MD Science Lab: 2 Step

[StinkyBeat]

Void, thanks for throwing together the playlist. It was nice to hear them all back to back. Some real nice work in there.

[plusn]

[quote=“pulsn”]As a non-UW owner, i think the restrictions are unfair…

I will add one of my Eventides to even out.

My post above yours is on an SPS-1 mk2, no UW!

All the rules can be broken though, it’s all just fun [/quote]
Uaaah cool!
I see, i just have to try harder.

[MOKA]

Here’s a track from me.

https://soundcloud.com/yoof-1/two-steps

I really enjoyed the crazy restrictive rules - they really got me experimenting all over the place.

Going to listen to everybody’s tracks now.

Listening to your composition, what did you use for the bass sweep?
I’ve tried all the machines and none reached this low frequency.
I’d like to do it on my MD, plase would you give me your parameters for the bass sweep?

[yoof]

[quote=“yoof”]Here’s a track from me.

https://soundcloud.com/yoof-1/two-steps

I really enjoyed the crazy restrictive rules - they really got me experimenting all over the place.

Going to listen to everybody’s tracks now.

Listening to your composition, what did you use for the bass sweep?
I’ve tried all the machines and none reached this low frequency.
I’d like to do it on my MD, plase would you give me your parameters for the bass sweep?[/quote]
Forgive me if I don’t get this exactly right, but it was either TRX BD or TRX B2. I had DEC on max, the RAMP params turned right down and then PITCH quite low… that’s when you start getting that deep boomy bass. I know it sounds odd, but I can’t remember whether the LFO was just PITCH on the slowest setting or whether there was some filter involved - I’m sure on a previous effort I achieved a similar sound using an LFO on the filter.

[MOKA]

Yes it is.
The MD is not never stop to amaze me.

[ChrisAllen]

Ok heres my weird ass file lol!
https://soundcloud.com/portal-techno/md-science-lab-2-step

[Accent]

Looks like someone on Reddit is trying to get people to try this out with other equipment: http://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/1x2qr3/2step_drum_machine_challenge/

[TrabanT]

hey guys, i am really not getting anything out of my MD except wet farts and useless frequency horseshit

what bpm are you using?

which machines have you on which steps?

what filters and lfo are you using?

ram / rom

when do you manually edit things during the recording? or do you just let it run and hope for the best?

which parameters do you change during playback

what is the most common mistake?

what are the most important things to keep in mind?

i am really impressed with what you guys are able to output …

thanks for comments

[yoof]

Hi TrabanT. I’m by no means an expert, but here’s what I did:

I went for the slowest bpm I could (30bpm and then a touch slower with the 3/4 scale multiplier). I suppose this would have given me a tempo of around 100-ish putting a kick drum on each step and a snare on the second step. For the hats, I went for the engine that gives you RTRG as an option (is it E12?) and then played around with the retrig timing until I got some triplet beats / quaver beats. I went with a strategy of having two sets of kick/snare/hat so I could swap between them using mutes (one set had triplet hats and the other had quaver hats for variety). This is already a good start for getting out of the two steppiness.

Then I found the task was all about lfo management Using as many lfo’s to evolve sounds keeps things interesting.

I found a nice delay setting which I fed two EFM HH machines into and those delay settings seemed to provide a feature for my track. I could then just tweak parameters (loaded onto a ctrl 8p machine) almost randomly and this fed lots of variation into my delay.

I found the task difficult but I very much enjoy working within restrictions

[Cocker]

Hi TrabanT. I’m by no means an expert, but here’s what I did:

I went for the slowest bpm I could (30bpm and then a touch slower with the 3/4 scale multiplier). I suppose this would have given me a tempo of around 100-ish putting a kick drum on each step and a snare on the second step. For the hats, I went for the engine that gives you RTRG as an option (is it E12?) and then played around with the retrig timing until I got some triplet beats / quaver beats. I went with a strategy of having two sets of kick/snare/hat so I could swap between them using mutes (one set had triplet hats and the other had quaver hats for variety). This is already a good start for getting out of the two steppiness.

Then I found the task was all about lfo management Using as many lfo’s to evolve sounds keeps things interesting.

I found a nice delay setting which I fed two EFM HH machines into and those delay settings seemed to provide a feature for my track. I could then just tweak parameters (loaded onto a ctrl 8p machine) almost randomly and this fed lots of variation into my delay.

I found the task difficult but I very much enjoy working within restrictions

+1 for this
Indeed. LFOs are the key. Random LFOs set to trig for me anyways.
Sending multiple LFOs from any unused track to several parameters of another.
Setting the tempo low as possible. 30 BPM and track multiplier at 3/4.
This is the slowest possible tempo for machinedrum (unless clocked externally). Think it works out at 25 BPM. But because there are only 2 steps in the bar as opposed to 16 it’s more like 100 BPM
At any regular tempo LFO values of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 are synced to the clock. With the scale setting at 3/4 (which is what I was using also) then LFO values of 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 will be relevant.
And defo the E12 machines retrig parameters for getting notes between notes so to speak.
The RAM and ROM are totally not necessary.
Non UW machines are capable of the exact same thing synthesis-wise.
I only used one tiny sample in mine.
Wouldn’t have sounded much different without it tbh.

[StinkyBeat]

I started slower, but after I had some basics raised it till the beat locked, which happened to be 47 BPM I believe.

