Elektron Machinedrum

S

sweatynutz

New member
Can't wait to get one. It's only the illest drum machine ever conceived by human kind. Anybody have/want/know of/used/like/interested?
 
I'd looked at the xbase09, but the MD blows it away IMO...at least for the type of music I do, which is kind of glitchy hip hop, experimental IDM, and electro. But the xbase09 might be a better choice for some styles due to its real-analog drums. jomox also makes JUST an analog kick generator which is a cool concept but not for me.

but anyways, have you seen the new version of the machinedrum? it has sampling now......*droool*

I'll definitely cook up some tracks with it as soon as I get my hands on it...in the mean time, go to www.elektron-users.com for audio demos of the MD and other elektron gear.
 
I probably don't have to tell you, but the demos don't do the machine any justice at all. I used to have an MD, and I was making better patterns within a week than those demos. The stuff you can do with the parameter locking is ridiculous.
 
what makes you say that? I've never used an xbase so I can't say...but it would have to be pretty damn sweet sounding to beat the MD, which I have played with extensively.
 
I have both, the Xbase and MD. The Xbase isn't better than the MD, but it sounds very good. The Xbase has a very good analog Kick with a lot of punch. It sounds like the Kick of the 909, but with more variations. It has an analog snare, which is not so good compared to the original 909. The Rest are samples. The MD can't reproduce the Xbase or 909/808 sounds, it's not a TR- Clone like the Xbase or Novation Drumstation. The MD has it's own good sounds.

The Kick Generator is the M-Base. It can do the same like the X-base but can do softer and longer Kicks like the 808. The M-base is the best sounding analog Kick-Drum, much better than 808/909.

X-base
 
The xbase has a good sequenzer. It also has the "Parameter Lock" feature, so every Step can have different Parameter-Settings, a feature that I really love on both machines. Because of the analog sound engine, the realisation of this feature is more complicated in the xbase.

The Xbase was released in 1997 as TR-909 Clone, the sound of the machine is very much like the TR machines but with much more variations because of the "Parameter Locks". It has the old phatt sound-charakter of the old analog drum- machines. The only limitation is, that the xbase has only three voices, but the sample part can have different sampls on each step. The samples run through an analog VCA and because of that, it sounds different to a normal sampler. Jomox will soon release a new Xbase. This machine will have an analog Kick, Snare,Toms and several sample parts. The xbase has no effects.

The MD has much more sound variations than the xbase. It takes time to get the sound you want, the sounds and sound quality is very good. I think 75% of the drumsounds I use, are from the MD. The MD has a more digital- soundcharakter than the xbase or the TRs but I like that. The only thing I don´t like is, the MD has no good Hihats or cymbals, so its important to get the new "UW" version of the MD with Sample-Import to fix that.

x-base
 
djvartan said:
the x base is a better machine
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Indeed!

Analog power! Analog sound! Warm sound! The bass-drum on the XBase is way above the MD’s! And regarding the other synth-like cheesy sounds on the MD, you can make even better ones on a free softsynth, like Synth1.

MD is overpriced and overestimated all the way from Mother Earth to Pluto!

I had one, and wanted DRUMS! The bass drums sucked, and the overall sounds were something that reminded me of “freeware VSTi”. And I paid a lot for it new!

$1850, imported from Sweden. That’s sick!

If it had a $600 price tag instead, I wouldn’t have looked at it as a fraud attempt! Not only is it VA, but it also lacks of hardware quality!

But, good luck anyway! If you have a lot of money to spend, enough to fire up your fireplace with money, then get your self a MD! :)
 
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hmmm...the build quality is extremely sturdy on the MD, and the original version only cost $1200 usd. You seem to have some facts mixed up.
 
It didn’t cost $1200 when I bought it one year ago, and I bought it directly from the fabric in Sweden. But if they have gone down in price, nothing is better than that! :)
 
cubbyhouse said:
It didn’t cost $1200 when I bought it one year ago, and I bought it directly from the fabric in Sweden. But if they have gone down in price, nothing is better than that! :)
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So...you basically slag off the whole thing, because it "sounds like freeware VSTi" but if it's a bit cheaper "nothing is better than that"?
 
