Oddses And Endses...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
A couple little things:
1. One week left to submit for the AI comp. February 15th is the cut-off. (I expect a bunch of “OH HAI I JUST SAW THIS CAN I STILL GET UP IN THIS BITCH???!!” letters on the 16th, since that’s how you guys roll.)
2. Dr. Device is now 32/64 across the board, and in the AD Store for immediate download. Some bug fixes in this one as well.
3. I ordered a Maschine Mikro. It’ll be here today. I’m not entirely sure _why_ I ordered one.
In that vein, here’s what I’m curious about today: we’ve all owned drum machines (some of us more than others.) In my experience, every drum machine has that one quirky feature that makes it funz0rs. Well, except the Alesis SR-16. That’s a quirk-free zone all up in there. What’s your favorite quirky feature from a drum machine you’ve owned? Be specific: instrument, feature, why, and what-for?
24 comments
I used to own a terrible Kawai R-50 in the early noughties (I was given it) - the sounds were terribly dated, but by chance I found that on really high tempo settings it would totally glitch out.
So I used to program beats on really high tempo settings but do it half time, so it'd sound like it was choking on quite slow rhythms.
Then I got bored of it (not hard) and swapped it for a nanoloop cart. No regrets.
I don't know if quirky and annoying can be the same thing, but the XD-5 has a crap MIDI implementation so you can't control or playback parameter automation.
In realtime, you can adjust 1 parameter of your choosing via the 1 slider on the front.
It's disappointing to say the least because there are a dozen or so parameters that could really be tweaked continuously to make the most use out of this box.
Therefore, if you want to use the sounds in a dynamic fashion, you are forced to pick the one parameter that will work the most magic, assign it to the crappy slider, hit record and capture a take to audio before the inspiration leaves you. This quirkiness forces you to make a choice and stick with it.
The Korg EMX1. A lot of people are surprised I use one and consider it a must have in my studio, but even though it is a fixed ROM drum machine, it actually has enough of a synth engine attached to it to do some very out of the box kinds of things. In particular, its motion control allows it to to really become a dynamic sort of instrument. It is actually the only piece of equipment in my studio that I have replaced after my first one became irreparably damaged.
Oddly, the ESX1 I havn't really fallen in love with. I had one for a while, but it just didn't have the same magic for me. I think it's because I had to spend so much time looking for sounds to load into and futzing with Smart Media cards that I just gave up. ROM, no matter how limited, frees up my brain to think about other things. If truth be told, I think the ROM on the EMX is actually pretty good, too.
Not sure if it's a quirk or a feature, but I find the SC TOM's reverse sample feature plus it tune-able pitch to be pretty unique, I like to reverse the crash cymbal or kick, pitch it down and then play it back at a slow BPM to get that 70's reverse tape kind of LSD vibe, you an also use MIDI keys to change the pitch during the track.....feed that sound into Replicant and sit back and smile.
How can you mention the emx1 and not mention the handy finger warmer on the front panel?
For me, locators in Audio tracks on the MPC1000 with JJ.
Meant to be a DAW type feature where locator/markers can be added to an audio track and jumped to with pads.
Big fun to be had when playing a sequence and jumping all over the place with the pads, lots of note repeat style stutters, but with the whole song.
:#
Just got an mpc1k... gotta try that locators trick. Thanks
Great post subject
The one thing that strikes me with machines from the olden days is how the concept of pushing the equipment to its limits is now a lost.
The delay track feature on the MPC was clearly put in to counter act the notion that the drum machines was inherently in-human (which they were ...) and incapable of having a "feel". However it wasn't put there for Swiss Beatz to make fucked up stutter beats that hardly sit together....
That ability to use and abuse machines seem to not exist anymore and although you can discuss the musical merits of the S3000 cyclic time stretch mode, it did became a big part of early drum and bass....
@mike kiraly - sysex is your friend. (after you beat it into submission) there is a template for the behringer BCR2000 for the kawai XD5. look into it. a lot more control
@johan: Mmmmmm, dunno 'bout that. There are a lot of little things in both the MachineDrum and the Tempest that can be abused far beyond the designers' intentions.
-CR
I haven't used one in ages, but if I remember correctly the quirk of the HR-16 was that it would lose time randomly, in very tiny amounts.
I noticed when I started using Pro Tools in the studio in the 90's. When I'd try to make a tempo map of a click from a HR-16 it would be off every minute or so, for one click, about 20ms or so. It happened with every HR-16 I used. Made me rethink laughing at drummers who said "the click is off".
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@Chris Randall: Says you beyond the designers' intentions... I made sure to keep things flexible in the Tempest so things can be used at the same time for realtime effects. There are still a lot of things people don't have access to yet that are going to take it to a new dimension
Feels like the obvious answer, but I'm all about the Elektron Machinedrum for crazy quirks. Having 16 LFOs with the ability to assign LFOs to other LFO parameters has got to be one of the best - few full-blown synthesizers even let you come close to that. Then combine that with parameter locks in the sequencer... we're not even in drum machine territory anymore.
Would also give a +1 to the motion sequence implementation on the Electribes that others have mentioned. Lots of fun, though not sure it's really all that quirky, especially now that automation features are standard fare these days. But you can definitely get some wacky FM stuff going on by using Trig Hold motion sequencing on the Mod Speed/Depth parameters.
