Thanks a lot for sharing your points … … . of view : ) That’s finally sounds like a valuable opinion from a serious machine specialist : )
Will take a chance and try the Belgian tomorrow, they have one right about 10mins from my door, naked and ready to get punished…
As for LXR - really interesting. Need to try one as well. You never know before…
As with all serious things in life you never know till you spend some time with it… Even if the lady looks charming, doesn’t mean that you can stand her for more than a few weekends… And if you plan to live with her and build up something for yourself… meeeh… have to live thru some trials…
It was with TR8s - love at the first sight, got it, started to mess with it - 15% joy and fun and 85% mess / headfkk / frustrations, since 2 years still experiencing frustrations and want to love it but just can’t. Never used it in any recording, only live and only occasionally… I can live with UI and all the stupid things she does to me, but the sound is always a bit disappointing, that’s the sign that maybe she has to leave finally… Can’t torture myself with that anymore…
Sounds like you didnt get on with the TR8-S. That doesnt mean it aint punchy though, just means you didnt vibe with the machine. I had the same thing with the AR.
Ive had nothing but punchgasms out of my TR8-S, and recieved many comments on my music saying similar.
But as has already been said a few times, its the mix, and compression that makes drum machines punchy.
The Monotribe kick drum, run through a bit of distortion and compressor, smacks you in the face, hard.
A little side note but I’ve alway wondered what Clams Casino uses… his compositions sound MPC-based but the dirty yet punchy drum sounds he gets are on another level. Those transients seem to jump right out of the speakers (skip ahead to 0:54 in this example…)
Maybe one of the reasons why I get frustrations from 8s experience all the time is that I try to get the “whole thing” out of it, like make a foundation for a piece, incl. all the pulsations, rumbles, basses, atmospheric samples, drones etc… “groovebox” type of thing.
But it’s not an MPC or even OT or DT where it’s quite easy to come out with the whole thing. I understand that the border between “just drums” and “the whole track” in techno musik is quite unclear, but still… It’s even doesn’t have EQ on channels or real envelopes to shape the things right…
Maybe it’s better just use it as drum machine, what you say? : )
I’m going to agree with the above and say… the answer, to me, is TR8S… never heard anyone say it wasn’t punchy… maybe you’ve got some other issues in the setup
: ) please keep convincing me, maybe after all it’s not too bad…
will take it to the gig tomorrow and give the baby another try… : )
I also like to send some ind outs to distortion pedal (love that Plasma from Gamechangers… ) and after return it back to the inputs for additional sonic perversion.
No EQ / Envelopes, but you can use the tone knob to make the sound higher or lower, assign a filter as the insert effect, and use the decay knob to make it more or less plucky. Lots of room for shaping as you play.
By the way, are you using the Accent steps with the Tr? Sorry if you are and already know this but I find that using the Accent step feature helps it punch a lot more.
I usually bring Accent all the way up to 200 or so and it helps bring the strong beats out way more than the weak beats (inputted with with shift). And make sure you actually input steps on the Accent track for this to work!
From what I read he mostly used Sony Acid for a long time…also he mentioned having guitar pedals around. But in general I get the feeling he’s mainly in the box.
EDIT: although in an AMA he’s done, he stated that he doesn’t use VST/plugins…so I don’t know.
Use global accent of course + tune individual steps volumes with step+accent combo… otherweise it’s much less groovy… same applies to old TRs, they really get alive with accents…
This topic starting to look as an TR8s appreciation society : )
Which isn’t a bad thing at all… Nice machine of course and I really want to love it more, maybe we can live thru dark times together : )
But since I have 808 and other analog machines here on the table, it’s really obvious that it lacks a bit of “silk” and “pure punch and weight” of analog. One really have to be careful with these digital beasts, or at least learn better how to cock them…