The build quality of the MD is very good, it's not a Moog Voyager but you can compare it with an access Virus or other VA's. No problem here. I think cubbyhouse had bad luck with his unit.

The sound engine of the MD works with a combination of VA,FM and 12 bit samples, no problem to reproduce those sounds with other hard- or softwaresynth. But you don't have these sound engines together in one hardware unit. A very important part of a drummaschine is the sequenzer and userinterface and the sequenzer of the MD is one of the best out there in the moment.

Beside the MD I use the Xbase, TR 909 and TR 808. I like the analog TR/Xbase machines and I would never sell them but, if you use them today, your music sounds "old school" like the end 80's and 90's. The sounds are good but they are overused, you need a lot of FX to get "fresh" sounds.

x-base
 
krushing said:


So...you basically slag off the whole thing, because it "sounds like freeware VSTi" but if it's a bit cheaper "nothing is better than that"?
Click to expand...

Excuse my English, it isn’t perfect.

What I meant is: It’s positive if they drop the original price on this unit, because then it matches what you actually get. That’s only my opinion, by the way!

Remember that the base price is without the tax charge (or whatever you call it).
 
x-base said:
The build quality of the MD is very good, it's not a Moog Voyager but you can compare it with an access Virus or other VA's. No problem here. I think cubbyhouse had bad luck with his unit.

The sound engine of the MD works with a combination of VA,FM and 12 bit samples, no problem to reproduce those sounds with other hard- or softwaresynth. But you don't have these sound engines together in one hardware unit. A very important part of a drummaschine is the sequenzer and userinterface and the sequenzer of the MD is one of the best out there in the moment.

Beside the MD I use the Xbase, TR 909 and TR 808. I like the analog TR/Xbase machines and I would never sell them but, if you use them today, your music sounds "old school" like the end 80's and 90's. The sounds are good but they are overused, you need a lot of FX to get "fresh" sounds.

x-base
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I and my brother had one unit each. And our boxes were solid enough, but what I mean about hardware quality is knobs and buttons; they felt loose and badly built. The knobs were not even in centre! The build quality says a lot about the seriousness of the fabric. Only my opinion!

12-bit samples!! Really?? You mean the same bit-depth as vintage lo-fi samplers, like the Prophet-2000?

The TR-drums are THE drums, IMO. But I got a lot of drum machines with different sounds. The thing is: Of all the drum machines I got, the MD was the most useless. The bass drum fundament sucked and other overall drum sounds can be made even better on any synth, or a synthgroup connected to a MIDI-controller.
 
the new bad boy

SEXBase999_6.gif
 
It's right, the buttons are not the best, for example I would prefer the electribe-buttons. But they work, I use the MD sinse 2 1/2 years and never had any problems with the buttons. My unit hasn't got any problems with the encoders, they are in the center and they work very good. There are not many Encoders with a push-function on the market, i just bought the spectralis, it has also Encoders with push- function, they seem to be a little bit better than the encoders of the MD, but not a very big differenz.

Yes, the samples are 12 bit. Elektron wanted to copy the sound-charakter of the digital drummachines from the 80's. 12 bit has a special sound. It's the same with the samples of the 909, they are 8 bit. The samples in the xbase are also 8 bit. The bit-reduced- sound is a little bit trashy, i like that. Elektron gear is spezialized in that 80's lofi trashy digital sounds, You can here a lot of sid sounds and bit crushed sounds in new Techno, Minimal or Electro tracks these days. I think you know the new Battery 2 from NI, they put several MD-Kits in Battery- Libary with this sound charakter. It depends of your music style, if the MD sounds fits or not.

x-base
 
cubbyhouse said:


Excuse my English, it isn’t perfect.

What I meant is: It’s positive if they drop the original price on this unit, because then it matches what you actually get. That’s only my opinion, by the way!

Remember that the base price is without the tax charge (or whatever you call it).
Click to expand...

Ok, makes more sense. I know what the thing costs, and I'm still trying to justify buying it...basically about the only negative comments about the unit have come from you, which is interesting. Most of the other people praising it are more on the idm/electro/glitch tip though.
 
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