Beautiful! That is why I love the Rytm…
1 Like
- it’s a drum machine
- it’s really pretty vast. It’ll do tiny clicky IDM glitches, wonky FM insanity, woody sounds, metallic sounds, straight-up solid house and techno, tolerable 808 & 909-ish sounds, brutal oceans of barely rhythmic distortion and gabber bangers. It might struggle with rock and latin, but you can put samples on it.
- it has more filter types than all of my monosynths; you can feed the filters with noise or two different pings
- the DVCOs can make percussion as well as “synth” sounds
I honestly believe that if you feel the AR is limited then you aren’t using it enough, or trying it out on a wide enough range of moods and genres. Personally, I can’t imagine needing another drum machine, ever (although I wouldn’t say no to a 909 if someone would gift me one). Obviously there are other interesting, similar instruments out there and variety is lovely… but “limited” is not a word I’d use to describe the AR.
17 Likes
I love the sound of the Rytm… that plus its all around capability make it the best drum machine ever imo.
I have 2 Rytm’s and they will never leave my studio. They are incredible creative instruments! If someone is just looking for 808 sounds, don’t get a Rytm. If you really want to explore sound and percussion and love stuff that is not immediately categorized, then the Rytm shines.
The sonic possibilities of the Rytm are unlimited. I am usually disappointed with drum machines. They too often sound mechanical and predictable. First time I heard a composition on the Rytm I was immediate attracted to it because it was so organic and didn’t sound like a drum machine.
I could use my two Rytm’s and the Waldorf M and make compositions for years to come without ever feeling any limitation.
7 Likes
I’m going to take you up on both of these points… I hear you… but, since I started using Overbridge more as the main interface, I’ve found some fantastic non-drum/percussion sounds using most of the engines, and combining them with samples leads to some pretty unique sounds that you wouldn’t associate with a ‘drum machine’.
I found it took Overbridge for me to have the visual/mental overview of this, when I was using my Rytm only standalone I was definitely more thinking of it as a drum machine with the odd bass line or sample thrown in.
The kick drums make really good bass line engines… I feel I should record some quick examples…
3 Likes
You wrote that like you disagreed with me, when in fact you amplified my point. The AR is very versatile!
3 Likes
I totally did didn’t I… 
I know you’re a big fan of the Rytm too…
…and I kinda misread this… I guess I was expanding on this really. 
I think the Rytm is vastly underrated as a sound design tool was my main point.
3 Likes
but didn’t you also say it’s your first drum machine…? I get that you love it. I do too. but if you’ve got zero/very limited experience with other machines, it’s kinda harsh judging my opinion that the sound engines are limited. and nowhere did I say that was necessarily a bad thing. in fact I said that’s part of why I love it.
It’s pretty rated, let’s be honest. 
2 Likes
Here is another video of mine from the last year. I can’t think of any drum computer that can perform so well live. The Scenes add so many bleeps and blops to the whole jam…
The Machinedrum supports all this with small percussive elements…
10 Likes
I may have misunderstood your point. Sorry for that. I still don’t think the AR is particularly “limited”. I mean… what does it compare with? Pulsar: weirder, more niche, fewer channels; Erica’s recent boxes: fewer channels, weirder, probably can’t do “clean” as well as an AR; The recent Rolands: less weird, maybe more range but I’m not really hearing that from the marketing.
Also… although this is the first hardware drum machine I’ve owned, I have also:
- produced short film scores
- played or produced for four bands covering techno, funk & d&b; in one of those I wrote all the drum & bass parts (in Reason) for four or five years
- composed and remixed in Reason, CubaseVST, Ableton, a Yamaha sampler for several years each… oh and TCB Tracker on 90s Ataris
- hold a diploma in sound engineering and electronic music (after all that band and composing experience)
So my hands-on experience with a physical drum machine is limited but I’m pretty nifty with electronic and sampled rhythms.
2 Likes
This has got me wondering whether “only four drum tracks + chokes” would make for a really creative limitation when I start a new AR project.
1 Like
That T-Shirt! 
EDIT: as usual, this thread is making rethink my RYTM, and maybe getting back into my setup 
1 Like
I didn’t say IT was limited. I said the analog engines are. some are super basic. others, not so much.
Machinedrum and Vermona DRM1 are the first ones I’d think of as having more options for their sound shaping. speaking purely of any given drum sound’s controls (i.e. not factoring in filter, VCA, effects, etc). there are more limited machines than the AR, of course. like pretty much any classic drum machine: Roland TR’s, Oberheim DX/DMX, LinnDrum, etc… in most of those machines, your controls for any sound are volume and MAYBE one or two other controls (usually pitch). the AR gives you more than that. in some cases, much more. but not in all cases. and some sounds I just flat out don’t like without supplementing with samples; like the hats and claps.
but taken all in, no, I wouldn’t say the machine itself is limited at all. in fact, I’ve often said here it’s the best drum machine you can buy, don’t really need any other ones, and likely the only machine I’d take to a desert island.
2 Likes
This is absolutely amazing!
1 Like
Why would you factor in the filter, vca and effects? The drm1, on which the comparison was based, actually has some of these parameters on the knobs themselves, since they are important in shaping the sound.
1 Like
fair point. I was meaning to exclude them and focus only on the RYTM’s analog engines before the sounds reach that part of the signal chain. kind of can’t do that entirely though for a fair comparison, as you’ve pointed out…
1 Like
I made a CH the other day I rather liked. If’s taken me a while tho’. Sometimes I think it’s my taste. Back when I used samples in DAWs, I had exactly one CH I actually liked, and I used it on everything.
This whole conversation is giving me GAS for a Machinedrum. I don’t need it because I have an AR, but I want it
2 Likes
As I said before, it is also a really brilliant ambient machine.
For this I used a couple of dvco’s, a closed hihat and the delay timing on the quick performance knob.
16 Likes
It’s mainly down to the LFO, Distortion and Delay. The LFO is set to square and is slowly changing the oscillator tuning. I’m using the ramp, so the LFO creeps in, which emphasises the low part at the end of each note. The Distortion is then feeding back into the Delay. That sounds like white noise increasing each time a new note is played.
1 Like