Oh yeah: the touch sensors are so much better than my Lyra-8’s and Pipes’, which lack sensitivity without skin moisturizer or doing the licky-licky. I don’t even use fingers on my Lyra-8’s sensors anymore because coins work really well: I have the thing propped up vertically, and little coins wedge stably between the sensors. My Pipes are an issue, having done (Vlad-guided) diode surgery on both to make them usable, and even then they’re weather sensitive. I should open up the P-23 to see if it uses a different technology because it really just responds the way you expect, every time. Pre-purchase, my fear of poor sensor response–which is a personal, location-based issue–prepared me to be very disappointed with the P-23 and have to return it, but I’m now optimistic it will weather any storm.
EDIT: I’m told that because the Pulsar is a percussive machine, the envelopes are much faster, not the sensors.
How do you find the 4 modules for making drums and percussion? Are they quite versatile and capable of a wide range of sounds as stated? It did sound like this from the various demos so far. Probably many extraordinary sounds arise from modulation but I’m also wondering about basic kicks, snares and percussion sounds.
Too early to tell, I think. Yes, aside from modulation, including the WTF and OMG pins, there’s a lot of flexibility in the range of each modules sounds, with the filters and tuning, etc., then there’s the shape and warp for the bass. I guess it’s a personal thing whether it will give you the kind of sounds you’re looking for. Me, I mess with it as a system just to see what kind of combinations come out of it. Right now, I’ve reached a patch I like, so it’s now like a modular where you know you’re never going to be able to reproduce it. That’s the fun of the thing, but I’ve been keeping the same patch going for a day while I use it with other stuff. But I see I’ve got to pull all the alligators out, then go through the manual in a systematic way to get a hold of this thing, what with the loopers and interfacing with MIDI controllers. I’ve got my drum controller that I’m hoping will work out well here.
Now to answer your question more specifically. I hate to rush to judgment, but I must say that I don’t find the modules themselves (sans modulation) versatile and capable of a wide range of sounds. This is obviously a highly subjective judgment; I do think many people will consider otherwise, so I’ll add some of my personal context. I’ve never found electronic drums—whether software or hardware or even music that I like to listen to—that don’t go stale to my ears very quickly. I’ve tried lots of things, and the best I’ve found is Nord’s Drum 3P, so I got two of them so that I could program up a full kit. Even that doesn’t do it for me compared to drumming software like BFD3, which provides 128 velocity layers and loads of very different sounding 128-multisampled drum kits and percussion pieces (I always have a bongos, a full array of congas, and a dumbek). I drum using a Zendrum controller that has 30 naturally responsive triggers, each dedicated to the single purpose sending a MIDI note/velocity with zero crosstalk. The playing experience is highly detailed and highly variable by switching out pieces of kit or entire kits. In other words, it never goes stale and 128 truly playable velocity layers under my fingers (well, about 124 or 125 of 128 because the first few are technically infeasible) means nothing can ever go machine gun even if you tried. So you see I’m extreme this way, dedicated to full spectrum drumming, just on a high-end controller, not a drum kit, which is an impossibility if you have to play in proximity to other human beings who haven’t paid to hear you. You don’t see more drummers on Zendrum because even though it emulates the responsiveness and flexibility of a real drum kit beautifully (with BFD—nothing else comes close), it’s a radically different feel to acoustic drummers’ muscle memory.
The P-23’s modules don’t come close to a flexibility that could make me perceive it as a satisfactory kit, as a collection of percussion sounds that could stay fresh for more than a couple of minutes through playing, and not modulation. And the thing does have an overall personality, so that it’s not about being sonically flexible enough to fit in in a wide range of electronic contexts, let alone acoustic. That’s how it sounded to me before I bought it, so that I expected to only live perform it next to someone wiggling a modular. I expect people here will like it in Elektron configurations, which I’m looking forward to hearing.
The P-23’s whole deal is as a playing system, as an instrument, a voice, which of course it’s also being billed as, and it truly delivers there, what with all the wacked-out modulation and loopers. You can put the thing on your lap and go to town, easily more towns than the Lyra-8. With the three available dynamics for the touch sensors, Vlad’s taken precautions against machine gunning, but I do need the 6-8 dynamic regions that I can consistently reach via my Zendrum (out of the 125 possible) to not feel hemmed in on that count. But Vlad’s three is far better than one-dynamic-level machine gun would be, and the P-23 does respond beautifully to MIDI velocities via an external controller. As his manual explains, MIDI is implemented to make things really easy and fast to use. Unfortunately, as I think everyone who’s ever tried has decided quickly: using a keyboard to play percussion long term—i.e., to play a drummer’s role from a keyboard—sucks. There’s Roland’s electronic kits for that, and I can play in the pocket for hours without a break on my Zendrum due to its minimal kinetic energy. I think, though, using the P-23 as a drum module with my Zendrum controller won’t be satisfying because the Zendrum is attacks-only, as pieces of percussion are; only a keyboard will exploit what happens after the initial attack, which the P-23 can respond to. So maybe I’ll put a little Microfreak or Keystep next to it to bring quickly online, but otherwise I’m seeing the P-23 as a self-contained playing system, certainly with longer performance possibilities than the beloved Lyra-8.
