@subbz2k dude you’re using the wrong cables.
you need the gold-plated fibre-optic ones for proper low-end.
^
Hey void, Good to see you about.
Thank god not all europeans have to listen to that 
Your Specific BD needs, I have a hard time understanding them… If you want to use a flava of the month specific kik, y u no vengeance sample it bruh? And maxbass et al can give you upper harmonics if you need em, heck most eqs even might do the trick…? IMVHO if you insist on specific drumsounds and the AR doesn’t cater to them easily, it’s hardly elektrons’ fault… the samples are there to counter any holes left by the synthesis engines.
If anything, this thread has made me appreciate my AR even more… It is a rabbit hole if you quit fighting it to become your slave and just co-operate with its paradigms. To think it as a mere kickdrum dispenser is to not see it for what it really is…
As this thread is about opinions and user experiences with the Rytm, here’s my take.
Bought the Rytm last summer. Initially I was very excited, if not slightly concerned about the amount of menu-diving involved with proramming the AR. Well, to my pleasant surprise, we hit it off pretty quick 
After a while, I started wondering how come I couldn’t make the AR sound more like my MFB522? Synthesis started to sound a bit samey to my ears, started leaning towards using samples with it more…
Then I got Justin Valer’s AR808 soundpack and realized that I was just not good enough operator myself to master the AR’s synthesis. The parameter ranges and flexibility of the sound engine needs a very subtle and thoughtful approach for best results IME.
Now, I have just started using sound locks and most of the “elektron specific” functionality, and can’t get enough of it! There’s no going back for me anymore to OG roland etc style, this is a much more holistic rhythm sculpting experience than any classic drumbox will allow. Easy to learn, hard to master applies to AR quite alot IMO. I can already see this friendship is going to last years and years
jm2c YMMV as usual
2 Likes
I dont want to reproduce the same frequencies because this would ultimately lead to nearly the same sound. Which is not what you want. I have problems in the areas around 60 to 80 Hz. When i want to create a soft and round 808ish kind of bassdrum with the Rytms BD machines, classic or hard, doesnt make much difference. I need to pitch the BD too high to get it proper in those critical areas but it doesnt sound very pleasing to my ear anymore then. The lowend of those BDs is kind of … narrow somehow, i cant really describe that. It is not wide at least. If i tweak the BD to my liking - not caring about the frequencies and using my good old Alesis M1 Active’s it is tuned a bit lower and sounds absolutely insane 
But if i take exactly this and listen to it on my Logitech Audio System i generally use to test if the sound is good on cheaper systems the lowend is almost gone. I dont have this problem with both the DRM1 and the MBase. Their lowend stays “stable”, hard to describe. No need to tweak something further here. Maybe i also expect too much? I guess not.
Anyway i will try to test those awesome Fibre-Cables void spoke about Can i have a link void?
Its not about that mate, really not. Its about the general “calibration” of it. Compare the BD to the analog Drummachines/Modules and you will see what i mean. It has a pretty unbalanced low-end if you consider that Elektron states it could create 808ish kind of bassdrums. I can expect this to be inline with recent Analog Drummachines/Modules, i can expect this for the price i paid for it. Take the classic machine, tune it down to get closer to the 808ish sound and test on a cheaper system for yourself. Now do the same on other Analog Drummachines/Modules and you will hear what i mean. Its a calibration issue here, im sure about that. If it should be that way then Elektron should not’ve said that it is capable of creating 808ish kind of Bassdrums, easy as that 
And honestly: I’ve not bought an analog Drummachine to rely on Samples for getting what i need. This is ridiculous.
I am using 808esque kicks left and right with my AR (using the tom tracks as intended by elektron for 808 bds), and I hear the kicks just fine on consumer systems?
Have you experimented with overdrive and/or the PK filter for adding meat to this freq area you describe? Or using the logarithmic LFO for controlling tune/sweep etc?
I’d say that’s a pretty fair assessment from Mr Ager
My opinion, FWIW:
The RYTM is a funny beast : - ostensibly you get that idea that it should be the most instant ‘boosh, off we go’ box that Elektron make, but in my opinion ( & I’ve owned them all apart from the Octatrack ) it’s actually the one where you’ve gotta dig the deepest.
I was an early adopter, so have had my RYTM a good while now…My first impressions were “wow…instant techno in a box” but then I started to cool on it a bit as I struggled to get more variation in sound, exactly as Daren has noted. I started hearing that ‘woolly’ sound that made me sell my A4 in the end…But I thought I’d really stick with the AR.
My revelation with the AR was when I really started to use samples : I’d been reluctant to do this as the whole point was that I’d bought an analogue drum machine ! 
But for me, samples are the key. The fact you can mix the two on a single pad yields some quite stunning results : I love playing with tuning the samp & the synth sounds against each other…bit of filtering, fx & there you go - for me it’s techno drum sounds that are sort of familiar but with a new twist.
For example : hats :classic 909 CHH sample…tune to taste… now bring up the synth engine level & dial in wild pitch / decay setting that you’d never do if you were just trying to get a HH sound…filter, & modulate the synth engine with some LFO …I quite often end up with something where the synth part is almost creating an impossible 'ghost reverb or ambient effect for the sample. Awesome.
Similarly it’s great on kicks : I made one of my all time ever fave kick drums last week : really short, lovely rounded 909 kick sample with a low sine-y type synth kick under from the BD engine which had it’s volume modulated by a Square LFO to ‘pump in the hole’ between the 4/4 kick. Careful compressor settings…& wow.
