May buy an AR mk2- some quick workflow questions

I love using the DVCO for basslines. Layered with a suitable sample sound and away you go! You can get some nice interaction especially with some detune

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Its here! So far I really like it because the workflow is like the digitakt. The pads feel awesome too.

Question - if I was able to register the serial # does that mean Iā€™m good on warranty? (previous owner bought it a month ago and used it for like an hour at most).

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yes! youā€™re good to go.

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Loving this box so far but I canā€™t seem to figure out how to sample in properly.

I mean, I set the threshold right, arm the track and trigger the other drum machine I want to sample. Thatā€™s easy. But the sound is not the same. It sounds phased and not as full as the actual machine. I have monitoring on so I can easily compare the two samples and itā€™s pretty noticeable.
I am sending audio into the Left audio input with a balanced cable. Just want to get some mono drum machine samples.

Any ideas there? I watched Cukoos tutorial and he says that it samples in mono with right and left both getting signal. So maybe I need some sort of special cable? It may just be taking half the sound which is why it sounds phased.

I will try going out of the master of my drum machine and see if that fixes it.

EDIT - it did not. The sample still sounds phased. I have the threshold set right before it triggers from the noise floor. Ill mess with that more.

Do you have the sampling input set to AUD L or the default AUD L+R?

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Good question let me check that.

Itā€™s SRC (source) on the sampling menu, knob G changes it.

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Thank you. I switched the source.

Hereā€™s what it was - the master FX channel. I was routing all the drums through it but I also have all the outs going into my interface and into my DAW. So the phasing was me hearing the kick through the master channel and the kick one. DUH!! I set the master FX routing to 0/12 so the only thing coming out of the master out now is the FX sends.

The kick sounds like it should, albiet a little less full and loud. I am, guessing that is due to the level settings I have in the AR2.

Now I am curious if there is any difference in going mono in or stereo in for drums. I canā€™t seem to hear one, but maybe ill mess with that and see.

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Ive spent hours on this machine. Really love it. Ive loaded up and made 808/707/909 and Drumtrax kits from my samples. Been making some analogue kits as well. I really love some of the kicks so much on this AR, they were previously unattainable sounds before I got this. For example, that softer Romanian House 808 style kick. Just super analogue and warm with a pointed transient - love making those on the AR.

I was wondering if there is a sound design thread where people post tracks they are trying to emulate the drums from on the AR? I have a few tracks I could link that I think would be great to try and make on the AR, but Im still pretty new to the machine. Would be awesome to see techniques for designing different drum sounds. My sound is lo-fi house, and there are different styles of kicks some guys are making right now that Iā€™d like to try and learn.

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Iā€™m a few weeks into life with the AR and the kicks have exceeded my expectations as well. I mainly produce electro so itā€™s often some variant of an 808-esque sound but I like having a bit of a twist in there somewhere, something that makes it a bit different. The AR seems perfect for this - thereā€™s so much flexibility in the engines. And if itā€™s lacking a bit of thickness you can just layer an 808 sample (or what Iā€™ve actually done so far, which is internally sampling the BT/LT for some deep bass/sub frequencies, and adding that). That is usually unnecessary though.

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Yea I found the AR to be the only Elektron that I could complete whole, start to finish electro tracks on.

Once they came out with those metallic hats and cymbal too, it was a revelation layering those with various classic Roland hat sizzles.

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Funny you all say that, I forgot at first that starting a new pattern engages the synth drums so imported some 909 samples and was thinking it sounded nice but not like a 909. Then I realized every single sample was layered and the synth engines had been turned back onā€¦lol.

I find it helps to have some patterns set up with just drum sample kits so I can have a reference e point. Itā€™s easy to get lost in the sound design of this thing and it helps to be able to save the kit and quickly switch patterns to say, a 909 kit just to get a point of reference back.

Another thing I forget is that the record button can really capture a lot. I was scrolling samples and it captured me doing that. I forget the button press I had done, but basically when I hit play on the pattern, the samples were scrolling just like I did. It was a pretty cool happy accident.

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Just found the link to your new Electro release. Love it. I am still digging in to it. Saw where you posted what plugins you use.

I donā€™t have those 606 machines, but I was curious how you would change your processing if using those sounds (or making them) on the Rytm instead of the 606s.

Itā€™s interesting that there is a REDDI plugin. I had no idea. Wow. What may be of interest to you is that I have a Noble tube preamp for bass (similar to REDDI). I definitely need to route some bass synths into it and see what I can get going there. Feel kind of silly that I have not used it on synth bass, what was I thinking??? I could also route a bassline out of the RTYM and into the Noble as well. I have not even gotten to the dual VCOs yet on this thing, but I keep the bass Tom slot open just for that.

