Elektron Musical Instruments

On Mon, Oct 06, 2003 at 10:46:38PM -0700, Eric Jacobsen wrote:
>    - how much of the MM functionality can be done w/o the
>    keyboard

as far as I know, the keyboard is only absolutely necessary for the
multi-trig features.  with this feature, you can transpose one or more
tracks at once as well as retrigger them all at once, etc.

the other features can be done by hand (i.e. twisting knobs to program
notes) or with an external MIDI keyboard. I certainly think a keyboard
is nice for writing/programming it (especially when using the
arpeggiator). but the multi-trig feature is the only one that can't
be utilized at all without the onboard keyboard; simply because you
need the multi trig button to do it, and that's on the keyboard half
of the synth.

so, if they implement a module version, they will either have to figure
out a way to squeeze the multi-trig feature into it (either with a new
button or a menu, I guess); or that feature will not be included.
the latter case would be sad and would be worth getting the
keyboard version to have, I think. it would be great if they made the
module a bit bigger than the left half of the MM to include the joystick
and the multi-trig button. that way, no features are absent from a
module/MIDI keyboard setup.

>    - how the physical MM keyboard-side features
>    contribute to the sound / song creation (led's,
>    joystick, ?)

the LED's don't really help too much at all (at least not to me). but
it's cool to see them light up like mad when you play the arpeggiator
:-)

the joystick is cool if you set it up right. that is, using useful
parameter assignments and ranges of values to change to. but, if I
remember right, the assignments hold even if you plug a MIDI keyboard in
(left/right joystick movement becomes pitch wheel and up/down goes to
 the mod wheel). but of course, you can't make circular multi-parameter
sweeps as easily that way.

>    - Your opinions of what would be lost (if anything)
>    creatively from working with a non-integrated keyboard
>    (like the MD, is the whole greater than the sum of the
>    parts)

creativity-wise (and not feature-wise, as addressed above), I don't
think it would be too different. except that with a keyboard right at
hand, you might be more likely to try some new things here and there
that you might not have otherwise.

but for me at least, it's taking up a big chunk of my desk! so I have
to move other things further away. as a result, they get used less or
I'm lazier with programming them. so the keyboard actually takes
creativity away from me because I don't feel like leaning over for ten
minutes to program something.

Joe