i’ve mentioned this one in the PUNCHY drum machine thread, but having just installed this mod in the 420 TOM i’m looking after: Sequential TOM Expansion
…well, having access to all these classic 80s sounds alongside the quirks and curiosities of the sequencer in this incredible box has definitely catapulted it into my top 3 drum machines at least, definitely number one right now.
909 kick rattles my room like the real thing.
it had parameter locking before parameter locking was a thing.
Yeah those electribes are often overlooked (guilty of it myself) but actually once you get into them and overlook some of the quirks they are very capable and hands on fun.
Octatrack + Volca Drum is sorta my forever drummachine combo at the moment. The only thing it really lacks is some velocity sensitive pads for playability, but sound wise I can get an infinite amount of variation.
Also love this combo: are you sequencing from the OT? Quite a few use cases! I’ve been doing this but with the Volca Drum being primarily a melodic yet rhythmic sound source - I love that it’s sort of 6 x two-oscillator synths, factor in the choke functionality and the resonator and it’s max fun. Do love the percussive sounds though and excited to push that side of it more plus OT fx and resampling.
I should probably try sequencing from the OT at one point or at least use the lfos to get some motion longer than 16 steps going, however I mostly use the VD’s own sequencer because I can just quickly come up with something and then record it into the OT and take it from there.
And I agree, the VD is excellent in providing melodic percussive stuff to augment other drums.
Yeah, been trialling a template with each Volca Drum part being sequenced by a MIDI track and have mapped up a few choice CCs for parameter locks and the LFOs - highly recommended!
Definitely understand your approach too though, speed matters and it’s probably the best Volca sequencer with it having probability too.
Yeah, especially with the random patch and sequence generation on the VD you can get a lot of ideas out and recorded into the OT very quickly for later usage 
Good point re: randomisation, how could I forget! Maybe not worth all my OT MIDI track complication 
Elektron Syntakt!
That gives me an idea. Does the vd respond to midi velocity?
Good question and I’ll try via OT…the most I can find via Google is a maxforlive device designed to offer this…so presumably?
Looks like that M4L Patch takes velocity data and spits out control data, so I’m not sure if the VD in of itself is velocity sensitive.
I like drum SOUNDS I can get, and the Elektron workflow is the most productive for me.
I’ve tried the Roland 808/909 plugins, but don’t get as into programming sequences so much through DAWs, used various generative sequencers, I think as a full dedicated “drum machine” I really oughta try a TR-8S.
I know it’s going to be excellent, but I enjoy sound design so very much
I guess I haven’t yet found my perfect one, but current favorites are Rytm/Digitone/MD.
That’s what I thought but I hadn’t seen a definitive answer one way or the other. I was thinking it would make a good sound module for an electronic kit but sadly lack of velocity would be a dealbreaker. I love the sounds that come from it though.
Machinedrum, although in a similar way to what Ess said before, I love much more the idea of it than the final execution. I had it twice and second time sold remorselessly after recognizing that in spite of being the best electronic instrument I’ve tested, I don’t like the results I got with it in the sonic side of it. And I find it really tragic it has not been surpassed yet by anyone after all this time…
Out of curiosity, what are some aspects of the Machinedrum that makes it so unique and great? I’m only familiar with Elektron boxes Octatrack onwards.
Thinking about my MD UW +Drive:
With clever programming and sample management you can cop the sound of nearly any classic drum machine. Perfectly? No, but enough to make great music of all sorts.
With clever programming and sample management you can come up with sounds that will make your head spin.
It’s a great MIDI sequencer. It lacks sequencing options that Elektron developed in later machines but it is still one of the best that I have used.
The plus drive lets me keep banks of percussion tools that I need every so often: tablas, taikos, djembes, acoustic drum kits. And other samples, too. The bank that just has sound bites from “Enter The Dragon” competes with the bank that has sound bites from John Carpenter’s “Prince of Darkness” for my love.
CRTL ALL. 'Nuff said.
v-yadli and Justin Valer’s MDX firmware updates.
ELVIS!
The extreme degree of modularity, especially with the new firmware. There are 16 tracks and any track can be assigned to:
None of the individual engines are particularly great or iconic in the way that you’d consider 808 or 909 sounds (except for maybe FM-BD), and as pointed out above it has probably suffered from a focus on quantity over quality. The beauty comes from the layering and complex interactions that aren’t possible on other drum machines.
Neil Peart…that guy’s a machine!
rytm!
but man I wish they added a base-width filter for the sample layer!