How do you relate to Elektron's instruments, depending on your background?

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Good friends on the forum,

I have this idea that depending on your background as a musician, you relate very differently to Elektron’s instruments and that their charmingly quirky way, makes this more apparent than in many other instances.

For example - I’ve played the piano since I was a kid and still play. I had played for maybe ten years when I encountered my first synth (a Yamaha SY55). From there, I attached to electronic music and to this day, I still love it.

I don’t particularly enjoy playing Elektron’s instruments. Composing something from nothing, is not an enjoyable experience on an Elektron instrument, for me. My brain keeps looking for the keyboard and wants to write stuff in a linear, sheet-like fashion.

But that’s okay, because I absolutely love putting stuff together on Elektron’s instruments and perhaps that’s why I gravitate more towards the Digitakt and the Octatrack, and the Heat to some extent, than the Rytm and the A4. When you’ve got slices and cuts of ideas into an Elektron instrument, the stuff you can do with them once they’re in there, transcends any other gear I’ve used (so far - got a Deluge incoming).

So that’s how I relate to them, as instruments for putting ideas together that took shape somewhere else, and make something unique within an Elektron box. For composing from scratch, they don’t work as well for me.

But that’s my angle. What’s yours?

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#2

oooh nice topic.

i come from a bass / guitar background. I grew up playing in rock bands and recording in a linear fashion on logic/cubase etc. i have played keys at points and have some mediocre skills - i know some basic music theory as well but dont necessarily need a keyboard in my setup.

for me elektrons represent a level of control over the entire project and sound. when i stopped playing in bands so much and doing my own thing i started to use ableton a lot but i felt very disconnected when it came to performing and i kept and outboard and had these convoluted setups of effects pedals and midi cables and samplers and synths with ableton sequencing stuff

having things like the OT and being able to have all that in one box is just amazing. because its integrated it all works properly together and is very easy to then sync with my a4 which has a sequence in it that i have programmed and not have to live with my sloppy keyboard skills.

unlike you i really enjoy the ‘playing’ of my elektrons. iw ould like to expand and add a rytm though

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#3

Good question.

As a musician, Guitarist most of my life, but have also been heavily affected and influenced by Hip Hop and Vinyl since a young boy growing up in the 80’s.

I migrated to Elektron from MPC and Ableton. I enjoy building up sequences within this world, but one thing that always lacked for me was the ability to really translate the captured scenes into a linear performance that flowed. Yes, you can record scenes and tweak / mute from Push for example, but that always felt disconnected somehow, and always resulted in having to edit on the computer after the event. Some of the magic disappears here.

So to me, the way I relate to these instruments is much akin to how I would with a guitar or turntable. It feels immediate, and also usually results in things “falling out” that you would never conceive of consciously. The results are better, feel better, and it is an experience of performing like you would on an instrument, as opposed to having a layer in between that disrupts that flow.

The other thing they do is just open up so many possibilities. As you say, shaping some other idea, but for me they are also a starting point that can spark creativity. Playing the AK, I’ve never experienced anything similar with other keyboards, and tend to come up with completely different sounding ideas than I would have otherwise.

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#4

Maybe this is unusual, but my background is in modulars. My first synth was a small Doepfer system.

So I think I relate to routing power and complexity of the Elektron machines. That’s certainly what I love about the Monomachine. I treat my eurorack and my Octatrack as one big device, midi sequencing and routing audio back and forth.

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#5

My music history is, a friend of mine was into house music and he proposed we start a duo project. We had booked our first gig even before I bought my first synth. Been a lifelong journey since then.

As a kid, I wasn’t particularily interested in music, although I loved how video game music sounded to me at the time… until I stubled into artists like steve reich, stockhausen, aphex twin and autechre! Their stuff was so far removed from the traditional forms and conventions of melody and rhytm used in pop music… it immediately sounded like home to me! I didn’t develop a taste for more trad forms of music until years later, and the pallette is still growing.

I do not have any traditional music training, and often suzuki-style my way through a melody playing in my head. Coming up with engaging chord progressions has always been a sturggle for me lol. However, pressing buttons and turning dials, making bleep bloop fart noises, atonal scrapy soundscapes and hypnotic drumloops has always been dear to me since I started doing music. Nowadays the cacophony of fx drenched scratching has been putting its foot between the door as well, sounds like acid to me lol

The elektron boxes are very good for making bleep bloop fart noises and hypnotic drumloops. The way they allow you to holistically shape the sound through time, just love it. It bodes very well with the kraftwerkian idea of “playing the studio” (ie. the studio as an instrument, where every part belongs to the whole, sounds fx, mix etc).

I find improvising on the elektrons a bit of a love/hate affair, as esp. the analog boxes need “work” for sounding good, and when improvising, this takes time to pull off, compared to “instant gratification gear” like og rolands etc, where you just program something in and it instantly sounds great. However, the elektrons can also go almost anywhere in terms of sound you just happen to fancy, due to the extreme flexibility, from synthpop to bunker techno to electroacoustic, ambient, IdM and beyond. I also love how compact a rig one can make with the elektron boxes, no car needed for moving your stuff to the gig.

I hope the above was within the intent of this thread?

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#6

I have this filthy fantasy about an Analog Keys MKII, where Elektron just picked my mind and made the perfect instrument for a traditional keyboard player that wants to go all in, within Elektron’s world.

Okay, so you could argue that the current Keys is kind of that - but what it gains in concept, it loses in immediacy, for me. I have a Sub37 and it’s love every time I play it. That immediacy, with Elektron’s power of structure and composition, goddam what a killer board that would be.

