ROM-Machine Tuning Scale Is Weird: Update, Maybe?

Elektron Gear Machinedrum
#1

Hi,

after not using my SPS-1UW+ MKII for several years, I’ve been rediscovering it lately and got some decent rhythms out of it.
And, although it’s a bit difficult, I’ve also enjoyed programming simple melodies with it.

However, there’s one thing that was seriously frustrating:

The tuning scale, esp. with the ROM machine.

I know it’s a drum synth, not a melody synth, but with a sampler on board, why does the tuning scale have to be so inconsistent to make it unnecessarily difficult to get clean sounding melodies? Around 0 it sounds good, eventhough it’s a bit off sometimes, but that even has some character i like. But as soon as you go over 1 octave, it starts to sound off in a very bad way.

I’ve added a picture showing how the pitch values correspond to actual notes and how much they’re off in cents.
I’ve done this by loading a sine wave tuned to C into a ROM machine and analyzed the output with a guitar tuning plugin.
Everything over 8cents is red, cause imo that’s not usable anymore.

IS THERE ANY HOPE THAT THIS COULD BE FIXED TO A LINEAR “+1 semitone = +3” BEHAVIOUR IN A FUTURE OS UPDATE?

PLEASE, THANKS :slight_smile:

MACHINEDRUM_PITCH_SCALE_c.gif259×1072 27.1 KB

edit: found a mistake in the pic. reupped.

Machinedrum SPS1-UW X.04 Released [ Unofficial ]
#2

:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Not gonna happen

It does get annoying trying to stay strictly in the one box, but it’s acceptable to me.

Very cool graphic though and thanks for doing that - I believe there is an older version of something like that floating around somewhere.

If they do fix it, then you can look out for my next album, ‘The Well Tempered Machinedrum’

#3

:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Not gonna happen[/quote]

Thought so, but one can still dream that some of the devs is reading this. I think it wouldn’t be such a big deal to correct this in the code compared to other feature requests I’ve read here, but it would make the sampler a LOT more usable. imo :slight_smile:

#4

It would be great for things like this to be fixed but in the meantime, check out the static LFO trick for MD. This might help. A really smart guy from Australia figured this out on E-Users. Can’t remember his name and haven’t seen him around for a while but hats off - it’s a great trick.