I received my Machine Drum SPS-1 MKII today, played around with it for some hours, then wrote up this “mini review”.
I also have an Analog Rytm, so I naturally drew some comparisons.
Here are my initial thoughts, pros and cons:
Pros:
[ul]
[li]Sends out MIDI when patterns are replayed => can use the machine as a scratchpad, record events into PC sequencer, then finetune (AR cannot do that)[/li]
[li]Mutes also work with external MIDI data (AR cannot do that, mutes only affect the internal sequencer)[/li]
[li]Sound synthesis seems rather simple at first but comes alive nicely when building patterns[/li]
[li]16 tracks on the MD instead of 12 (actually 8) on the AR[/li]
[li]16 LFOs, mappable to any track (vs 1 LFO per track on the AR)[/li]
[li]Sounds are not hard-wired to specific tracks (unlike AR)[/li]
[li]Tracks are not hard-wired to specific individual outputs (unlike AR)[/li]
[li]EQ per track (AR has none)[/li]
[li]Simultaneous low + highpass filters per track (AR has one multimode filter per track, i.e. you have to decide which type you want)[/li]
[li]Has MIDI local off => can preprocess parameters before they reach the MD sound engine (AR cannot do that… or can it now?)[/li]
[li]Patterns can be triggered by MIDI note-ons without having to wait for the current pattern to finish playing (AR cannot do that)[/li]
[li]Did not have to look into the manual once. the only thing I had to look up a few hours in was how to do trigless locks (same experience with AR, I found the UI of both machines to be very intuitive)[/li]
[li]Full SysEx support. It’s even printed in the manual, like it should be (AR has sysex, too, but it’s undocumented)[/li]
[li]Can sequence other gear (“MID” machine) (AR cannot do that)[/li]
[/ul]
Cons:
[ul]
[li]No chromatic mode[/li]
[li]No microtiming[/li]
[li]No non-destructive performance controls like on AR (can use CCs to edit all parameters, though)[/li]
[li]Retrig should be available for all tracks - IMHO - but is only available for the sample playback machine(s) for some reason[/li]
[li]No trigless locks on regular tracks (have to use separate controller track)[/li]
[li]No sample replay (yeah, there’s the UW version but I’m not paying 400 bucks extra for a different version of the firmware, sorry)[/li]
[li]No amp envelopes (just a simple decay and the ability to use LFOs as additional “ramp” style envelopes)[/li]
[li]Closely related to that: one shot sounds only, no note duration (usually not needed for percussion, anyway)[/li]
[li]Why is there just one builtin waveform per ROM instrument (E12 bd/sd/hh/…) ? I really was expecting a sample select parameter here (not an advertised feature but still…)[/li]
[/ul]
It does not make sense to compare the actual sound of the two machines. They both sound good but totally different so I’m still going to keep my AR (that was the plan all along).
Maybe one day Elektron addresses some of the above-mentioned issues (mutes/midi out).
Just for clarification: When I say “midi out” I don’t mean that the AR should get actual MIDI sequence tracks like the MD
(it would be nice, though). I just want it to send out MIDI events when it is replaying the regular tracks so they can be recorded and refined in an external sequencer.
So, these are just my initial thoughts a few hours after I received my MD (#117xx, according to the serial nr, made in November 2015).
I have to say that I really like this box. Even the red screen.
Should I ever grow tired of the sound, I can see me continue using it as a scratchpad HW sequencer that can (also) trigger other synths.
That’s not to say that I am expecting to grow tired of it anytime soon. There may be just a few dozen synthesis parameters per track but since there are quite a lot of tracks which can all be EQd individually, layering makes this a rather deep drum synth, after all.
Last but not least, since I’m just a few hours in, I’ve only scratched the tip of the iceberg, I guess.
Incidentally, I could not have picked a better time to get one since Elektron just lowered the price to 699e on this very day.
So, Thank you, Elektron!
~A happy customer.