Hello forum! New Member - Charlotte, NC

The Lounge General Discussion
1

Hello,

Before I go bonkers and start slapping myself for buying the synth or that synth I wanted to introduce myself.

Brandon from Charlotte, NC

Grande electro, bass, breaks and house fan.
Been djing since before myspace or 1999.
Tooling around with Reason since 03’

After a career move and having a daughter, wife has encouraged me to enter back into the arena.

This decision has caused me a ton of stress the last few weeks. I’ve gone analog mad and synth starved.

Anyhow thats a little on me. Are there any weird forum rules like “don’t mention other brands” dont speak about how much aderol or IPA it took to write a song etc?

Point in the direction of these rules pleaser.

Tempest
Bass Station 2
Volca Bass

Next analog I buy will be an Elektron. Owning the tempest where do I start?
Analog 4?
Octatrack?
or
Trade in my Tempest for a soon to be released Rytm?

Cheers,

Brandon

2

I guess the regulars get fuzzy about newbies.

I understand in the marketplace to proceed with caution, but I’m guessing there will always be a lot of new traffic to the site from folks like me who are anxiously waiting to purchase there first Elektron gear, find a deal or co-op with some electro heads.

Any how, was just here to introduce myself.

3

I’m a bit new to Elektron products. The only one I have is the Analog Four (got late 2013) and Monomachine is on the way. The A4 is one the most impressive and productive pieces of musical equipment I have owned. The instrument just sings.

Also quite excited to start playing with the Monomachine once it arrives.

Edit: Have to mention my other piece of favorite equipment which is the Yamaha RY-30 drum machine. I’ve had it forever, used it a ton and still enjoy using it.

4

No rules about not mentioning other brands as far as I can tell. End of the day, it’s about having fun making music anyways. And Elektron products seem to fit the bill quite nicely

5

That Mono seems to be a wildly vast synth. All these Elektron synths seem above and beyond old school gear.

Apparently Elektron is really popular right now. Been watching several vendors for the A4. Seems like everyone is waiting for a restock.

Can’t wait to have all the pieces together and make some music!

The thing I’m getting from reading is that all the elektron gear can do beats as well as synth parts and that the Oktatrack is a beast of a sampler and multiple midi sequencer.

This really makes it hard to choose. That mono is soon loaded down its hard to ignore.

6

Elektron instruments can be difficult to learn but it is absolutely worth it to take the time to master any one or all of their amazing boxes.

The Octatrack seems to be one of the most difficult to develop a workflow on but once you understand it, you’ll want 2 of them or more-not bullshittin you. Why do you think they’re out of stock right now?

I would say the easiest Elektron instrument to learn would be the Machinedrum. Of course it’s fun to use, just like everything they make.

The Analog RYTM will be another very useful tool for beat smiths. And of course it will be a fun experience for beginners looking to just fuck with a very high quality hybrid drum machine.

The Monomachine is difficult to master but its easy to get up and running right away. Elektron provide you with some nice patterns to tweak to get a feel of the sound sculpting possibilities-then you can start from scratch and create your own sounds. It’s another fantastic instrument. Check out their demos on the site as they are all really well done.

Analog Keys and Analog 4? Get em BOTH if you can. Fun as fuck. Actually everything they make is fun as fuck to use when making music. Of course they sound fantastic and also have nice patterns for you to tweak to get you started.

And if you get an A4 or Akeys-or both, make sure to buy Darenager’s Druma soundpack- superb quality percussion sounds. Dude knows what he’s doing for real.

If you’re a producer, any thing Elektron makes will help you do things you couldn’t do or couldn’t think of before.

I’m sure all the live performers using Elektron machines feel the same way.

Before doing anything, it’s probably a good idea to download and study the manuals of all their products. Find out what they do and see if it’s a fit for your purpose and workflow.
.
Oh shit, I almost forgot!

