Machinedrum - Still relevant or a nostalgia piece?

I always run my MD through my Rytm inputs. layering em together is a dream

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MIDI 1 has always offered 14bit resolution, which is more than enough, it is up to synth manufacturers to take advantage of this.

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MIDI 2 will be backward compatible with MIDI 1.

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will MIDI 2.0 enforce manufacturers to install the jacks the same way? always fun turning the plug one way, then the other, then “nope, maybe I had it right before…? oh wait…! it’s installed sideways! really!?!”

As long as nothing else sounds like the Machinedrum, the Machinedrum will continue to be relevant.

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Man, that was really cool

I agree with BeardyJack, the UW version is much more capable as a sound exploration tool.

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At the end of this video, I sampled the entire output of my song, including the MM incoming signal. Muted all the tracks and trigged the sample in x00x00x0 x00x00x0 beat and went filtery and echoy. Had a little fun with start point too. Nice trick to move to the next song in a live performance or break up and flip the beat.

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No individual outs for the MD then?

I’ve had my Machinedrum for a little over 2 years and I’m still finding new tricks to coax weird percussion out of it. I usually use it for more 808 / 909 style sounds and it does great! It is still relevant for sure. A few things I’ve learned over the years.

  • The Dynamix Compressor can drastically change the feel and overall sound of a pattern

  • CTR-al feature makes it easy to come up with different drum kits quickly , do drum fill transitions, or just get crazy weird sounds.

  • The CTR-GB and CTR-RE can automate the delay and reverb settings.

  • Layering machines / samples is key to get sounds to pop a little more

  • Combine real-time RAM record and playback with CTR-AL and enter into a whole new world of glitcy layers

The MD does have a distinct digital flavor to it, which I don’t mind. I usually run it through some distortion / saturation Vst or reduce the bit rate on it to take some of the digital edge off. You can RAM record and play back to have the sound go 12-Bit lo fi.

MD is also very to the grid, so best for 4/4 stuff. I make break beat, ambient, and techno therefore I am fine. You can RAM record loops and adjust the start points to get a more OFF the grid feeling

Once you’ve built your muscle memory with it, it is easy and fast to come up with great patterns. Hard to do tonal / chromatic stuff with it, but not impossible. I’ll never sell mine!

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Doh, i responded to nirun´s post where he said he routes his md through the rytm…

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Totally agree on the muscle memory. Once that is down, jamming gets so much more fun and interesting.

I made an entire hip hop album on the MD and think it’s a very versatile machine for all generes, not just techno. Tho it does certainly excel at that.

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link plz? I’ve always thought the MDUW is possibly the most criminally slept-on device for hip-hop beatmaking - something I used to do more often but haven’t focused on in some years

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Def! its got a strong vein and is def something that can bring something new.

I used the SP303 vinyl sim to master it so it gets a little lofi quality that it needed. But the beats bang loud in venues.

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Aslo, one thing I always find helpful when loading in drum hits is leave just a little silence before it so if you want a little offset from the strict grid but not swing, you can get that.

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sounds even better in that context than I expected! great job man!

I often like to re-sample by manual triggering so I can get a funky length of silence on the beginning :ok_hand:

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Hey, thanks! You have any MD hip hop stuff online? I’ve been enjoying the Digitakt hip hop thread too.

truthfully, i would be using the MD/MNM/Rytm individual outs if i had more inputs on my interface.

for now if I want to capture just specific sounds I will just mute/unmute tracks to record the various parts.

would be nice to split up the percussion and process & record individually with plugins and sum inside of the interface before hitting the rytm inputs.

Must be relevant because I try to trade my mint OTmk1 for a MD for ages without success.

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a) The same things that I found outdated and annoying on it when I first got it.

b) These days; you could argue about the limited sequencer, UI/UX; kit/pattern management etc.; but refer point a)

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