holding down a simple minor chord). After I stopped recording, I continued scrolling through some of the other patches, and came across one really interesting microtonal patch that had something like 30 notes to an octave. And many of the patches seemed to be pushing parameters out of range, like an octave above the highest octave (with no LEDs lit) or some other filter mode, also with no LEDs lit, that sounded almost like a formant filter. It got me thinking about databending synth patches and/or exploiting sysex commands.. anyway interesting stuff for sure, I'm making note of the interesting patches and will most likely use them in tracks :D

btw, the video description has a link to a WAV version of the recording, if anyone wants to grab samples to use in their own tracks.

  On 4/5/2017 at 2:12 PM, Alan Ord said:

Got a BCR2000 on the way. Want to experiment more with sound sculpting so hoping it will help. 

I think I'm gonna have to concede defeat on ever getting a PG800 for a good price and just get a BCR2000 for my JX8P.. looks like they can be bought for fairly cheap these days.

  On 4/5/2017 at 8:06 PM, sheathe said:

of course it's a really fun thing to have etc etc, but i never worked it into my setup.

yup, I sold mine for the same reason. The OP-Z seems like it'll be a bit better with connectivity though, so I think I'm gonna get one of those eventually :P

  On 4/5/2017 at 8:24 PM, xox said:

now you could buy the monomachine and participate in the upcoming WATMnM compilation ;)

Already bought an OT

elektron machines get pretty lonely though, it's only a matter of time before you get another

I'm already thinking "hmm, what if?" when I see people selling their A4s

I'll never call a piece of gear a "beast" and I'll never get another elektron!

Tempest + Octatrack is plenty. I've made whole tracks out of one tempest pattern so I think I'll be able to do a lot.

lol I remember thinking "man, I'm just gonna make all of my tracks on the monomachine now"

I originally ordered a mnm feb 2016 but after months of waiting with dwindling hope of getting one I backed out. Then got the op1. Then the digitakt was announced and after some consideration I realized I just wanted an octatrack.

Thanks a lot modey, just when I thought my lust was plateauxing I've now got a raging Nord hard-on.

  On 4/6/2017 at 2:49 AM, modey said:

I'm already thinking "hmm, what if?" when I see people selling their A4s

Same. Something really charming about the architecture, and the polyphonic and drum modes seem great. I haven't actually heard anything on it that grabbed me, though, it's mostly the idea of it. Your Nord video up there sounds way more cooler.

  On 4/6/2017 at 3:45 AM, sheathe said:

I'll never call a piece of gear a "beast" and I'll never get another elektron!

Monomachine and OT are beast as fuck. Beast beast beast. You don't even know but you will soon.

  On 4/6/2017 at 4:17 AM, sheathe said:

I originally ordered a mnm feb 2016 but after months of waiting with dwindling hope of getting one I backed out. Then got the op1. Then the digitakt was announced and after some consideration I realized I just wanted an octatrack.

Digitakt was an elaborate ruse to help sell off all remaining OT stock.

yeah, get beastin', sheathe

and yeah, the digitakt certainly helped me realise I wanted the OT :D

  On 4/5/2017 at 6:30 PM, sheathe said:

I was selling my op1 (with case) on eBay. Winning bid was $820. Then the bidder backs, out saying: "I really can't swing that much money on something that's used."

 

Anyone need an op1?

Weeeeell *cough cough*, if you ever need a straight forward e-commerce solution that can also turn any website into a shop with embedding and has waaay lower rates than eBay, feel free to use https://blisst.io, which is my project and just hit version 1.01.  Upside is if you have your networks setup, you can propagate your link through it, and there is no obnoxious branding or ads.  You can even post your item link on craigslist or the like to nearby cities, so you can sell to people who don't want to drive 3 hours to pickup.  Downside is that it is not a buyer platform yet; just a seller tool.

But at the same time, if you hold onto your OP-1 for like 15 more years, you can probably sell it for hundreds more.  Then again, demand will probably soon go down after the new surge of OP-1's, so maybe it's best to sell now.  Who knows.....?  What I do know is that it's a beautiful and wonderful piece of hardware, that is partly responsible for the resurgence of lovely new synths in the past several years.  In that sense, it is a very important piece of modern synth history.

