No. The drum engines are very good and sometimes leave a bit to be desired, in which case you can always easily supplement with samples.
I used the Octatrack as a drum machine for a but and it was fine. Having two dedicated FX per track is very, very nice. But when I got the AR it improved my workflow a lot, gave me more options, and it just sounds beefier and better.
no. the analog drums are excellent. but not everyone likes all of them. or they don’t always fit with your track. that’s where supplementing them with samples comes in.
What’s wrong with the Machines? Learn to tweak, distort and compress them. Stop cheating with Samples.
Lol 
Rytm is very flexible and powerful, but it needs some digging, as all Elektron’s machines. Don’t expect to have a vast sound like Tanzbar 1 or Vermona so easy. Pros Rytm offers a very handy sound for mixing.
Yea I have an ARmk2 coming tomorrow thanks to your post in deals - thanks a lot 
(no seriously actually, thanks!) and screen was one of the big things than convinced me it was worth it at that price vs a used mk1.
I have the A4mk1 and I really don’t enjoy the screen. It feels so tiny compared to all the other big Elektrons - not that it will stop you making good music but I don’t find it feels that enjoyable to use.
I think with the (re)sampling too, the ARmk2 is actually the most significant of the mk2 upgrades functionality wise and IMO the black mk2s look amazing (in photos, excited to see for real!)… but at twice the price of a mk1 it’d definitely be a harder call
Hey Shinobi - have you got any examples of the kind of kick you’re after? I’m headed home from the busy tonight and have a hankering to break out the AR. I’ll record some things into a demo for you.
In general, AR kick synth can the thunderous but can be tamed using a liberal sprinkling of the LFO. I often wish we had EQ per pad for the AR, but that’s about my only gripe these days.
There’s a few of us who have AR only tracks posted here if you have a search. I’ll post some links when I have a moment.
Edit: some here - RYTM ambient machine - #20 by safetyofobjects
Thanks my friend!
I am looking for longer boomie kicks like the ones on Volca Kick and Jomox MBass and characterfull percussion like in Nord Drum.
So tell me a little bit more about how you layer samples with the engine. For example, if you’re making some hats, do you use samples of hats layered with hat engines? Maybe a silly question, but I’ve always wondered how people primarily are using this feature. Like layering two like sounds to get an improved sound to taste, or layering two very unlike sounds to get something interesting. I’m sure people do both, but i guess i’ve never read any specific use.
Can you clarify/expand on this? What do you mean when you say, “utilizing the LFO set to envelope mode”? thanks.
Got it last night, my first impressions of the mk2 are really positive - I think the extra buttons and screen size and space around things make it feel much more enjoyable to play around on (as I say I have the mk1 A4 and borrowed an mk1 AR for a while, and feel like both of these are slightly too complex to really “flow” with the cramped mk1 interface).
Some people have expressed that the size is too big but to be honest it feels great to me for usage on my lap and I love the tilt.
One other mk2 thing that I hadn’t appreciated quite how useful it might be is the resampling - specifically because it’s quite easy to use up the three BD/SN/CP voices with drum sounds, then you have nowhere left to use a Dual VCO. With resampling you can quickly just resample some of the more static sounds eg your clap and move it to another pad, freeing up a track.
Otherwise so far so good, it sounds fantastic though I do feel a few more machines for some of the slots would be nice in terms of extra variety (coming from the MD!). The performance features are great. I mostly like to work with one box on the sofa and I can see this being a lot of fun.
There’s a lot of crossover with the Digitakt with all the sampling capabilities, TBH I will hang on to the DT because I like the idea of having all the Elektron boxes but I can see how the AR would replace DT for many.
Tanzbär 2 is another one. It’s Stimming’s favorite drum machine incidentally 
1 person here said this. about 35 people said the engines sound good. just sayin’. it’s all subjective anyway. i think the fun factor makes the AR win.
I do this sometimes. You can add a bit of extra sizzle to hat samples (if that’s what you’re going for) with the synthesis. Other uses include e.g. adding a transient sample to a kick. Or even just layering kicks. I’ve layered the BD with an 808 kick, just a little bit of the synthesised sound to fill out a frequency range that wasn’t in the sample.
Also some of my favourite hihat sounds recently have been Samples From Mars 808 hats with the AR’s overdrive turned up a bit. It’s a really nice saturation, and you don’t get that on the DT for example.
Don t take what I said out of context… I didn t own it yet, so . .
This. It was like a brand new box when I first tried it. Got me to that 909, even Jomox place I had been wanting to get to.
@dogur What I think they are referring to is using a LFO, especially a quick, one-shot exponential, to get snappy envelopes on things like volume and pitch. I use it almost always on snare volume and for that reason pray Elektron would either give us another LFO or make the AMP envelopes themselves as snappy as the LFOs.
Envelope on any of Pitch, overdrive, filter cutoff (set the cutoff low and resonance high then put a 1 shot lfo on cutoff), volume of either the synth, sample or both (amp)!
Then resample if needed (I often don’t need to bother)
Thanks for the follow up. I’ll have to try that.
Here’s 4 minutes of kick drum video - haha. Riveting watching.
I forgot to lock in the focus, so you’ll get some great HD views of my hand, but I’m happy to let you know any of the settings if you can’t see them.
I’ve taken a couple of classic Jomox boomy BD samples. These have probably been processed. I think they come from the MBass 11. I’ve loaded these up on a couple of empty pads, and then tried to dial in a similar sound using both the Rytm BD synth and the BT synth. The BT synth is pretty good for bass drum sounds, and I use it often. I then go through and add overdrive and distortion to give you a feel of what’s possible in a very simple way.
I’ve always loved the Jomox sounds, and based on the initial sample prefer it to the Rytm. I have the Rytm for the entire package, so this isn’t a surprise to me. However, what is surprising is that with the overdrive and distortion up, I think I prefer the Rytm BD synth.
It does all depend on the sound you’re after. The Rytm envelope isn’t quite fast enough to recreate the Jomox sounds from scratch for example, and the Jomox overdrive sounds really clean with great harmonics compared to the Elektron. But the Rytm is so much more than just a bass drum, and really shines as a performance machine - both in the studio and live. For me, getting 90% of the way towards the Jomox sound, but having all the other capability of the Rytm is one of the reasons I love it.
Great demo!! Appreciate!! It 
They are plenty AR only tracks on this forum.
I especially enjoy @George_Michael’s one.
I think I only have one pure AR track:
Maybe not the best drum design there is, but the choir-like sample is an old guitar loop captured with an old phone, and pitched 2 octaves down: the filters were a blessing to shape it!
With analog overdrive per track, analog compression and distorsion on master, you can have a sound from warm to agressive easily.
And I feel like it’s really a pleasure to play with.
I would recommend the black mk2 for resampling and the killer looks ^^
I’ve had all the AR models and this one is just gorgeous!
Yes, it’s expensive. But you won’t buy another drum machine after that.