I thought about making a setup that was like a traditional rock band, but with classic Roland gear. There would be the 303, 202 & 101 doing the tuneful guitar bits, and the 808 or 909 as drummer. Then you treat that as a point from which to try and make something unusual to the format, the way rock bands started off sounding fairly similar, built a canon and then it went all over the place but with a standard kind of 3/4 piece band arrangement. If only I had this idea about 5 years ago it may have been (almost) affordable, but now would run close to £10,000 to buy the proper band members. Oh well…
I think it’s something that you just have to get out of your system… like the 1000hrs theory.
Also, I’d recommend going into an experimental phase.
How much have you pushed the sounds you’ve got? I am interested to find out what happens after next. So you’ve chosen the 909 sample to be playing then what happens?
1 Like
Yeah true in some ways… but then again very limiting in others. Respect history, but do not get confined by it is my personal advice.
I’m stuck in a rut. After choosing/making a kick sound and pattern I automatically go with off beat hi hat and 16th closed hats. It’s like autonomic Maybe I need to change up the writing process, lead or bass first maybe. Or set a self imposed limitation, like only use sounds from my digitone.
1 Like
Right, yeah I read that earlier about the pattern you make… and that’s definitely why you feel stuck in a rut. My question is about what happens after you’ve laid the pattern down.
The music you like and listen to has the same patterns. I, for one, looooooove those rhythmic patterns.
I’m curious as to how you are processing those sounds. This is very important to whether or not you get bored of yourself.
Definitely go through the process of absolutely not using any sounds that you normally use. Even if it’s only for an hour out of the time you spend each week.
also recommend watching some YouTube tuts. Underdog (I think his tutorial channel is called) has some brilliant explanations that may help to squash some of your feelings.
Breaks… you need to take breaks. After trying not to use the sounds you always use you probably should try and make some ambient beatless piece.
Of course, I’m just poking around in the dark. I hope this helps and keep us updated!
Polyrhythms are your friend and so is changing the speed that your tracks are playing at. Sometimes I’ve got skippy hats at double the speed or more.
1 Like
Thanks. I think the processing is the thing. I need to work on that, seeing the core sound but giving it some new flavour.
1 Like
Prices have been nuts for the OG Rolands this entire century. 
You could approximate your idea in Roland Cloud easily, or with a TR-8s and MC-707, or…
1 Like
Roland Cloud is hard to film for Instagram 
2 Likes
Mr B can hook you up.
Is that the older brother of Mr. C?
2 Likes
I’ve settled on using the ST to make the best copy of 909 hats that I can manage 
In part because ST has an engine for it, so giving it a try is a satisfying challenge. And also because I don’t want to buy more gear rn!
Genuine question - I’ve read that the 909 hat sounds are actually samples. If this is the case, why do they sound better directly from the machine rather than samples of the 909? Is it to do with the analog circuitry? Whenever I hear hats from a 909 they sound more alive and less static than samples. Excuse my ignorance.
1 Like
It has to do with the circuitry.
On such machines, if you play a sound and shortly after that another one it affects the other one in a way. I can’t describe it better, sorry.
Old technology…
If you look at the tr-8s Roland tried to mimic this (analog circuit behaviour).
Its not only the hats
2 Likes
I‘m pretty much the opposite: when I hear the fucking 909 hats (and some other overused standard sounds or tricks) in a club, I‘m often a bit disappointed. At least when they’re used in generic dance music.
I think this is mostly because before I bought my first Elektron, I was listening to electronic music more superficially and didn’t listen to much to the sounds. But now I intimately know this world of possible sounds that are so much more interesting than the x0x drums. They somehow never clicked with me when I‘ve tried them myself.
Which is why I love that something as popular as Brat oftentimes has sounds that sound like init patches of Syntakt FM machines. Makes it a lot more fun and playful, less serious and boring.
That being said, it ultimately is about the track rather than the sound. A nice track won’t be ruined for me because it uses the x0x sounds, but other sounds would probably make it more interesting to me.
Syntakt could still need some new digital hat machines though …das
If you like it, go for it. I just finished bunch of techno/trance tracks and I used nothing but 909 kits as my main thing (maybe a few others here and there). Because to me, it’s more inspiring. I remember what I used to listen and I remember how I felt.
2 Likes
Does the AR behave similarly when using samples?