DFAM | Drummer From Another Mother

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wdFyN_yy7Q

 

 

  Quote

DFAM is the first addition to the Mother ecosystem of synthesizers and presents an expressive hands-on approach to percussive pattern creation. It requires no patching, and absolutely no experience is needed for human-beings of any age to quickly begin synthesizing new and unique rhythmic compositions.

Activated by an easy-to-use analog sequencer, DFAM’s emotive sound begins with a white noise generator and two wide-range analog oscillators - effortlessly transitioning between rhythmic pulsations, resounding bass and resonant bells in an instant. DFAM’s distinctive voice is then shaped by a classic Moog Ladder filter with two selectable modes: Low Pass mode imparts impact and dimension to each sound it touches, while High Pass mode opens the door to naturally expressive strikes, spikes and clangorous accentuations.
 
DFAM behaves much like a living organism, reacting in different ways to different individuals. 3 dedicated analog envelopes work dynamically with the sequencer to ensure that tribal toms breathe, industrial impacts evolve, and sonic chaos can be created or subdued at the turn of a knob.

Each DFAM ships with a package of Moog patch cables that unlock access to the 24-point modular patchbay. Use it to create new sounds or bizarre behaviors, synchronize an unlimited number of DFAM and Mother-32 units together, or fully integrate your analog instrument into a modular Eurorack production environment.
 
Through exploration and experimentation, the vast potential of this expressive analog instrument is realized.

 
https://www.moogmusic.com/products/semi-modular/dfam-drummer-another-mother

 

Interesting, I always had a lot of lust after the Mother-32, kinda wish I'd gone through with it now, could be fun to combine them.

 

And another vid:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnE2uvU3850

The future is female

Looks like good fun. Great video. Probably not for me but I'm glad it exists.

The 2nd woman created some cool sounds. I'd buy one if they weren't so expensive (£579), maybe grab one 2nd hand. 

  On 1/12/2018 at 1:51 AM, sheathe said:

The future is female

let's fucking pray that this is truth.

 

  On 1/12/2018 at 6:54 AM, ieafs said:

the future... just fucking sounds like stranger things

lol

 

  On 1/12/2018 at 12:14 PM, Alan Ord said:

The 2nd woman created some cool sounds. I'd buy one if they weren't so expensive (£579), maybe grab one 2nd hand. 

Yeah, Stud1nt and Umfang both made some interesting stuff. Looking them up now.

 

Price is definitely and issue on something like this, that + Mother 32 would be what, $1100? And they both sound great but they just seem both as just components for something larger before they're really worthwhile. I've not played with them personally though so I'm just giving impressions. Would be easy buys if they were each 100 or 200 less. Eurorack people love to spend their cash though, and Moog has never been 'cheap' really.

  On 1/12/2018 at 3:24 PM, auxien said:

Price is definitely and issue on something like this, that + Mother 32 would be what, $1100? And they both sound great but they just seem both as just components for something larger before they're really worthwhile. I've not played with them personally though so I'm just giving impressions. Would be easy buys if they were each 100 or 200 less. Eurorack people love to spend their cash though, and Moog has never been 'cheap' really.

Yup... 8-step sequencer with 1 voice for that kind of money, please tell me I'm misunderstanding?? Just as a rhythm machine, I can't help but feel like my PO-32 does more interesting and complete stuff for 1/8 the price and 1/50 the size. But it does sound very good, looks very fun to play with, and aside from the price I love the concept.

 

I would say this would be a niche item but the form factor begs for pairing with the Mother-32 so surely they'll have plenty of folks catching em all. And by having as much CV I/O whilst being able to run on its own, it provides a lot of value relative to much of the Eurorack and semi-modular markets.

It probably comes down to style/intended use.  I like the limited step sequencer mainly because it's perfect for some driving, repetitve techno, and the sounds themselves have a great punchy yet gritty and round feel to them that suits the kind of techno I like making that borders on industrial, especially kickwise, plus the general layout makes it super tweakable for live use.  I'm pretty interested in demoing this because I've been looking for a drum unit that can get certain textures and this sounds right up my street, and would fit in with the rest of my gear.  In that sense, the price isn't too much but yeah I can figure for others it wouldn't be worth it.

yaeh. aesthetically it looks cool and all would like to pair one with my mother32 but not at that price. 

