Elektron Musical Instruments

Tarekith,

Thanks for the reply - this is great, exactly the kind of comparison I was hoping for.

Agreed that the flexility of software often comes at the expense of a lack of playability.  
And it sounds like MD has a good combination of both.  Do you find that the advantages 
of the MD derive from it being a tactile piece of hardware, or does it present some 
advantages over UB in terms of synthesis modes/sound quality as well?

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, Tarekith <Tarekith@...> wrote:
>
> Whew, kinda hard to sumarize, but here's some random thoughts on it:
> 
> Ultrabeat is bit more flexible in a way, since you aren't starting
> with default kits geared towards specific sounds.  Just basic OSC and
> envelopes, much more similar to say a Korg ER-1 in this regard.  That
> said, the MD is a lot faster to get sounds on for precisely this
> reason too.  Both sound great and have x0x style sequencing obviously,
> no worries there.  UB loads samples of much longer length than the MD,
> isn't limited to 12bit mono, and there's some workarounds for making
> your own velocity layered samples via EXS24 as well, none of which the
> MD can do.
> 
> In terms of interface, the MD kills UB imo, it's way more immediate
> and easily one of the most 'playable' pieces of gear I have.  In
> comprison, UB's controls are very small and fiddly, and way
> modulations are handled is a bit weird compared to other gear out
> there.  Nice once you get used to it, but not the easiest to grasp at
> first.
> 
> I honestly find the MD a lot more fun to play with, and it's far
> easier for me to come up with unique sounds.  UB's no slouch, but you
> need to mouse everything as midi control surfaces like the Novation SL
> don't really work well with it.  I had thought when getting Logic 7
> that i might be able to make do with UB for my synthetic drums, but
> honestly I didn't get on with programming it as much as I'd hoped, and
> I still find myself reaching for the MD far far more often.
> 
> On 8/25/07, wavplant <waveplant@...> wrote:
> > if anyone's got experience with both i'd appreciate it if you could speak to the 
differences
> > between the two.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> Tarekith
> http://tarekith.com
>