I’m relatively new round here, but have lurked for a while. I’ve been making music for about 20 years and have a nice little Ableton and hardware setup. Up until now, I’ve always used Ableton for my beats, but I’m looking to add some hardware. I’ve always fancied a machinedrum in the past and the sequencing and p-locking features of Elektron machines have always appealed to me. The question I have is, with a budget that will possibly just about stretch to a machinedrum, would I be better served by spending a little less on a more modern device? I’m mostly interested in synth drums, as Ableton can pretty much cover my sampled drumming needs. Does the Digitone do a good job as a beat focused groovebox? Would the Cycles be a good alternative? What would I be gaining or losing out on by going for one of the newer options?
Welcome. And yep, both DN and M:C are good choices and great value for money. The MD and Analog Rytm are more expensive but also worth it. Depends what kind of sounds you want and how far you want to bend them from their intended use on occasion.
Trig conditions are addictive. I have a MS lent by a friend just before quarantine. Chance parameter is really efficient too.
MC seems really straightforward for drum synthesis, but I still want a Digitone even for drums, pretty sure I’ll prefer them compare to MD.
Don’t forget Digitakt.
Octatrack is a crazy drum machine too.
Anyway you can make drums with all Elektrons, even Analog Heat. (Difficult with Analog Drive).
Hi,
synth drums ?
I’d go for model:cycles.
Easy, fun, “in your face” sounds, weird sounds too, quick but deep worflow.
You can’t go wrong with this one (if you like the sound).
My biggest gripe with percussion on the Digitone is the workflow. There’s no kit structure on the DN, so each pattern has its own instances of sounds.
Let’s say you’re fleshing out a track and you make a few copies of a pattern with some variations. Now if you want to change one of the sounds across those patterns, you have to copy that sound over to the other patterns.
On the Machinedrum, you make a change to a kit and it affects all patterns associated with that kit. Way more intuitive workflow for a drum machine.
Plus you get more tracks on the Machinedrum, which you can use to create layers. The MD can make better basic techno drum sounds imo, while the DN is better at bigger, more complex sounds (which are cool, but not necessarily useful in a track). Given the choice I’d take a MD any day.
I should have expected the usual array of responses that this type of topic tends to bring up! Haha.
After a bit more research, I’m leaning away from the digitone. It seems great and powerful, but not ideal for solely drum machine use.
Ideally I want something fairly drum synth focused, but deep enough to give me plenty of variety. Cycles seems lovely, but I’m slightly concerned about the depth of editing available, the lack of attack envelope, limited LFOs etc.
The more I think about it, the more I’m leaning towards the MD or an AR mk1. I can pick either of them up for a similar price. What are peoples opinions of the pros and cons / differences between these two?
I’d also go AR Mk1. Even if you have sampling in a DAW, the way you can process and layer samples in the AR is unique. Plus the comp and buss distortion really glue things together.
Here’s a quick example of the Digitone used as a drum machine. It sounds great but the workflow is more time consuming than a traditional dedicated drum machine like the Machinedrum. I’d say if you buy a Digitone, you’re more than likely going to use it for more Melodic duties, I think that’s where it excels.
Lovely stuff. I cannot get over how good DN sounds for drums (especially with unison). I didn’t buy it for drums, but now it is my main ‘drum machine’. Combined with OT for its awesome bit crushing, SRR, it’s perfect for lofi hip hop
Yeah it is good, I can never seem to break away from using it for Melodic lines, arps, basslines, etc… It does hold it’s own as a drum machine though, sounds very punchy. Easier to dial in pitched kick drums versus the machine drum too.
