Machinedrum, Analogue Rytm or Digitak help me to choice

Elektron Gear
#1

Hi guys!! I’m Jerry from Mexico City!! I’m looking a warrior drum machine, I own a Digitone, OctaTrack, MK l, OP1 and Organelle, I make drums with them but I need more, I’m using 2 thru machine ch. in OT and I have almost 4 ch for drum sounds and 2 ch for other samples and I change sounds but I feel I need more freedom in the drum sounds, I feel the same thing in the other machines, I want to use a machine just for drums.

I found an used Analogue Rytm and a Machinedrum SPS UW+
Here I can buy brand new digitak
and I want to help me to choice.
The price it’s the same between 3 of them so…
I like the Machinedrum has more channels.
The digitak its more easy to use and it’s small
Or do I need the Analogue Rythm ?
What do you think !?

Thanks guys.

#2

MD, digitakt and AR are all very different beasts. You should try before you buy.
Also ‘warrior drum machine’ would make a great stage name :+1:

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#3

Depends. Do you prefer samples or synthesis? Digital or analog?

My personal preference would be Rytm.

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#4

I think I want to morph the drum sounds on the fly !!!
Maybe more snappy snares and more low end kicks in the more easy way!!!

#5

Observe your market - if there aren’t any machinedrums left except that one, get it.

rytm, digi’s you will get all the time, machinedrum is here in vienna not available at all. last 3 months someone tried to sell one at € 1.500,-! wtf!
I thought about getting one in berlin, but i was much more in love with my wife there :wink:

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#6

If you need to be able to save your pattern chains, then skip the Digitakt, as it has no song mode, and doesn’t save pattern chains.

#7

Sounds like Machinedrum or Rytm. Listen to audio demo’s and Elektronaut’s tracks with them and choose the one that sounds best to you.

#8

Warrior drum machine = AR (snappy snares = one-shot exponential LFO to vol)
Ninja drum machine = MD

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#9

I sold my MD for an AR. I don’t regret it. I prefer AR’s analog filters / distortion / compressor, samples quality, bit reduction, fx…
I also prefer analog drums synthesis, it can be chromatically tuned, hence analog synth, samples goes to +/- 2 octaves (1,5 octave for MD). I found MD clicky, especially for drums.
Concerning sound morphing AR is much more precise, MD does control all only (same parameters with value changed for all tracks). You’d be able to control perf / scenes with the OT.

DT is a digital AR, with the sample part only, but with midi tracks. Overlap with OT, but simpler.

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#10

I have the MDUW and i will go with the Rytm for the sound and punch!

#11

i got a MD a couple of weeks ago so take my words with a grain of salt.

I find the synthesis methods quite easy and flexible, you can get am,azing sounds even without the uw expansion

I like how it sounds, I’m getting cool sci-fi and synthetic-sounding kits

classic/extended mode switch is really useful, you can get many different and new combinations of pattern and kits on the fly

ctr-8 and ctr-all are amazing in a live environment, the latter allows you to change the value of some parameters for all the tracks and I find it very useful for changing the overall sound of a kit just tweaking one knob

#12

If you want to morph drum sounds on the fly, you’ll probably be interested in the Rytm’s performance mode, which is kind of its answer to “control all” on the MD, or the crossfader scenes on the Octatrack - but I think it takes it further than either.

What you can do here is assign 48 parameter changes - pretty much anything you can tweak - to the 12 pads, in any configuration you like (48 changes on 1 pad, 4 changes on 12 pads etc). Then applying pressure to the pad will morph smoothly between the current value and the pad’s assigned value. So one pad could apply a high-pass filter to all instruments, variable by pressure, while another increased the reverb send and a third pad increased a few LFO intensities or speeds, or sample start points, or all of the above. You can apply all the pads at the same time, if you have the fingers for it.

This is an incredible, monstrously powerful feature if you’re into live performance. It takes some setting up, but once everything is in place you can take a single bar pattern, or just a single sample, and tweak and mangle it in countless ways.

And you also have the scene mode, which is a similar setup - 48 parameter changes across the 12 pads - except you can only have one scene active at a time, and they change instantly. So you can use this for pattern or instrument variations, or indeed you can play the scenes on the pads in real time.

If you can get your hands on a unit to test, just check out the scene and performance setups on the test patterns - they’ll give you a good idea of the possibilities. All the machines you’re considering have their own charms and strengths, but if your goal is on-the-fly sound manipulation, the Rytm is a definite strong contender.

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