I spent last night and this morning writing 160bpm techno, using the compressor as an overdrive on the mains. It was a cathartic emotional release and I’ve managed to write 8 different pattern/kit ideas to develop into a little live set to livestream and post on youtube in the coming weeks. Nothing else even comes close to the productivity I now feel with the machinedrum. I wish I could be this productive on computer but I just cannot. For me it is faster to sketch an idea from a blank slate, faster to build on that idea, faster to orchestrate into a song, and then it is ready for a performance.
I come at other gear with an idea and once it’s programmed in it’s like “meh. here’s your idea back”. The machinedrum, it’s more like “hey, what if we took your idea and turned it into THIS OTHER CRAZY THING?” that’s 10x better than what I was trying to do.
part of it re: some of my gear is…I feel guilty.
1] the poor gear isn’t getting used to its potential.
2] someone more deserving of it is out there, that doest have one.
I don’t buy back. The only thing I’ve ever bought twice is the Hydrasynth. But that was because the one I had had audio out issues. The shop I bought it at claimed it was fine despite ASM saying it sounded like mine may have been faulty.
So it never got a fair shake. Otherwise…if I had something and got rid of it….then it was time to move on.
Just got this with the mail last week.
Ahhh, nice to find the screen protection is still on, when the seller didn’t mention anything about the condition.
It has just been lying in the box for the last 7 years.
Do u have any advise on getting a nice reverb? Often i like the reverb on less percussive stuff like pads or melodys but on my drums they often sound very dirty. I got the gate fully up most of the time and less low end.
Machinedrum will probably always be my favorite piece of gear. I always wanted a + Drive on mine because I use it in every project/jam/band. Unfortunately I waited too long & by the time I inquired about that the upgrade was no longer offered. A sort of solution is using the Digitakt’s 8 midi tracks to sequence the Machinedrum externally, then you can get by with one blank “pattern” on the MD & save all the actual beats on the DT. This is a good pairing for a lot of reasons, but I craved it to be in one place so I went for the Analog Rytm MK2, hoping it would somehow remedy that. Obviously they are very different machines, but I’m still scratching my head trying to get the ARYTM to express the sort of uniqueness & edge that the MD jumps to out of the box. The fantasy of a Machinedrum MK3 seemed almost within grasp at the news of the Syntakt, but I’m not convinced it has the sort of edge that the MD wields. Always I come back to it, and always it has something for me… Machinedrum will probably always be my favorite piece of gear
some recent MD exclusive things that grabbed me! (a few users on instagram too doing amazing sonics) (edit: think Justins track’s got some Prophet lines but underpinned by MD)
These demonstrate really well how epic the MDs potential spectrum of sound is completely user defined. Enhanced ten fold by recent unofficial updates, personally i find the EV ringmod an exciting area for new subsonic bass exploration.
