Losing creativity outside the Elektron box

Elektron Gear
#1

Hey everyone,

I’ve been using the Rytm for a while now and it’s perfect for my workflow. I only program drums on it and because of the p-locks, slide, trig conditions (and other cool features of course) I can make pretty much anything I imagine sound design wise. It’s incredible. The Elektron sequencer is part of the sound design.

Now I want to pair it with a poly synth for melodies, chords, bass etc and was hesitating between another Elektron box or the Hydrasynth. Finally I bought the Hydra because of its capabilities and price. I watched a lot of “no talking” videos on it and it just sounds awesome. I really like the way I can mutate the waveforms and the workflow for designing sounds is also intuitive. However I really miss sequencing, p-locking, sliding, triggering stuff and the other Elektron features.

Beforehand I knew that there’s no sequencer on it but since I’m a beginner I thought about trying out a different workflow, a new thing, thinking that maybe I’m going to like it even more and that I’m going to be more creative.

A little more info about my workflow.
I like composing in a hardware and like mixing/mastering in Ableton. I don’t really like drawing midi notes and writing music using plugins in the daw. When I’m playing on the Rytm my creativity boosts because I can do so many things that I imagine in a matter of seconds. Now in the daw this is a completely different workflow and I prefer not to stare at the screen all the time and use the mouse to adjust the sound/sequence. On the other hand I love Ableton’s stock plugins for EQing and compressing tracks so I’m happy with mixing on the computer.

Back to the Hydra.
It’s a great machine and perfect for sound design, I’ve heard all kinds of sounds that people can make with it so I’m pretty confident about the fact that anything can be done on the Hydra in a different way.
I hooked it up with Ableton and started arranging midi notes after recording a melody (that I’d normally sequence). Moving and quantizing these midi notes in the daw feels unexciting to me. I also tried using midi cc’s to play with let’s say the filter cutoff on the Hydra but ended up not liking to draw lines in the daw. I prefer doing these things in the Rytm.

I don’t know how to feel about this because this is my hobby but I just don’t feel like doing this much work (that I don’t like) in the daw. I thought about selling the Hydra (can’t return, abroad, expensive shipping) and getting a Digitone instead. The Digitone is missing the Slide feature that I also use on the Rytm many times but the A4 is too expensive for me now.

Just curious about other people being in this kind of situation, what would/did you do?

Thanks for reading it! :slightly_smiling_face:

#2

Sounds to me like you want something that can sequence your Hydra! Digitakt/Tone are obvious since you’re familiar with Elektron already. There’s also the whole world of devices like MPCs, Novation Circuits, and dozens of others.

I also really dislike sequencing things from the DAW, which is what got me interested in hardware in the first place. I personally liked using my MPC One for this purpose when I had it, and my Push 3 does an admirable job as well (though it’s absurdly expensive just to sequence other synths).

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#3

i am in a similar boat. the analog rytm is my favorite drum machine ever and i rarely use synths without a sequencer anymore. my most used synths right now are roland tb3 and korg monologue, because they have great sequencers themselves. yes they are monophonic, but i guess that’s somehow my thing :smiley:
i had the hydrasynth a few years ago, and yeah the sound design with aftertouch was great but i also missed a proper sequencer.

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#4

Have you thought about buying a Looper like a Boss 505 Mk2?
You can be really creatively playing live 1/ 2/3/4 bar patterns on synths without a sequencer. So Hydrasyth as you mentioned. Really all a sequence is is a set of repeated notes. But playing into a looper you can do this and chords without any fuss. And as you mentioned you dont have much time from work and would rather keep it as a fun hobby i believe a looper is the way to go.

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#5

Have you considered using the Rytm to sequence the Hydrasynth?
Also, there are some external sequencers you can use, like the Hapax, Torso T1 or Oxi One. People really seem to love these external sequencers.

#6

First I would think about, what kind of sound you want for your melodies. The Hydra is wavetable, the Digitone is FM, and the A4 would be analogue. Quite different sound engines, I would say.

If you like the sound of the Hydra and miss a Elektron-like sequencer, keep the Hydra and try to find a hardware sequencer of your liking.

Check out for this:

  • OXI One
  • Squarp Pyramid
  • Korg SQ-64
  • Pioneer Toraiz Squid
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#7

If you mean “portamento”, DN has it now.

