Redundancy in a dedicated drum machine?

Hi all!

I’m currently an owner of the Analog Four and 9U 84hp eurorack that contains the Moog DFAM.
I use the Analog Four and DFAM for drums in my production. But recently I’ve been thinking about adding a dedicated drum machine to the mix. I haven’t pulled the trigger because I keep going back and forth on whether it’s redundant or not.

I know everything is relative and personal. But In your opinion, would the machinedrum be a wise addition to take over some drum duties from the A4? Or am I better off saving the money and working within my current limits?

Whats nice about the MD is that the sound is very complimentary to the A4 and DFAM.

Also you can use an output of the MD to send GND pulse to your modular if you want it to act as master BPM although you dont need to because you have the A4 with CV/Gate.

Its a personal choice although I love dedicated drum machines… you can never have too many!

Sonically the MD is what the A4/DFAM arent… and those CTRL-AL tracks… man, hours of fun.

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The Machinedrum is a really good drum machine.
But in your case, I would rather go for something like an Octatrack, as you would be able to save your sounds or loops and build from here :slight_smile:
MIDI-wise, 8 tracks x 3LFO per track would give plenty of modulation, given you have some MIDI > CV converter.

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I agree that sonically, MD fills a space that A4 and DFAM do not.
I never found the MD redundant with anything. It is its own beast.

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MD is not redundant for sure. I prefer OT. :wink:

So the Octatrack is competent as a drum machine as well?

I think why I’m so interested in the machinedrum is because the user interface look dead simple.

OT can wear many hats, including drum sampler.

MD is indeed dead simple. But the LFO configuration and various machines makes it incredibly deep when you need it to be. I suggest taking a look at the PDF manual.

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MDUW mk2 and Octatrack are both amazing and share a lot of design DNA. MDUW is much more immediate and faster workflow, you will need to invest more time initially with OT. Also even if MDUW did not have a single synth engine it would still be an amazing machine, and it has dozens of distinct sound generators! OT/rytm have more performance features and less limited sequencers, I think those are main objective drawbacks of the older MD design

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I will say this. The Octatrack looks to be what I wanted out of Make Noise’ Morphagene: A flexible sampler with hands on control. I could see myself easily switching the morphagene out for an Octatrack. Maybe that could satisfy my additional drum machine desires. Although not nearly as simple.

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I’ll add OT is simplier when you want to go deeper with lfos for example. Deeper things are easier with OT in general.
More internal possible routings, fx choices, trig conditions, microtiming, and many more.

Main advantages for me with MD are dedicated drum synthesis, “immediacy” (once you made a kit :smile:) Control All (would be great with OT, but scenes are much powerfull).
With samples I definitely prefer OT, much easier to import samples (copy on the CF card vs sysex transfer for MD).

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I love the 12 bit touch of the MD uw sampling .

and the workflow for that is very simple , old school .
but I create different results with sampling on the fly compared to my octatrack , it is just another approach and I think , creatively speaking , it is nice to have both approach .
playing with RAM and PLAY machines ( 4 in total , really interesting ) , and using goods GLOBAL settings to make mutes on the fly can transform the simplicity to a more complex sampling world

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I believe that MD RAM REC vs. PLAY tracks paradigm is very similar to OT recording track vs. FLEX track. Maybe a bit simpler somehow.

@plainjanefrancis With A4 and Eurorack on the side, MD would be more a third piece with its own world, whereas the OT could be used for taking advantage of the synthesis possibilities of the existent rig and give it more breathing, freeing some A4 tracks and Eurorack voices.

Yes, OT makes a very powerful drum machine.
The interface is not the simplest, but shares a lot of similarities with A4. So I’m confident you’d find your way rather quickly.

As a resume, I’d say OT is totally appropriate to

  • concentrate other gear power in one box (when you don’t want to bring your modular to a live session for instance)
  • complement a rig, as it can play many roles (e.g. the drums besides a synth, or ambient landscapes besides drums)
  • bring you rig further (by freeing tracks or voices as I said earlier, and adding huge modulation power).

Before knowing OT workflow, I thought once recorded samples would become dead meat, but OT really shines at transforming them, so that the raw material stays (or becomes even more) alive…

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you cant have enough drums, I got an ar mk2, digitakt, nord drum, mbase01. I once had a tanzbär lite and a tr-8 both of then now sampled into the DT. I can also do drums on the pulse2 as well on the digitone or the blofeld (yap, it works with that one!)… so go on, you would buy it either way if you like that MD ;)…

I tell you what. This morning I didn’t know I wanted to buy an Octatrack. But you all have convinced me to give it a shot. After doing some research on it, and comparing it to how I use the morphagene this will definitely add to my workflow in quite a few ways.

I appreciate all of your help on this topic and I’ll be sure to chime in on how things go, when it finally arrives. I’ll still keep an eye out for machinedrum deals in case one comes up that’s a steal. But for now, I’m anticipating the possibilities of the Octatrack!

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Amen break destroyed by Octatrack. :wink:

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