Elektron-Users

Hello all.

After using my MD-UW for a while now (couple of weeks) I get a bit frustrated with how "rigid" it feels. I'm not dissing the machine at all by the way, it's all down to my lack of skill I have no doubt.

I normally get a beat going quickly but then after hearing the same thing for 5 or 10 minutes I get bored of it and give up and turn the machine off. I appreciate Song Mode enables you to create much longer sequences, but I'd love for the beats to "evolve" and surprise me.

Does anyone have any tips to help me achieve this?

Thanks.

The only way I can think of is by using LFOs to modulate the Start/End parameter of a sample. This will work if each sample has silence at the start of it or samples are made up of a number of samples. Apart from this, I think the sequencer is pretty much rigid......

I think this is one of the downfalls of electronic music. If you are working with a looping sequencer, after 5 - 10 minutes it will get tiresome, unless you are working with some interesting LFOs. Even with the LFOs going all over it will get tiresome eventually.

What I do is that, create a composition through the PATTERNS. So I would come up with a beat and add the whistles and bells. Then copy and paste into the first 5 patterns (A1-A5) Now on the first pattern I would delete some of the tracks which would sound like an intro. On second pattern, add some of the elements from the original pattern idea and move on to the 3rd pattern and so on.

And one thing I try NOT to do is to listen to the sequence I have created more than 5 minutes I just loose the feel for it and it sounds like a wasted opportunity. Because that sequence idea could sound very interesting to somebody else when it is nicely laid out on a 5 minute track

ever thought of setting up an CTLALL machine and tweak the bejesus out of your 4 bar pattern?
then, when mayhem is perfect just hit function+classic/extended...
you can sequence an CTLALL machine as well (as the other CTLmachines, too)!

also don´t forgeet you can chain patterns on the fly
use other track´s LFO´s to routing it to only one machine...

Thank you for your replies. Much appreciated. Using multiple patterns much more will clearly help me. For some reason I stick to 1 pattern and try to evolve it as I go which works up to a point but having multiple evolving patterns with gradual variations across them will work much more.....

Also, whilst in Song mode can you still tweak the patterns? I haven't tried that. Say you had a Song made up of 4 4-bar patterns which were slightly different AND tweakable as the Song plays could be very interesting...

I nearly always run multiple instruments, so 1 is regular kick, 13 is an alternative kick rhythm or sound, 2 is regular snare, 14 snare decoration or roll/fill etc. Combine this with a couple of melodic ideas, hats, rim shot, claps etc & you can have loads of different patterns within one pattern by using mutes & fades.
Yes, 'control all' is really useful too!!!
Other cool tricks I use a lot -
Drop scale lengths to switch time Sig
Use rec play machines & set different trigs , then use function & mute to switch in & out.
Don't forget you can tweak away then hit Function & ext to return to the saved kit.
Watch the Dataline, Trondc, & Wessex vids on yt to see this stuff in action

CupCake wrote:
Also, whilst in Song mode can you still tweak the patterns? ...
Yes you can.

I love the arranger mode. You can create some crazy little rythems by choosing the same pattern multiple times and selecting different steps. You can mute and unmute any of the sixteen tracks. This gives the MD the ability to use triplets and off time craziness on just one pattern. Start adding multiple patterns and you really have quite a complex playground. At first glance the MD only has one LFO per track. this is not true you can assign a tracks LFO to any other track. If like me you only use four to six tracks at a time you can use any of the other ten tracks for mutable LFOs, control machines, or my fave the control 8. Or what ever you want. Arranger mode is the key though. You can make some crazy tunes.

Edit-now that I think about it the LFO from track to track work in an order, ie track one's LFOs can control track two's but not the other way round.

so very many cool ideas in this thread, totally refreshing info.

BlueWolfSe7en wrote:

Don't forget you can tweak away then hit Function & ext to return to the saved kit.


also, before reverting to the saved kit, you can copy the pattern (containing the same notes but with all the tweaked out tweakiness) ...

then revert ...

then paste the pattern to recall the super tricked out parameter tweaks

then revert..


also, something i have not done although have read about it here on the forums,

try having a non-p-lock version of the pattern and a p-locked version.
switch between Classic and Extend modes to hear the non p-lock version and the p-lock version.


Another trick is for super-long LFO speeds, detailed by Veets..
cannot remember how right now.

^ I seem to recall an LFO'ing the LFO technique for really slow LFOs, is that what you were referring to?