Same for snares - the synth engines providing the ‘background’ for the good solid body of your fave sample is pure win.
It it a beast, but one that really needs to be handled with kid gloves. There is scope for massive improvement from Elektron for sure & I really hope we get new machines & some of the bugs ironed out once they got OB done & dusted.
But, if you asked me - samples aside - if it was a great analogue drum machine I would honestly have to say no : buying new right now I’d probably get an M1AM1 or even Tanzbar ( or an A4 with Daren’s Druma kits in )…but it is a great drum machine in that whilst individually the synth & sample params seem very limited …& the analogue engine is a bit, well weird, it comes together really quite beautifully as a overall instrument. My disappointment with some of the analogue sound has been eclipsed by thinking about using it in an different way, if you see what I mean.
I’m actually even thinking of picking up ( don’t hate me, Roland haters ) a TR-8 to sit alongside it as I think the combination could be quite killer - the Roland just doing the bread & butter whilst leaving the RYTM to get quite wild & being able to use a wider range of samples. And let’s be honest, TR-8’s are bloody cheap.
Sorry to pitch in this late. I agree with you Daren (I also appreciate your review). I have all the Elektron boxes except the Rytm, I’m drawn to it as I love the Elektron workflow, but haven’t got one as yet. My drum machines are 909, 808, 727, 606 along with older MPCs, A4, MD, OT and TR-8—I’m challeneged as to where the Rytm will be placed for me. Some of the demos seem very good, but very hard to contextualize any new gear until its placed and working in your own studio.
To me the battle is Rytm vs Tempest, but ultimately why the fuck do I need another drum machine…as mommy always asks.
909+A4+303 make me happy!
P.S. Loved the DRUMA soundset for the A4.
In 1989 I swapped my 909 for a BMX cos I couldn’t get that CR78/Ultravox/Phil Collins vibe that all the cool kids used to dig
#truestory
3 Likes
[quote="“PlayRecords”"]
Maybe if your 15 and just starting out… Jeez. Thankfully we have the underground here in Europe too. 
[/quote]
lol
color by numbers music also doesnt need anything more than
a few sample packs and a vsti or 2, you certainly dont need
1.5k analog drum machines
Ich
Very interesting thread, but just wondering if there is any machine that translate well on every system out of the box? So most drum are processed afterwards, maybe reason for single outputs. I guess it’s necessary to give overdrive saturation to Kicks for best translation. I think the BT is better or easier to tread because it has less upper harmonics as the classic and hard models.
Maybe second envelope for pitch with lfo helps to flatten it a bit. For me best is to make a basic kick in rytm record it process it saturn is really good therefore. And bring it back to rytm and process it again with filter etc. that kick asses for me
Epic quote man
My first impressions when playing with Phil’s for half an hour or so were that it had a nice bass drum, was lacking elsewhere in the analogue section and that I could have a bit of fun with the sample side in a live performance way. I wasn’t blown away with the filters, the compressor seemed more fun that the usual elektron ones and the effects were OK.
5 years ago I’d have jumped on it without question, I work differently now though and for someone who has little interest any more with the sequence section of elektron stuff it wasn’t worth it for me- I’m better triggering a jomox airbase from my sequencer, or for a different (and more interesting to me) flavour, the nord drum 2. FWIW also I still have the MDUW 7 or so years on from first grabbing it.
Heh!
10 years later, I swapped my 909 for a Waldorf Microwave XT.
Which got swapped by some miracle for a black Microwave XT (some guy on Hyperreal really preferred an orange one).
That got swapped for an MPC 2kXL with 8 outs.
That got swapped for a computer.
.
Let’s just say I have a few regrets.
1 Like
I’m looking forward buying the AR in the next 10 month… so i want to know if the sound-signature of both machines - the AR & the A4/AK - are very much the same? Hope you understand the question.
Heh!
10 years later, I swapped my 909 for a Waldorf Microwave XT.
Which got swapped by some miracle for a black Microwave XT (some guy on Hyperreal really preferred an orange one).
That got swapped for an MPC 2kXL with 8 outs.
That got swapped for a computer.
.
Let’s just say I have a few regrets.[/quote]
You should regret
The ‘Black Shadow’ as the black microwave xt is called has a high reselling-value
Three years ago i missed an opportunity… someone sold it for 600€…
Heh!
10 years later, I swapped my 909 for a Waldorf Microwave XT.
Which got swapped by some miracle for a black Microwave XT (some guy on Hyperreal really preferred an orange one).
That got swapped for an MPC 2kXL with 8 outs.
That got swapped for a computer.
.
Let’s just say I have a few regrets.[/quote]
You should regret
The ‘Black Shadow’ as the black microwave xt is called has a high reselling-value
Three years ago i missed an opportunity… someone sold it for 600€…
[/quote]
I definitely do, but the MPC was did so much more for my music and my career at the time. It was not an easy decision.
One of the two shadow XTKs sold a few years ago. Missed that one too. Of course, it sold for $8,000+
Since the Rytm can use samples, they can sounds very different.
The analog engines… it sounds like Elektron but with some differences
OMFG! How was this Sam Feldt thing allowed to happen? A classic cheesy banger utterly destroyed? In the name of…? Let’s fix it:
^ Indeed, sounds like the vocalist has a speech impediment, or someone got carried away with the autotune. Dreadful.
I can’t stand these re-makes of old tracks, slowed down and sounding suicidal, I blame Gary Jules for starting the craze.
Swapping a 909 for BMX is funny, but pretty cool.