How do you relate to Elektron's instruments, depending on your background?

[dubathonic]

you have a gift for creating provocative topics

coming at electronic music from a more “traditional” background (saxophone, guitar, bands, etc.) i’ve always felt i’m using a different part of my brain to create whenever i program elektrons, from sequencing to sound design. electribes were my gateway drug and they were immediate but ultimately limiting, so i got into elektron on the strong advice of a user who had made the same 'tribe-to-md leap. since then i’ve felt that i’ve traded some of the immediacy for greater capabilities. the options are astonishing, but without a clear compositional goal, elektrons can be rabbit holes. enjoyable tumbles to be sure, but it took a long time to figure out where to start and what choices to make if i wanted to go somewhere in particular rather than letting happy accidents dictate my direction.

fast forward a few years and i feel like i’ve got my now four elektrons interacting in ways that make sense to me and allow me to compose purposefully while still giving me pleasant surprises during jam sessions. but this took awhile, a lot longer than i’d originally expected. and even now i still feel like i’m nowhere close to mastery, especially when every other user i meet face to face shows me a bit of their workflow and invariably it differs dramatically from mine. yet it gives them amazing results.

so how do i relate to them? like deep musical instruments. gas rarely strikes when i get bored. i realize what i need to change is my approach, my habits, myself.

[jshell]

I bought a portable minidisc recorder an a Sony microphone to make field recordings back in the old days of minidisc and I used to record the seashore/woodlands/thunderstorms for home listening in the evenings, when I used to um, smoke.

Messing around with the minidisc recorder a lot I found I could insert track markers into my recordings to split them into tiny bits of sound, then rearrange the bits of sound, remove some of the track markers (so I just had one very short track made up of a number of small sounds) and then I’d set that track on repeat.

Shit yeah! I did the same thing around 1999-200x. I was just listening to some of my old recordings the other day, some featuring field recordings of keys locking the door to old apartments thousands of miles and so many years behind me. And I could hear the minidisc editing too and remembered something I had made on a 4 track that didn’t quite become a song until I rearranged it on the Minidisc.

When I first got Supercollider 2 and hadn’t paid for it yet, you could play a minute of audio at a time and couldn’t record out of it to files on the computer, so I would record into Minidisc and assemble songs until I finally paid for the full program. I don’t field record as much as I should but just a week ago I did get some nice recordings of boats and trains and bridges along the Mississippi while waiting for a cross country train and I felt like it was 1999 for me all over again.

[jshell]

I was raised on piano lessons in the 80’s but quit around 8th grade. I had a really cool progressive teacher though and got to see and use early Macintosh DAWs at his place, and one day he brought in a Steiner Parker Synthacon analog synth with its silver faceplate and black knobs, plugged into a big old oscilloscope. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

I’ve been making crappy experimental music since '94, starting with just layering tapes and radio over each other through the mic-in port of my Sony Boombox and adding in sound effect cds and whatever else I could find, including bending samples in weird ways in OctaMED on the Amiga. Got really into electroacoustic / musique concrete kindof stuff, especially from the likes of Hafler Trio and Nurse With Wound. Got pretty decent at making the stuff, all with physical gear, sometimes with a small group of people. Got one of the early Moogerfooger’s (ring mod) back then, when it was Big Briar music. Still have it. Then in 2000 I got back into computers and music with Supercollider 2 and, later, Reaktor.

Got back into physical gear to do harsh noise back in 2004. Lots of guitar-pedal feedback loops and the like. That eventually started leading to finding more and more synth-like pedals (moogerfoogers, Metasonix, etc) which then started leading to finding weird little synth boxes (from hand-built things to things like Monotron and Monotribe) which led to things like the Bastl Trinity and Microgranny line. And suddenly I was having fun with drum machines. And I was getting bored with noise. I was also building up a small eurorack system but it was really noise focused and suddenly, I was bored with noise and wanted drums and FM synthesis and all that crap. And when I saw how much it would cost to really expand and change up my eurorack setup, I decided to walk away.

And I walked into the arms of Elektron with Machinedrum UW.

I had tried, a few years earlier, to use Electribe EMX (but I had bad encoders), MPC 500, and Akai MiniAK. I could never seem to really make anything with them. On the Electribe and MPC, I could make a really good pattern or two but could never seem to turn that into longer songs.

Machinedrum and Monomachine changed all that. I got the fun of a groovebox, but the depth and complex sound design of a proper pro machine. And the whole ‘sequencer tied into the sound design’ thing really clicked for me in a way that it never had on other synths or groove boxes. And I loved the variety of engines available in the silver boxes. I’ve used the Monomachine’s EFM and SID machines in harsh noise shows with the delay feedback cranked high and that silver box can just take over the entire set. And then I can turn it right around to make chill ambient drones and tones and do house and idm and whatever.

