Elektron Musical Instruments

i know exactly how you feel.
I had my sidstation for about a year, but just recenlty sold it.

At first it's a bit hard to understand, and it helps if u print out the 
manual on the site, since the old manuals are full of holes    ( Elektron was still 
tweaking the OS when it came out)

The wavetable is key to making some of the sounds, especially the evolving 
ones,    just start thinking of it as a Step-Sequencer, but with a lot more 
steps. 

As for basic programming, i'll assume u want to program vintage 8bit sounds.
Most of the sounds of yore were very simple Tri waves and Pulse waves.
PWM and LFO routing is key when trying to make c64, NES, Gameboy, ect.... 
sounds

The programming is done mainly via the annoying menu system, so u may want to 
draw out a signal path diagram. And plan out a basic outline on wut you wanna 
do first.

example:   Osc1 -Pulse-   --> ADSR --> FILTER --> LFO
     (helped me out a lot when programming all 3 oscillators at once)

Signal flow charts are a bit "obselete" and pointless, especially with the 
miracle of sysEX files and MIDI. But it can help a lot, when you're lazy like me 
and just want to make crazy sounds.
(i have a few lamenated, lol like a big dry erase board for each of my 
synths)

Also try with the arp, hold down about 5 or 6 keys, and u can make a nice 
Arcade sequence.
Though the polyphony is limited, u can get the arp to progress through more 
notes.

i mainly program 8bit sounds on my Korg MS2000 right now, but i can try to 
help with the SID.
u got urself a great synth, but the lack of independent control knobs for 
each parameter makes it a bit unfriendly, but it's powerful once u know how to 
make her sing.

I've been doing this for a good 5 years, but i'm no expert, most of the time 
the key to programming is just goofing around.   And after all this is just my 
opinion.   :P
(u can email me for more info privately if u want, i'll make up some 8bit 
tutorials one of these days)

--zeroslug

zeroslugFMstudios   NY   2004


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