Elektron-Users

Recently I've been toying with the idea of using comps of sorts that aren't the usual rack mount (and usually expensive) interesting kinds.

Mainly I'm looking into guitar pedal comps. There are so many out there and on ebay they are very inexpensive and there's a ton to choose from.

I'va always heard these rumors of big time producers having secret weapons for drum busses using such effects like this. Anybody else use similar effects?

Been really happy with the compressor in the zoom sampletrak as of late. You can use it as an external effect.

I'm kind of obsessed with compressors, almost as much as synths. Ha.

I'm really into ones that have a vibe or color. I have a few that are cool and cheap. DBX166, RNLA, Symetrix 501, but I'm really keen on trying some pedals. I've heard the Boss CS3 can do cool things to drums amongst others.

Tonight on a remix I was squashing the hell out of my TR707 thru the DBX166 and it sounded pretty amazing and it took care of the sometimes over pronounced hi-mids you get out of the 707 and made it dark and kind of weird... I think the DBX was 80 bucks.

Was talking about this on another thread - interested in getting a BD sidechain working on a busy setup (Two A4s, MD, Kaoss and iPad) - mainly want the MD bass drum to trigger the compression so everything else wraps around this. Is Side chaining the way to go (using an isolated bd from the md) or do you think a stereo compress across the main mix will achieve a good result - don't want it to sound over compressed or pump too much either? Thoughts - already looking at the 166 on ebay!

I think it would depend on how you work. I you're using a board you could send the MD bassdrum out to a separate out then aux send that channel to the sidechain input of the compressor. But that comp has to be effecting the stuff you want to pump.

If you want everything to pump then I think it would have to be the stereo bus.

TBH I've actually never really used sidechain, I guess I'm scared to overdo it. But now that I'm getting more comfortable with different routings I might try it sparingly.

I've done other things to get that feel without comping the whole mix, like on a pad LFO synced to rise opposite the kick (either filter width or volume), every easy on the A4 or MnM.

PM me if you want to hear. I have a few tracks release forthcoming that are still private on my soundclowns.

Thanks! Yes didnt want to get into a bigger board and sub-grouping everything apart from the BD - in the side chain model. But that was an approach further down the track. I just use a small board for routing at the moment so kind of thinking putting a comp across the whole mix and lifting the BD much higher to produce a similar result where each BD drops the whole mix slightly around it? But not ideal. Also the LFO on each track would be an issues as I run two A4s together, so a lot of fiddling? Unless there is a global LFO across all tracks? Keen to hear your tracks too!

Double post.

I've used an Aphex Aural Exciter/Big Bottom Bass guitar pedal on kick and other individual percussion sounds. Been in the closet for a while; since, when I was running everything individually to a board. I was able to squeeze a nice 909 kick out of an SCI drumtraks. The pedal being mono in out, I have not used it with the MD on the mix out. It does more than compression, but can produce a nice crunch. Seems to crunch certain frequency ranges while letting others breath.

I see from your sound cloud you are in new york. Not to far from me. PM me if you are interested in borrowing it. You seem to be into experimentation. Should be cheap to post without a power supply (standard 9V, tip -). If you have a distortion pedal for a temporary trade, I've been exploring flavors of that lately.