I wish there was a YouTube comment with 100 downvotes: "does it come with a hot music producer girlfriend too!!!???"

Can you imagine building the same thing out of Eurorack modules? It would easily be twice the price. A sequencer alone can cost $700.

 

Would love to have a Mother-32 and DFAM to hold down bass and rhythm and tie it into another rack for tonal/atmospheric parts.

  On 1/13/2018 at 1:37 AM, Braintree said:

Can you imagine building the same thing out of Eurorack modules? It would easily be twice the price. A sequencer alone can cost $700.

Completely agree and this is what I was getting at about the relative value. But, on the other hand, as someone who hasn't actually taken the eurorack plunge (although I've been tempted dozens of times), this also highlights to me how expensive eurorack is. Not that it isn't necessarily worth it or higher quality or more fun or  blah blah blah. Just that these semi-modulars are definitely in a ticklish place in the market.

To be honest this video sounds as inspiring as the fucked up thing on that guy's arm is similar to a Moog tattoo.

Had this for a week now and I'm loving it so far, albeit from what limited time I've used it.  It's been really annoying because I've been trying to finish mixing 3 tracks but they are finally done now so I can start playing around with the DFAM.  Already coming up with very enjoyable stuff.  I said before in this thread it depends on what you want to create with it, but my initial thoughts is this is so much more than a drum machine.  Definitely given me a creative buzz.

  On 2/26/2018 at 6:41 AM, thawkins said:

To be honest this video sounds as inspiring as the fucked up thing on that guy's arm is similar to a Moog tattoo.

 

it's gonna have to sound better than that for me to stare at those baby hands for more than 2 seconds

  On 4/27/2018 at 10:13 PM, b born droid said:

Had this for a week now and I'm loving it so far, albeit from what limited time I've used it.  It's been really annoying because I've been trying to finish mixing 3 tracks but they are finally done now so I can start playing around with the DFAM.  Already coming up with very enjoyable stuff.  I said before in this thread it depends on what you want to create with it, but my initial thoughts is this is so much more than a drum machine.  Definitely given me a creative buzz.

 

I've got a bit of GAS for the dfam - how are you getting on with it?

I see it as more than a drum machine for sure, seems you can get some pretty good synth sounds out of it too.

 

Does it just have the one output (as its one voice)?

  On 2/21/2019 at 5:51 PM, fletcher said:

 

  On 4/27/2018 at 10:13 PM, b born droid said:

Had this for a week now and I'm loving it so far, albeit from what limited time I've used it.  It's been really annoying because I've been trying to finish mixing 3 tracks but they are finally done now so I can start playing around with the DFAM.  Already coming up with very enjoyable stuff.  I said before in this thread it depends on what you want to create with it, but my initial thoughts is this is so much more than a drum machine.  Definitely given me a creative buzz.

 

I've got a bit of GAS for the dfam - how are you getting on with it?

I see it as more than a drum machine for sure, seems you can get some pretty good synth sounds out of it too.

 

Does it just have the one output (as its one voice)?

 

 

I fucking love it tbh, it quickly became the centre piece of my workflow.  Some thoughts/drawbacks/plus points:

• It's insanely 'hands on', it's one knob per function and it really encourages you to start creating immediately.  There's no menus to get lost in, there's no trying to wrap your head around it's save structure (hello elektron).  It just makes the whole thing fun as fuck and very creative.  Obviously the downside to this is if you want to save sounds / patterns to kinda have to take photos or something to be able to remake it again.
• Hooking this up with an external sequencer is a lot of fun.  I generally have it running off the sync of a Beatstep Pro, and rhythmically you can get some great fucked up results.  I run the gate output of the sequencer into the advance step of the DFAM. If you use a standard 16 step pattern, but with the gate only on the 1, 3, 5, 7 etc, then you'll match the 8 step DFAM sequencer timing wise.  However if you start adding in extra gate signals - say on the 4th, 8th, 12th & 14th steps - then you suddenly find your DFAM 8 step pattern is 1 1/2 times through after 1 bar, and will take approx 4 bars to come back to the beginning.  You might have the same 8 notes/drum hits repeating, but the rhythm won't stay the same as the starting point of the 8 steps is always changing.  I find this is pretty cool with melodies, especially if you then decide to constantly adjust the bpm on the BSP.
• It only has the one output.  I have become quite proficient at multitracking with this.  It's a little annoying because you kinda have to be good at imagining extra layers as you create, but tbh that kinda suits my workflow so it doesn't bother me as much, but if I had the cash I'd probably be tempted to buy another and see what they are like when running together, especially with the semi-modular elements.
• It's fantastically versatile, both in terms of drum elements, but also when you start going after synth sounds.
• Tuning can be a bit of a cunt if you want to layer things up due to the Oscillators and pitch controls being so free.  If I'm doing proper melodies then I tend to send pitch info from the BSP.  For drums it's not soo bad.

