Elektron Musical Instruments

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "fotofono" <ar98043@m...> wrote:
> .I read many messages from people complaining for a major
>  hardware failure: taken that the only service center is in Sweden
>  this is a very big problem.Anyway overall how would you rate the  
> MD's reliability? Does it frequently crash or the few crashes are a 
> result of strange operations?

I'd rate the MD reliability very high.  I've had great luck with mine
so far (knock on wood) and it's over a year old, I believe.

I've never had it crash.  It has acted weird on me a couple of times,
but not locked up or crashed yet.  And that's normal for electronic
(especially digital) instruments, in my experience; none of them are 
100% perfect.

Overall, I think it's very reliable.  If you have a problem, Elektron
will help you through it.  But I would recommend buying a new one,
*just in case* you need them to make good on their warranty; and it's
worth it just to avoid paying the shipping fees, really.

BTW, I know they've kicked around the idea of outside service centers
in countries other than Sweden.  When and if that will ever come to 
fruition, I do not know.
 
> .if I trigger the drum sounds from external sequencers, will the 
> incoming note's velocity be recognised? for example will a drum roll 
> with gradually increasing velocities sound the way it should? 

IIRC, this can be done, but velocity is just mapped to volume.

Have you played an MD in person yet?  I would highly recommend doing
so.  Check out Elektron's partner page
(http://www.elektron.se/partners.php) and see if there's someone near
you with one you can demo.  Because honestly, other than the
incredible depth of sounds, one of the greatest things about the
machine is the interface.  And that includes the sequencer.  So I'm
not sure if you'll want to use an external sequencer very often, once
you really get into the machine :-)

Joe.