Yes.
Anyone on here slightly disappointed by M:C? (Aside from the much discussed panning). I’m asking because I can’t afford M:C right now and they’re out of stock everywhere I buy from anyway. In the meantime, I’ve been abusing my DN to curb my enthusiasm. So any downsides after a couple of weeks? Bored of the machines yet? Anything else? Just so I can get a full perspective and maybe save my poor ass some cash in future?
Haha you are asking for anti-GAS-enducement now?
Can’t help you with that
Don’t worry Craig, there will still Patterns left to do when you get yours.
No, all the patterns are used up. Move along.
No real anti gas from me, stuff comes out of it sounding great… I will say because of its limits when trying for certain types of sounds you can find your self fiddling for a pretty long time to actually get it right, considering the ethos of the model series is simplicity, makes for speed and creativity… sometimes you find yourself having to do things in a longer way or work with sounds in different ways to make stuff work, which is maybe a pitfall but then again once you add other instruments to it that issue is pretty much gone. The common complaint of no attack means you can use work arounds, but if your doing that then you are maybe needing to dive into a bunch of lfo locks and bogging down your workflow a bit. It still is really fast to work with though, and really inspiring to me… once you get a single pattern set up it is really great at driving you into building a full track and because of the unexpected but musical nature of the control all you can really start pushing and mutating your tracks then dive in and mix up the sequences to suit your mutant. I would say at least set aside enough for one on sale or a used one at some point.
Damn it. I need to get saving then
Thanks for confirming my suspicions that it’s a great box, everyone
I would say it is not do it all box, nothing is, but what it does is fantastic. It is its own thing for sure, sound is healthy and fresh, punchy and pleasant, great characterful fx, and needless to say, electron sequencer is also there too
For me, tactile experience is great, I like the buttons and this “simplified” approach. I have synths that are more “capable” but in the way they are limited too, because when I end up programming sounds for hours, it ends up being “that” perticular sinth.
And this box is “limited” but there is so many sounds you will find, I feel it has many sweet spots, and don’t think of it as being limited or boring at all. Its very quick.
I think you can’t go wrong with this being priced so low, if anything, everybody needs this kik machine, it so great, its worth the money alone. But there is perc machine and metal and snare hehe its great box.
I think everybody should get one, I think there is a forum member who is selling his m:c if they matters to you.
No, but I thought I was getting there.
There was a moment, after making the first few tracks with it, where I felt like I had a good idea of all the sounds it was capable of, a good inventory on what it could do, and I was somewhat underwhelmed.
My thinking was:
The tone machine does great basses, can get dirty, sounds wonderful. Very Roland SH if you want. Cool!
The chord machine can’t get as dirty as I want, but inversions are fun. Unison does a good V/A sound but otherwise it has that distinct FM character. Okay. Cool.
The kick machine is real good, moldable. But I’d like to be able to filter some of the “click” out of the top end of it. Kinda bummed the Punch compressor overdoes it on the kick machine, ah well… Cool.
The metallic machine does great hats and cymbals, especially for someone like me that likes a good blend of noise and clustered OSC metallics in their hats (TR606, DR110). Still a little limiting but at least you’re limited to a style of hats I really dig. Cool
The snare machine… well I’m not really into snares a lot. I got some good snares out of it for more minimal tracks, but otherwise, I wasn’t expecting to be wow’d by it anyway. So, yea. Cool.
The perc machine… versatile, reminds me most of Machinedrum sonics. Cool.
And I kinda stopped there, figuring that was the extent of the capabilities of the individual machines. Fun stuff, fairly capable of a $300 groove box, not a shallow pool to swim around in and explore, but not that deep either. Reminds me a lot of my OP-1. Probably not going to be my main axe, but a fun place to play around in. Yea it’s limited, but portability is good too. At least I don’t have to bugger with a tape section to get multiple tracks going together at the same time.
Then I remembered it has presets, and I dug into those.
Wow. some pretty unique sounds in there. And within those presets I learned just how crucial LFO use is in getting unique sounds out of the M:C.
Since so many of the synth parameters are macros, even the smallest tweak of a knob can have a huge impact, and combined with the other synth parameters, it is rather deep. LFOs modulating those parameters blows the doors wide open.