When a friend first told me about Elektron gear and Octatrack, specifically, I dismissed it entirely as being that ‘you have to be a real musician to use it’ kind of gear. And then I watched him play his Machinedrum (original Mk1 vintage) and heard drum sounds and textures I had been struggling to make in both hardware and software for years. A few months later, I had the Machinedrum.

I still make crappy experimental music but it’s the best crappy experimental music I’ve made in my life and the Elektron ‘original trilogy’ has really changed everything for me. I can make full songs with them (not getting trapped in that ‘one cool pattern’ issue I fall into with most groove boxes), have made multiple live sets with them.

[William_WiLD]

Just see that and think of what you said

Not Elektron so a bit OFF Topic, but regarding Video Games … it’s there

[previewlounge]

originally a funk-punk guitarist and bassist, i relate to Elektron’s gear primarily on the level of groove.

not much else comes close for tightness and low latency. that doesn’t really explain it but anyway.

also the creativity and resonant options are turbo-uplifting.

[J0n35y]

That would make a great music based sequel to Hardcore Henry!

[William_WiLD]

Absolutely

[konputa]

Hat tip to you andreasroman for creating an interesting and fun thread.

I have a technical mind by nature and I’ve been an artist (primarily painting and drawing) since I was in diapers. My family didn’t have the resources to support me in music lessons as I was growing up but I do recall that I had great fun with a toy record player and an organ as a small boy. I would play them both like a grinning idiot in the 80s. I was in my teens in the early 90s when I decided I had a strong desire to create electronic music but I still lacked the resources and found the cost of entry intimidating. After school I took a job and began to work furiously to make as much money as possible, working 70-80 hour work weeks for half of the year for about 3 years. I was in my early 20s and started buying synths as I could afford them, thanks to aforementiond job. My first purchase was a Korg Poly-800 and this would have been 1994 or 1995. My second was a Kawai K1M. Needing drums and more sounds, I went with a Roland D-110 next. My 1st sequencer was a Brother PDC-100, shortly after I got a Yamaha CX5M and about a year later I had a Mac Classic II with 4MB of RAM and 40MB HD. This Mac was amazing, by the way, and such a huge upgrade for sequencing. Over the course of 3 years I was regularly buying synths that were almost being given away. A previous poster mentioned using others’ trash, that was essentially what I was doing. I was buying what are now considered classics, and many of them I bought for less than $300 per synth. My SCI Pro-One was $85USD. My Roland MKS-30 was $47USD and the Roland VP-330 was $275USD, etc., on and on. This was a time when everyone was selling off their outdated analog crap to buy fancy new workstations, if you can believe it. I got lucky. My first sampler was a Yamaha SU-10, by the way.

Computer workstations were still not terribly useful for audio recording at this point, in fact it was still a bit of a luxury to be able to multitrack record with anything other than a tape multitrack or maybe an Alesis ADAT if you were fortunate (still very expensive for many in their early 20s at this point). Eventually we upgraded to Logic 2, back when it was still sold on 3 OS platforms and was pre-DAW (1996). We did most of our work on a Kurzweil K-2000, using it as a kind of DAW in a sense. I remember the tech evolution took a leg up when a number of popular midi sequencing programs began to introduce basic native audio recording. A few years later we were adopting fresh and mindblowing technology like Acid 1.0, Rebirth 1.0 followed a number of years later by Live 1.0. It’s been crazy to see the evolution of tech, while at the same time seeing the still recent rebirth in fresh analog synths, something I never would have expected. I guess I got in on the analog revival pretty early, Dave Smith was talking about putting together a new company and I got on his mailing list. Lovely guy, Dave. He personally answered emails and some number of months later I’m the proud original owner of DSI Evolver #00096, which I still own.

Like many in the early to mid 2000s, my workflow began to be based more and more on an ITB approach with DAWs and Kontakt 1.x, early Reaktor, etc. I saw fewer synths on stage at shows and couldn’t help but think that something seemed to be missing. Even with the DAW revolution, I never saw any reason to sell off my hardware so I still own nearly all of it. I felt something was missing from my music so I started to look for a way to go backwards in some sense, and I landed with a Roland MV-8000 and was back to being able to compose tracks without a computer. At the time it seemed somewhat misunderstood and was definitely an expensive box at aproximately $2500USD new. Oddly, this fluke of an instrument is probably one of the best things to ever come out of Roland. The feature set on this thing remains relevant today, imho. The main reason I decided to take the leap of faith and buy this sight unseen: the community. Years later I’m following the chatter about the amazing new release from Elektron, reading all the favorable reviews and thinking I need to pick up an Octatrack. Again, what sold me? The original community, pre-elektronauts, sold me sight unseen. I like complicated, discarded, sophisticated and misunderstood tech, just like I like my people I suppose. I also used Bhajis Loops on a Treo 650.