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#7

Maybe some of that immediacy could be had by careful curation of sound & kit content, with well tweaked macro knob settings and so on? Nahh, perhaps it would still not be the same… Something to be said about a one-knob-per-function interface indeed (love my KArp Ody too)

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#8

It could, in a way. But I wouldn’t want to make the Keys into something it’s not. It’s a great board, and it’s made for those who want to enjoy it for what it is. I can really appreciate it for what it brings to the table. So I wouldn’t wanna try and twist it into something that it can’t be, anyway. The Keys deserves to be loved by those who can fully appreciate it, and I’m gonna let it be what it is and hang out with my Sub37 instead.

Having said that, your idea isn’t bad at all. Just the fact that it could get pretty close to what I’m talking about, is a testament to how great the Analog Keys is.

#9

I started as a guitarist- my first bit of actual composition was from loop pedals. limited progression, and stacking sounds on top of each other to build an atmosphere

Eventually I DID get into song progression when I recorded songs onto a Boss BR1200. Composing the first layers was a stressful experience- it had to be recorded as neatly as possible but the thing that made it worth it was to see how the atmosphere would turn out after I recorded a few more instruments in.

Elektron gear seemed perfect at first. No stress of recording gear- just plug in the notes, and it would continue to play over and over again and you easily could add more voices in immediately and cut straight to building atmospheres

It was heaven starting out like this

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#10

Feels like a cliffhanger there. It was heaven … but?

Or did I just read too much into that very powerful way of ending your post? :slight_smile:

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#11

I come from a software engineering background, but that does mean I arguably have a programmatic, logical approach to things. It’s not always the best angle when attempting to make “art”.

I think that’s why it works so well when I collaborate with other people who have more of an artistic approach. I can fill in some of the gaps from the engineering end. They can push me in directions which might feel uncomfortable.

…but my primary instrument is electric guitar. A bit of bass, drum-kit, percussion and a bit of keys too.

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#12

You know, in the part of the world where I make a living, the best stuff is made from the great blend of engineering and creatives. When an artist can speak an engineering’s language, and an engineer can relate to the emotional value of art, you’ve got the best possible team. These factors, when done right, translate directly into good business so it’s not just hippie fluffy dreamy stuff, but just the way to write solid stuff like 'tis 2017.

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#13

I come from a long time DJ background, i’m always DJ today. I have only college music theory and it’s very limited. But i heard so much music in my life in every music genre because i’m a real music lover i must have trained my hears from that.

I have time in my life, I was a bit ashamed to make music as an autodidact. But i meet a lot of long trained musicians helped me to pass that and feel better. i look for learn since years now but i don’t find someone to teach me (for now) in a modern way… bear in mind with what i want to learn and how to achieve this goal… and also the price for it because my budget is limited. Time is ok.

So i know my skills are advanced in rhythm and less in melody… construction/arrangement… I use every tool that can help me but of course it will take me more time than trained musicians to throw my ideas into something rapidly …

I want to play at some point because it more fast to try construction ideas when you know music harmony etc… For Elektron Machine i use it to design-shape my own sounds. I like per step modulations… it gives me fast an idea of what i can do. But then i record PARTS LIVE. These goodies from the sequencer gives me fastly VARIATIONS… and i find it more easily rather in a DAW… because of the FUN i take with my two hands and happy accident :wink:

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#14

I still love the Analog 4 and MDUW, I’ll probably be buying the Analog 4 MKII eventually- the other Elektrons were stepping stones to eventually warm up to Ableton Push 2 but A4+MDUW is the complete sonic package imo

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#15

Many great musicians have zero background in theory or training. They just understand music and use whatever tools work for them to express themselves. That was tricky in Mozart’s days. Not so tricky today. I don’t think anyone practicing music should be ashamed of their background and I don’t even think it’s relevant, other than the exchange of ideas and perspective. In fact, I think it’s great that there’s this huge culture of genius musicians out there, that don’t know a thing about the stuff you can read or learn from schools and books, and still produce better stuff than those who drag their theoretical ball and chain to the end of the world.

Music is primal, and we’re primal beings, and for now, we have many tools to express that. That is only a good thing.

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#16

Yes things evolved and that’s a good. But years ago when electronic music came something known largely more than underground. People was rude about it… even trained Musicians, claim that’s noise and not music, claim that you just to push a button to make music etc… (I pass the subject alcohol, drugs and sex highly linked to it… especially drugs)

If I think today that all this corresponds to the fear of technological advances. I have traces of all this as wounds of wars, Like others …

So i think it’s a mix of “Reviews of others” and “Pyramid of maslow” (all i find to summarize
the ashamed thing)

anyway my point is all of that is a good thing because you learnt life at the end.

#17

My first instrument was a piano and I started as a kid and play piano/keys since. But I was also the more experimental type of a musician. So I started to learn more and more instruments and methods as an autodidact over the years. The Elektrons have been a new way of creating music and rhythms and I wanted to learn it, after I had seen Cenk performing. The same goes for my small west-cost like modular. I love to extend my options … my experience is, if I succeed to stay focused then new methods will lead me to create new music. I think this is a kind of “thinking outside the box” principle :wink:

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#18

Modern art schools have this same problem, that is why they need to teach you the academic side of “being a contemporary artist”, because credibility. I can imagine the early history of electronic music was even worse, you had to have a classical music training backgound IN ADDITION TO having an engineering degree, so you’d have a scientific/academic backbone as a defence for sounding like a wacko

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#19

exactly :wink: coming from Art-School (studies) and Electronic Music (starting as my student job) i take two punch the left and the right at the same time :joy:

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#20

Problem with this teaching always is … those tutors easily forget to teach “making music”. All the theory is worthless, if we don’t grab a piece of hardware - the earlier the better - and starting making noise :wink:

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