So it does take a bit of patience to explore it. You can’t just grab it and tweak some knobs to the extremes and get a good idea of the variety of sound it can produce. You actually have to spend a good bit of time in the spaces between the extremes. These exercises of doing a tune with all 6 tracks of the same machine, those are huge for really seeing what it can do.
Still, I think that by its nature, you have to surrender a bit to its capabilities. You’re not going to be able to grime up that chord machine, and you’re not going to be able to shape the kick in all the ways you may want. But that makes it a lot like the OP-1, for me. You find the points that you can push it to, and then you settle on that and move on. It’s very playful. And in the end, you end up making interesting music that you wouldn’t have otherwise made.
In some ways, it makes me appreciate my M:S a little more. I lean so heavily on those filters and the start point parameter to transform sounds. And when I get even just a little bit bored with it, I drop another round of samples in and it’s a whole new machine.
Thanks for the detailed response! I make ambient hip hop and synthwave so I want dusty/subdued kicks rather than distorted 909 techno kicks. The chord machine interests me the most, because it could be rather beautiful with a female vocalist on top, so I’m not looking to get it dirty - heavier stuff can be done with my JU-06A and Ableton Live’s bit crusher if need be. So, yeah, I hope to be part of the fun in April
@craig , consider getting an M:S in the meantime.
It will be like training for the M:C since it does take a little adapting to the model format if you’re used to DT and other Elektrons. You’ll get hip to the menu system and LFO section, the pads, etc.
Then if it doesn’t work out, return it within the window. Should line up with M:Cs being in stock. What have ya got to lose?
That’s a great Resumé. Thanks for sharing my thoughts. You look better. I couldn’t wrote those lines if I were sick. Hats down.
250-300 notes is what I’ll loose haha. I have an OT for sampling duties. As much as dig your tunes, M:S has never interested me in any way, shape or form
But you already own a Digitone, right? I do not think I would buy a M:C in that case
Sure M:C has some tricks of its own but DN is way more powerfull. I think you are already served with FM sounds with it…get something else instead…
I do not know if you own any analog gear but for 250€ you can get a Circuit Monostation now for example, I did not like its sound at the beguining but I guess it was mainly because it lacks fx.
Add some reverb and delay and it sounds very nice, love playing it paraphonicaly with its pads…very good for ambient. Before I wanted to sell it and now it is has become one of my favorite synths. I see it as a modern take on a MC202…( almost same sound architecture)
Nice idea. Appreciated! The main reason was because I use DN for drums all the time, but it’s limited with only 4 tracks and I can’t always use the DN as a synth at the same time without resorting to clever sound locking etc. So M:C would take care of drums and DN would be ready for synth duties whenever needed. It’s preferable to feed both machines into OT at the same time for working on stuff rather than creating a beat, sampling it and then loading a new DN pattern to start on more melodic elements, if that makes sense?
Also, the way the chord machine has been implemented on M:C looks amazing. Program the root notes, then change the p-locked chord shapes in real time with a twist of a knob. In many ways that workflow kicks the DN’s ass. The one finger chord/scale mode of DN only goes so far for more interesting chords and doesn’t do inversions, 9ths and so on and so forth
For drums I would also think about a Volca Drum, you could sequence it from DN or OT, I love the way ot sounds. It has small knobs and just 16 kit memory but you do not even need to design sounds from it, there is a web based patch editor. You can even save and share kits this way.
Lots of them second hand now M:C is out. It would give you a different sound palette from the FM sounds DN can already provide.
Sequencing it from a OT with 3 lfo must be quite fun. I had few volcas, sold them all but this one is not going to leave
I do not pretend to put you off about buying M:C, is just I think there is maybe to much overlap with DN you already own and if money is a concern these two options are both cheap yet powerful
No idea that editor existed.
I’m gonna give it a shot this week. Might keep my Volca Drum off the chopping block. thanks!
There are a couple of useful max4live devices too, one that control all knobs and other very useful to send velocity to 4 diferent destinations o choice.
Velo2volcaD
I think all this info has already been shared in the volca drum thread, in " other gear"