I've just finished an EP actually that I would say is about 95% DFAM.  There's extra external processing on them in form of filter/grain delay/reverb, but the vast majority of the source sounds are DFAM and I just would multitrack bits, jam over the top, then tweak some arrangement bits later in Pro Tools.

 

https://open.spotify.com/track/4Ru7uWmME99dWQQKPK9YYp?si=FLjxH9NlQ8S345EnrE6htw

 

https://open.spotify.com/track/1bActaROZxez4LiFmYpZF9?si=2gizw-P6S2Wm87J9FLwc8w

 

https://open.spotify.com/track/6rqlmoOO5E9OXuY0fRQrKi?si=T-FCK9YwTXSO9JWOYn2mFg

Cool EP!

Great work Sounds really 'professional' so nice one. Really like Man Moth, bass is dope. 

Edited February 22, 2019 by Alan Ord

  On 2/22/2019 at 12:11 AM, b born droid said:

 

I've just finished an EP actually that I would say is about 95% DFAM.  There's extra external processing on them in form of filter/grain delay/reverb, but the vast majority of the source sounds are DFAM and I just would multitrack bits, jam over the top, then tweak some arrangement bits later in Pro Tools.

 

https://open.spotify.com/track/4Ru7uWmME99dWQQKPK9YYp?si=FLjxH9NlQ8S345EnrE6htw

 

https://open.spotify.com/track/1bActaROZxez4LiFmYpZF9?si=2gizw-P6S2Wm87J9FLwc8w

 

https://open.spotify.com/track/6rqlmoOO5E9OXuY0fRQrKi?si=T-FCK9YwTXSO9JWOYn2mFg

 

 

Very enjoyable :-)

As much as this does look ferkin' lush, it really is outside of my budget right now.

Snagged a 2nd hand Volca Kick off ebay which should do everything I want it to do for the time being.

 

The DFAM will have to wait until the mortgage is paid off....

couldnt recommend the DFAM more! Has been paired with the Digitakt since day one and allows for quick fun jams. Perfect for saving/backing up sequences and then re-sampling them again to extend them beyond 8 bar loops. Can do nasty drums or deep bass lines or high leads, very verstile!

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsv4zKZnLz2/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp2aNODlRxj/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpZi5Lsnbb9/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpmUN4tn_az/

Thanks for all the positive feedback :) after spending so long on something it's good to know I wasn't crazy on liking something! Would genuinely recommend the DFAM, it is my first Moog so I wouldn't really call myself a fan boy or anything but it really is a fantastic machine worth every penny.

  On 2/22/2019 at 12:11 AM, b born droid said:

 

I've just finished an EP actually that I would say is about 95% DFAM.  There's extra external processing on them in form of filter/grain delay/reverb, but the vast majority of the source sounds are DFAM and I just would multitrack bits, jam over the top, then tweak some arrangement bits later in Pro Tools.

 

https://open.spotify.com/track/4Ru7uWmME99dWQQKPK9YYp?si=FLjxH9NlQ8S345EnrE6htw

 

https://open.spotify.com/track/1bActaROZxez4LiFmYpZF9?si=2gizw-P6S2Wm87J9FLwc8w

 

https://open.spotify.com/track/6rqlmoOO5E9OXuY0fRQrKi?si=T-FCK9YwTXSO9JWOYn2mFg

 

This is awesome! 

 

I had the DFAM for about a week, sampled it a bunch before returning it, got some nice kicks and some sweet analog noisey filtery perc hits. I feel it is a well-suited instrument for performance but returned it as I am trying to learn mixing and arrangement atm. When I returned it, the store had Minitaur on clearance for $350 lol. 

 

Thanks for sharing your music. I enjoyed 'Intol' the most, especially the intro.