My first drum machine was the Casio RZ-1. It let you sample! At very poor quality! For less than a second! But it was still awesome.
Even better, it had separate audio outs for every pad and sound. I was glad to be rid of it at the time, but man I wish I still had that giant green block.
Roland R-8 was my second (and last) drum machine. You could do multiple "control" passes on any beat, and do things like change the pitch of samples on every beat, change the attack, pan, etc. and "overdub" these changes into each pattern. This allowed you to do way too much tweaking.
You could also use any sounds in the machine in any beat, without having to create a special kit...this allowed for some crazy juxtaposition.
In hindsight, it was also a really slick machine that I barely scratched the surface of.
We used to get HR-16s and MMT-8s into repair at Alesis with pot seeds in the top lid, not sure if that counts as a quirky feature.
My first drum box was the Mattel Synsonics, the first unit that taught me that distortion makes things better.
If you considered the Waldorf rack attack ( no less than the new norddrum I suppose ) then it's a tie ...between that and my ol' E-MU XL -7 .
The Waldorf was fantastic for the fact that it could also do synth sounds with that " Waldorf sound " If that was your thing.The Midi Setup was kind of henkie
+ I never got tired of people asking me why I had the hardware unit and the vst version ;)
@boobs - I have tried desperately to beat the XD-5 sysex into submission. And I have tried to seek out templates for the BCR and Logic Environments. Unsuccessful on all counts. If any one has a link, please pass it along and I will give you a coupon for free hugs. Or free beer.
I can second the SC TOM reverse and pitch functions. It's certainly not anything special these days, but having it on the front panel makes it SUPER easy to try out variations quickly and get some interesting results. You can also have different pitch/reverse settings per step, yea!
There is also a polyphony limit (4 sounds at a time IIRC) that can bear fruit as you overwrite things. I seem to remember it doing voice stealing as well which cuts off some sounds which can also be fun.
Hmmm, better fire that up tonight...
Yamaha RM1X - The cons outweigh the pro's but...
8 knobs in the upper right hand corner can be reassigned to whatever you please, hit shift and make that 16 per channel. 16 x 16 customizable knob box.
Jumping from channel to channel easy, shift + C = channel 1 , shift + D = channel 2 etc ... up to channel 16.
The RM1X MIDI delay can send to external gear. I'd send it to DR. Rex and have it spit out some wild REX slices.
The Seq is hands down the F'n bomb. I'd get my lil green midiman box and send note data to a 106, BSK, and sync an electribe ES-1 simultaneously. Sadly, the ES-1 would suffer from Drift. Slaving the RM1 to the ES-1 fix that.
Waldorf Attack VST - I still use my Steinberg Edition Attack. I give it love and it loves me back. I just love it. It has no quirks, its sound is the quirk. Just damm good for over a decade old VST. I got it working on win7 also. A lil reg edit fixins got it working.. my akai middleware magically worked after that adjustment too. search win7/vista Waldorf attack on KVR and steinberg forums for the fix.
Xfer Nerve - seq is the bomb, outputs note data and CC too. It's the daddy of drum sample loader thingys. But it's quirk for me is < and > on each sample slot, no more menu diving in your Goldbaby folders. ADM would be the shiznit but you have to Menu Dive DEEP to go to the next sample. Nerve also lets you hit ALT < or > to randomly select a sample in the folder, sadly Duda never implented Random pattern maker thingy like on Tattoo and the D16 joints. It's Mac / PC, has a Lemur / iLemur / Tousch OSC build as well, and for po' folks it has a padkontrol build that turns a Korg Padkontrol into something like Maschine minus VST support.
CR, I wish you luck with your Maschine Mikro, I hear alot of forum whining on how Kore was deaded while the Maschine SW cant even host Multitimbral VSTi's properly, one of them being the infamous Kontakt. I hope thats a lie.
..oh and Reaktor... for the preset crossfader / randomizer thingy on the preset select ... I plan on rebuying Tattoo and I'd look forward to a feature like that.
Crossfader Right = Pattern x
Crossfader Left =Pattern y
The further left you go, the more random it gets with bits from pattern y and vice versa. It has an amount knob above it, if its on 1 the randomness is very little, if on 128 its madness. Its something you have to see and hear in action. Typing about does it no justice.
@mike kiraly - i saw a template for the XD5 on the yahoo user group for the BCR/BCF
haven't tried it as i have no BCR/BCF but apparently it works.
i hate sysex too but it can be had... for a price... and at the expense of anything fun you want to do with your time.
The tone colour parameter on a Boss 550 was pretty strange. Not really a quirk because it did what it said it would; change the 'tone colour' of the sample. But at high settings it could totally gut a sound of any real punch leaving a strange shadow of the former sound behind, not bad for glitchy/ambient malarky.
If I understand the rules correctly, recontextualized/remixed material is not welcome? Composition must be wholly new?
- c
Well, as long as you own both master and sync, and the iteration in question hasn't been previously released, then I don't see any problem with it. I'm not gonna get in some licensing go-round for a single track on a comp that will be a financial disaster to begin with.
-CR
Submitted. Good luck to all.
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