I’m looking for advice on structuring work and projects with the RYTM.
I’ve had a couple of months with not much time to use the RYTM, but I know my way round it well enough.
Now I have time to finally use it properly, so I’ve wiped the factory +Drive, projects, kits and want to start from scratch.
So I’ll start by creating kits… but I’m interested in getting advice on sustainable ways of working that won’t back me into corners later on. I’m wondering how people are structuring kits, for what level of organisation ‘Projects’ are best used for and stuff like that.
My gut reaction based on how i’ve worked in the past is perhaps to make each song it’s own project… but what are the pitfalls of working like that?
Personally I think a project per song is excessive to say the least.
It all depends on how you envision song construction. Some people want to nail every note/beat & have it written in stone. Others leave lots of room for extensive improvisation.
I come from a song writing/DAW/Tracker background so I started off trying to cram every little nuance in there but ultimately it left me nowhere to go.
I think this approach is fine if your goal is record it & that’s the end product. In this scenario I’d use the arranger too as it allows a lot more flexibility.
For me I found having the bare bones preprogrammed then just going for it really helped my improvisation, technique & knowledge of the machine(s).
If this improvisational approach appeals then less is definitely more!
On a similar note, I went to see Lucy, the Luc Besson movie, the other night & there’s a comment in there about ‘being v having’. A reference to German psychologist Erich Fromm no doubt.
Point is this, (& no I’m not smoking crack), once you’ve established a complex pattern, then a few more, then several songs worth, revisiting them is a bloody nightmare!
Trying to remember where everything is & how it’s supposed to unravel is next to impossible. Now try that when you’ve got all 5 Elektron boxes synced up, arghh…what was supposed to be fun is now doing my head in!
Bottom line is that you now ‘Have’ a load of patterns that own you if you want to perform.
If however you just hint at direction, suggest a riff/chord/beat/sample/swing factor/tempo etc you can live in the moment , ‘Being’ creative & developing the theme.
To begin with I’d try working with a bank per song. 16 patterns should be enough, especially on the AR where you can use ReTrig for fills, employ mute masks/scenes/perf & save the pattern to the buffer to return to later. I’m currently using no more than 4 patterns & a lot of the time I’m only using 1.
Hope some of that helps, right where’s my pipe
On a similar note. Fresh Rytm user here, first post.
I had experience with MPC2000xl and later on with Ableton. I’m trying to understand how to use songs, globals, projects when making a track. On which ‘level’ of this pyramid would you guys create a and store your new music piece so it would contain it’s own patterns, chains, sound settings etc.
Elektron’s Rytm manual explains differences between those but it lacks a basic step by step workflow explanation for someone who is just starting with this OS.
This is exactly what I do (save the pipe :)). I’m not even close to using up even one set of 16 patterns in a bank. I have more sketches of songs than I care to mention but that’s a user problem
I agree a project per song is over doing it. Work within one project first and if and when you run into sample/kit/sound management problems then i would consider moving to a new project.
Please note that you can save/load multiple songs per project, so there‘s no need for a one-song-per-project approach. The only downside is that you can’t save tempo with a song.
In general, it makes sense to use a single project per… project (what a surprise!), where a “project” can be a live set, EP, multiple versions of the same track release, a few songs you’re working on right now in the same style, or even a full album. It’s up to you, really?
^ what T says & a little tip. Save your Parts as 130 to dictate the tempo.
Also note that changing project stops playback, switching
Patterns/Arrangements/Parts/Scenes does not.
