Elektron Musical Instruments

I've been considering purchase of MachineDrum, and after I was 
almost certain that this would be a drum machine of choice, I've 
heard Monomachine demos.

My first questions is: does anyone know whether the demos on the 
Monomachine sound page such as  E-LE-KTRO by Ziggy and Shiderman by 
Storm are made on Monomachine only, or are any other instruments 
being used on these.

My second question is: would Monomachine be a capable drum machine --
I understand that the limitations concerning the number of tracks 
would be a concern, and that MachineDrum, on the other hand, is 
designed more for synthesis of percussive instruments, but would 
there be any other reasons why one would choose MonoMachine over 
MachineDrum as a his primary drum machine.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Erol

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "erolerolj" <erolerolj@y...> 
wrote:
> I understand that the limitations concerning the number of tracks 
> would be a concern, and that MachineDrum, on the other hand, is 
> designed more for synthesis of percussive instruments, but would 
> there be any other reasons why one would choose MonoMachine over 
> MachineDrum as a his primary drum machine.

You can of course program drum sounds on the MnM very easy and do 
some crazy percussive stuff with it with the parameter locks but the 
MD is still your best choice for drummachine alone. It has a lot of 
special drumsynth's and it's OS is made specially for creating drum 
patterns so you will get results easier on it. Also the MD can do 
some crazy synth stuff too! Best choice is to buy them both but I 
understand if that's over budget.

It just depends what you're looking for...
If you want the best possible drummachine buy the MD.
If you want some extra drumsounds and have a hell of a synth with it 
you could settle for the MnM.

Ronald.

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "erolerolj" <erolerolj@y...> wrote:
> My first questions is: does anyone know whether the demos on the 
> Monomachine sound page such as  E-LE-KTRO by Ziggy and Shiderman by 
> Storm are made on Monomachine only, or are any other instruments 
> being used on these.

perhaps Daniel will verify this. but I would guess that they are,
since when Elektron was accepting MnM demos in here before, one
requirement was that the demos were MnM only.
 
> My second question is: would Monomachine be a capable drum machine --
> I understand that the limitations concerning the number of tracks 
> would be a concern, and that MachineDrum, on the other hand, is 
> designed more for synthesis of percussive instruments, but would 
> there be any other reasons why one would choose MonoMachine over 
> MachineDrum as a his primary drum machine.

the MnM's drum machine has pros and cons. overall, I'd say that its a
great machine; much better, in fact, than the Boss DR-X machines that
I've owned. however, its very limited compared to the MD. you
essentially have one of the MD's four synthesis engines, but its
scaled down and all percussion sounds are tied to it. as a result, the
sounds always work together well; but the palette of sounds, though
vast, is VERY limited compared to the MD. it can do some things that
the MD can't (like retriggering all drum sounds rather than just one,
or creating drum arpeggiator tracks), but its not really a substitute
for the MD.

as far as choosing the MnM drum machine over the MD: I actually use
both a lot. the MnM creates a base drum track and the MD does the more
interesting/complicated drums and spices things up a bit. I would
probably choose the MnM over the MD in instances where I want basic
drums that sound good together and can be controlled as though they
are one. but I wouldn't want to have that as my only drum machine.

So my sumarized answer is: the MnM will work as a good drum machine; 
but ONLY until you can recover from its purchase enough to buy an MD. 
:-)

Joe.

"as far as choosing the MnM drum machine over the MD: I actually use
both a lot. the MnM creates a base drum track and the MD does the more
interesting/complicated drums and spices things up a bit. I would
probably choose the MnM over the MD in instances where I want basic
drums that sound good together and can be controlled as though they
are one. but I wouldn't want to have that as my only drum machine."


That's a good idea Joe, I have been setting up a song the opposite 
way, with my MD doing the basic beat but using the MM for that would 
make sense and then get the MD to add the extra flavor.  I'm kinda 
waiting for OS 1.0 and the presets to finish my current song, I can 
get some good sounds going but work better with a starting point, I'm 
not as experienced as others here at synth sound programming, but 
working toward getting better!  

Also, are you using song mode with both machines, matching up 
everything and then recording it? I think I'm going to try that next 
instead of muting and unmuting tracks.  It's taking a bit more pre-
planning but I think end result will sound better and more put 
together for me.  -scott

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "izfunky" <izfunky@a...> wrote:
> Also, are you using song mode with both machines, matching up 
> everything and then recording it? I think I'm going to try that next 
> instead of muting and unmuting tracks.  It's taking a bit more pre-
> planning but I think end result will sound better and more put 
> together for me.  -scott

hey scott,
yeah. song mode certainly has its advantages. my favorite one is that
you can focus more on parameter tweaking and not have to worry about
changing patterns + muting and unmuting tracks. plus if things are
mapped out to specific lengths then its easier to record individual
tracks of a song piece by piece (since I don't have an audio interface
with 24 inputs and thus can't record all individual tracks at once),
which gives you direct control over everything in the song.

sometimes I'll use it and sometimes I won't. it usually just depends
on how complicated the changes are. if they're very basic, then I'll
just use pattern mode. but if there are several changes or several
patterns in the song and I want to incorporate drum fills, several
track transposes, etc. then I will certainly use song mode. but yeah,
you have to do a bit of arithmetic to make sure that the MD and the
MnM match up with eachother (if their step lengths are different, that
is). also the trick (for me at least) seems to be that if you start
with song mode too early in the song's creation then you might have to
re-program different parts of it several times. but if you start later
on (i.e. once you have the structure pretty much set in stone), then
it's a bit easier and less tedious.

