I can coax some pretty fun and wild sounds out of the Tom Machine but whenever I try to get quasi-realistic sounds from them in the lower register, it just sounds like mud with a click in front of it. Am the only one?
I just want to make some Tom fills running from HT to MT to LT and I can get the HT and MT to sound great as I leave the “Tune” parameter above 20 but anything below that is just horrid…like the worst I’ve ever heard out of any drum machine.
The BT sounds great in the low register however.
Any tips? Is it hopeless or am I missing something? I’ve tweaked every parameter in the synth page. I’m going through now and trying to locate a sample that might help but I generally prefer using synth only as the HT and MT are only synth.
Well one thing I just figured out is to back off the attack a tiny bit to get rid of the horrible metronome sound coming from all the toms when playing 1/8 notes
Tried that actually…well I copied the MT sound over being that they are the same engine but the tone/timbre changes sub 20 “tune”. I ended up rewriting the part with more snare to fill in the gaps.
I spent an hour on it and couldn’t get anything that was both realistic and pleasing. In the future I’ll just use samples for the lot. Pretty disappointed about it as the Toms occupy more real estate than any other sound. I wish Elektron would give us more machines OR EVEN BETTER, an actual Synth voice with all parameters to be expected. Now that I think about it, I’ll probably just use the A4.
If the RYTM didn’t also have sample playback, the A4 would kick its butt for drum sounds which is a ridiculous reality I’ve come to realise over the past few years.
It saddens me to think what the RYTM could be if they hadn’t wasted (and continue to waste) so much on OB.
Yeah honestly I’ve had an issue with the toms since I got my Rytm a few months ago. They’re not that good at all. I’m just now getting used to shaping decent snares and kicks but I have yet to really dig into shaping a good tom sound. The Divine 909 sample pack is awesome for the Tom’s but they’re obviously samples. I agree there needs to be more machines or just more stock analog drum sounds. I’d say I’m still pretty new overall as far as the Rytm and Elektron in general. When we talk about machines, are the machines the “BD Silk, BD Sharp” etc or are the machines the “sounds”. Still trying to figure out how Elektron has this stuff set up, much different than any other device.
Silk, sharp, plastic…those are the machines. Its different on other units like the Octatrack but I think of the machines as premade Oscillators with focused parameters.
Since the RYTM is made of analog components most machines only work on their dedicated tracks (except the bottom 4 are interchangeable). If I could use the BT machine on at least the LT slot I’d be much happier.
I really wish Elektron would step up on the Toms.
I think that has to do with the Filter and it’s envelope as the Tom machines are “pinging” the filter to make the sound I believe.
When it first came out there was a lot of discussion about it.
Apparently you can achieve something similar with the “impulse “ machine but I never tried. Guess I should to see if it can give me something to work with instead of the LT
Kicks, metal hats and the clap machine are by far my favourites. Snares are pretty good too but I often use a sample to really round them out. The A4 crushes snares and Hats though.
Isn’t a bass synth machine in the works for the rytm? Maybe it will be decent at some drum sounds also. That said I think full featured synths basically always end up having an edge for crafting drums where drumsynths have an edge for tweaking sounds live because of there simplicity. Having another synth to sample from its always handy.
personally I almost always dedicate the tom tracks to samples (aside from the BT), but it can help to apply a 1-shot lfo to add a bit of distortion or noise on the impact - that kinda helps emulate a loose or low-tuned tom drum.
Don’t get me started. It’s been ready for awhile along with sample management but they’ve locked it away behind overbridge. “Worst idea ever” says comic book guy.
I understand what you are trying to do but there is a reason that most people that know what rytm is all about use samples on two middle toms, that’s because they are pretty much useless :] but I’ve got to be honest here and make a point that the middle toms on the rytm mk2 do sound much better and when I first got mk2 rytm I was happily surprised but I end up using samples there anyway
I’ve made same interesting Toms on these pads by pinging the self-resonating filter with an impulse machine. Then use the LFO for either FM stuff, or as a separate pitch envelope.
The rytm is really flexible if you work around the obvious approaches to sound design with it.
, but apparently that requires 3 VCO’s + noise