Elektron-Users

ipassenger wrote:
Just to clear this up, the MD and MnM swing setting is stepped when their clocks are slaved, e.g. They can still swing but u don't have as fine a control over the amount as when not slaved. . Or at least this is what it said I the manual somewhere. Pretty sure the octa doesn't suffer with this bit it is always master in my rig anyway.



aha, found something in the Monomachine manual about this ...
[page 64]

When the Monomachine is locked to external MIDI clock, the swing amount will be quantised to the resolution of the MIDI clock, leaving only four effective swing amounts.

interesting! i thought there was something mentioned about Elektron gear's swing, synced to another machine's BPM.


so, if the Octatrack does not have this limitation, then perhaps i will sync the OT to the Machinedrum's BPM, because i really dig the time vibe from the Machinedrum.

Difficult to explain really ... the Machinedrum seems to have an extremely funky time vibe going on. Of course, this could be all in my imagination, but anything the Machinedrum plays, seems immediately groovy and danceable.

Edited . . . Preview Lounge got there before me.

It does seem odd to me this but it is how they work.

I manage with the stepped values as I don't want anything to upset the looped samples in the octa as it would cause warbling of timestretched samples.

previewlounge wrote:
Difficult to explain really ... the Machinedrum seems to have an extremely funky time vibe going on. Of course, this could be all in my imagination, but anything the Machinedrum plays, seems immediately groovy and danceable.

What style of music do you do? I don't use swing all that often (partly because it's tricky with different sequencers etc.) What sort of swing values do you like to set?

swing values 54, 59 and 63 ... and as for the swing patterns, i am just using the default swing trig tracks as they are for now, although noticed an interesting custom swing pattern shown on the Monomachine manual p.64

tempo's of around 95bpm -> 105bpm ... currently working on 'progressive trip hop' tracks, for want of a better description. i had to dial back the tempo to these levels because quicker tempos were not helping me to hear the space between sounds.

but the actual time vibe of the Machinedrum is more relating to how the beat sounds to me when the Machinedrum is master tempo. this may very well be my imagination.

although the beat is quite regular, the vibe just sounds so much more danceable than when i use ableton, for example.

So, i am hoping the Octatrack will provide a similar awesome time feel when working with loops, loop slice segments, and a greater variety of samples.

duplicate

Swing of 57, Accent track set to 7 or 8, bliss

Tarekith wrote:
Swing of 57, Accent track set to 7 or 8, bliss

Indeed!

For my 4 on the floor techno in the Detroit style, I swing at 52%, and include the 1/16 step and/or the 9/16 steps as swing steps (in addition to the default even number swing steps).

I like 54% too, but anything more than that, to my ears and style, starts to sound like the euro minimal swing vibe that I've grown tired of lately. All depends on what you're goin' for I suppose.

Also like to play around with zero swing (50%) set on some tracks, and 52% on others. Swinging the kick on that 1 and 9 steps, but NOT swinging the hats, for example... Swinging the claps, but not the snares for a slight flam effect on the 5 and 9, etc.

very cool ideas ... so, does the Accent track work in with the Swing? or maybe is just a convenient volume thing?

so, the default Accent trig track is empty ... is it a good idea to put Accent trigs on the same trigs as a Swing trig track? Maybe this approach is generalising things too much. I am sure the Accent track is a more subtle thing to be used, here or there. Have to admit to not using Accent track for years, not sure why.. perhaps due to somehow, the p-locks seemed more convenient.

actually the Accent track fascinates me. I remember Nils mentioning a while ago,
how the Accent track would not only effect the volume of a particular machine (could be BD2, not sure) - but if an Accent trig were on the same trig step as a machine, it would effect the synthesis of the machine in some way.

perhaps it was a snare drum.

this is very cool.. the idea that Accent could effect synthesis changes.

HighSage idea of contrasting 52% swing with a 50% percent setting (effectively no swing) sounds very cool and a lot of fun.

.. swinging the kick on 1 and 9 steps and not swinging the hats!

Swinging the claps, but not the snares for a slight flam effect on the 5 and 9, etc.




as regards swing amounts, while it does depend on style and tempo, i think the individual mix of sounds in a pattern kind of lend themselves more easily to less or more swing, maybe this could be relating to each sound's length or even the attack of the amplitude or filter.

previewlounge wrote:

aha, found something in the Monomachine manual about this ...
[page 64]

When the Monomachine is locked to external MIDI clock, the swing amount will be quantised to the resolution of the MIDI clock, leaving only four effective swing amounts.

I just looked in the MD's manual and saw nothing about swing being affected on it when synced. So now I'm wondering which of the trinity to make the master... Monomachine to get full range of swing, Octatrack to prevent timestretch issues (as I have been doing), or Machinedrum for its groove. Time to experiment.