And this is why and how I got here.

[Kalimari]

Good call: Pyramid of Maslow is a very good reference point; highlighting that self-sabotage can stop an individual from achieving their potential or even seeing they have potential.

To surround oneself with supportive companions, who collectively support one another through self-doubt and encouraging the pursuit of finding our individual voice/style/technique/art leads to fulfilment which itself leads to increased fulfilment.

The right network/family can also help us to not slip backwards too far during the “dark days” of self-doubt and loss of momentum.

[andreasroman]

It’s odd that I didn’t enjoy the Analog Keys more than I did, considering my angle. Sometimes, I wonder if I didn’t give it enough time. I mean, it’s a keyboard. It has a great sequencer. It sounds awesome. Should be a perfect match.

All those features and options, though. Just don’t need them. And that’s why they distract.

[SoundRider]

It is a perfect match, if you like it’s sound and maybe you should get an AK again. My musical background was always performing live and for me the AK has been more of a keyboard with fresh new synth sounds rather the four-voice complex sequencer supported system, which it’s supposed to be. But after a while I started to appreciate the modulation capabilities of this sequencer, which I could not perform with my hands. … well … and here I am, happy owner of the dark trinity

[andreasroman]

Down the rabbit hole we go, all of us, in the end

I should revisit it at some point, though got a Deluge incoming now and am generally curious on what Elektron’s up to for the other half of this year. Could be anything from studio and recording gear, to hardcore synths and whatnot.

The Keys is stupid cheap second hand here in Sweden now, though. It’s like all the Analog Keys owners know something and they’re jumping ship before the rest of us find out.

[previewlounge]

i would say it’s most likely a Machinedrum 2.0 and a Monomachine 2.0
although with different names

[SoundRider]

I would be very interested in a MnM 2.0. I like the concept of the MnM and have often thought about to get one. But having a dark trinity already I wanted something, which would better fit to the advanced sequencers of AK and AR and the integration with OB.

[previewlounge]

mnm 2.0 with analog filter would be way cool

the analog filter (with filter drive parameter) in the vintage digital synth the OSCar is what makes it so legendary, to some degree… also the separation function between the two oscillators. And the form factor, amazing sexy rubber fetish design.

but i digress.

OT sometimes stands for “Off Topic”

[hellcore]

The Keys is stupid cheap second hand here in Sweden now, though. It’s like all the Analog Keys owners know something and they’re jumping ship before the rest of us find out.

They have been stupid cheap since before the new year, I saw a number of retailers selling them new at a lower price than the A4.

[konputa]

To those of you that didn’t fall in love with the A4/AK: what is it about the sound that you didn’t gel with? Is it a case where the A4 is better suited for pads and atmospherics and you were expecting a traditional mono lead or acid synth type of sound? I’ve been very curious about this since I’ve never had hands on time with one.

[William_WiLD]

From what I’ve done and from all sounds packs I have… the analog four or keys is very capable in every territory. For long sequence people can use it in midi instead of its own sequencer. The low end register can be tweaked later, a good way to make the analog four / keys even better is the analog heat on top of it and even more if you design TBish sound with it… as distortion make the whole sound even more convincing. There ´s nothing wrong with this one, only people who think sound design is easy or fast. EVery gear as it’s own sound… and each person need to find its own signature through it.

[SoundRider]

The reason why I got my AK was that I read some information that Elektron had developed a new kind of circuitry, which was not supposed to mimick the legendary models of age. The circuitry was supposed to be way more flexible then usual and provide some new interesting options. Reading the specs to check this out, made me curious. And indeed, the A4/AK is one of the most versatile synths I have ever laid my hands on. There is much we can route, combine, and modulate, which is unique to this synth (without even touching the sequencer). We can create many classic synth sounds of all genres, but this is not, where the story ends

[umonox]

The Keys is stupid cheap second hand here in Sweden now, though. It’s like all the Analog Keys owners know something and they’re jumping ship before the rest of us find out.

Interesting. I talked about cheap prices of brand new Analog Four’s in my current Video about the MK2 Boxes. Did not knew that the Keys is also affected on second hand market - somewhere else in the world.

Here in Germany a brand new Analog Four is 900 € now ^^ A brand new Analog Keys is still 1300 € though and used ones are also not sold below 1000 €. Ok, germany has insane Tax, but still … 900 € for a brand new Analog Four - thats insane!