In here you’ll find many hobbyists, and a few professionals… and then you have those Rick-Astley-lovin ‘Dancing-Fairies’

Avoid those.

7

Lol love that passion bro!

I’m almost thinking the Octatrack is the place to start. While I can run electro from several synths, I plan on sampling some. Having 8 midi channels to sequence other gear just sounds like a no brainer.

Like I’ve mentioned, I’m bummed my Tempest won’t do that, but neither does the Tempest or BS2 sample.

My next option is the A4 without a doubt.

I don’t feel that my Bass Station or Novation controller are enough for me in the “key department” either.

Snagging up a Mopho4 or Prophet 8 at a discount would be hard to pass right now, luckily I think I can pull off a about 2 more purchases between DSI & Elektron.

8

Does Charlotte even have an electronic music scene?! What part of Charlotte?

I used to have a Tempest but the bugs and limited aspects of it eventually led me to sell it. I have a MD UW now and I really like it a lot (although I suppose if I were a finger drummer the Tempest would be nicer).

I also have an A4 and it’s definitely a bit of a bother to get your head around at first coming from other gear.

I’m also a former Reason user (since version 1 until 6.5, never upgraded to 7 or later) but found that working OTB was a much more pleasant experience.

9

For what age group? Lol yes.

Outside of the younger dubstep, trapsters there always have been pockets of several genre followers.

I’ve seen everybody from Tipper and Bambaataa to Plump Djs and Hybrid. When electro house was on the rise 07-09 would’ve probably been “my peak” but with commercial shit having to sound like swedish house mafia and every song on the beatport top 100 sounding like “tear out expexteo trance and bass” the younger kids have a whole different idea of “music scene”

I’m 34, started buying vinyl in 98 at drop shop and vinyl frontier in Orlando. I was big on bass, electro and Florida Breaks at its peak. As soon as I heard Hybrid and BT totally taken a back by the nuskool breaks.

Anyhow, charlotte has always been the Tuesday or Wednesday night stop in between major cities. Probably wouldn’t know if you’re outside the city or state so no offense taken.

I’ve had the opportunity to open and play with
BT, Hybrid, Hyper, General midi, Dylan Rhymes, Chris Carter, exact, Jackal & Hyde, Funk Lab, Spacemen, Prism & Eclipse, Deekline & Wizard, icey, fix

Ferry Corsten (twice) Dubfire, James Zabiela, Bennasi, Deadmau5.

Not wanting to sound cocky, you get the pic. Those aren’t parties I went to, I opened for all those djs, except deadmau5. So Charlotte has always had a good scene. There are too many bars and clubs here.

Having the #2 banking city in the country as a subtitle has driven a high rise condo craze and brought a lot of 20 somethings downtown.

I like it here in Charlotte. There isn’t an endless supply of fun nights like their used to be.

1 more bit.

If I could mention my favorite dj I’ve ever seen and heard. God dawned TIPPER is the fucking bomb!

Sorry for ranting but I don’t want you to think of Charlotte as Nascar or me as a inflated “I play other people’s music well” ass. It’s been a few years since I’ve done the dj thing and felt good talking good about the QC.

Cheers

10

Sorry if I was too blah there.
Yeah I’m in Mt Holly a just west of Charlotte.
I super cool group from Charlotte is Mr. Invisible sponsored by NI.
Older electro heads maybe familiar with “Outside recordings” Chris & Jeff are from here and used to bring some dope electro heads for shows.
If you’re in the area later month Kraftwerk was just announced as headlining the Moogfest.
Also if you’re not so far away, would love to connect somehow.

11

Cool, nice to hear! Do you have tracks online? I live in Charlotte but I’m just a poser, just was surprised to hear of a scene at all. Ran into a vintage synth nut locally via a CL sale but that’s it. The CL sales listings here are depressing vs. places I’m used to like Seattle.

Are there any local producer/musician meetups? In Seattle (where I’m from) there were tons, e.g. modular synth meetups and the like.