If you were recording the AR into Ableton (this is what I do), what plugins would you use, the same? I am currently using either Trash 2 or Decapitator on kicks sometimes both in a chain. The sound design aspect of the AR is still a bit overwhelming with options, but I figure after a month or so of hard work Ill get a good flow going.

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It would depend on what kind of samples and synth sounds I used in Rytm. How the mix of those sounds was working or lacking in any way.
How the track has evolved and how it sounds coming out of the machine is what informs my processing decisions. Usually it just starts with simple EQ and if nothing else is needed I move on.

Probably not the answer you were looking for but Iā€™d choose what the track needs based on what I am hearing. No two tracks I ever made on Rytm sounded similar enough that I used the same processing chains.

You should be aware that you cannot use a DVCO machine in the Bass Tom Slot.
The internal analog synthesis needed to run that machine only exists on the BD, SD, RS/CP voices. This is based on physical limitations.

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Yeah that makes sense. I am the same way, I was just curious about the 606 as a more concrete example. I find that the audio coming out of the RYTM direct outs (or most drum machines for that matter) is pretty low so I try and get a basic idea for a chain down pretty fast and for me that usually involves some saturation.

And good to know about the VCO, I will switch up some slots there.

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Ive spent 12 hours so far on this machine. I went through all of Cenks tuts that I could find and mirrored what he did. Game changer for me in terms of sound design. But funny enough, I still cant wrap my head around a few things -

If I am starting a new song in my DAW, is it best practice to start a new project as well? I ask because I made a project called sound design where I was just making like 5-6 different patterns with different drum sounds. I was saving kit and saving the project constantly but for some reason the patterns from some kits were missing when I loaded them up today and others were playing but they were 16 note patterns and the master scale was set to 32 (I did this on a different pattern yesterday, same project).

So this tells me I am missing something and that the master scale must affect every pattern in the project. So thats something I need to understand because I get pretty deep into tweaking, Plocking and doing all kinds of stuff and then to have it all be gone when I turn it on later to record a performance would really suck.

Also I think that the scenes dont save. I think thats how its suppposed to be, but I was curious there.

Pretty silly that I canā€™t fully grasp what a project is but maybe if some of you all can share what you do, and what I need to do differently that would help.

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I thought you can only use distortion and compression if you go straight out of the 2bus itself? how can you use compressor and distortion ā€œLightlyā€ going multitrack through OB? Iā€™ve been trying to work this out myself, my only (poor solution) has been routing the outputs I want distorted back through mains through a side chain input through OB. not certain the quality is the same. anyway, not to hijack the thread or anything. it just caught my attention :slight_smile:

By staying very light on these FX in the 2-bus, I can easily recreate them in a DAW once Iā€™ve multitracked out, which I canā€™t do if they are intensely effecting the sound :blush:

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You could, but there should be no need to unless you plan to use a substantial number of the projectā€™s patterns on this one song. Otherwise, with care, you can keep the patterns for a number of songs in the same project.

First a reminder that patterns are stored in their locations and they are unlikely to be missing unless you overwrote them with new material.
Second, the kit (which contains sound parameters) is linked to the pattern (trigs and timing), not the other way around. When you select a pattern, the pattern knows which number kit to call up and does so. Always save the kit if you have made an important edit to it.

You are surely missing something, but you are wrong about master scale. Length (number of steps) and scale (tempo multiplier) are stored per pattern.

Scenes are stored in the kit.

A project is everything that is loaded into the ARā€™s memory at one time: 128 patterns, 128 kits, global settings, and a Sound Pool of 128 sounds.

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Ok thank you. I retraced my steps and I think I did something wrong to cause the loss of kits and steps. Mainly, I installed the New Blood Sysex and it must have copied over a project by mistake. I was working so much on the machine that I canā€™t remember my mistake thought, but that must have been it.

I also see that there is a Save Pattern option. That confuses me a bit. Do I need to Save pattern, Save kit and Save project habitually? In a Thadius Beck tutorial I was doing, he just saves kit a lot.

On a side note I have found that using Goldbabyā€™s Dirt and Layers pack with the analogue sounds is a perfect combination. One good thing to try is the Classic kick and then using a 808 click attack as the sample. You basically create an 808 kick thats pretty dead on this way. A touch of OD and then High passing just a little with some resonance around 48hz takes it right there.

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