Elektron Musical Instruments

"State of the art" ? Elektron is being quiet modest as the machine
drum could be, as anticipated, the ultimate drum machine so far.
Believe me when I tell you (but do you need to be sold to it.... I
think anyone here knows what it's about...)demos SUCK big time. They
reflect the less interesting part of the machine. If there is such one.
First : the sound blows anything you've heard so far. I'm not talking
about the Roland weaponnery and their robotic circuits. But about
instruments made on a human basis. Would I say the most interesting
ones ? The last Drum machine I seriously gave an ear to was the 309.
Pattern based stuff. Clearly dance floor oriented. You know the shit.
I'v been into drum machines for quiet a while (I'm just 26 ok... so
not such a while) and never got to own one because except for the 808,
none could live to my expectations (for what one could expect of a
drum machine, as I see it : dry dirty bad street beats you can break
dance on. Ease of programation. An ear bleeding snare. The driest
mother fuckin shit. New order doesn't exist yet. Power to the soul
Sonic Force and shit. You know the kind I'm talking about.Clean,
killing and easy. Nothing MORE), and my faithfull rebirth could
emulate it so well, why spending on the real thing. But I'm a hardware
geek. So I wanted a real one. With the boom of the groovebox stuff,
loads of drum machines bloomed here and there, mostly influenced by
the 909 and it's dance orientation. Being more into noise and bleeps
and classic electro and all, I quickly deconsidered those. Some few
were more interesting than that, but quiet expensive for what they had
to offer (you'll name 'em better than me)being mere reconstruction of
an x0x plus numeric gizmos. But they were real drum machines the way I
wanted mine. No stupid add-on sounds, the drum and that's right. Where
I learned the existence of such thing as drum synthesis.
From then I knew I wanted a drum synthetiser. So when Elektron, makers
of my favorite synth annouced such a thing, all I had to do was wait.
Like many of you, I waited long, got quiet disapointed by the demos.
Figured out that would be another one of those well crafted x0x and
well. Ok. Old time sound, fun, but not so great. But that was
Elektron, so I kept the faith. Damn. They had proved themselves right
with the Sidstation. So if their ambition was so high, I kept
believing they wouldn't settle for less.
The day came when I could order. Did. Damn, saved the money during
nine long months.
Received it one day later. Odds : good.
Who gives a fucking damn about my life ?????!!!!! Sorry....
THE MACHINE :
wonderfully crafted, it has eveything you can expect from a drum
machine. And no fucking bassline ! You can create some, but nothing is
made for it specially, except if you consider that weird GND synth
they added at the last moment, who's quiet an electro pain in the ass
if you want to use it so (and that quiet good. I LOVE THE GND !!!!
TOTALLY USELESS, SO COMPLETELY USEFUL !!!!!).
The four synth sound really different and the infinite way to tweak
them tear them appart even more. To tell you can get real drum
sounding... well... I wouldn't settle for this one if I wanted real
drums. But for all the rest, it's amazing. Wether you're into House or
shit or Autechre crap. IT DOES EVERYTHING (sound wise. Didn't go into
the sequencer yet.) and more and the thing I expected the most :
thanks mostly to the crazy LFO section that goes into all the
parameters, you get to hear stuff you NEVER heard before. AND WHAT
ELSE WOULD YOU EXPECT ????? ELEKTRON ROCKS, AND THEY DID IT !!!!! And
I just tweaked it blindly for 4 hours ! I wouldn't have believed a
piece of hardware could still bring that freshness today. Halelujah to
Robot god ! And Elektron.
Sounds fucking amazing but then : IS IT SO EASY TO USE ? you'll ask
me. All I ever could use for drum machine that never got me to read
the manual was the rebirth... and the machine drum now. I read the
basics yesterday. Got my hands on it today. Didn't have to look in the
manual once after that. A kid could use it eyes closed. THE INTERFACE
ROCKS. Period. If you praised the Sid Station interface, it will be no
surprise to you. The MachineDrum one with its huge screen is a wonder.
A loop has been turning for as long as it took me to write this stupid
mail that would bore anyone who got into it. Lfo's do their job. I get
different snares and kicks everytime the pattern loops, and you know
what ? I never heard any of them on any record before.
I'm dreaming.
IS IT WORTH THE PRICE ?
definitely the one I paid as an Elektron friend. Would I pay the
regular price ? If I could allow it, without an hesitation. The thing
is twice the price of the latest groove box. If you're into more than
Euro Dance and basic transe or acid shit. If you want a REAL
ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENT as a piano is a REAL ACCOUSTIC INSTRUMENT.
Something not preformated, to be used for mere creation, you know that
kind of gear has no price, so twice the price of the latest Groove
box... Man, It's not that expensive.
Best regards to everyone at Elektron. I wish I lived in Sweden so I
could tell you all the best I think of your work. You rock. Marvel and
Elektron made mine.
Yo-