Analog Rytm MK1 or MK2?

for the same price of AR mk2 you can get AR mk1 + OT mk1

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Mk1 is safer.

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source?

It was announced back in nov when mkii to was announced that both units would get the same updates. Like before under the hood they are essentially the same.

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They said that they’d be updated in parallel- I’m not sure if there’s going to be a break off time, though

The MK1 pads are absolutely terrible to the point of being 100% useless, IMO.

So unless you never plan on finger drumming, avoid.

My AR2 ships out to me today. I also noticed yesterday that Thavius Beck has a new set of tutorials for the AR2 on macprovideo.com. I’ll def be getting that, as his Analog Four tutorial was incredibly helpful IMO.

True they are definitely not that great for straight up finger drumming but for scenes, mutes, and performance mode they work great. If I were going to use it for finger drumming I would probably pair it with something like an Akai MPD 32/24 so you have large high quality pads for drumming and still have the built in pads for the other functions. Just a thought.

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So I was finally able to test out the MKII pads to see what had changed.

The overall response is certainly better. Light taps trigged the synth no problem.

But, and unless I’m missing something, there is absolutely no variation in velocity response: the lightest tap produced the same velocity a heavier hit did.

I checked under sound settings that Vel to Vol was on, turned down amp and track vol and opened the vel mod window. Even the little read out showing the vel response was gone from the mod menu (I did not check if my live recordings had recorded vel, though should have).

Can anyone with an MKII confirm differences in vel response via the pads?

(I also tested taps on an MPC Live: worlds apart in response. The ARs were obviously not made with finger drummers in mind.)

EDIT: seems there is a FIX button I was not aware of. Proooobably the source of confusion. Carry on.

So how sensitive do you find them now you have velocity working?

Well if the idea is they respond to ANY pressure, then maybe I would say a bit better than my MKI. I really would need to test it again tho.

The pads of the mk1 are small and rigid this is true, but I can finger drum without problems with the sacred technique of double finger you can apply enough strength to not miss the hit. For velocity it is a little more difficult but not impossible, and it is true what they say, with time and pressure the pads soften a bit. For one who has broken his fingers on djembe and darbuka for years it is not a problem at all.

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I agree with all of this. On mine it’s obvious it changes over time as the pads I have hit more often are obviously better than others. The velocity is not however an Akai.

I liked the feel of Akai pads more though too. Here’s a post from way back talking about removing the film:

Might try that now mine is out of warranty.

I had planned on applying the twofinger technique to the MKII but was just totally bamboozled by the encounter I left early.

For me it is not convenient to open the Rytm anyway. Modding Pads can affect performance mode and sensitivity in general, it is much less risky to connect a midi controller like AKAI for best finger drum purposes.

Mk1 far better, and I’ve owned both

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I own mk1 for few week now and love it a lot. But I know I will some day bought a mkii at least for is auto sampling abilities. But I really prefer the mki look.

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Im also a fan of the Mki look. Love the round grey buttons with led above, smaller size is better for me too. I would like the sampling but can live without it, just glad they gave it the VCO update too.

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My main interest in MK2 would be those CV inputs each with 5 modulation destinations… MKI’s are solid though, less issue reports…

Yeah forgot about the CV, those would be nice to have, and the crispy screen is a nice plus. Was not aware about the issues, is it mostly hardware or software problems?

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I can’t recall completely and don’t want to spread rumors, it just seems most of the issue I read on the forum are about MK2… Deffinately a pad issue where pressing a pad does unexpected things on other pads, I think that one is hardware. The CV inputs don’t recall the settings or something like that, probably software. There’s was some over sensitive encoder issues, don’t know if they fixed that. Some freeze reports… A boot up issue… Some people have turned them in multiple times to get a working one. Use search and you’ll probably find more stuff… Things like this have been happening with every product since Digitakt… MK1’s rule… :smile: