I’m done with Elektron

There is an extreme overabundance in the west and it makes many unhappy as they struggle to find meaning in their lives. You see this as complaints and criticisms become more and more micro from those seemingly unaware of the amazing gifts we’ve been given. One can focus on getting something done or one can focus on excuses for not being able to do anything, it seems. But then there are only ever a small percentage of people that get things done, so there is that.

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i so appreciate the ambient coolness and existential propositions presented by a few posts on this thread, although the fact remains that not many have access to a pair of trained dolphins.

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:dolphin::dolphin:

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Dolphins fly for free above the ocean

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I’m also going through these waves of “being through” with Elektron. Just a couple of weeks ago I decided to round up all my Elektron gear and let them out on the 'bay. Today I am back with the Analog Rytm and I’m loving every moment of it. Damn that thing sounds incredible with samples.

/C

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I think I really am done with Elektron. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but yeah.

The core of my studio is my DAW, and how my other gear integrates with that is important to me. I’ve spent the past two years really loving the OT and AR. But when it comes time to integrate them back into my songwriting workflow, it’s a pain. Neither the OT nor AR will output midi, so I can’t quickly dump tracks into the DAW. Hell the OT won’t receive midi if I wanted to sequence it. Sure, you can sample loops of your work into the DAW, but through the process of writing a song, I always need to go back to the source, to delete a snare, to tweak a sound. Overbridge is a type of integration, but not the type I need.

What eventually wore me down, was a lack of basics, and limitations that don’t exist in software or modern hardware. How to backup my AR? Export midi from OT or AR? nope. Only 8 songs in song-mode on the OT? I was putting two songs into one, with space between to get around that limitation. When I had to go back and edit those songs, I immediately blew my alcohol budget ; -)

I have an MPC Live, and hadn’t given it the same amount of attention I had my Elektron gear, because quite frankly, it’s not as fun to use. There is no doubt, the XoX button row of the Elektron stuff is immediately gratifying to me. P-Locks do in fact rule. But once I decided to rebuild my projects in the MPC, it was like a thick fog was lifted. You don’t think about how many tracks, how much memory, how many samples in a kit. These are all absurdly abundant in the MPC. In fact I put my 8 favourite kits into one MPC kit (8 pages of 16 samples per kit). When I want to write a song, I don’t have to think about what kit to load, it’s all there in one giant kit! Such a simple thing makes a bigger difference than I had expected. Will it be 606 or 808 hats? Try both, figure it out later, no commitments.

The plug-in software for the MPC makes it work like NI Maschine, except that you can unplug it and use it live without a computer. You can sequence it from within the plug-in, or sequence in the DAW which I do, so I can cut and paste chunks around while arranging. That is important to me. Slice a chorus and take all of it’s relevant tracks in one chunk. But if I have beats in the machine I want to try in a song, I can use the sequencer in the plug-in. I can also easily export that midi to my DAW as well.

No more converting to 48K for the AR. No more p-locking a new sample on every new pattern of the OT because you can only use the same slot across all 16 patterns in a bank. No more convoluted file system issues. No more workarounds.

Saving a song in my DAW saves the state of the MPC - so I don’t have to coordinate backups. I don’t have to figure out what to load into the hardware in order to have it match the song in the DAW. I go back to songs that are years old on a fairly regular basis. I work on multiple projects at once, so coordinating my Elektron hardware with the songs they match, is not an insignificant task.

Don’t get me wrong. No regrets here. I’ve really enjoyed using the Elektron gear. I love spending time with hardware away from my computer, but I eventually need to reconnect that work to my DAW. I will be honest, I don’t find the MPC Live as fun to use. But I get more work done, and I get it done faster. It’s very utilitarian!

The MPC does have it’s limitations too. In standalone mode you can only use the Akai plug-ins and they suck. Hard. The reverb is atrocious. So I will probably use one pair of stereo outputs to go to a reverb when using it live. In the DAW, I can use my Lexicon reverbs in ways you can’t with the Elektron stuff, at the sample level, kit level, sub-mix, etc. etc. Lots of options there. There are a few other issues, but midi modulation is handled like it would be in a DAW, and that is a clunky substitute for P-Locks.

I still have the Analog Heat, and have no intention of selling it. It doesn’t slow my workflow in any way.

Just my two cents.
(I suspect more than two, if you did a word count of this post!)

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I believe they call that Stockholm syndrome. I too suffer from this.

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I totally get where you are coming from with the limits on Elektron gear. For studio work, my Push 2 works well for recording to Ableton and I have tons of VSTs to use. The only reason why I even bought the Elektron gear was for live performances to go laptop free. I tried out MPC and Elektron and did not like the MPC. But I probably won’t buy any new Elektron gear until they get better integration with DAW computer software. Love the A4+OT for live performances.

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Im thinking about adding a Push 2 to my Ableton 10 and plethora of VSTs. i dont do much live work and my OT 2 may become redundant. Push 2 and Ableton vs OT2 for studio work. Any thoughts?

Fixed that for you. You’re welcome. :wink:

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So…popcorn - is there a way to smoke it?

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I was just thinking about this hahaha

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I suppose if you made them over an open fire, they’re sort of smoked. There’s at least a lot of smoke involved.

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Pretty much my case, the fact that the bold and mighty Elektron sequencer is owned by Elektron and not by the user makes no sense to me. Why would I spend time inputing notes into a device that cannot transmit those notes to my DAW is just absurd, hey it cannot even transmit those notes as a good old system exclusive message for backup purposes. So I use A4 and DN as sound modules and my AR MI is taking a looong vacation while I make music with Maschine micro.

Push 2 is great if you do a lot of work with Ableton. It feels more like a live instrument than just using a laptop. The pads are fantastic. Love mine.

Maschine is also good.

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im still trying to figure out where it belongs in my setup and sound realm…at times I want to sell it and replace it with the digitak…then I see some fascinating use of it and decide to keep it…and giving up on it makes me feel defeated…will see what happens next time:)

Is OT useful for studiowork? It depends on what music you make probably.
Ive never used it for anything unrelated to playing live.

For producing, nothing beats ableton and push2. If you like that style of producing :slight_smile:

Elektron for live, ableton/push for studio.

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The midi tracks send and receive midi. The sample tracks do not send midi. So drum patterns written on those cannot be easily ported to your DAW.

I’m still confused. Why would you wanna write a beat with samples on the OT but then send the midi of that to the daw? What are you going to do with that midi? Triggering drum samples in the DAW? you can do that with the midi tracks

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Audio tracks can be recorded to the cf card and moved to a daw.

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