Brilliant work. This is how I’m attempting to use my AR, and I find this type of stuff very inspiring.
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I am contemplating buying a RYTM Mk2, but I already own a Digitakt and Pulsar 23. I would use it just for analog drums. Is that a bit of a waste, to not use it for samples at all? Seems like a hefty price tag if I don’t use it for samples as well.
I have the Pulsar and Rytm and don’t see too much overlap, but you might the digitakt+rytm to be a bit redundant.
Also: The entire premise of this thread is just trollish. If you think the Rytm is boring, you’re boring. I could spend 1,000 years in a room with this machine.
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Well I have a mk1 and don’t really use samples on it that much, mainly because I’m too lazy to get samples into it and can never remember how to import them into the project because I don’t do it often enough.
I think the analog engine is worth it alone personally, it’s out of my price range these days for a mkII but if I had the money I would actually buy one. I’m perfectly happy with the Mk1 though, but better pads, screen and easy sampling capability would be nice. If the mkII responded properly to program changes with the MPC I’d find a way to afford one, but it’s just the same sadly.
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I’m boring and I love the Rytm.
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Yeah, im lazy like that as well. Maybe other people like it, but I hate the process of transferring samples to Digitakt, to the point that I never do. I wish it was just an SD card.
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I have both the rytm mkii and DT. Lots of crossover.
I don’t really use my DT much right now…
If it wasn’t special to me, and I hadn’t modded a battery into it I would just keep the rytm.
What are you hoping to gain that the pulsar and DT can’t give you?
One of the major reasons I left all the gear forums years ago was because of the toxicity of fanboys in the guise of advice. There’s a difference between giving people advice based off of your opinion. Experience and taste and telling people they need something because you love it so much. I always preface when recommending gear to people by saying it works for me and I like it a lot because of x, y and z and I never use blanket statements like this machine does everything and is the best etc etc (no peice of gear meets that criteria in my mind anyways)
So yea don’t feel bad about not liking a piece of gear that’s lots of people are ranting about…especially people on YouTube. The majority of gear reviewers on YouTube are so incredibly over-reactionary (“THIS DELAY PEDEL IS INTENSE!!!11” afterall that’s how they get views it’s unwatchable to me and definitely not the best place to take opinions from, with a few exceptions (people like loopop are good).
Personally I love my analog rytm but it’s not nearly as good as my Machinedrum and the reasons I love the analog rytm might not be things that work for you. The analog engines are very limited because their analog but when I dig in I can coax some really excellent sounds out of them but again it comes down to personal preference also programming ability and also just the way you think and if a machine clicks with you or not.
There is plenty of gear that I’ve owned over the years that’s widely considered some “the best” but I’ve often been underwhelmed by a lot of it and as of fairly recently I’ve realized that sometimes a peice of gear can sound really good and do a lot but just not click with me for some reason that I may not understand…it just doesn’t jive…I’m just not feeling it so if your goal is making music and you have a “nice” peice of gear that your not feeling, just part with it and move on to find something that does click with you. I just parted with my Waldorf iridium for that exact reason, I couldn’t tell you why, it sounded excellent it did a lot and was very deep but I just wasn’t getting along with it, it didn’t inspire me even though I hear no one say anything negivhve about it and I couldn’t think of too much negative about it myself it just wasn’t inspiring me so I sold it and moved on.
Creativity and workflow are strange beasts sometimes you just have to listen to what your gut reaction to a peice of gear is and certainly you should never factor what anyone else thinks about it.
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Thx! After a year of intense noodling with the Rytm MKII, it’s still a treasure box for me.
You could spend hours just messing around with one dvco. Layering samples on top of it, is really the icing on the cake.
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I wouldn’t. I got it nezt to my digitakt which I haven’t used since, but also to get to know the rytm. The rytm is cool as a whole when using synth/samples/sequence but the parts itself are not that epic
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I get the impression the RYTM is one of the machines that sounds really excellent when really, really loud. Like over a PA. That might the thing it is “master” of, while being a jack of all the rest.
