Any 2 elektron boxes for organic ambient space techno

alechko · 2023-08-09T09:43:46.953Z

Martebar:

But try to define a little more and you get sarcasm, private jokes and snobism.

imo easily avoided by providing some examples some artist names or tracks or whatever… when I first read the title I associated it with mellow dub techno, which really fits the description, but after reading the second addition I figured OP’s probably talking about what I call (and love) minimal hypnotic techno, so not the same thing really and again, a simple example would helped…

SoundRider · 2023-08-09T09:46:23.875Z

Kubase1:

“Organic” is obviously a tricky thing to describe. For me, I’d say shifting sound beds

IMO this calls for many modulation sources and destinations. For synths I would say A4 or Syntakt. For sampler OT - obviously

Kubase1:

and maybe some acoustic instrumentation (particularly percussion) mixed in with the synthy stuff.

OT

Kubase1:

Also synth sounds that have been heavily processed elsewhere - little unexpected blips, rumbles etc that come out of nowhere. So, samples.

OT

Additionally I would check out a decent reverb/delay section. But I would use external gear like pedals from Eventide, Strymon, or others you might like.

reeloy · 2023-08-09T10:08:21.452Z

…u need sampling AND synthesis…for no matter what ur up to…

so just have a look around on the 2nd hand market and find an a4 mk1 and a ot mk1…
both mk1 versions are out there for pricetags that make them a real steal…

or go square to be there and find a dt and a dn…
another killer combo…

end of the of day, any swedish combo that covers both basic concepts in one way or the other will do totally fine…

sinedied · 2023-08-09T11:58:56.096Z

Regarding organic ambient, you might look at Substan from this forum: Substan music - #74 by substan

A synth + samples combo is the most logical/powerful combo here, regardless of the devices.
I would say either DT + DN or DT + ST, and you feel the need for more you can maybe replace the DT by an OT.

ST + DT: the more immediate combo, super flexible
DN + DT: more synthesis options (and polyphony if you require it), especially for experimental stuff

Along with the DT, you can grab a portable Zoom recorder and go recording nature in the wild for the organic samples.

Monobear · 2023-08-09T12:09:41.723Z

OT MK2 plus A4/ST/DT to Taste (I would go Syntakt) and you are good to go.

Kubase1 · 2023-08-09T13:00:51.926Z

Cheers - ST/OT or ST/DT sounds very appealing - loved the ST when I had one. DT vs OT is a big choice but I like the idea of having one digi, one flagship.

Martebar · 2023-08-09T13:29:14.891Z

I don’t know, such a mystery!

obscurerobot · 2023-08-09T14:47:00.909Z

Kubase1:

“Organic” is obviously a tricky thing to describe. For me, I’d say shifting sound beds and maybe some acoustic instrumentation (particularly percussion) mixed in with the synthy stuff. Also synth sounds that have been heavily processed elsewhere - little unexpected blips, rumbles etc that come out of nowhere. So, samples.

Elektron Octatrack + Korg Wavestate. Or if you want something more compact, OT and Roland MC-101.

Maybe even throw in a Roland SP-404mk2 for more processing and mangling, but you said you wanted Elektrons.

Kubase1:

A lot to digest and thanks to everyone for their useful and entertaining posts!

Glad to hear you are having fun and taking the comments in stride. Disappointed that @Fin25 has yet to deliver the promised dogs though.

Fin25 · 2023-08-09T15:25:00.787Z

obscurerobot:

Disappointed that @Fin25 has yet to deliver the promised dogs though.

I tried this morning but you were out and, to be honest, I’ve made a bit of a mess around your letterbox…

Kegeratorz · 2023-08-09T15:27:45.719Z

I would think majority of the Elektron boxes by them self would make any type of electronic music you’d like. DN, though only 4 tracks, is quite the machine on its own.

