I have owned MDUW and I loved it, the machine in it’s time was great and I still think korgs little drum box volca thing is total pants.
I love elektronauts vision but korg have released some very hot products which make me question why I should drop the money with you guys and your plastic encoders and after reading the horror stories and purposely imposed restrictions on the AR I’m asking if anyone at elektron is interested in cutting the cost of these products down or offering a similar form factor as korg.
Anyway not a rant post I rarely post, I just cannot justifie buying the octatrack anymore. I’m sorry, it’s visionary and magical and I love you guys for making it , please consider a smaller form factor and a cheaper option to compete no one wants to lug around these massive boxes anymore however good the effects are.
but seriously… if elektron would just do a machine that doesnt have sequencer.
it would just have a few buttons and a shitloud of rotaries and a screen.
and it would have 7 analoge voices: … 4 AnalogeFour voices. and kick hihat snare.
4 mono outputs. and a mic-input for the vocoder. fully controllable by midi.
for about 800 euro…
As a compagnion for those who dont like computers, wanna jam. and dont really want to buy an a4 or a rythm.
u would just connect it up to your octatrack. or whatever you want to use as sequencer.
and have your fun with it…
make my day, add some case with faders and 2 power-supplies…
that neatly folds into a boxshape
and a nice gooseneck microphone… I screw in my octatrack and that thing in it…
tadaa, everything grandpa needs to have fun… always works… portable enough to take into the garden and play when its sunny…
to be honest… I like the sound of the new machines… but i am not convinced i need 2 extra sequencers and fancyness and stuff… (and yes, i know extra sequencers can be fun… i got a monomachine and a machinedrum connected to my octatrack now)
for some reason i just want something simple with buttons and no menus to go with me octatrack.
anyways… if somebody at elektron thinks this is a good idea… please dont start designing today. I am sure you guys are busy enough as it is … me and my crazy ideas can wait…
No idea what the OP is on about, so I’ll say this …
@the_dreammer - you kind of have a point about not needing so many sequencers, but OTOH it is difficult to achieve 0 latency precision without implementing a sequencer.
MIDI is too slow because it’s serial and there is roughly ~1ms jitter for notes - which is fine for pads, but sounds rubbish when layering 2 voices for e.g. drums.
CV is zero latency but requires a trigger input per voice which means additional sockets (cost, space). But then we have the problem of parameter control.
The internal sequencer does away with all of that, and allows for all those fancy tricks like parameter locking and sliding.
Thats why I wanted 4 synthie voices, and only 3!! drumvoices.
I want a bassline, some pad, and a 2note-chord . a boom a tak and a tik
everything else i would get out of the octatrack. and i doubt it, that sending 7 midinotes and lets say 8continues controllers going on would delay things that much that you would hear it in my type of music.
I remember situations where i pushed more midi through my cables… and i mean it when i say simple
no sequencer… no plocks… just a few buttons so i have something to twist. and a screen for setup.
lets say you got 4 buttons per voice… so that be 28 rotaries, 4 cursor buttons Yes no… + screen.
the only logic i want… is that i want to do macro’s with those buttons… so i can set 2 values for a few parameters of that voice… lets say A and B . if i do value 0 it should be 100%A and if i do value127 it should do 100% of B … (thats why u need screen and cursors) … and the patch you just select with program change.
Kinda how other synths work… but the elektron-engine…
you just plug in your 4 audio-cables and the 2 midi into your octatrack… setup midi once…
sequence it… resample it… do whatever…
I aint saying that i dont like the rythm or the a4… its more… I am not always convinced i like the complexity of the trinity… sure, i make lovely music with it… sure i am having fun… its great stuff… i cant complain… but i got this nagging feeling live can be easier… more to the point… as in… I want to spend a few days making sounds with the synthie engine. and use them to create samples to play with (thats why i would like a vocoder… heh the fun of talking like a robot…)
and when i got my hand full of sounds… sit down the the octatrack… come up with new variations of the scenes that work for me… punch in a few melodies i got stuck in my head… record it… and be done.
So yeah… I can imagine… there are people in the world. that even want “simpler” versions…
a 1 voice rackunit… with a few rotaries and some cursorkeys and one of those calculator-displays heh…rack your machine upsidedown and dail up patch 8008
No I’m not kidding, the encoders are plastic FACT! I gigged with mduw and they become wonky, that’s not a dig at elektron I’m just stating my own experience and know many of other guys had similar experience.
All I’m saying is it’s beyond my understanding why anyone wants to lug around four or five boxes. They have outstanding sequencer and effect capabilities and as a past owner of a mduw I loved the experience.
Why couldn’t elektron offer some mini boxes for people who like that? TE are doing a fifty buck drum synth go figure. The new electribe is not an OT I wouldn’t even compare them, just saying … I’m not buying multiple machines when I can buy one which does everything and offers me (if I so wish) to export my clips and sequencers to ableton for Mastering.
I’m into gear I don’t like making music on a computer I’d just think it be great to have smaller modules as a sideline for people who “might” buy them.
Electron boxes are pretty small and portable as they are and you can do a heck of a lot with even just two boxes live…
The problem with the korg/roland “groovebox” lines are that they’re not very deep for sound design and it’s a sound that generic. they’re great for beginners and people on a budget…
The elektron machines in my opinion are like evolved way better versions of electribe/groovebox type machines.
I personally hope elektron only release machines with built-in sequencers because that’s their staple and they keep evolving it.
I think this begs an interesting question for what Elektron will do next. Their approach to sequencing is what makes them unique, so it is hard to imagine an Elektron device without a sequencer. However, if they are building products that are designed to not have much overlap with each other (ie the lack of midi sequencing on the analog machines), will they continue to make sequencer based gear? Maybe they will produce some less expensive, more limited modules in the future to compete with the $100-500 impulse buy arena that Korg and Roland are occupying. Or maybe their next device will be a $4,000 behemoth that I’ll sell some less vital organs to buy. Who knows…
Totally agree the units are deep for sound design, but they don’t fit securely into a waterproof diving bag and for people on the move this micro stuff is a godsend.
I know you said this stuff is cheap, I Own the OP1 and that wasn’t cheap when It came out but it fits into my world and a world for many others ON THE MOVE! Many of us would love a micro mduw I opened mine up and I can assure you that thing could be shrunk down, the money doesn’t bother me it’s the portability.
Yer I agree they don’t overlap features, which is fair. I really hope they offer something different … Well smaller and more portable , even if it’s a bit limited I’m keen to see what’s next.