Have fun!
Joe.

Ronald and Joe,

Thanks a lot to both of you. I appreciate your responses. I guess, 
at this point it all comes down to considering for which one of the 
two I would find more use overall. 

Thanks again,
Erol
  

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "erolerolj" <erolerolj@y...> 
wrote:
> I've been considering purchase of MachineDrum, and after I was 
> almost certain that this would be a drum machine of choice, I've 
> heard Monomachine demos.
> 
> My first questions is: does anyone know whether the demos on the 
> Monomachine sound page such as  E-LE-KTRO by Ziggy and Shiderman 
by 
> Storm are made on Monomachine only, or are any other instruments 
> being used on these.
> 
> My second question is: would Monomachine be a capable drum 
machine --

> I understand that the limitations concerning the number of tracks 
> would be a concern, and that MachineDrum, on the other hand, is 
> designed more for synthesis of percussive instruments, but would 
> there be any other reasons why one would choose MonoMachine over 
> MachineDrum as a his primary drum machine.
> 
> Any comments would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> Erol

Thanks for the info Joe, it is fun learning how to get the most out 
of these great instruments, I learn more all the time from this list.
Happy holidays!  -scott


--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "Joe" <jmelnyk@c...> wrote:
> --- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "izfunky" <izfunky@a...> 
wrote:
> > Also, are you using song mode with both machines, matching up 
> > everything and then recording it? I think I'm going to try that 
next 
> > instead of muting and unmuting tracks.  It's taking a bit more 
pre-
> > planning but I think end result will sound better and more put 
> > together for me.  -scott
> 
> hey scott,
> yeah. song mode certainly has its advantages. my favorite one is 
that
> you can focus more on parameter tweaking and not have to worry about
> changing patterns + muting and unmuting tracks. plus if things are
> mapped out to specific lengths then its easier to record individual
> tracks of a song piece by piece (since I don't have an audio 
interface
> with 24 inputs and thus can't record all individual tracks at once),
> which gives you direct control over everything in the song.
> 
> sometimes I'll use it and sometimes I won't. it usually just depends
> on how complicated the changes are. if they're very basic, then I'll
> just use pattern mode. but if there are several changes or several
> patterns in the song and I want to incorporate drum fills, several
> track transposes, etc. then I will certainly use song mode. but 
yeah,
> you have to do a bit of arithmetic to make sure that the MD and the
> MnM match up with eachother (if their step lengths are different, 
that
> is). also the trick (for me at least) seems to be that if you start
> with song mode too early in the song's creation then you might have 
to
> re-program different parts of it several times. but if you start 
later

> on (i.e. once you have the structure pretty much set in stone), then
> it's a bit easier and less tedious.
> 
> Have fun!
> Joe.

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "Joe" <jmelnyk@c...> wrote:
> --- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "erolerolj" <erolerolj@y...> 
wrote:
> > My first questions is: does anyone know whether the demos on the 
> > Monomachine sound page such as  E-LE-KTRO by Ziggy and Shiderman 
by 
> > Storm are made on Monomachine only, or are any other instruments 
> > being used on these.
> 
> perhaps Daniel will verify this. but I would guess that they are,
> since when Elektron was accepting MnM demos in here before, one
> requirement was that the demos were MnM only.

Yes, all of the Mono-demos, should be made with the Mono only.

Daniel

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "Joe" <jmelnyk@c...> wrote:

> but yeah, you have to do a bit of arithmetic to make sure that the
> MD and the MnM match up with eachother (if their step lengths are
> different, that is).

In the Mono we have added a transport information at the top of the 
window. We will add that to the Machinedrum as well, and then it 
should be much easier to match them up against eachother!

Daniel

Awesome, thanks Daniel!

-scott


--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "daniel_elektron" 
<daniel@e...> wrote:

> --- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "Joe" <jmelnyk@c...> wrote:
> 
> > but yeah, you have to do a bit of arithmetic to make sure that the
> > MD and the MnM match up with eachother (if their step lengths are
> > different, that is).
> 
> In the Mono we have added a transport information at the top of the 
> window. We will add that to the Machinedrum as well, and then it 
> should be much easier to match them up against eachother!
> 
> Daniel