12

Hey there friend I’m glad to know I have neighbors.

You are always more than welcome to jump in with us. We are more than welcoming for posers :wink: does that mean you’re just cutting teeth in production?

Do you own any of this elektron gear?
Using able to or reason?
Spin any music?

I seem to remember Seattle having a pretty nice breakbeat scene? Maybe 10 years ago? Not sure about the West Coast anymore.

You can read above and see I took a break for a few years and jumping back in with friends.
We are in between Internet show hosts but soon will have a Monday night show.

Putting the hardware together but have a nice Reason 7 setup if you ever want to have a little tune fun.

I’m over in Mt. Holly.

Craigslist; I just posted some brand new “NIB” powered Mackies. Pass em around
2 srm1850 18"subs, 2 srm 650 15" Mains with 2 tripods.
6400W.

** the guy with the 808 is considering the subs in the deal. Our crew has plenty of Live Sound.

PM your info we can kick some drums one day

13

Vintage synth nut?

Nick, Jamie or Bob?

Those guys grew up in Detroit and I swear have every Roland, Korg and Yamaha +

They showed me one day and I was floored. Hopefully there are others.

14

Hey I’m just down the hwy from Charlotte in Greenville SC.
Asheville’s music scene is pretty awesome you guys ever venture out that way?

15

Asheville, while closer than Seattle, is still more than a casual hike when you’re old and have kids like me =)

sol-bass-rec: I have a lot of misc crap. Eurorack modular, A4 + MD (my avatar pic – it’s a nice portable rig, if you ever want to check it out let me know and we can meet up, but I just got this setup not that long ago so I’m still learning my way around), Prophet 08, PC361, Cirklon, etc. I also plan on getting a Sub37 when they ship.

I’ve been a Reason user forever but switched to OTB a couple years ago. I don’t spin, never really had the DJ bug, much more interested in composing. Got the bug when trance was the big thing. Mid/Late 90s BT, PVD, Sasha, Digweed, and anything that was an "Ibiza mix’ =)

These days I’m more into ambient industrial (Trent Reznor, etc.) but can’t resist 4 on the floor when I’m just dicking around with the MD.

16

Hey there friend. GF and I are going to Moog. I WOULD NOT MISS KRAFTWERK 3D LIVE IF 808 and 909 were raining from the sky.
We do go to belle chare festival and trek to see a friend’s bluegrass band.
Greenville has a nice little vibe and good festivals too. Nothing like my favorite town, Columbia. Just good fun people in Columbia. Never had a less than awesome night in soda city.
Do you do trinumeral, deerfields?
Also go to boone a lot.
Yeah Greenville is 1 he 15 minutes from us.
Keep me in the loop of what’s going on after moogfest.

17

As much as I may seem a total bass head, I am very much into progressive and trance though it has changed the last few years.

I’m awaiting a new ddj sz from pioneer. I went to Beatport and every song on top 50 progressive sounded like a dieselboy, Wolfgang Gartner, Tim Berg mashup.

I’ve got an old trance/breaks tine for you.
Stage 1 - Space Manuevers - hooj choons.

All those damn Event Horizon samples. That tune still gives me bumps.

What was one of your favorite BT songs?

I got to open for Brian at a club called Forum/Now Phoenix and that was the highlight of my club life. Fucking awesome night!

18

BT for me peaked at Movement in Still Life. I loved that entire album and thought it was kind of downhill after that. Something about him as a person rubs me the wrong way, every interview I’ve read with him he comes off as really narcissistic

19

Hi from Durham.

Let me know if you head out this way.

I have an Octatrack, and can recommend it. I find it great for exploring ideas, and I am probably using about 60% of its capabilities.

20

Awesome,

I’m very excited to know we have a small Carolina Community.

I feel some jams coming soon.

I wish this guy with his 808 would contact me. Idle minds, idle minds.