AR808 - Released

Are you perhaps planning on making a similar soundpack from 909 sounds? I already have all the 909 samples I could want but having the non-PCM sounds replicated as AR synth sounds would certainly make it an instabuy for me (yes, I like the AR808 set THAT much lol)

Cheers

I grabbed a copy the other day. sounds really nice.

So glad to see SOMEONE making synthesised AR kits!

Want to purchase this pack, but just curious if/how I can re-download any forthcoming updates after the fact.

Also looking forward to a potential 909 pack release in the future.

Thanks for all your hard work, Justin!

The purchase price is optional, if you enter no amount, you will be able to download to the Kits and subsequent updates for free.

Of course, contributions are a good incentive for me to create new content and provide updates.

As for AR909… we shall see.

1 Like

Ahh…got it-thanks (will definitely contribute when I do) :slight_smile:

You’re a gentleman and a scholar

:heart:

Sounds great Justin! Impressive!!!

2 Likes

Justin I couldn’t find a contact link on your site so I must air my ignorance here for all to see. I’m new to Elektron gear and am SHOCKER completely befuddled by the file system. Yesterday I installed the Divine909 pack and - I THINK - your AR808 pack. I followed the directions with the 909 first - STUPID CRAZY amount of steps but got it to work. Then your 808, which C6 seems to have installed but I can’t find the kits/sounds because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.

Any tips would be appreciated. I know you’ve put a lot of work into this already, but maybe updating the pack to include a basic Project with everything set up (like in the Elektron pack) would be easier than explaining to ignorameses like me.

Excellent contribution!!

Love to see No-Sample kits for the AR!

tnx!

Very impressive stuff. Have you ever considered writing a short PDF e-book where you share your sound design techniques? I’d love to learn from your approach and would be happy to buy such an infoproduct from you.

1 Like

Hi Justin,great sounds man,Im seems to have a problem I can not see the sounds on the sound pool,is there,but when I go to replace the maracas @ are not there.

Hi Moonrow,

There are three SYX files included in the AR808 drum pack:

  1. AR-Sounds.syx
  2. AR808-Pat+Kit01
  3. AR808-Pat+Kit02

AR-Sounds.syx contains the individual sounds. You must load these in to the sound pool in order to be able to access them individually.
AR808-Pat+Kit01 and AR808-Pat+Kit02 contain the Kits + Patterns.

The Kits also contain the sounds, but they will not appear in your sound pool. (This is just how the AR sound/kit management works!)

Hope that clears things up.

Cheers,

  • Justin
1 Like

Don’t know if I agree with the Infoproduct concept, particularly when we live in the age of free and democratised information.

But here goes…


I know the 808 and 909 drum machines quite intimately and spent time appreciating the circuit design. The circuits can be assimilated into modules and these modules when working together create the individual sounds.
Some of the Machines in the AR and MD already attempt to replicate these modules. It’s just a matter of using them in conjunction with the other sound design tools you have available to get them to sound as close as possible. The tools in the case of the AR & MD refer to the Machines, Filters, Envelopes, LFOs, Amplifier, Distortion etc.

I have had a lot of practice learning how these work together.

For example: You may not know, but the transient of the 808 Kick Drum is actually generated from a digital pulse wave coming from the Sequencer CPU. The pulse wave triggers the analog drum circuit, but is also audible as the transient.

The question to ask is: How to achieve this on the AR using the tools available? Solution: A short burst of distortion at the start of the sound will create a pulse like waveform. You can achieve this using a short LFO routed to DIST. (FYI: The AR already has a pulse at the start of the BD instrument, but it’s not nearly as punchy as the original 808).

When designing a sound I will usually break it down in to 3 regions: The attack/transient, the sustain/body and the decay/tail.
I can then focus on these elements separately. In the case of replicating an existing sound, I will isolate these regions and compare recursively until the region I am working on resembles the original as close as possible.

When working on the individual regions i’ll use my ears in conjunction with a spectrum analyser to view the frequency response. I will also use an oscilloscope and ears to perceive how the volume envelope is shaped with time.

In summary, good sound design is a combination of experience, problem solving and careful listening.

  • J
9 Likes

AbsoLutely Love this sound pack! Sounds meticulously crafted from good times with the original, well done sir!!

Absolutely awesome, Justin, thank you for writing that out. These are the kind of posts/threads I really enjoy. Enough of that “Oh the AR doesn’t do this, it can go straight to hell.” Let’s make the most out of it, like Justin here.

Any word on an 909 pack? PLLLEEEAAASSSEEE.

Don’t know if I agree with the Infoproduct concept, particularly when we live in the age of free and democratised information.[/quote]
Both forms of information sharing can co-exist, IMHO. What you pay for with these products is mostly the effort that has gone into making the information as accessible and organized as possible.
Of course, something like this can be “donationware” in the same way as you’ve done with your sound packs.
Thanks for sharing some of your process here; much appreciated. :slight_smile:

elektron pay the man to do official 909/808/606 kits for the rythm and do A video - maybe spoof the shitty Roland tr8 vids

surely this is a wise marketing move

Good work/sounds! Always dreamt of a 808, now my Rytm is perfect substitute.

Q: how many patterns r there? I just “see” 1 per kit, otherwise Rytm changes kits… Maybe I have to rad the manual carefully…

Thx
59min

Im pretty stuck with this ATM …
I think I need to do a FULL factory reset again but should confirm.

Heres the story:

[ol]
[li]Loaded the AR808 files using C6[/li]
[li]Got messages confirming it loaded[/li]
[li]Pressed Function+Sound[/li]
[li]Unit froze with blank screen[/li]
[li]Restarted unit[/li]
[li]Only three AR808 sounds worked (rest were default blank)[/li]
[li]Formatted +Drive[/li]
[li]Factory reset[/li]
[/ol]

I started with a fresh AR with only my samples left on the +Drive.

Loaded the AR808 files again.

Same problem - (only three sounds from the AR808 kit present in the soundpool work, the rest are the default sound of the pad)

The Patterns work with the kits except the BD1 is blank.
Ive downloaded the AR808 kit twice to make sure it wasnt corrupt.

Any advice?

edit: Ive contacted Elektron Support.