I’m a month in with my AR2 and I have to admit to finding it fairly frustrating so far. It’s not really a sign of anything wrong with the Rytm though, as I’d expect to have to spend a fair bit of time learning a machine this powerful.
I feel like it’s a machine you have to know really well before you can get the most out of it. This sounds obvious, but I feel like the Rytm is pretty close to the extreme end of that continuum, maybe with something like the Model:Cycles at the other, more instantly gratifying end.
I’m never going to be happy with the lack of gain control over the external input but other than that, I think all the things I’ve been struggling with are things that a bit of time and effort learning the bugger will fix. Either that or I’ll just drown it all in enough reverb and distortion that no-one will notice (a method that’s worked pretty well for me up to now).
I think part of what might put a few people off is that, at least at first, listening to it is nowhere near as much fun as playing it. A lot of the tracks I’ve made with it were a lot of fun to make and felt like they sounded great whilst performing them, but then I’d listen back and it sounds like shit. This can be pretty demotivating and is certainly less exciting than something which might not be quite as much fun to learn with, but which sounds great straight out of the box.
Finally, I don’t give a fuck if some of it is out of tune, in fact, I plan to use that to my advantage at some point.
I have tried a few soft drum machines and samplers. I have done a bit of drum work on the Digitone, Korg Electribe ES2, Volca Beats. They have been okay, but there is something to be said about the sound and playability of the Rytm.
I think this comes from a few things that I really like about it.
I like the sounds it makes combined with playing on the pads. It just produces a connection that makes me feel like I’m a musician and it’s an instrument. I admit, there is some pre-programming of sounds and tweaking, but then it’s groove city baby! I don’t know if it’s a real thing or not, but I believe the analog sounds help build that ‘this feels more like an instrument than a machine’ vibe too.
I think this is why I am drawn to the Digitone Keys as well. I really like playing into the sequencer, and then fixing all my mistakes after. Hehe.
I definitely see where others are coming from with the Rytm’s short comings. It needs a good update soon.
@fin25…drowning ur stuff in endless tails of reverbwetness always did some trick…
but it makes u sound soooo last century…forever.
ends u stuck to certain sonic places and is no free future solution at all…
and it needs no one grant plus truu analog instrument to do that…don’t u think ?
but hey, end of all days, it’s the same old story with all gear, especially the swedish ones…
the deeper u dig, the better it gets…
The Rytm is a keeper for me right now since i feel there is no alternative (its really a powerful drum machine )
But the things i find frustrating is :
-The amp env is not flexible enough, the Analog 4 is way better imo. Its too bad since this is a drum machine.
-I dont use filter resonance , i dont really like the filters to be honest.
-I wish it has the noise engine from the Analog 4 and more digital sound source + more LFOs.
But … I really like the sequencer, the distortion and compressor. Also i think samples sounds very good on the Rytm, kinda crunchy and warm.
So overall its a keeper but i think the Machinedrum was a more interesting drum machine for me.
The updates the Rytm has gotten has made it sick as fuck imo.
It’s a one box machine now for certain genre’s.
Sure the envelope is weird and usually the only LFO is sacrificed for those duties, the hats cymbals are meh yes but it’s just so damn playable and immediate plus it sounds ace.
Super quick to get a beat going, damn i miss my Rytm
my main (and maybe only) rytm complaint is the linked voices and envelope clicking when choking each other.
i would’ve thought a quality of life factor would be to create a tiny envelope process to avoid this, i appreciate it can be managed with programming. but if i’m honest this isn’t fun and takes away the instant joy of a jam . whereas everything else rytm related is mostly fun.
I don’t have a Rytm but was wondering about the weird envelope settings on my Digitakt, Digitone and M:S. For drums they only have a small sweet spot and it’s hard to set the right settings. It goes from short to too long really fast. After reading this thread i wonder if Elektron generally have a problem with envelopes.
For the record, in a year of owning mine, some 50 sketches and 15 tracks worked on beyond that, I’ve not had a problem with the [AMP] envelope. I understand in theory why people complain about it (“drums, yo”), but it hasn’t bothered me.
I mainly use it to like a noise gate, closing the audio pathway for a given track some time after a hit, attempting to keep the mix bus noise floor down a bit. I rely much more on the Hold, Rel and various tick/click properties of the Machines for my transients.
(This is not to say I’m any good at using the AR… just that this is how I’ve grown with it.)
the principle of the Machinedrum is this kind of system.
the “raw” combination of all machines.
it’s all there but cryptic and it needs practice.
somehow the example of putting a midi cable back into the Input to gain a lot of extra functions is also part of their “machines”
they’ve stated with the Octatrack that those are just the tools for making music in one device but not streamlined in any order or musical craftsmanship behavior. like the MPC does, for instance.
of course people tend to learn fast to make similar music with different equipment
two best tips i have for rytm users after a few years of digging into it:
-Use the noise machine for hats and woody percussion!
-if possible, run the kick sepperate through its individual out. Gives everything else some room to breath, and keeps your snare from getting over compressed
It’s not as useful on the Analog Rytm/Four as on the Octatrack, because you don’t have dedicated MIDI tracks or MIDI LFOs to send through the MIDI feedback. But you can do some fun stuff on the Rytm, eg. a Control-All thing:
Connect MIDI Out to MIDI In. Set MIDI to receive CC, with encoder destination to int+ext, and set multiple tracks to the same MIDI channel. Then when you turn the encoders, parameters change on multiple tracks. You can even live-record this into the sequencer.
I basically feel this way. My own idiosyncratic preferences led me to look for a true analog drum machine, which I could control the subtleties and dynamics of to a greater degree than a classic TR-type… with pads (in the same machine, to keep things simple) so I could compose beats in the most intuitive way for me, by tapping them out (whether or not I record them manually or program them in the end)… and with a powerful enough sequencer for unusual meters and changes, and ideally song mode… etc… (The sampling on top of all that is a welcome bonus.) So nothing else really fit my desires as well.
I’m still pretty new at the Rytm (~0.5 year), and sure there are things I find frustrating about it, like any instrument ever… but as far as I can tell, it’s presently the best drum machine for me, and so far, nothing I’ve encountered in either the tone or workflow has discouraged me from continuing to dive deeper.
