Hi. I apologize if this sounds naive or if this outside of the scope of the Machinedrum, but I was reading about the Machinedrum on vintagesynth.com, and they had this paragraph about the percussion synthesizers:
“At the core of the Machinedrum are four separate percussion instrument synthesizers. They include a TRX synth that emulates Roland’s classic TR-series drum machines. An EFM synth that uses FM synthesis to create crispy percussion sounds. The E12 synth is a sample-playback synth using sounds from the E-mu SP1200 and Simmons electronic drum machines. The PI synth uses physical models of acoustic drums for realistic acoustic drums.”
I’m curious about some of the terms used here: “TRX” Synth, “EFM” Synth, “E12” Synth, “PI” synth. They’re mentioned very vaguely here and I would like to know more about them, removed from the context of the Machinedrum. Some of them are very briefly described, for example, the PI Synth “uses physical models of acoustic drums for realistic acoustic drums” but I would like to know how it does that, and what “PI” means. TRX “emulates Roland’s classic TR-series drum machines,” but again, how does it do that? What does “TR” mean? I have similar questions about the other two.
A Google search on these doesn’t really give a whole lot of information I need, so I’m wondering if anyone here knows about this. Thank You!
They don’t mean anything removed from the context of the machinedrum. They are just the names of the different synth engines (“machines”) in the machinedrum.
The names have an association with the thing they are related to (“TRX” is a reference to TR-909 and TR-808 drum machines, “EFM” refers to FM, etc) but they are not meaningful terms. They are just made-up names for the parts of the machinedrum.
I see. From the description and how they refer to the synths, “a” TRX synth, “an” EFM synth, I was under the impression that these were things that could be removed from the context of the Machinedrum. Thanks!
TRX is inspired by classic analogue drum machine synthesis. With TRX we have not tried to recreate any specific existing drum machine, but to create a classic sound with extended and relevant controls.
So I guess the X is for “extended”, but it’s still just a made-up name that contains a reference to “TR” because that was in the name of classic Roland drum machines.
The EFM MD-synth introduces Elektron’s “Enhanced Feedback Modulation” algorithms. The generated sound ranges from realistic acoustic drums to wild, chaotic effects.
So “enhanced feedback modulation”, but it’s still a fancy name for FM.
PI is the physically informed MD-synth which simulates the behaviour of acoustic drums.
So “physically informed” but that just means it’s a digital synth that’s tries to produce sounds inspired by the behaviour of real drums. Usually called “physical modelling”, like the vintagesynth description says.