Those who like to sample stuff and then slice and dice and mix it up will have a more varied point of view than me, as that’s just not my thing except as a listener. I’m more of a real-time player used to rehearsing stuff endlessly to get it “right”—which is why the stuff I put online is always so demo-ish: everything’s an idea that I think could potentially sound good with proper woodshedding, but at least sounds fun sloppy. I only rehearse under pressure of a performance. I’m looking forward to hearing other people’s approaches to the P-23. Someday I’ll interface it with my modular, but that’s in a different location due to space limitations.
A few more videos popping up, couple on the muffwiggler thread and a new Richard Devine one on FB. More pared back and mixed with other sounds. Really good.
Only MIDI input from the keyboard for the bass module. Unfortunately, I haven’t had any time at all to mess with this thing after the initial tests. It’s pretty clear though, and from the demos too, that it really wants to interact with a modular system, but my modular is currently in my other space, so I hope to find the time to just jam out on it solo.
yes I don’t have a modular setup, though have a dfam and microfreak which offers some integration. probably sequence from OT and add stuff on top live. but I do see a lot of the value in modular integration, so need to consider that.
cheers
Any thoughts on Surgeon’s comments that we’re all going to hate the pulsar 23?
I have a higher level of respect for how amazing Don Buchla’s instruments were designed and also Vlad Kreimer from Soma. He’s coming out with the most insane drum machine—you can barely even call it that—called the Pulsar-23. He demoed it at Superbooth and people were freaking out over it. But I know when they buy it, they’re going to hate it. A lot of the time, people want something like a modular because they think it’s the answer to their problem, where really what they need is a reliable, stable VST plug-in.
But to the point, a few thoughts:
The price point keeps it from being an impulse buy for anyone I think. That’s why most comments I see are from people who are interested but wary of it being a chaos generator, which vlad blessim couldn’t seem to avoid.
There are cheaper machines for techno which will more than do the job.
It’s an instrument which I hope users will find their own voice with over time - hence comments about the versatility of the pulsar.
Recent videos are showing some restraint and sounds really good.
Sorry for the sarcasm on techno luminary it’s just, you know…techno.
Can I ask a question:
If you record a long held note then can you use delete to delete parts of that ‘note’ sounds like an interesting way to compose, knocking holes in drones.
It shouldn’t be looked at as a reliable and stable drum machine… I thought the whole point was to make off kilter, percussive slop but with the option to midi sync/control via midi if you wanted to be on the grid (I might be mistaken about it being controlled via midi, but i thought vlad said it’d have midi sync). They’re probably right tho, there’s a lot of questions regarding making “standard” beats with it and if that’s what someone is after then I can see being disappointed. There’s tons of great drum machines that give you that tho, that’s what makes pulsar so special.
Weird comment really. Most people who want the Pulsar-23 are probably very aware what it is from the many demos Vlad has done. They were far from the usual drum machine demos and no one buys it because they think it will give them smooth über controlled beats like that of a VST instrument. And no VST plugin can do what the Pulsar-23 does. I could understand it if he had recommended the Analog Rytm or other hardware drum machines or modular stuff but to recommend a VST plugin instead of the Pulsar-23 makes no sense.
I’m embarrassed to say I don’t even know that yet–I just don’t have enough time to spend with it, primarily because it’s not a device I can easily take with me on the go. It’s going to be a slow process for me for the next few weeks.
TBH the main draw for me with the pulsar is the looping not sequencing function. I have the octatrack so could explore that though … though its midi implementation is a faff …
I also like the idea of having a drum synth and finding my fav positions for a ‘drum kit’ and just making that my consistent sound , as samples I find make the OT a bit of an ‘everything box’ and I don;t have the discipline just to stick to one sound.
Then there is the chaos potential … which I may never use alot with my band but I love that I can get the above and also learn about semi-modular routing too
Plus yeah it’s 1800 euro but if I don’t like it in 2 years I bet I can sell it for 1500 once it’s in good nick
