I’m am thinking of buying an MD. As I already have an OT which I use for sample mangling, is there any point in a UW version of the MD. Are there sampling tricks on the MDUW which separate it from what I could do by routing an MD’s audio into my OT.
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the userwave mkII is virtually guaranteed satisfaction
need Userwave section to load samples
the internal synths are amazing
but then again, drum samples sound incredible
Userwave would be highly recommendable
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The value of the UW engine on the MD is one of those perennial topics … I could say quite a bit, but you might look first at a few other places where we’ve discussed it before. Some really good answers among the posts in these threads:
MD Magic
MachineDrum with sampler redundant for Octatrack owner?
Just getting into these RAM machines!
Just got a Machine Drum - My initial thoughts/mini review
…among which somewhere you’ll no doubt encounter this classic video.
Short version, there are lots of good reasons to get a UW. Its sampling engine was the inspiration for the OT, but for most users, the more you work with it, the more broadly valuable you find it.
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Yes I’m leading toward the UW version, seem like it’s the one for me.
Thanks for your reply. Really helpful links. The UW version is what I’m going to go for.
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The UW can be worth it because it’s the deepest realization of the Machinedrum. MDUW+ Mk2 is a wonderful machine. But know that sample management on the UW is really cryptic: 4 letter sample names, for one example; having to deal with C6 to load them on the machine; needing a TM-1 turbo midi interface to load samples from a computer reasonably fast). RAM is extremely limited (one or two long loop samples can consume more than half of the space); there’s no waveform editing for trimming, and only basic support for loop slicing.
That said, it’s super fun to use the resampling features right on the box itself instead of trying to coordinate MD and OT. It’s really the re-sampling feature that is the killer deal.
And it can be worth it to supplement the many awesome forms of synthesis with some sampled snares and hits that may fit into a drum pattern more easily than into an OT. But, again, putting up with the much older and more cryptic sample management and limitations may be frustrating compared to the power of the OT or even newer Digitakt.
If the price difference between a plain and UW model isn’t significant to you, definitely go with the UW. It’s the full package. But the plain one gives you so much already.
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