I really appreciate @Matthewsavant’s take there. 100%. Workflow, and pleasure, and all those intangibles matter. Thanks for that post.
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thats also the benefit of falling in love with elektron, It makes piloting new gear easy since you understand the basic navigation and sequencer. Workflow wise I would never not use elektron (even loading in samples guys geeezzz use Transfer its literally drag and drop)
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Anyone tried upgrading the internal storage to a bigger drive?
100% agreed
This is also valid for the Octatrack
A lot of people state that it is the best sampler ever made and bla bla bla, I think it is very subjective and much depends with what you want to do with machine and what your expectations are.
I never consider feedbacks from fanboys on forums. instagrammers and youtubbers.
I need to try the machine, experience it and than i can make a judgement whether it is for me or not
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not that I know… would be such a game changer. Just copy all your stuff onto it. 1 GB of RAM and an SD card slot would be okay as well 
Of course, if a piece of gear doesn’t work for you, then it doesn’t matter how many people like it.
On the other hand though… lots of people buy gear, never really learn it and complain about and then move onto something else only to repeat the same pattern.
The Analog Rytm is a complex instrument and it requires some investment of time/interest/energy to become fluid with it.
That I disagree with… if lots of people say it is worth putting the effort in to learn some particular gear, I am gonna take that into account. I value the combined opinions of people expressed in forums. They have been useful to me many times.
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Excellent work…
I also use the Rytm’s for rhythmic ambient type compositions. There is something about the sound of the Rytm that pleases my ears. The sound of samples through the analog circuits has got some mojo. I’d love it if Elektron made an analog polysynth/sampler that used samples like the Rytm.
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I dont think you are alone. The RYTM really worked for me due to the sound of it and how I could process samples with analogue grit, plus step sequence or use the pads. Pretty awesome. Of course you have overbridge to multitrack out as well.
The weakness are pretty bad though - the lack of polyphony, somewhat hampered MIDI and the lackluster song mode really prevented it from being a modern analogue MPC, which is what I dream of.
That said, Elektron clearly made their MKii instruments with the vision that if you want it all, you can connect a OT, AR and A4 together for the ultimate production system. That equates to 20 or so outs, a drum machine, sampler and synth.
Not sure how many folks actually do this, but it would probably be pretty cool.
On the AR, it’s still an amazing drum machine, and one of my all time favorites. But I personally prefer the much cheaper MPC one. Of course with the one, I miss out on that analogue filter, OD and compressor, so nothing is perfect.
It was really tough to sell the AR, because it is one of my favorite pieces of hardware ever. But to me, the greatest elektron machine for my production needs is the Octatrack.
It boils down to your workflow really. I think electron could dominate the higher end market with an analogue sampler/drum machine that combined features of the OT and the AR together. But that’s just what I want and probably not everyone else’s cup of tea.
The good news is the resale market for the AR is strong. I got a mint barely used one and when I sold it I made all my money back. It was a really great experience for me buying, using and finally selling the machine. I think everybody should own one to try for themselves (if they can afford it.)
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Agree! I also think samples sound amazing through the Rytm, like there’s a warm layer put over everything.
I just switched out my Rytm on my desk for my old mpc (2000xl) to track out some old beats, and the difference in sound is very obvious. I like the punchy, boxy sound of the mpc, but the AR sounds magical in comparison (in my opinion that is haha).
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Yeah, I don’t find those things weaknesses… 8 voices is plenty for me (plus I have 2 Rytm’s so I have 16 Rytm voices :)). I also have a Digitone so that is 8 more voices and an Analog Keys so that is 28 voices and lots of tracks.
I bought an MPC Live and didn’t like it at all. The sound didn’t do it for me (kinda punchy but no deeper character) and it felt like I was working on the computer except it had a tiny screen and was much less capable than my laptop. I’d much rather just use Bitwig on my laptop and of course the Elektron boxes.
And yeah, its great that there is so much gear to choose from so we can all find the stuff that works for us.
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