Hello all,
New to elektron. I don’t own any of their gear. But I seem to come back to the idea of getting a piece over and over again…there’s something attractive about it. I’m currently on Maschine MK3 and finishing tracks in Logic. It works, I’ve produced 3 tracks total that I’ve uploaded to Apple Music and such (despite being a hobbyist and not knowing much really). One was done almost completely on Maschine, the other two were…different. I’m trying to make Maschine the main driver.
But I’m languishing in the Maschine ecosystem. I’ve never gelled with the workflow. I know it can be really fast to push something out…it seems somehow fractured to me. Although I have to say the sounds are amazing and I love some of the “instruments” like Playbox and Duets, Electric Mint and Rickenbacher bass; really flexible and real sounding stuff! I’m a guitarist originally but travel semi-nomadically now so can’t really keep a guitar or other large gear. So I appreciate the availability of the real-ish sounds in Maschine. I’m a genre mixer, don’t really stick to one style, my last three songs are industrial rock, kawaii future bass, and abstract hip hop (maybe?). Samples + real instrument emulations and singing.
Maschine is deep and capable…but somehow I end up making things that sound a bit more generic when I use it. Of my three songs, 1 was done on a pure sequencer type workflow (OP-Z), the second one completely in Maschine, and for the third, basically a living and breathing skeleton was created in Koala and then fleshed out in Logic. Never touched Maschine on the 3rd one except for a kick and a snare sound I think. Third song is by far the most original one. And I prize originality over most everything else.
So…I’m thinking of getting a Digitakt and using it as the main piece of gear. Compose and arrange. Tinker and jam. Have fun. When I need polyphony…use a MIDI track and get 4 note chords from an external piece (iPad synth) or sample chords in.
Then, get creative with P-locks (one of the things I absolutely loved about the OP-Z) and the other ways to mangle things in DT. The goal is for music to be fun and a cool way to spend time….and oh yeah, eventually squeeze some tracks out. I don’t mind finishing in Logic for vocals, mixing and mastering.
Thoughts? Ideas (that can fit in a suitcase?)