Machinedrum: Three Methods for Slow Attacks

Elektron Gear Machinedrum
#1

Three techniques for sounds that slowly swell and fade-in are explored on the Elektron Machinedrum. The first technique involves routing a triggered LFO to the VOL parameter, the second uses slide trigs on a CTR-8P machine, and the third involves a re-sampling approach, turning the decay tail of a percussive sound into a slow attack envelope. I used the first of these methods extensively for composing ‘Singing Bowls in the Snow’

I feel like there has to be at least one more way that isn’t a variation on these techniques to create slow attacks on MD, but I’m drawing a blank

18 Likes
#2

Great guide, i’ve only ever really used the trig lfo to volume method but i’d never tried the sin/gong thing, with 16 “singing bowls” the way the lower frequencies can “beat” off each other is transcendental. :diddly:

lets hope elektron surprise us all and release a gamelan machine. GMLN mk1

2 Likes
#3

:rofl:

thanks a lot! I think many of the most useful techniques with MD are rather simple, but are not always particularly obvious, especially for someone that is only familiar with the possibilities of a more traditional drum machine. When people were digging into MD like crazy, as shown in this message archive compiled by tarekith of MD approaches/techniques people weren’t making videos as much as they do today, or at the level of quality that is much more easily obtainable now. From my digging on YouTube I think the gnarliest MD technique vids are all from Catabolic but he hasn’t done one in a while

seems like there are a chunk of people watching my MD vids that don’t own MD but are very curious about it, so videos documenting the possibilities may also help increase market pressures for MD mk3 :grin:

#4

Very, very cool. I had never used the ctrl machines at all and now you’ve got me inspired. What else do you like to do with them?

2 Likes
#5

thanks much!

maybe I’m belaboring the obvious, but the #1 reason to use the CTR machines is for CTR-8P and how it enables trigless trigs - unlike MNM there is no trig type select for MD. Similarly, to be able to trig an LFO independently from the track it’s modulating, you have to route an LFO from a separate track

the other primary intention of the CTR-8P is also to be a centralized and customized control page for live performance. the control machines for the FX are also useful for saving a button press or two to access the FX parameters quickly - I’ve only just started using them a bit to modulate the FX

tbh I haven’t utilized the control machines that extensively yet, I’m still new to the MD and need to invest much time. I will consider myself familiar with MD after maybe 3+ years :sweat_smile:

1 Like