Basic Beatmaking Session with Machinedrum [video]

Elektron Gear Machinedrum
#1

this time I thought I’d make a video on more typical MD usage and features :sweat_smile:

basic techno/house beatmaking with Elektron Machinedrum, starting from a blank kit and pattern. A handful of useful sound generators are explored, as well as some of the voice architecture, with a focus on the master FX; a crucial aspect of Machinedrum sound design

0:14 EQ output gain commentary
0:48 TRX-BD (TR-style bassdrum)
1:50 Gatebox Reverb
4:27 P-I Tom (physically modeled tom)
5:37 Rhythm Echo
6:20 Master EQ
7:06 Dynamix Compressor
7:58 CTR-EQ (control EQ machine)
8:33 Slides
10:11 P-I HH (physically modeled hi-hat)
11:39 filtering hi-hat
14:23 EFM-CP (frequency modulation clap)
17:44 GND-SN (sine wave machine)
21:46 track-specific slide
23:26 dialing in gated reverb
24:15 clipping the compressor internally/clipping input of EQ

30 Likes
#2

Wow this video is great!

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#3

thank you, really appreciate it!

#4

thanks for all the effort you put into the video, and for the insight into your process. all the elektron users i’ve encountered have different approaches to their instrument—often wildly, idiosyncratically different—and over-the-shoulder videos like this invariably provide fresh perspective, something you can never have enough of on the machinedrum.

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#5

Really nice - I was tripping on that sine wave sonar - preferred it with slides on though :slight_smile:

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#6

@dubathonic thank you! big part of what drew me to Machinedrum is the open-ended nature and the way it allows building up a system of interactions - this video is kind of what I did with the Machinedrum the first couple days I had it, but condensed into a semi-coherent continuous session, and informed by what I’ve learned about the machine since then

@Housecliche really appreciate it! I think I’d do pitch slides more often if I could mess with the curve of the slide… that’d be a sweet modulation destination… add it to the feature request list for MDUW mk3 I guess… :sob:

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#7

These videos (as well as your OT videos) are great, Max. Many thanks for taking the time to make these deep dives!

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#8

Great vid.
amazin how a simple 1 bar loop doesn’t get boring, ive been grooving away to it for 20 mins already :slight_smile:

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#9

I was thinking exactly the same

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#10

@yobink thank you!! I learn quite a bit by making them - reviewing the footage for this video and analyzing the audio made me look much deeper into a few things I had ignored or taken for granted before

@pidgeo really appreciate it!! It’s funny, in this techno/house context I usually find a 4-bar loop to be more boring, and the magic for me is almost always in 1-bar and 2-bar phrases that ‘breathe’ - which the MD excels at with all the abilities for modulation. sometimes in this context I may expand something that is 1 or 2 bars to 4 bars, but the core phrases will generally all be 1 or 2 bars and moving to 4 bars will just be to get a little bit of variety on a few auxiliary percussive sounds or something

3 Likes
#11

yea i hear ya. there iS something about a core 1 bar phrase that breathes, regardless of whether there are longer loops on one of it or not.
one of cenks original MD workflow vids had this 1 bar loop with a single reverb hit near the end n I coulda listened to it for hours. Sold me on my 2nd MD i think :slight_smile:

I also think how your mind is working on that vid is very in tune with what should come next n all the additions and little tweaks you make creates the composition.
excellent stuff :slight_smile:

1 Like
#12

pretty sure that video left an impression on me as well :sweat_smile:

these types of videos are ‘music production tutorial/gear demo as a performance’ or something, I’m not sure exactly :thinking: I just know I have always enjoyed watching very step-by-step operation, starting from fundamentals, in real-time or with minimal editing just to cut out dead air, and it is exciting to me when I feel there is some level of risk being embraced, that it’s not a totally rehearsed thing and there is a possibility for something new and special to happen - or a trainwreck :joy:

:bowing_man:

#13

I totally agree, love that kinda stuff :+1:t2:

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#14

Yeah, this vid was really great, please keep making them. It would be awesome to see how you approach things at different tempos to see how some of your techniques could be applied to different genres too.

I guess really I should be exploring these things myself, but I honestly learned a lot in a brief time just by watching this.

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#15

Also, it’s been said before I know, but your voice is engaging and quite relaxing at the same time - which part of US is that accent from?

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#16

@mas_akala thank you!! it’s a bit funny, I’d say techno is one of the styles I produce least often, but whenever I pick up the MD so far it usually ends up ambient or techno :smile: haven’t had it for that long yet though so I’m sure I’ll branch out with it over time. I have a couple videos with OT that are in a very similar format but go in very different directions style-wise

@Housecliche it has?? mostly I’m just trying not to mush-mouth, and I’m pretty sure I’m putting some people to sleep! :blush: I was born in midwest but lived a few places on the east coast and the south when I was young and now I’m back in the midwest again - I remember learning to fake a southern accent when I was a kid to fit in at certain points but I can’t do it anymore :laughing: I suppose I’d describe my accent as a midwestern base with east coast affectations :thinking:

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#17

its funny as well, when i saw the thumbnail for this vid in my inbox i thought at first glance it was for the volca drum. Only later on actually reading the title did i see its regarding the MD.

Defo design cues taken from the Md for the new volca as has been previously mentioned :slight_smile:

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#18

Just going to echo the feelings around here. Your MD videos are excellent. The internet is a bit thin on informative silver box tutorials and workflow demonstrations. I particularly like how you approach gain staging - It can get a bit messy with so many options.

It would be interesting to see how you approach creating a “song” from the single bar loop and how the sound design changes as part of that. We all have our processes but every time I watch one of your video it unlocks an invaluable nugget of information I might never have considered.

I daren’t watch your octatrack videos cause I know it will be irreversibly GAS inducing.

3 Likes
#19

@pidgeo that’s funny! Didn’t look up the volca drum till just now - that orange screen is an interesting choice for sure - even more funny considering how electribe/volca-esque the M:S aesthetic is!

@Erronious thanks much!! to move to the beginnings of a completed track from a compelling raw idea and getting that first vision of how the idea could be brought to a satisfying fruition is a bit more difficult to capture, but I heartily agree this is a very valuable type of video to produce and I’m considering various ways to approach it for both MD and OT. The more completed pieces of music I make with each device the more likely that over time I’ll be able to capture some of that by catching projects at different points in their development in order to illustrate particular artistic philosophies or conceptual strategies I’ve found useful once I have that ‘seed’ that gives me a ‘final creative vision’ but I encounter some sort of problem or challenge in bringing that vision to life and I have to work within the constraints of the device to solve it

#20

Bravo son, bravo. I bought a 2012 machinedrum after watching this video :smile:

1 Like