Machinedrum impressions :)
2001-03-11 by Joeri Vankeirsbilck
Hi, I went to the Messe on Friday and Saturday and I had the chance of meeting the Elektron team. I met them last year, but since I was short on time I only talked tot hem for few minutes back then. This year we had some more time and they even invited me over to their hotel to check out the Machinedrum. They didn't have a booth at the Messe and since you can't take any equipment in or out of the Messe, they had to show it at their hotel. So, we went to the hotel room (the local Waldorf-Astoria - NOT :-) and there we tried out the Machinedrum. When I first saw it, my reaction was "Wow, very nice!" The case is great! It's metal (weighs much more than the SidStation!!) and it has an aluminium top plate with the name Elektron curved in it: looks very expensive and will definitely turn the heads of some of my clients when I get one. :-) The red LCD is also very nice and I like the graphical user interface they made. The knobs feel very good, and although the machine didn't have the final knobs yet, it already looked very nice. The rotary encoder also feels muuuuuch better than the one of the SidStation. 6 outputs, 2 inputs and midi in/out/thrue, so these specs are ok. The sequencer is very easy to operate and has great features. You can automate every step and there are also shuffle features etc... The synthesis looks quite powerful (didn't spend enough time on it to check it out in detail) and it looks like you can make kits which can combine all kinds of synthesis. I won't comment on its sound, because I've heard it on tiny multimedia speakers on which everything sounds the same. I think it will be a very nice addition to my XBase. I'll soon be able to let you know more about the sound. ;-) The Machinedrum also has a powerful effects engine, although I suggested some improvements (right now there's a compressor on the main out and I'd prefer to have it on 1 instrument only, e.g. the snare drum or the bass drum). All in all, the user interface and the looks were stunning. If the sound is of the same high level, then it'll be an incredible machine! Bye, Joeri -- Joeri Vankeirsbilck joeri@... Belway Productions - http://www.belway.com List-admin Logic-users/SoundD*ver-users/Logic-TDM