Elektron Musical Instruments

CTR stands for "ConTRol". The Machinedrum does not have the ability to  
place parameter locks for a track on a step which does not have a trigger  
on it, so these CTR machines fill a gap in the Machinedrum's  
functionality, by letting you use a track to do nothing but "send"  
parameter changes to other tracks. The monomachine, of course, can already  
put parameter locks on any step you want.

The exciting part for me is how the CTR-8P (for "8 Parameter") machine  
centralizes control of many parameters on different tracks onto one  
screen. Now you can have the pitch from the bass drum, the interference  
frequency from your snare drum, and the decay settings for your hats and  
things all on one screen, for easy use during live performance, without  
using up a lot of hand movement changing active track. That is why CTR-8P  
is cool.

The other CTR machine is CTR-AL (for "ALL tracks"). You do not choose  
which specific tracks the control changes on this machine go to - changing  
a parameter on CTR-AL changes that same parameter on EVERY track. Using  
CTR-AL, you can create some interesting kit-wide effects on drum tracks  
which would be difficult to achieve otherwise, sort of like how the BBOX  
machine's synthesis parameters affect every drum sample on a BBOX track.

The danger of CTR machines is that they alter the non-locked parameter  
settings in the active kit, so if you save the kit while it is being  
altered by a CTR machine track, the changes that the CTR machine made are  
saved! You have to make a habit of saving a kit directly after adding CTR  
machines to it, before you do anything.

So, the feature of having a collection of arbitrary parameters from all  
tracks on one screen is very very useful on a 16 track machine such as the  
Machinedrum, in addition to fulfilling the trig-less lock function. Using  
1 track out of a 6 track Monomachine just for controls would be somewhat  
less exciting. I would rather the Monomachine got a new FX machine, like a  
ring modulator or distortion synthesizer.

-Andrew D

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 09:08:58 +0100, Simon James  
<sirsimonjames@...> wrote:

> I own a monomachine so don't have a clue what these 'Ctr Machines' are.  
> Can
> someone explain for me please?
>
> I've heard all the Machinedrum users getting jazzed about this addition  
> to
> the os and feel excited myself that it might be added to future  
> monomachine
> os.