Yo!
I was wondering what everyone’s take on creating Kits/Sounds is. I’m brand new to the Machines concept, and honestly synth engines/hardware voice limitations in general.
What would you tell a beginner just getting into creating sounds on the Rytm? How do you think people who makes “Sound Packs” do it? I’ve been messing around and I seem to keep falling flat, but I understand it’s more due to my lack of understanding than anything.
Similarly, I keep seeing people talk about mixing/matching/assigning sounds to a track its technically not supposed to be on (Kick to Clap for ex) for various reasons, whether that be re-sampling the bottom row and assigning them to the middle tracks above to “free up space” for reasons I cant seem to wrap my head around.
I know this may be a dense ask here, but I really appreciate it. My hope is to eventually pay it forward here as I continue to learn!
Thanks everyone!!!
I can speak to the “resampling” point.
Many AR owners don’t like the toms on the middle row, particularly the lo/mid/hi ones. However, the range of machines is limited on that row. The bottom row have way more machines available, and those machines are more flexible. So it’s common to make a “rich” sound on the bottom row, sample it, assign the sample to a pad in the middle row, turn off the synth engine on the assigned pad, and then use the bottom row track for a new “rich” sound.
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This is really great info! I’m wondering if there is a handful of things like this that veteran users assume is common sense.
Is there anything else you’ve stumbled across that people tend do with the tracks/freeing up voices?
“veteran” 
I’ve only had mine since February and I don’t use it every day. In fact I put my Rytm away in a box for July to force me to focus on the Octatrack. I made the mistake of buying both at the same time.
Here’s what I’ve tried:
- making whole tunes (intro to outro, mixing, final compression) on just the AR - a mixture of drums, the 2VCO and samples
- making whole tunes (intro to outro, mixing, final compression) with the AR and another mono synth (and I also did this with the AR, OT, a poly synth and a mono… but that’s taking this conversation off-topic)
- making a bunch of sketches - one or two patterns, a few different genres and tempos. Here I work on the rhythm and mood as my primary concern and quickly tweak or make sounds to support that - or I come up with one or two instrument sounds (like a massive kick that decays over half a bar) and work a rhythm and other noises around it
- spending a focused amount of time try out an idea or technique for one particular sound (like “what can I get out of the FM oscillator modes in the 2VCO” is a recurrent theme for me), and then when I get tired of hitting it repeatedly I try to make a simple rhythm around it
- “make 3 kick drums in X minutes” type prep work - a recommendation from @AdamJay I think. It’s a good way to learn a couple of the machines, and a good way to learn sound design for particular kinds of drums. I don’t (yet) find it very productive towards making whole tunes later on… I don’t really re-use drums I’ve made before. I think this is something I need to work on more.
There’s loads of other great advice on the forum. Here’s some I remember:
- get a sample of a sound you like; put it on Beats 1 and 9, and put a trig down for one of the machines that should be able to make a similar sound on Beats 5 and 13. Now tweak your machine 'til it gets as close as possible to the sample
- get a sound pack and dig into how the sounds in the pack are made (one of the packs with .sys files rather than samples). I’ve had trouble installing sound packs thus far so I’ve not done this
The AR is hella powerful and flexible. It’s not just a drum machine… but it can also be “just a drum machine”. If you’re still learning it, and probably also if you’re learning how you want to make music, it’ll be a good idea to “wear different hats”. Set arbitrary limits and work to them. Give yourself plenty of room to fail (like don’t agree to complete an e.p. or a film score in 3months unless you really like that kind of pressure). Instead do the same mixture of controlled drills and unfocused playing around you would need to do on a guitar, piano or drums.
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You seem to be very active and helpful on this forum…I feel like you at least deserve dinner on Elektron at this point!
I do like where your head is at here. The “self-imposed limitations” could def help. I think I’ll have to spend more time here to find more of these.
I’m curious about the last concept you mentioned: “More than a drum machine”.
This is probably what I’m interested in the most.
What does that look like/mean to you, based on what you’ve seen from the community thus far?
Keep in mind I don’t know what I don’t know right now, which is why it may seem like I’m asking very broad questions 
I should make more music and read the forum less 
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Well, you can make a whole track with just an AR. There’s a few folks on here who do whole techno and house tracks with just an AR. There’s a good number of hiphop tracks linked here using just the AR and samples.
You could use the AR purely as a sampler + sequencer, w/out using any of the synth engines at all. The AR has both an external input and an audio input… so you could mix in another instrument or two, and even sequence other instruments by using the AR to send out MIDI (it’s limited to one note per track, no chords).
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Yeah man, I feel you. I think part of the music making process for me IS the forum since I still have a long way to go regarding workflow and concepts.
So people are essentially using the AR as an external sequencer to control outboard gear, correct
I’m interested in checking out who is making whole tracks with just the AR. Are you able to point me in the right direction with that?
They do. I have done. The Digitakt, Digitone and Octatrack are more flexible choices for this function. If I were you, still getting to grips with deep gear and music making (if I read you right), I wouldn’t worry about this yet. Focus on just the AR. Maybe use external gear for samples.
Have a look in the various threads about hip hop, techno, the “AABA” thread.
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Look up stuff from @saint_stink and @George_Michael (Glo Phase)
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I’ve been writing songs in Live for about four years now. However, I still have a lot to learn.
I believe that has partly made it more difficult to approach a stand alone groove box.
The advice I’ve been given/seen here has definitely helped with that and I totally appreciate it!
And yeah, I was going to play around with some samples next, haven’t done that yet but I can’t wait to play around with that.