Absolute Beginner Elektron Rytm MKii

I’m a jazzman, and I just got the machine. I don’t know how to get started as all the tutorials seem to assume familiarity with digital sequencers and sampling. How do I get started? Help!

Here is a sample of my composed music and playing. It’s all acoustic All acoustic, no sampling

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No shame in starting with the manual homie!

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I’m afraid that it’s over my head!

Take your time. It’s going to take some time brother. As you dive in, try to let the manual and the machine be your guide so to speak. You may have certain musical expectations in mind, but I’ve found that it can be very frustrating at first when going for a particular sound or style of music in my head. These boxes will pleasently surprise you and take you to wild sound territory.

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Macprovideo.com is a great source of info too. If it’s your first Elektron box, take your time and don’t give up. These boxes will pay off with time.

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Hi. I’d be happy to help. No master but I get most all the fundamentals. And honestly, I’d probably even do a FaceTime or Skype etc to get you started if you are super stuck? I frigging love this instrument!!!

I and others could also just walk you through a basic beat with a melodic synth line sequenced with it?

  • turn on
  • select a blank bank to write a diddy (create a pattern). Try pressing C and then button 1 on the step sequencer (hopefully there’s a drum kit loaded on C1 - if not read about loading a drum kit:)).
  • ok now tap pads to find something like a bass drum. When you find that tone, press trk and that pad to make it the active track.
  • now press play. You should hear nothing…hold fcn and rtrg and the click track should start clicking.
  • now hit record button. This puts you in a mode to sequence.
  • turn on (press) steps 1, 5, 9, 13 on the step sequencer buttons. As pattern loops you shroud now start hearing the beating bass drum.
  • then switch active track (trk+pad) to a snare like pad. Now you can lay down snares where you want them in a 16 note sequence.
  • then find a pad that makes a synthy tone (most kits have one or more). Press trk+that pad,
  • now press “chro” to make the sound on the selected track to be in chromatic mode. Write a melody on that. And you can change octaves with up-down arrows in middle of rytm front panel,
  • then I usually hold down record and press play (flashing red record button) so that I can play the synth part live. Then when ready I play my synth melody one time and then hit record button to get it out of the live record mode.
  • then use what you’ve learned to add more drums and more melodies with the other tracks!

Maybe too basic? Hope it helps!

Sam

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You’re a jazzman.

The sequencer is showing you, per page, one bar: 1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a (x 4 pages.)

Pick a sound and put it on the downbeat.

Now get funky and put other sounds on the other beats.

Adjust swing to your jazz liking.

Profit?

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You are all awesome. What a grand community. Let me try and I will get back!

Thank you so much!

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Thank you very much for the encouragement!

Yes, very first.

Get a copy of Drum Programming by Ray Badness. Take this as a guide to begin programming on the grid if you’ve never sequenced. Use these patterns as a beginning basis to then explore the Rytm and it’s features.

Thank you. Will do.

Have fun :smiley: I’m a little envious!

Sam, this is great. You got me going. The only command that I couldn’t find was the chromatic command to build a melody with the propser pad.

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Yes, I am beginning to get it.

Glad you’re making headway!

Did you see the “chro” button yet? It’s in the row of small buttons above pads, third one from left.

Basically, make active a pad you’d like to be melodic. Hit “chro” and then hit the pads in different combos to find a melody and/or determine if the track can be chromatic (there’s a few sounds that won’t go chromatic, I do believe).

An entirely different way to make a melody is to change the “tune” parameter on the SRC Page (src is 2nd button from left below the 8 knobs on right side of rytm) and then use “trigs” approach to change the tune parameter on a step by step basis. You can see a screenshot of the src page on page 16 of the manual.

So let’s says you’ve got your regular kick-snare type beat and then you add a track that’s hitting notes at same time as kick (1,5,9,13). To make a melody that would go higher at each step you could, for instance, leave step 1 alone, then while this new track is active (and your whole pattern is playing-so you can hear your progress):

  • press and hold step 5.
  • while holding step 5, select the SRC button to make that page the active one in the screen.
  • still holding step 5, turn the top left knob (which in most cases is the tune parameter) clockwise from initial position (ideally initial is 0) to +2. Let go of step 5.
  • now repeat process but hold step 9. While holding turn the tune knob to +4. Let go of step 9.
  • repeat one more time but hold step 13. While holding turn tune knob to +6. Let go of step 13.

Now when the pattern is playing you should hear the melodic track get higher in pitch during the 16 step sequence. If indeed you hear that, you have successfully learned triggers and one of the more amazing features of the rytm!!! For by learning this skill you can tweak as many parameters on ANY of the pages around SRC (such as filt, amp, Lfo) as you want on this per step basis to make elaborate, moving and changing sounds on every step of any track of a pattern etc etc.

Good luck!

Sam

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