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#8

FWIW I sequence my Hydrasynth Desktop from my Digitone.

The Digitone has all of the Elektron sequencer/plock goodness but (unlike all other Elektron boxes) it also has 8-voice polyphony over each of its x 4 MIDI tracks. All other Elektron boxes only have 4-note polyphony over MIDI.

Digitone + Hydra is a powerful combination because you can map many of the Hydra’s parameters via MIDI CC to the Digitone’s 8 x rotary knobs and then trig lock different CC settings for some pretty wild sounds.

You can do the same with other Elektron boxes as well but will get 4-note poly not 8.

#9

Dt1 second hand?

#10

That’s crazy good. If I get a Digitone I’m going to get rid of the Hydra due to my budget, and I don’t need two synths now for the same purpose. :grinning: Thanks for your reply!

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#11

I meant “Slide” for smooth p-lock transitions. Let’s say I’m p-locking the first and last steps, if I turn on slide (on the Rytm) on these two steps, the parameter locks will slowly transition into each other. Not sure how to explain. :grinning: Can achieve similar things with LFOs sure but the Slide function is such a unique Elektron feature I’d kind of miss it on the Digitone.

#12

I should have made it clear in my post that right now I don’t want another hardware/separate sequencer due to budget and limited space. Maybe I should just get rid of the Hydra and get a Digitone instead for my workflow and call it a day. Or get an A4 and eat instant noodles for a while. :pleading_face: :moneybag:

#13

Look for a second hand Analog keys then you have a whole analog four plus you have 2 midi tracks that you can sequence 2 mores synths with and with the keys it makes it so easy to play sequencers in, Its my favourite Elektron machine.
Here I am using just the Analogkeys to sequence the Pro 3 and OB6 but usually I add the AnalogRytm when I´m making tracks with drums

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#14

Im with you on this. I was going to make a very similar post,. You nailed the points of why DN would be perfect.

To OP, I understand if money and space is a constraint, but would heavily consider keeping hydra and adding a Digitone if you can somehow. DN alone is vast and wondrful, one of my faves, and also benefits so much from the Elektron style workflow. But youd be exploring the Hydra in way you simply havent, and be applying that particular sequencing flow to it!

If theres absolutely no option for both, I still vote Digitone. Peep Oscillator Sync’s videos on youtube:)

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#15

I dunno…the setup you already have is pretty rad. It’s easy to get hung up on what gear ‘can’t’ do and not understand that there’s so much it can do that hasn’t even occurred to you yet. That’s not a put down as it applies to all of us.

At the beginning of the year I started a weekly residency and I decided to keep things simple to alleviate stress. I use a Syntakt and an Octatrack and that’s it. No backing tracks. In the process I’m learning both machines in a deeper way and am cranking out new material every week where I discover some new techniques I was previously unaware of. I’d say, milk that setup for all you can, watch tutorials, etc…meanwhile you can be saving up for a third piece of gear…or not :slight_smile:

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#16

As someone with both a rytm and a hydra I feel like they’re a great pair. Nothing works universally for everyone of course and we likely have different workflow preferences.
Lots of folks do amazing things with the advanced lfo functionality on the hydra as a workaround for the lack of a sequencer (lots of info in both of the hydra threads) but I mostly get around it by just playing it like a keyboard which I feel it excels at.
I had the dn for a few years and really tried to love it but never quite could. Besides never being my favorite fm engine (I had way too many fm synths) I was always frustrated with the way it handled polyphony. I found that for my uses, while technically polyphonic, it wasn’t practically polyphonic. It’s fine if you never want poly legato passages or anything too rhythmically off grid within a single poly lane. That stuff could be cheated out by using duplicate tracks of course. Obviously not an issue for most people, just something to consider.

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#17

Hi, I have not read everything, but I’d get some kind of hardware sequencer for the Hydra, that’ll be connected with the Rytm. That could be another Digi box (used Digitakt I?!) or something like Oxi One. So you can make music without staring at a screen.

You could also use the Rytm to send out notes and velocity for monophonic stuff on the Hydra. It can be even polyphonic when the sounds on the Hydra have a long decay and you program the notes after each other on the Rytm, similar to like arpeggios …

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