Using Elektron’s own SidStation sample pack, I made this weirdo chiptune on the RYTM. Most of the drums are made from samples of the SidStation while the melodic elements are the internal analog VCOs.
The SidStation is probably my favorite relic of Elektron’s past and I hope to own one someday.
This week, I painstakingly resampled James Brown’s classic single “King Heroin” with the Analog RYTM to make a hip-hop joint. Being able to resample with the MkII allows you to get pretty wild with chopping up tracks and the more you resample, the more coloration the analog signal path adds to the audio. The James Brown track has a 6/8 time signature, so making something that has the traditional 4/4 feel took a lot of work. Threw down a bassline with the internal VCOs and also sampled some chords from my Reface DX. I appreciate all y’all who check it out!
Leaping off the outcome of a weird experiment I talked about in this thread, I whipped up an IDM track. Happy I decided to work solely with analog drums and percussion (no drum samples) for this because I learned a lot about making the analog engines sound more expressive. Only samples used was some chords off my Reface DX - the analog filter really helps in darkening FM patches!
Love it! I find your ARMK2 jams very inspirational.
Extremely impressive. Wish I could handle my elektrons that well
Haven’t touched my AR in a while and I’m all over it now after being inspired by these. Thanks stink! I really dig the soundlab20-ish vibes on this latest one.
Thank you for checking my stuff out! Be sure to share whatever you come up with on your own RYTM, I’d love to hear it.
Beat made with the Analog RYTM by sampling Studio Ghibli’s classic film “My Neighbor Totoro”. I love being able to record my favorite musical sections and foley directly into the RYTM off my laptop while I revisit the classics from my childhood. I also sampled some synth pads from my Nintendo Switch (software is called Korg Gadget). The bassline is the internal VCOs of the RYTM while the drums are a mix of the analog synthesis and samples from an acoustic kit. Hip-hop and nostalgia is always a good mix, imo!
This (James brown track, not sure if I quoted correctly) is great, did you chop the sample in the AR or prep it in a computer before? I was always hesitant to upgrade to the mk2 as I would love resampling but the coarse start and end points in the sample menu are a bit of a pain on the mk1
@afuera I chopped it on the RYTM directly (audio out from my interface into the audio input of the RYTM, ripped the James Brown audio straight from Spotify). The cool thing about the Mk2 is that when the resolution of the start and end points is too course (identical to the mk1 in that regard), you can resample the audio and make much finer splits in the RYTM’s “recorder” screen (this is the menu where you crop the recorded audio - the resolution allowed in this menu is actually super fine). This is the only reason why I was able to make the beat on the RYTM in the first place. However, in the future I will likely prepare samples in a DAW instead, this process is still very time-consuming and you usually end up with a lot of redundant recordings filling up space on the RYTM’s hard-drive that needs to be purged as you go along. Of course, if you are coming from something like a Roland SP-303’s workflow and not timid when it comes to resampling, chopping samples this way should feel right at home.
I should mention that there is a maximum length of recording with the direct sampler (like 30 seconds or close to that), so if you want to load longer samples than that you’ll have to prepare it in a DAW and send it to the RYTM with Transfer.
Thank you for checking it out!
This week I made a beat with samples lifted directly from some old vinyl records. For this beat, I sampled the chords and flute from “Where Can I Find Her” by The Moments, while the vocals were lifted from “You’ve Been Away Too Long” by Marlena Shaw. The drums are a combination of the internal analog oscillators layered with some cut-up Motown drum loops. I love how the overdrive really brings out the snap, crackle, and pop of aged vinyl, so I hope it’s not too noisy or ‘lo-fi’ for some.
Glad to see you on here man! Been following your YT stuff.
I can totally relate to being thrown off at first by the lack of transparency of the AR but I also grew to love it once I started turning down levels. There is so much range in the gain-staging.
Sounds like you got a handle on it though, all of this stuff is dope!
Damn that’s some wicked programming.
Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you checking out my jams!
Gain-staging is no joke on this thing or in general! Some days I have a better handle on it than others. There are so many ways to adjust the levels at different stages, but I do wish there was an additional screen for monitoring + adjusting levels for all tracks in a centralized way (I guess thats what overbridge is for). Regardless, the control is certainly there.
Do you have any specific sweetspots or target levels that you tend to start with on all tracks?
I could have sworn there was an overall mix/levels screen. I might be thinking of the A4.
When I had the ARmk2 (hopefully getting it back soon) I had a custom default patch with all of the sample levels turned down to a little under halfway. I’d end up boosting them sometimes but you definitely start to hear the sound change above that.
Looping a sinewave wavecycle can help you hear exactly when and hown that burn starts to kick in on the samples.
The tip about using a sine wave is gold! I’ll be sure to try that and keep everything you said here in mind, thanks.
For this week, I’m still sampling and remixing my favorite records from the 70s. Here, I dove into the great Dionne Warwick’s 1973 single “I’m Just Being Myself”.
This particular Dionne album, Just Being Myself, is famous for the monster tune “You’re Gonna Need Me” (sampled in “Stop!” by J Dilla), but all the tracks are classics in my opinion!
I always thought I ran out of headroom really fast on my samples, thanks for the tip. AR is still relatively new to me, I feel like I have to go through all my projects thus far and just adjust the gain staging so I can get a handle on how to set things up as a default.
Watched this again today since I loved it so much. Voice 3 is so busy in the first part that I figured you must have been plocking the sample engine but your description indicates otherwise. Amazing! Which synthesis engine is that all coming from?
It’s the magic of sound locks! By locking trigs to different sounds saved in your “sound pool”, you can reconfigure the voice’s analog engine on the fly. imo, it is the most powerful feature of the RYTM that is woefully underutilized. Most of the kick and snare sounds were done with the SD classic engine, the shaker sounds with the noise engine, and I also used the rimshot and clap engines pretty liberally as well.