My favorite wombo combo that I had the pleasure of owning was a DN and AR! The DN OT combo was cool but I mostly sampled the DN and took the OT out on its own!

obscurerobot · 2023-08-09T16:08:41.221Z

Fin25:

I tried this morning but you were out and, to be honest, I’ve made a bit of a mess around your letterbox…

Great, now I’m going to have to double the holiday gratuity for the door staff this year…

Fin25 · 2023-08-09T16:11:58.714Z

To be fair, they weren’t much help.

Although one of them did offer to call the Police, but I wasn’t really sure how much help they would have been.

Kubase1 · 2023-08-09T16:36:12.398Z

Cheers! OT seems to be a consistent suggestion - and I would definitely like running everything through it and the performance options. I had one years ago - too soon in my musical journey - but remember making stuff I never would have made without it, and that’s very appealing.

ST/OT currently my choice. I have the argon 8 so DN lower down the list.

SoundRider · 2023-08-09T16:38:44.186Z

With OT you have many more functional options compared to other samplers. Each track can be from old-school sample playback to a mixing channel.

Its audio in and outs can be used very flexible.

shigginpit · 2023-08-09T16:42:01.509Z

obscurerobot:

door staff

first mistake.

obscurerobot:

Fin25

worst mistake.

Fin25:

the Police

you leave sting out of this.

Kubase1:

ST/OT

with polyphony already covered, this sounds like the logical choice but don’t dismiss analog four without giving it a proper listen. to my ears, far more organic sounding than ST.

Jeanne · 2023-08-09T17:06:18.734Z

Floboscope:

It‘s not difficult to understand what OP means, when you have a general idea about techno.

I’ve seen musicologists put out the knife while arguing, unaware that each just had a different definition of a common (!) musical term, resulting in all cross talk. There’s no way to know if one person’s interpretation of a word aligns with someone elses.

But a sound says more than a thousand words.

Cosmic · 2023-08-10T01:43:12.397Z

Gary Hayes is the master, check out what he does with various elektron devices on his YouTube page for some ideas on ambient.

https://youtube.com/@GaryHayes

johnl · 2023-08-10T01:55:05.428Z

Is this what you meant by “organic”?
https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/15ln4og/a_little_bit_of_nonsense_i_created_in_the_digitakt/

MaxB · 2023-08-10T06:07:45.853Z

To answer OPs question.
I would go for A4 + 1.
Simply because A4 is the only Elektron I still own. Just didn’t gel with the rest.
A4 has the most modulation options (correct me if I’m wrong, I know you can do alot with DN aswell)
It’s Analog, and I love how the FM Sounds on this thing. RingMod through LadderFilter is something that always sounds really “organic” to me.

+1. Would either be MS; DT, or OT. Field recordings will go a long way. DT is my fav from this 3, cause I liked the workflow more than OT.

Leonsarmiento · 2023-08-10T10:42:47.556Z

Floboscope:

In that context, organic means pure, natural, wholesome, earthy, and free of chemicals and pesticides. In music, I interpret the term to mean simple, clean, direct, uncluttered, and especially similar to natural or acoustic musical sounds.

What you described first looks like a pure sine wave, but that’s probably the most inorganic sound ever, perhaps because only a machine can produce a pure sine wave.

On the other hand, any bird or cricket sing, for example, sounds like a LOT of modulation, envelope, ring mod and pitch shifting is going on.

Yet, trying to make a bird sing in a Digitone, which seems to be the better equipped machine to synthesize this kind of sound, would be a very inorganic thing to do.

If we take the biology definition of alive, which I think is the core concept behind the organic definition used in the things commonly associated with (food and gardening), which goes:

any system capable of performing functions such as eating, metabolizing, excreting, breathing, moving, growing, reproducing, and responding to external stimuli

An organic sound would be a sound produced (metabolized) by a (sound) system than can respond to external stimuli (the performer or other machines) in a myriad of ways including constantly moving, growing and reproducing sounds.

Just overthinking this a little maybe, sorry for the long post.