Let’s face it: I’m a synthesis guy.
After toying around with the Rytm for a while I am a getting close to the decision that its synthesis capabilities are not meeting my expectations. Of course there are some things that sound nice and punchy, but on the other hand many machines have built-in limitations that make them rather narrow in what sound they can produce. On the HH machines for example there is predefined bandpass (might be highpass, too) filtering. I like to have some lower frequency content in my hats, because that’s what makes them more interesting aka less fizzy. A4 has been (naturally) giving me way better results here. But it does not everything for me to justify a second one. Hence, please …
tl:dr.
Talk with me about a drum machine where sound design is really broad and/or less restricted conceptually. Everything that is available excluding samplers might do. Does anything like that exist?
Edit: Digis are cool for sure, but I don’t get on well with their workflow.
Digitone 2. It takes some work to dial the sounds in but possibilities are endless. Even the first dn is great as demonstrated by darenager with his drum preset banks.
+1 on the Nord 3p.
It’s not a ‘wonderful’ synth programming experience, but there are editors.
I play my LXR-02 chromatically a LOT. I prefer its programming interface to the Nord, but as I sequence it onboard, I find the chromatic bit a bit tedious, particularly when I want to edit/transpose things.
Perhaps this is better if sequenced externally, but I haven’t tried.
Both are quite capable drum synths, in my opinion. LXR is a fair bit cheaper than the Nord.
I’m with you on the digis, too cramped! otherwise i would have said digitone 2 as well.
not really sure how deep these actually go but i’m curious about them. might be worth a look:
erica synths lxr02, compact but prety sure its got loads of parameters under the hood
erica synths perkons, 4 generic voices with 8 parameters each
vermona drm1
it would be great to have a flagship elektron with less restricted machines than the rytm. i feel like the A4 is too far in the opposite direction, too open-ended and unrestricted for me personally, get lost in the sauce with it.
edit: missed your request about chromatic playing, sorry!
Ah yes, the Vermona DRM. I have a sample pack lying around that I liked very much.
Maybe chromatic is a bit misleading and also not the most important part. But less limited frequency range would definitely be required.
I’m just browsing the manual of the Modor DR-2 – Never laid hands on one. Would be nice to hear if anyone could share some experience with regard to my question…
A4mk1 is the best drum machine I own and has staved off €€€€ in drum machine GAS (including most of the other devices mentioned in this thread). No one can accuse it of being restricted. That said, I mostly rely on the Druma and Taro FM packs, and don’t do much of my own design, percussion-wise. And you have an A4, so you know about it. But do you know these packs? If not, you might learn from them.
I think Soma’s Pulsar 23 would fit the bill for you: pure drum synthesis with multiple voices. It’s very abstract, very hands-on, and it has no presets. I’ve only played with one at a shop and played with some samples of it, but it’s very cool for drum synthesis.
I can also heartily recommend the DFAM, but it’s more of a complement to a drum machine than a drum machine by itself.
I made a graph about how much sound design territory these synths have, and how much they overlap. ND3P goes a bit more into A4, and Pulsar-23 should be quite a bit larger than DFAM, but that’s what I could throw together in a minute
I jnow what you mean. Too small, too fiddly, lots of jumping around menus. The 2 rows of 8 sequencer buttons doesnt sit well with me.
I had RYTM and didnt like it either.
I have a digitone and I dont make drum sounds with it.
Personally, I really cant be bothered with drum synthesis most of the time. So I use the ACB sounds on my TR8-S. However…
Within that box is some insane sound design stuff, highly tweakable fx. So long as you dont mind the interface. But for me its the performance/actual real time playability thats important to me.
As I already said, Tempest, Machine drum. Probably your best bet, depending on what sounds you want to make.
The Erica Synths LXR-02 has been mentioned a couple of times already. I have a love/hate relationship with it. There are times where I think it’s fantastic and I would never sell it. Other times I feel like I’m struggling with the sound or making the same tones over and over again.
There are over 30 parameters per drum. The ranges of the parameters are very wide and many I never venture into the upper or lower ranges (such as the oscillator tuning), but perhaps I should explore those. It is not a machine where all the possibilities are “sweet spots”, but with all those parameters, combined with the fact that you could use all 6 of it’s LFOs on the same sound, and the choice of a master effects (albeit somewhat limited and quirky) you have a wide range to play around in.
Most demos seems to paint a picture that it’s a machine that always distorted and aggressive. However if you steer clear of all the different distortions (filter drive, master drive, distortion fx block and sample rate reduction) you have very clean sounds. I tend to create Roland x0x analog drum machine sounds, which is can muster. I think is excels at kick drums especially. I find the sequencer not the greatest, mostly due to the steps it takes to program velocity (although that could be done using an external source such a controller or DAW) and the 2 “parameter locks” seem limiting and also not the easiest to always program, overall it does give a nice amount of possibilities when it comes to beat programming. The size is fantastic, the volume sliders are very useful, the manual retriggering of sounds I something I use often enough.
It does have a specific sound that can be very digital, harsh, crystal or metallic. At the same time you can create classic analog drum sounds. I think it’s important to understand if the overall flavour of the machine will work for the music you want to make with it. I do think it’s a machine that will become a classic.
This essentially describes the Tempest. It is the primary reason people who love it, love it. It is also the primary reason people who hate it, hate it.
If he’s not using samples then the architecture of the Tempest isn’t really that different from the A4 is it, other than having more envelopes?
I wonder how the supercritical redshift is at drum synthesis. It seems like with the weird oscillator cluster modes, the different filter types, and the 6 part multitimbrality there would be a lot to explore.
