Elektron Musical Instruments

On Sat, Oct 04, 2003 at 09:14:28PM -0000, oldmanfury wrote:
>    You know, its strength is also its weakness IMHO.  Sitting down with
>    the MD in my lap is far more fun than any other method I have found
>    for writing drum patterns.

Agreed. That's why I want a module MM too :-)

>    So... given that I'm still a little sore about the fact that the MD
>    doesn't play nice with an external sequencer... I'm more than a
>    little worried about the MnM.  Would buying one force me forever to
>    the dark side of "hardware sequencing".

I think a major part of the beauty of the MM and the MD is in the onboard
sequencers.  You can incorporate them into your setup, it's just not in
the typical fashion.  For example, you could program sequences using
parameter locks and pull out the full potential of the machine.  Then
you can take this even further by trigging the sequences via Cubase
AND adding realtime tweaks to their Cubase sequences by playing the MD or
MM while recording in Cubase.  So your MD's (or MM's) onboard pattern is
trigging parameter locks while it's also receiving CC changes from
Cubase.  It's actually quite something when you think about.  No, it's
not like your other synths; but that doesn't make it bad or unusable, in
my opinion.  Especially when you consider the power it offers.

>    How well could I
>    sequence my other 1/2 dozen synths with the MnM?

Not very well right now.  Maybe very well in the future (depending on
how they change the OS and whether or not external MIDI sequencing will
by polyphonic); but it's not going to be like Cubase. The interface and
modus operandi will be much different.  Which works better with your is
what you should use as your master.

>    Would I end up
>    using up all of its sequencing power to control my other gear?

If you add another synth, then yes!  :-)  (It sequences on 6 external
channels.)

>    My Oberheim benefits greatly
>    from having a capable keyboard controller - is the MnM a good
>    keyboard?

Nobody's really mentioned it, but the keyboard is actually quite nice.
It's better quality than the Nord keyboard in terms of feel, action and
response.  The keys are larger than the Nord's, as well.  Its seems
like the best type of keyboard you'll get in a synth, at least from
what I've seen.

>    From what I've read so far, I'd end up having to do all of
>    my keyboard playing on the MnM, since it won't record outboard keys.

Not true. You can play it from an external keyboard as well as record
(in realtime and grid mode) the external notes into a sequence.  Which
makes me really wish they would've released a module version (I'm not
going to let up on that! :-)

>    And last - how well does it play with the MD?  Do you end up just
>    writing drum and synth patterns independently,  or is there some kind
>    of nice way of working on both synth and drums together?

So far, I've been writing a sequence on each of their sequencers and
just running them together.  But you can do more.  For example, the MM
will change parameters without trigging notes.  So you could have it
change parameters on the MD while the MD plays its internal patterns
(like I described above or Cubase).  And since the MM's pattern length
is longer, you can effectively extend the length of a repeating pattern
in the MD, using this method.

>    Is Cubase rendered useless by the MnM/MD, or do the MnM/MD become
>    useless when used with Cubase?

I don't like software sequencers, so I really can't say.  I can sequence
much faster on these machines than in any soft sequencer, though.

>    Do any of you MnM owners feel that
>    your other gear will be languishing in the corner now that you've
>    bought it?

No.  In fact I'm using the two to sequence my other synths pretty often.

>    Is there soon to be an "elektron sound" associated with
>    people who write everything with elektron gear?

Perhaps; but that has more to do with the onboard sounds and their
nature, I think.

You asked way too many questions :-)  I'm sick of typing...

Joe