Analog RYTM pad intermittency?

The gentleman that bought my old Analog RYTM is reporting that the BD and Snare pads are only working about 80% of the time? 20% the pads don’t work?

Anybody have any experience with this? Anybody know of any solutions?

I had a very similar issue when I first bought my RYTM. It was diagnosed as a hardware fault and the unit was replaced.

Damn! I guess he’s going to be returning it, then :frowning:

bye bye money

That’s a shame. He definitely knows what he’s doing with it? It couldn’t be a user error?

I mean. As far as pushing pads, I reckon it’s pretty easy to figure out…

I didn’t notice the issue when I had it. But I stuck with composing mostly on the sequencer…

And I kinda dipped into the money I got from selling the RYTM to get the Native Instrument Symphony Series Upgrades… :open_mouth:

I think there STILL should be a warranty. I’m messaging the original owner to check on that. Maybe I can offer him a partial refund to work with Elektron on fulfilling the warranty request and fixing the unit.

fingers crossed

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I guess, worse case scenario, I’m stuck with another music making device. The error of the device won’t impede my ability to use it.

It’s almost destiny through misfortune

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Hopefully you can get through this without too much loss. I suppose one thing to check would be if the pads trigger 100% of the time from the sequencer buttons.

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If you never used the pads they could be still stiff. When I first got mine they might not trigger with one finger. I’ve gotten used to the double finger two handed bang bang… They’ve become worlds more responsive after awhile though. I’d check with him and see if they are only not responding upon light hits, and have him check if he hits harder(index+middle finger together works great) do they register every time…

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I’m doubtful the issue is stiff pads. I’m the third owner of this machine, surely the other owners were more pad banging than I was.

Thanks for the idea, though! :slight_smile:

Only work 80% of the time sounds about right if you’re trying to capture a normal dynamic performance as you would on something with good pads, like a MPC or Maschine.

The Rytm pads are just about the worst I’ve ever used, and capturing a dynamic performance, especially trying to play with any subtlety or do ghost notes or anything like that is damn near impossible.

When I got my first Rytm, I thought the pads were broken, but I tried a few to compare and concluded they just suck really bad. (didn’t stop me from buying two more later on, including the one recently sold on by OP.)

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I agree coming from a mpc the rytm’ s pads were a bit of an awakening to loosen up and try to get some feel, But since my original intention was to step program that neg became a plus since was forced to step play like a hot potato and trig locks and p locks became second nature.

It’s crazy because with things like Mute and Scene mode, the lightest tap will activate them. The pads really shine in those modes, but then they are just acting as glorified buttons. It must be something to do with the Performance mode, which utilises a really deep press to sweep parameters. This deepness I guess is what makes the pads more stiff in the normal mode? I wish it wasn’t that way because generally, I don’t need pressure sensitivity when performing at all, and you end up pressing the trig keys just to get a fully accentuated note.

In sound settings in the sound menu there is a velocity to volume setting that you can turn off. I haven’t tried it to see how it responds but maybe it would be better for you with the pads… :thinking:

Yeah from memory it does work. But the pads still require that same hard tap to activate them.

Same here … I got MPC, Push, and AR. On AR and Push finger drumming is not as easy going as on the MPC. The MPC pads are much more sensitive and responsive and playing on them feels much more natural. Whereas the other two can be used to tap in a beat only, but are not really usefull to capture a dynamic live performance.

What about connecting a pad controller from Akai or Navation to the AR?

the perf mode and the velo mod matrix would be good places to check if the pads have a mechanical prob or if those few pads are just stiffer than the others

also , the mute mode… is that working as expected?

I plan to use my mpc live to play the rytm sounds occasionally and record the rytm’s audio into mpc live. I just received my live last week so I’m still going over the learning process.

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HE DECIDED TO KEEP IT!

Thank you so much, @natrixgli, for your help and insight! When I used the Rytm, I pretty much stuck to programming the sequencer and never finger drummed on it so this question caught me off guard.

So much relief

Edit:
Hopefully, if there IS a mk ii of the RYTM then the pads will be something Elektron upgrades-I don’t know WHY Elektron went with such tough pads! If it’s because of the perf mode, then I’m surprised they couldn’t have gone with some different solution as to make the pads nearly unplayable!

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Agreed - I find the performance mode with the pads to be essentially useless as it’s so hard to control accurately. I wish they’d implemented it in the encoders - a la the A4. But with OB I get to make use of it.