LFOs, retrig, delay, accent, swing it. I didn’t use any p-lock slides. Virtually no manually tweaking of sound parameters, which is odd for me. I manually triggered a couple of sounds too. And played the mutes.

I’m not exactly sure how something like this comes together. I was throughly shock when I finished building a handful of patterns and kits. I will be using this technique in the future to flush out ideas. It was the most fluid give and take I’ve had with the MD. I love this community.

[TrabanT]

Hi TrabanT. I’m by no means an expert, but here’s what I did:

I went for the slowest bpm I could (30bpm and then a touch slower with the 3/4 scale multiplier). I suppose this would have given me a tempo of around 100-ish putting a kick drum on each step and a snare on the second step. For the hats, I went for the engine that gives you RTRG as an option (is it E12?) and then played around with the retrig timing until I got some triplet beats / quaver beats. I went with a strategy of having two sets of kick/snare/hat so I could swap between them using mutes (one set had triplet hats and the other had quaver hats for variety). This is already a good start for getting out of the two steppiness.

Then I found the task was all about lfo management Using as many lfo’s to evolve sounds keeps things interesting.

I found a nice delay setting which I fed two EFM HH machines into and those delay settings seemed to provide a feature for my track. I could then just tweak parameters (loaded onto a ctrl 8p machine) almost randomly and this fed lots of variation into my delay.

I found the task difficult but I very much enjoy working within restrictions

thanks for info… working on it right now … really appreciate it!

[TrabanT]

[quote=“yoof”]Hi TrabanT. I’m by no means an expert, but here’s what I did:

I went for the slowest bpm I could (30bpm and then a touch slower with the 3/4 scale multiplier). I suppose this would have given me a tempo of around 100-ish putting a kick drum on each step and a snare on the second step. For the hats, I went for the engine that gives you RTRG as an option (is it E12?) and then played around with the retrig timing until I got some triplet beats / quaver beats. I went with a strategy of having two sets of kick/snare/hat so I could swap between them using mutes (one set had triplet hats and the other had quaver hats for variety). This is already a good start for getting out of the two steppiness.

Then I found the task was all about lfo management Using as many lfo’s to evolve sounds keeps things interesting.

I found a nice delay setting which I fed two EFM HH machines into and those delay settings seemed to provide a feature for my track. I could then just tweak parameters (loaded onto a ctrl 8p machine) almost randomly and this fed lots of variation into my delay.

I found the task difficult but I very much enjoy working within restrictions

+1 for this
Indeed. LFOs are the key. Random LFOs set to trig for me anyways.
Sending multiple LFOs from any unused track to several parameters of another.
Setting the tempo low as possible. 30 BPM and track multiplier at 3/4.
This is the slowest possible tempo for machinedrum (unless clocked externally). Think it works out at 25 BPM. But because there are only 2 steps in the bar as opposed to 16 it’s more like 100 BPM
At any regular tempo LFO values of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 are synced to the clock. With the scale setting at 3/4 (which is what I was using also) then LFO values of 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 will be relevant.
And defo the E12 machines retrig parameters for getting notes between notes so to speak.
The RAM and ROM are totally not necessary.
Non UW machines are capable of the exact same thing synthesis-wise.
I only used one tiny sample in mine.
Wouldn’t have sounded much different without it tbh.[/quote]
thanks cocker for your explanation! trying stuff out right now

[TrabanT]

I started slower, but after I had some basics raised it till the beat locked, which happened to be 47 BPM I believe.

LFOs, retrig, delay, accent, swing it. I didn’t use any p-lock slides. Virtually no manually tweaking of sound parameters, which is odd for me. I manually triggered a couple of sounds too. And played the mutes.

I’m not exactly sure how something like this comes together. I was throughly shock when I finished building a handful of patterns and kits. I will be using this technique in the future to flush out ideas. It was the most fluid give and take I’ve had with the MD. I love this community.

thanks for your words stinky! messing with my machine right now

[glitched]

I can’t participate in this one because my MD is in temporary storage, but the “Labs” were one of my favorite things about the old E-U.com forum.

I appreciate the spirit of these types of competitions. Thanks for bringing it back!

-d

[analept]

I love that MD contest !
there’s really awesome contributions, and now it’s time for mine.

I use a MD non UW mk1, play with swing here and there, play a sort of a melody with three EFM HH set a different pitch and live tweaking parameters.
it’s incredible how far you can go with only 2 steps …

hope you enjoy

[StinkyBeat]

Analept
Great composition and incredible production value. Really great hearing each sound… so clean.

[MOKA]

@analep

Some sounds interesting …
What machine did you use for the bass waw which starts at 1:51 sec?

To master the track, what did you use Software or Hardware?

[analept]

Thanks for the kind words StinkyBeat !!

@Moka

the bass is that 3 EFM HH I was talking about. I was helped by the frequency/notes sheet available on elektron-users. It’s also the sames 3 machines that make the other “melodic” sounds later on the track.
It’s only one kit, but after some tweaking that bass sound is transform on a … uhm … other weird sound …

I didn’t do any mastering works on this.
It’s record on the ipad using a scarlett focusrite in Auria, without any fx or plug-in.

thank you for the interest !

[J_C_Selector]

Have a listen.
Just a quick try.
Lots of fun.
Edit: non UW, no plocks, just lfo’s modulating lfo’s, modulating lfo’s