Sample Chains on MD?

Elektron Gear Machinedrum
#1

Just been reading the manual regarding ROM slots 25 to 48 and was wondering if anyone has tried using these slots as a sample chain similar to what the OT guys do?

Did a quick google but didnt find much…?

Was thinking could make a 2 bar loop of say jazz perc hits, then place a bunch of trigs on track and p-lock the start parameter for each to get some random style loops without using a bunch of tracks.

Just thinking out loud here… is this possible, has people done similar before?
Any tips for using the upper ROM slots?

#2

Yeah this is a technique that has been around for a while, mainly to get round the limited number of sample slots when dealing with large numbers of one shots in the UW

I never really used MD chains myself - I was concentrating more on understanding the internal synthesis and then the OT pitched up…

Sure others will chime in though…

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#3

Can absolutely be done, as zeropoint says. There are limitations of course – no convenient slicing shortcuts as on the OT, for example.

Most of this is in the manual appendix but FWIW: With slots 25-48 (and the RAM machines too) if you sample a 32-step (2-bar) phrase you just take (Start value/4, plus 1) and the result is the step you’ll hear. (The math depends on the sample length: Divide by 8 for 1-bar phrases, etc.) The first 24 slots were designed with one-shot hits in mind, so the Start value is more or less made for shaving little bits off the front end for fine-tuning the attack.

IIRC, a 2-bar phrase at 130 BPM takes up something like 300k of ROM.

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#4

Sweet, yeh thats what I was thinking. Will give it a go tonight.

I guess a limitation is LFO on START parameter cant really be used as a random slice function like on OT… as each increment of START isnt necessarily the start of a hit. Oh well, might still get some interesting results!

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#5

You certainly will :slight_smile:

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#6

Sampling and dicing a loop on the MD is a great trick. You can also make the sample play backwards by making the start point the highest value, and the end point the lowest value. You can P-lock those settings on a single trig for cool reverse fills and hits!

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#7

Used to do this when I had an MD, but didn’t know it was called sample chaining. Just P-lock those start points for a lot of fun! As was mentioned, no slice, so its not quite as nice, but still a great way to flex the MD!

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#8

ok just tried to do this systematically for the first time… filling up a track with trigs and locking STRT + END in increments of 8. pretty cool!

this needs to be automated.

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#9

stay tuned & dust off your TM-1’s guys :slight_smile:

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#10

Okay…

MDice is a loop slicer for the Machinedrum running on Mac OS X 10.9.

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Download: http://cl.ly/3u2O2c061T0f

What you need:

  • an MDUW with latest OS
  • a TM-1 MIDI interface.
  • a Mac with OS X 10.9

Connect your MDUW two-ways, the app needs MIDI in- and output.

MDice generates trigs in the currently selected track. The trigs’ STRT & END params are locked to slice up loops. So load a ROM or RAM machine containing a nice loop into a track, and make sure you’re in EXTENDED mode.

First Step (1-64): where in the pattern should the loop begin.

Length (1-64): how long should the loop be.

Skip (1-16): Space between trigs. In other words, slice width.

Sample Length (1-64): The length of your original sample measured in steps. A 1-bar sample is 16 steps.

Forward/Backward: General slice order.

Generate Locks: Whether STRT/END params should be p-locked. For ROM/RAM slicing, you want to keep this enabled.

Reverse: chance of slices playing backwards.

Shuffle: chance of slices being out of order.

When you’re happy with the parameters, press the Slice button.
this will generate trigs in an additive way… it never deletes trigs, only adds. so you can layer slices with different settings.

If you want to start fresh, clear the track on the MDUW.

IMPORTANT: when you hit the Slice button, the current pattern will be modified by the app, and will automatically be reloaded by the MDUW. This means the KIT will be reloaded too. Save your Kit before slicing. Also, it’s a good idea to keep a copy of the track/pattern in the copy buffers.

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MegaCommand // MiniCommand Resurrection // MCLive
#11

possible to post your souce code to port this for Win?

#12

here’s the code which does the slicing, which is trivial:

not going to show my code for manipulating sysex at this point… maybe later.

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#13

Great, very apprecciate

#14

here’s the method which gets called when you press the slice button:

There’s a system for asynchronous requests of SysEx data…
In the method above, there’s 2 nested requests.

first i’m asking for the current track number, then getting the current pattern. then apply the slicing and send the pattern back to the MD.

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#15

Really thank you, a question …
you regenerate the checksum or not when you send the pattern?

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#16

yes… without correct checksum the MD will not accept the pattern

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#17

thanks for all the info

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#18

is there any interest in a thing like this?
wondering if it’s worth putting more work in it.

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#19

Haven’t had a chance to even use it yet, but yes, I’m interested.

#20

Damn VOID, you are so hired!

I haven’t had a chance to play with the MDice app yet (just downloaded it) but I’m excited to play with it. This is a great tool for exploring sections of a loop, without having to do all the tedium of setting START/END points. Very very cool.

It may be a day or three before I can dig into this thing, but I’ll report back once I do.

Thanks VOID!

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