Shea, you are way to confident in your opinions, you will see there are others outside of yours that are real. Let the beast devour you and succumb. I know it will anyway whether you tell us or not ;)

The Elektron addiction is kind of weird. Got an Octatrack and got a MD and MM pretty soon after. The MD and MM are long gone but once you've got to grips with one of them it makes working with the others so easy. I do miss the MM though :( 

I must admit I've considered selling the MM for something that I'd use more, but in reality, every time I turn it on I remember why I'm keeping it, even though I haven't really used it for any 100% complete tracks..

Modey those Nord corrupt patches are fun, some really good sounds in the middle/end. I downloaded the wav, may use some of it somewhere. I'll credit/let you know if I do :)

It reminded me a bit of the random patch function in my Waldorf Pulse 2...I've found some crazy sounds with that.

  On 4/6/2017 at 12:51 PM, Chesney said:

Shea, you are way to confident in your opinions, you will see there are others outside of yours that are real. Let the beast devour you and succumb. I know it will anyway whether you tell us or not ;)

You don't think "beast" is a little over-used?

  On 4/6/2017 at 7:05 AM, peace 7 said:

What I do know is that it's a beautiful and wonderful piece of hardware, that is partly responsible for the resurgence of lovely new synths in the past several years. In that sense, it is a very important piece of modern synth history.

I did the second chance offer thing and the second highest bidder just bought it. It's shipped off. Im glad I got to experience it for a few months but personally I decided I'm not going to hold on to a bunch of gear in the way someone like Andreas Tilliander does (he just posted his Roland altar on IG and I also saw an op1 in there). For me (imho), having a bunch of stuff doesn't mean much if I'm not exporting .wavs that justify it.

I do yeah Shea but it's a funny word to use, almost taking the piss but half seriously too.

You'll find out though. The octa could make you want more elktrons or it could put you off for life, it's that kind of machine. I have a feeling you're not the kind of person to let a machine beat you easily though so you'll persist and find the love pretty quickly.

I bet you get an A4 next ha.

Cool thing about the OT is you can use it in a really basic way and still have a great time (once you get over loading samples, which I still think is a bit awkward). Just give yourself some climbing rope because at some point you'll want to venture into that deep, beastly abyss.

Yeah totally but that only comes quickly if you already versed in Elektron sequencers. Having an Octatrack as a first Elektron could be problematic for many people. Shea will be fine though, pride will make him prevail ha ;)

I have spent time with all elektrons besides the mnm, though I admit I was a little spooked by the OT at the time.

But after reading tons for the past year I have a solid understanding of parts, track recorders and buffers, flex vs static, slots, scenes, transition tricks etc. But that means little without actually having one. It gets here today.

One thing I want to try is, on a single track, assigning a flex machine to its own recorder buffer (after something is recorded). That way it would continuously print effects each time the pattern loops. I've never seen a vid of that.

Yeah you don't usually get decent usable tricks on YT because most people using the machine in progressive ways are keeping their methods on the downlow and just getting their head down and making music. I assume.

I think you'll love it. I love mine even though it has never fit in with my typical methods at all. It's too good to get rid of.

same as autechre should bring alex rutterford back, elektron should bring hector back! hopefully for the ot2 tutorial

for shea ;)

  On 4/6/2017 at 3:53 PM, sheathe said:

 

  On 4/6/2017 at 12:51 PM, Chesney said:

Shea, you are way to confident in your opinions, you will see there are others outside of yours that are real. Let the beast devour you and succumb. I know it will anyway whether you tell us or not ;)

You don't think "beast" is a little over-used?

  On 4/6/2017 at 11:16 PM, xox said:

for shea ;)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xgtRJCx8dE

Man. I love the mnm. I'll always want one but I would only ever get one if it was sub $1k.

I'm so happy with the octatrack though. Can't believe I've waited so long to get one. It's amazing.