Are swing trigs a thing on the OT?
Yes, they are on the OT, A4 and AR. You cannot do ”negative shuffle/swing” without them, a very important feature when you want to program afro/funk rhythms… Now one is forced to play unquantized, which is at least workable but not ideal. I could or course offset all my beats by 1/16, but that throws any other syncing method than manual out of the window… And pattns wouldn’t change on the 1st downbeat…
Also, what feels disappointing to me, coming from the bigger elektron boxes, is the ”LE” feeling of the DN… I suppose the same goes for the DT? Some bread & butter things are missing, like 4 global slots for the configs… Things like this wouldn’t make the DN any slower to use, but their omission makes the DN feel like a ”lesser” product… I guess people complaining about the lack of song mode feel the same way? Trig mutes, slide trigs, swing trigs and such are a big appeal for me in the bigger elektron boxes, they would be very welcome on the DT/DN!
2 Likes
Yeah, swing trigs sound cool. And the DT is an LE-type product. Seems reasonable when considering the large price difference. Pretty cool device still
1 Like
No info in the specs about the size of the +Drive the DT says its 1GB I would assume the DN would be the same size since the file structure is similar.
I haven’t noticed that particular issue, but I am really starting to notice the gap between the Digi line and the big boxes. All the things that are ‘missing’ are things that I don’t use that often anyways, but I do notice when they’re not there.
I can understand leaving them off and making this an ‘LE’ series. It still does an awful lot. But I’m having to reset my expectations a little bit. I always felt like Machinedrum and Monomachine (my first encounters with Elektron world, which I just got into a little over two years ago) had all of the fun of a groove box, but the depth of a pro machine (I used to think any device over $1k USD was like a big boring workstation). The Digi series feel much closer to groove boxes to me - still a lot of fun, but lighter on the ‘pro’ features. Then again, if they had launched a new digital synth at A4 pricing, I wouldn’t have been able to afford it right now, and it’s still good to have something affordable and fun that really makes some lovely sounds.
1 Like
Should have micro-timing though, correct?
I was just about to be like “whaaaaat?”
Just got mine, really liking it so far! Haven’t done much except getting to know the user interface, listening to presets and randomly changing parameters. Very good and varying sounds, I really dig the keyboard scale feature and chord mode as well, and I like Sound Pool thingy.
Only thing I’m really missing coming from the OT is different time scales per track… now you have to pretty much choose between percussion or longer chord progressions unless you start chaining a lot of patterns together (which I guess I’ll just have to start doing)
Combine conditions and poly rhythms and you can get close
Received mine today. Spent a bit of time with presets and the manual and now…here’s my first pattern…if it interests anyone 
(the first few bars you hear are just one track with recorded and plocked changes - very cool)
14 Likes
I’m sure you could get “Front by Front” type FM stabs, quite easily. One of the videos starring Cenk shows him banging out an evil bassline, the likes of which would make Bill Leeb blush. (Shouts out to the old school EBM heads!)
4 Likes
Do you mean poly metric, or actual poly rhythms?
Different track scalings
This is way dope. Are you processing the signal with anything (post DN) ?
2 Likes
Cheers. Just some EQ in Reaper but to be honest the MP3 conversion has stripped a lot of loveliness I can hear in the actual recording.
With different track lengths and microtiming you can make both polyrhythms and polymeters.
edit: https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/10488/polymeter-vs-polyrhythm
Hi (d), stabs are nice… but what about isolationism, how the filter works who knows…So many questions!
One has to put his hands on the machine to know and calm curiosity I guess. Does not seem a predictable sound source maybe more than the analog series
True! Can’t wait to get my rusty, cybernetic hands on a unit.
I’ve already heard some aggressive stuff, but some really eerie pads, too. Two filters allow for some non-traditional stuff.
I’ll be doing two soundpacks for Elektron for the DN, so I’ll be exploring cold, desolate places (East Brunswick, New Jersey; Boise, Idaho. )
7 Likes
I’d be happy to go back to Coldfoot Alaska and do some sound design up there if 
wanted to cover such an excursion. Get a little battery, sit up on The Chandalar Shelf in September, sound-designing away…
So dreamy.
To counter-act any possibility of that actually happening, here’s another super rough jam. Just one pattern, no conditionals, paired up with Machinedrum. Last night I got such a fun little groove going on the arpeggiator and, just like on Monomachine, I hypnotized myself and just listened to it until the TV turned itself off out of neglect. Custom sounds.
Best part is about 1:23 when it’s just the arp and the machinedrum and some sound tweaking. Turns itself into some kind of late 80’s funk for a bit. Worst part is when I decide to play with track transpose for a bar or two.
6 Likes