What speaks in the Rytm’s favour is all the organic movement it offers. It’s just so alive .
What speaks for the Toraiz is that its basic sound is not only great, it’s also the sound I’m looking for. But there’s a lot less going on in terms of variation, when you just repeat the same four bars over and over. That stuff matters when you’re working on a banger gig, where nuances within repetition matter.
Buuut … the live looping in the Toraiz might be the key here. That is the stuff of power. Live loop, set the LFO to random starting point, the release to 127 instead of infinite, and retrigger the loop every once in a while, live.
It was certainly the more sophisticated sequencer that drew me to Rytm as my first hardware device.
The thing that keeps me locked into Rytm (and A4) is the bandwidth for arbitrary modulation. Being able to push analog patches to numerous unrelated territories in a non-destructive manner is invaluable to me.
I get that. It’s one of the primary reasons I’m wanting to use it.
But given that I got a few kits I know quite well, and I can get them to the sound I want fairly quickly, it’s frustrating that I’m struggling just to get the damn silk kick to place itself where it belongs.
I totally feel that, yeah. I certainly wouldn’t fault you either way for choosing to continue on or abort. Tbh, there’s no wrong choice to be made. It’s all just about what you find to be interesting, or rather that which stokes the flames of curiosity, etc.
Re: any rytm kick – It’s certainly a device intended for less subtle affairs, ha. I foresee you’ll be spending more time taming it via means that you may deem to be unnecessary, which may ultimately make it unsuitable for you. That said, I do think the riches in modulation overhead are worth the blood sweat and tears spent in arriving at a satisfactory starting point. – Tbh, this is the elektron way, ime. It’s more often a meditative endeavor than a recreative one.
A very accurate way to frame the Elektron stuff, I’d say. Well put. You gotta enjoy the process and be fine with just exploring a lot. I’m more along the lines of getting somewhere fairly fast, and then work from there.
the longer I use all these devices, the more I recognize for me it’s all about that as well.
I have to get somewhere quickly. Most of the time I tend know what I‘m after and want to reach that without fiddling too much.
I‘m still trying out new devices that I‘m curious about, but most of the time I choose the stuff I know well and that I can trust to give me good results…
Which are not my elektrons for the most part
It’s not so much about needing to get somewhere fast. It’s more like if I know where I wanna go, it’s not much of an interesting challenge to learn how to tweak a kick just to get it to work.
I can appreciate the depth of such a kit, but I prefer the depth that comes from the deeper understanding of the kit, not from just trying to figure it out.
I’m now done with a set of loops and sets for the first track, and I’m way closer to something I like with the Toraiz than I ever got with the Rytm. I have a feeling, if I’d known the Rytm better and put the effort in, I would’ve ended up with a more intersting and perhaps more voice-appropriate result, given that the few parts I did get right with the Rytm, certainly had a unique flavour to them.
But that’s a different project and not one I’m prepared to invest in now, so the rig is now set. It’ll be the Toraiz for drums, fx, general sequencing and performance. Blackbox is used for free form loops that stretch beyond the 64-second limit of the Toraiz, not tied to the Toraiz sequencer and running after its own clock, to maintain that whimsical and non-clock idea from the original EP:s, as are any shorter loops and fx played from the Toraiz (it’s actually a great looper, just short on memory). Prophet 12 is sequenced from the Toraiz, routed through the Blackbox which goes into the Toraiz. The SP-16 also serves as mastering unit, so everything goes through its compressor, as well as slamming a subtle, non-synced ducker on the P12 and Blackbox audio content.
I’m actually not even gonna use the SSL SiX for this. There’s that soft, controlled compression from the Toraiz which just feels more appropriate for the more club-like context I’m going for now.
I have this problem actually because live set is not my way of work but i’m forcing myself to do that these days. And it appears that hardware I thought I would use are not the best finally.
I just had to let go the idea of using some stuff i love, because some others are way more appropriate for my compact live setup.
Thought of using Typhon and Micromonsta2, controlled by Digitakt.
Finally it will be Digitakt controlling MC101, and Deluge as sampler player for my other machines.
Sometimes we have to be objective and more flexible. But the good thing is, with a sampler you can still use your other machines in the studio and bring only loops on stage, if it can fits your project
I think this is successful, though I feel like the drums are a little muted. Does anyone else agree? Wait for consensus, as I’m having a rough hearing day (both kids screaming at me early this morning) so it could just be me. Other than that, it’s groovy and I think it’s starting to come together.
I agree with @cold_fashioned that the drums are too quiet in the mix. Try the bass louder and see what you think? There is also a wood foley type sound on the 3 and 4 beat for the final third that I would like to hear louder as it sounds good.
The palette of sounds for the whole track is great, really enjoyed it
Thanks. Could be, I think overall the low-ends are too loud and kind of stole too much of the attention, which in effect silenced the drums as well. I’ll keep at it, see where it goes. Appreciate you listening
Thank you, yep, the foley part is integral to the sound. Depending on which one you liked, I might or might not have cut it out already the mix is a little busy so I’ve removed two or three elements to give the rest space to breathe. But the general foley
vibe remains.
Personally (and this is totally subjective to my tastes, of course), I would prefer just the plodding, subdued kick for rhythm/pulse, maybe with some treated white noise here and there, then lose the busy hats and symbols to let the foley rhythms and sounds of your music take centre stage. Just imo.
I agree @Scot_Solida (thank you for listening and commenting, by the way) and I’m going by intention for that approach, to make the drums blend in more and not be as prolific as club tracks can be, from time to time. So that is the idea, for sure.
I think the point that @cold_fashioned is making as well as @Maisin is because I’m using fairly traditional drum sounds, you expect them to behave in a certain way, to have a place in the track which they currently don’t have. And that gap is not bridged in the mix.
Granted, the mix isn’t great yet, but it’s still is enough to make me realise there’s something going on here which I quite don’t like still. It’s not true enough to the original EP:s.
To @craig 's point, I think that’s where it’s at, to use less classic drum sounds and make them more a natural part of the soundscape that is the original recording, while still bringing that bpm pulse to this interpretation.
I wouldn’t say I’m starting to regret this venture. But it was certainly more challenging than I thought. And I was expecting a pretty rough ride to begin with.
An update, then. Drum samples are mostly changed or re-designed, some of the foley loops are removed to give the one shot percussions (also foley) more room. Drums remained subdued, but perhaps more appropriately so, due to the reconstruction of their actual sounds.
There’s a little bit more filth here and there, overall track structure is quite different and generally, just closer to what I’m going for. Would love to hear your continuous feedback on this as well, friends -
I like this better than the previous version. The dirth/fith makes it come more alive. Having said this, I also find that your track sounds very different depending on the listening environment (in-ear, headphones, bluetooth speaker), and I think it extremely difficult to anticipate how it will sound in a Club/PA context… Edit: I find it a bit disturbing that the sound of the kick seems to evolve throughout the track. I would rather keep it stable (and I am not 100% liking its “boomy” nature). But this is fully a questio of personal taste…
