+1 for the Machinedrum. Get the Mk. II UW+ and you have more than a drum machine. If you’re still longing for x0x drums you can always load the 808/909 kits 
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hehe see my thoughts on TR-8S in that other thread where I responded about latency – been really delving hard into TR-8S and its IMHO one of the best drum machines on the market - I haven’t had an Acidlab Drumatix before but I’ve used your sample chain 
on rytm haha The 606 ACB sounds on TR-8S are simply insane. They are the sounds I use the most on that machine.
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Totally agree - MD was one of the best drum machines I ever had. The reason I ultimately let him go (big regrets lol) was that I prefer the sequencer on the more modern elektrons (rytm, ot, a4, dt etc)
Erica synths techno system is a drum machine on steroids… Had a DT and a ARMKII, they pale in comparison…
This is what I’ve been doing. I’m curious what your setup is? I tend to have T5-T8 dedicated to drums. Kick chain on T5, Hat chain on T6, Clap chain on T7 and then maybe an extra percussion/loop on T8? But I often find myself wishing I had more room for tracks so to speak, and I’m half considering getting a Digitakt to handle drum duties.
Do you set up your chains differently?
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MDuw mk2 obvs 
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A4 mk1 because it’s what i use and i don’t really want to become reliant on another box. Mk2 would be even better with the increased bass but i get around it with some EQing. I like being able to have all the synthesis parameters available instead of a smaller subset tuned to percussion as is on the machinedrum (used to own) and rytm. It lets me get into really weird territory. I guess i would rather have a “snare” that sounds strange but a bit shit than have the same tired drum sounds from machines that came out 40 years ago. If I felt i needed to make people dance reliably I would probably be very happy with a more traditional percussion setup, so there’s something to be said for all approaches.
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I love this sample chains cause it gives me kits with 64 samples per track and I can quickly swap them or lock different slices to get beats with great variety quickly.
I have it set up the same way as you, on track 1-4 though 
I have a big collection of sample chains, usually like you with 64 kicks, 64 snares etc.
But I also have a bunch of chains with mixed samples so I can set up a whole beat on one or two tracks, leaving enough tracks free for sampling duties.
I don‘t use single drum samples only chains, much faster selection and more free sample slots left.
Digitakt is certainly great for drums and would free your OT for advanced sampling tasks that the DT can’t do
In general, doesn’t seem like Sequential stuff is as embraced by the transmitting generation. However, I see Dave Smith’s stuff far more frequently in studio and live contexts than Elektron’s, so I think that the kind of musicians that embrace his stuff, generally spend less time on forums and video sites than those who swear by the shrine of conditionals and p-locks.
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The Electribe 2 has some really nice drums & features.
Sounds great thru Analog Heat (everything does IMO).
I got my brother into music production about 3 years ago
& gave it to him as his first piece of gear.
I miss it 
Gonna ask him if I can borrow it.
He only uses his Maschine Studio now, so I should make him give it back!
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The Digitone
Speaking seriously, you can make pretty nice percussion with it and since it has a sequencer and everything, it’s a really capable 4 tracks drum machine.
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Octatrack for me. It was the first Elektron I bought and I‘m still using it (partly) for drums.
Wanted to get the Rytm for years, but I can only handle three machines live and since I plan to play my stuff live sometime in the near future it wouldn‘t make much sense to get a Rytm now.
Also I‘m super happy with the OT for drums, although it took me quite a while to get used to using samples. I used to synthesize all my drums and the lack of dynamic modulation through velocity (especially on fm drums which I used a lot) gave me a hard time.
So Rytm pretty much would be the dream drum machine for me^^but having drums on OT tracks 1-4, thru machines on tracks 6 and 7, (track 5 does different things, sometimes changes from part to part if nessessary) + master track works perfectly for live tweaking.
Thru machines are routed to cue outs, so I can use fx on the master track for the drums only (low pass/high pass filtering + delay for transitions and stuff like that).
I can switch to midi tracks and I can even control Analog Keys performance macros from an OT midi track.
I constantly ran out of tracks in the beginning, not a problem at all anymore.
I really dig the way I can use modulation and creative fx, and how I can combine all that in a performance so
I really wouldn‘t wanna trade all this for whatever dream drum machine, at least not now.
Imho it’s important to pay attention to proper gainstaging, it can make a big difference and Octa can sound really, really good if done well.
Btw, Analog Keys can do such amazing drums…so many times I thought about getting a second A4 just for drums but for now, I‘ll just sample the AK with OT^^
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Yes SR16 was a great machine…when looping a pattern your working on, holding the erase button and hitting a pad on the fly to taking out a beat then putting it back in the right place next time round, ive spent hours fettling a patterns that way, you get to know when you hit a pad and your out with out having to listen to it go past again instead you take it out next time round then try to get it right next pass makes the workflow faster and increases your ears ability to work at higher resolutions. Thats one thing I miss on the elektron stuff.
Couldnt go back to it now though not after the Rytm, though thats still not “the” drum machine for me.
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I have the AR, imo the tr-8 is way more immediate. I like the korg ESX just as much, with the motion sequencing etc. Just now, almost 20 years later Roland started incorporating motion sequencing or what they call it. I agree though, wish I had it.
How do you get around this? P locking volume?
I really wish OT was velocity sensitive at times lol
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Yes, ofc. Actually I do a ton of volume p-locking (amongst other stuff) and also when I have all the patterns ready for a track, I’ll go back to each single pattern and listen closely - if needed I’ll adjust some vol p-locks.
I remember that I was a little dissapointed at first with using volume p-locks, samples still felt kinda static to me.
I guess I’ve adjusted my workflow while I learned and explored my OT and in a way my focus also probaply shifted away from velocity modulation.
But there’s so much one can do on the Octatrack to introduce dynamics;
Compressor can be used to accent kick drums for example. I’d just p-lock comp mix on the trigs, that I want to have accent.
On snare rolls, I increase attack time a little on the lower volume trigs, which gives a very cool effect.
On hi hats, cymbals and percussion in general lfo modulation of amp hold, amp release and amp vol are most obvious.
Random lfo with trig mode hold (targeted at volume and/or attack, hold, release) works great to add a little more dynamics obviously, but things like using an inverted triangle lfo modulating for example amp release while another lfo with triangle modulates the filter (so they kinda work against each other, as the release gets longer the filter closes a bit) while a third lfo set to synced trig modulates delay send so that at the end of the pattern (or ofc any position in the pattern that suits the arrangement and makes sense) you get a little delay going on + I’d usually have 2 or 3 scenes to further add variation to such a track.
I keep a cheat sheet with scenes, fills and stuff like that for each track I do so I won’t forget all the carefully set up modulation^^
I do a lot of stuff like that. It’s all about the relationships between the three lfos and the scenes that belong to the track.
Sometimes scenes will alter parameters on another track, but in a way that it makes sense from an arrangements perspective.
Amplitude modulation (at lower rate) from the lofi effect can give hi hats some very nice movement, just needs to be balanced carefully.
Lots of possibilities 
*Edit
And sample chains ofc! You could layout the samples already in a way that makes sense (several drum machine samples in row with increasingly more accent, samples with longer amp envelopes in a row, or synthesized drums with different modulation going on etc.) or just choose slices that work together (and start modulating).
Yeah, sample chains are great^^
One day, I’m sure I"ll get the Rytm, though 
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Nice OT drum tips. Bookmarked
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nice tips, thanks
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I go with the Digitakt everydays
Nope. Much to love about the AR, but nothing swings like the Tempest.
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