Elektron Musical Instruments

Happy to hear tht people get more than skin deep when it comes to
features vs interface to access them. Over the years there have been a
multitude of suggestion to additions to improvement, option, special
menus and so for our machines.

A lot has made it in, but I've kept a straight guideline that all
functions as well as possible should not interfere with the interface.
For me the whole reason with hardware instruments these days _is_ the
interface and what it lets you do nice and easily with getting in your
way. We've really tried to keep the MD and Mono that way, with too
deep menues that you have to enter to find all those tasty parameters.
As much as possible should be at your hand when you want it.

That was the main reason I got into synthesizer design. I loved music
machines, but as soon as they became too complex and the engineers
(they and the marketing wizards love to pack as much as possible
inside, value for money I think they call it) without looking at the
full picture.

The the MD and the MONO the goal has been that you should grasp the
basic idea within a few minutes, especially if you have someone
guiding you, and then after a day or two you can start Making Music.
All looking around for the right parameter really takes at least my
inspiration away, and instead of the times are flying and I end up
with something really cool and useful, I could still be fighting with
that parameter that doesn't activate unless I enter some other magv
menu etc. :)

There are many fantastic instruments out there that I really love. The
Moog Voyager I don't think anything can beat in terms of a monophonic
supersonic monster as well as the lushest little lamb. V-syth is
actually another favorite, although it's not 100% intuitive it's fun
to play around with.

Just tried the Spectralis briefly so I should not say anything about
it, especially as people are thinking about buying either an Elektron
or Spectralis. But let's just say that the demo showed potential
(although a bit standard for my taste) I couln't really get anywhere
with the actual machine. I hoped there would be a rapid develop in OS,
but I found it hard to see how He (Jürgen right?) would get it the way
I wanted. Wide and direct rather than dirt deep. There is no doubt it
has a lot of powerful stuff under the hood, but I'm not the man to
delve down. And my view is also that all instruments should be ready
to take live. Even if you don't I like the workflow where you just add
and remove elements in the mix and evolve and maybe suddenly finds the
essence of your song. All with having fun  - creativity is sprung out
fun imho!

Anyway, you should probably ignore my comments and look for someone
else who has unbiased first hand experience with both. It's to quite
different instruments you are looking at even though they might seem
similar at face level.

Best,

Daniel, Elektron

--- In elektron-users@...m, ehdyn81@... wrote:
>
> Sorry,
>   I've wanted the same bit of kit. There are a couple of holdups
> though. I was ready to buy the Spectralis, but when I played with it
> at Namm I was left unconvinced. The knobs(encoders) left something to
> be desired. And, I don't like to do detailed parameter editing through
> a tiny screen. In fairness, the capabilities of the machine are quite
> powerful. If only the interface could be more accommodating.
> 
> As for the user wave elektron, what ever became of the internal timing
> issue? Some people on the forums were complaining of noticeable clock
> jitter. Hard to believe as A.E. have really precise timing. But then
> again, it seems like their equipment was slaved to a laptop running
> D.P.(which could of been chained to an antelope). Performer contained
> all of the midi data for the live show. It's all conjecture until
> someone runs the appropriate tests. Those ram samplers sound pretty
> wicked though.
> 
> It sounds like you've got the sound sources pretty much sussed, so why
> not get an MPC2500? Or a laptop running Kontakt2, Emu's X2? Then all
> you need is a KP3, and do a continual loop(resampling) as your
> committing tracks. Kinda like D.P.'s polar.
> 
> Anyways, I've got a headache from too much Kona.
> I hope clavia release a G3 with the capabilities of the Wave thrown
> in(rack format). That's what I'm waiting for. I'll be blue soon.
> 
> Honestly, any piece of kit will work. It really doesnt matter. Fuck
> it-get an ASR-X, I regret selling it.
> 
> 
> 
> ehdyn
>