Elektron Musical Instruments

On Wed, Mar 03, 2004 at 04:36:54PM -0000, moanersaa wrote:
>    What I'm looking to do is create squelchy, noisy, distorted, sick
>    sounding rhythms.  Obviously it's going to take me a while to
>    learn
>    to do this so I want a machine I can grow into as this is going to
>    be my last piece of gear for a long time.

either one will keep you happy for awhile, I'm sure. its just a question
of what you have now. if you're lacking in great-sounding unique synthesis
then I'd suggest the MnM. if you're lacking in unique and flexible
drums, then I'd suggest the MD. if you're lacking in both then you've
got some thinking to do :-)

>    I know the MD does pretty
>    much what I'm looking for but I'm a little concerned about
>    being
>    limited to only drum type sounds.  The MM seems to have a much wider
>    array of sounds available, but how are the drum sounds?

the drum sound palette of the MnM is tiny compared to the MD's. it
essentially has one of the MD's four machine types and it's a limited
implementation at that. BUT it is a great drum machine in itself; it
sounds terrific and it's very flexible (I use it all the time even
though I also have the MD). it's only when you compare it to the MD
that you see there is so much more possible :-)

>    Like I said
>    I'm looking for crazy sounding drum kits, but does the MM also
>    supply the resources to create typical sounding 909 kick drums and
>    the like?

not really. it's the E12 machine of the MD that the MnM is based on. the
MD's TRX machine is the one that is more 909-ish. so the MnM's drums, to
me, are better suited to elektro as well as lo-fi and hiphop-ish if you
tweak the filters right.

>    If I buy the MM, I'm worried about receiving it only
>    to
>    immediately start lusting after a MD :)

you will! but if you can only go for one and you have decent drums
already, I'd go for the MnM. also note here that the MnM's drum track
is monophonic; so in order to have two percussions sounds at once
(e.g. hi-hat and bass drum), you have to use two of the MnM's tracks.
if this is your only drum sequencer, then that would suck since it's
nice to use the MnM for its synthesis.

>    Also I'm wondering about
>    the table top version of the MM.  Am I better to wait till I can
>    afford the keyboard version?

I like having the keyboard at hand because I like being able to create
and sequence parts immediately and on-the-fly. I also like the way the
joystick works in multi-trig mode (going in and out of it while playing
can breathe a lot of life into some very simple sequences). the joystick
can be substituted by a decent MIDI controller (it's PB + Mod wheel + CC2).
so if you think you'll end up using these features a lot then it would
be better to get the keyboard version.

>    Given my gear and what I want to do, can anyone give me some advice
>    here?  Perhaps I should just stick with the MD and pick up a MM when
>    I can?

if you think you'll have money to get the second one relatively soon, then
I'd suggest the MnM for sure since you will still get great drum sounds
out of it. then the MD will just take you into a new heaven entirely.
but again, this depends on what you already have that you're happy with.

and especially if you're gonna try and get both soon, I'd say go with
the MnM tabletop. if you decide that you'd like the KB/joystick
then you can sell it and upgrade (Elektron stuff seems to retain its
value very well, so you'll likely only lose a bit of $ going this way).

hope that helps!
Joe

p.s. as a fellow long-time musician (drummer for 15 years) who's not
been into electronics all that long (well, not as long as I've been drumming
at least), I'm guessing you'll love the real-time useability of the
Elektron gear :-)