MD kick sounds vary

Marginal · 2014-03-15T12:19:14.000Z

Hey everyone. Thank you very much for your answers, and Brigadier thank you for clearing this up, I’m pretty happy that it wasn’t a problem with my MD, but just a part of the algorithm (even though I still think it’s kind of weird).

I have no MIDI running anywhere else, and the problem occurs with both the TRX kicks. I guess theres no way around it and I have to start using other kicks, or layering well enough for the variations not being noticeable.

Before I got the MD I used to layer a lot, I guess I was just so happy about the kicks I made that I thought they didn’t need layering - but you are all absolutely right, getting into layering will be the way to go now.

Theres a lot of great ideas out there, and thanks for the cool advice with the input machines.

-Tobias

StinkyBeat · 2014-03-15T12:36:48.000Z

A method of leveling trx kicks is to use multiple tracks with identical machine settings. Space out the kick hits on different tracks. The energy drop occurs when one hit follows another on a given track. Placing successive hits on different tracks cleans things up a bit. Can eat more tracks than layering, but if you have a trx kick you love and want it steady and don’t have a UW, you can get there.

Other than BD2, I like the fm kick. From there it’s wide open creating kicks from non-kick machines. Some of the snares with the noise turned down work well, great for boxy hollow kicks.

djd_oz · 2014-03-15T14:15:54.000Z

Another option is to re-sample your kicks, if you have the UW version.

jeffe · 2014-03-15T18:22:16.000Z

…and here I am assigning multiple lfo’s to kicks for more variation ;].

Simplest thing, as djd_oz says, resample and use as sample. You gain some cool retrig / reverse functions to doing it that way.

Marginal · 2014-03-18T09:50:04.000Z

Unfortunately I don’t have the UW version…

StinkyBeat - thanks for the advice!

Just got renewed energy for sound sculptingfrom this thread. Cool.

.Tobias

MK7 · 2014-03-18T11:46:29.000Z

Why do you try to switch that off? I think it’s a nice feature.

wintermute · 2014-03-18T15:31:14.000Z

I agree completely with all the above. Try layering it with an FM kick, that thing can cut through concrete!

Marginal · 2014-03-19T13:14:00.000Z

""MK7"":

Why do you try to switch that off? I think it’s a nice feature.

It can be nice in some regards. But for the music I make (very ambient techno), where the kick at times may be the only constant thing, it’s sometimes important that every hit cuts through clearly, so the sense of structure isn’t totally lost. But yeah, for some tracks it works pretty well…

slicetwo · 2016-07-29T15:25:49.316Z

I made this beat using a TRX B2 sound. No LFO or parameter locks. However, if you listen to just the kick drum, you can hear that it changes its tone/sound/whatever on almost every hit. Any insight into why this is happening? It doesn’t really make any sense. Thanks!

https://www.elektronauts.com:https://eu5.dh-cdn.net/uploads/db8181/original/2X/4/422e04bf140dee0e351cb63922616208f20d581d.wav

PeterHanes · 2016-07-29T14:29:32.452Z

An LFO from another track?

slicetwo · 2016-07-29T14:36:43.704Z

Nope. I checked. No LFOs anywhere. That’s why it’s so weird.

CompNutation · 2016-07-29T14:46:04.677Z

I have an A4 so not sure if this is a feature on the Rytm but could it be that theres a velocity mod destination set on the kick?
Took me ages to realise this was the source of my mysterious delays!!!

coreyappleby · 2016-07-30T08:03:15.721Z

Somewhere on the old yahoo group there was a lengthy discussion about this very problem. It’s just something about how the synthesis for trx-bd2 works. The only workaround is layering it with another sound.

ipassenger · 2016-07-30T11:34:59.329Z

The kicks in the md do not retrigger the osc phase on trigger, hence the variation.

slicetwo · 2016-07-31T15:13:17.821Z

Gotcha. Good to know for the future. I guess my other option would to be record one hit into a ROM machine and then program with that.

ipassenger · 2016-07-31T18:39:28.753Z

Yeah that’s best bet if you need exactly the same every time.

One thing I have always found odd about the drums on the MD is if they trigger shortly after each other on the same machine the second trigger is louder… As said above the best bet is to put sub/quieter kicks on another machine.

h4ndcrafted · 2016-08-01T12:48:30.908Z

I’ve noticed this, kind of strange there isn’t an option to reset the phase of the Osc on each trig.
Certain genres require the kick to poke its transient through pretty uniformly.

I somewhat combat his b filtering the kick down and using Rez to hold the transient in place.
This is nothing new though as you often have this with analogue machines. Get your transient right and it becomes less of an issue.

satan · 2016-08-14T00:15:48.925Z

The exact thing is happening to me but that variation occurs when I layer another kick on a different track. Deleted the track, started one kit from fresh and same situation with B2.

apmbpm · 2016-09-02T21:59:31.500Z

Hi,
I bought myself a fabulous Machinedrum a few months ago and find it to be an amazing machine. However, I’m finding something strange with my kick drums.

When running my audio into Ableton through my Focusrite Saffire 6 usb the kick is not sounding the same each time it is being triggered.

This is most noticeable on the TRX BD2 machine but happens sometimes with other kick machines.

I don’t have and LFO routed to the machine to manipulate any of the parameters so I’m not sure where the difference is coming from. It typically affects the beginning of the sample making a different tone in the beginning of the transient.

How can I track the cause down or even confirm that the sounds are actually different from one another?

Many thanks for any help.

Adam

InTheAM · 2016-09-02T21:19:22.923Z

I’m pretty sure that is just the nature of the TRX BD machine. Its supposed to emulate the old X0X analog drum machines.