Elektron-Users

Has anyone here had any success in making actual moving, melodic or walking bass lines with the MD? I've heard some from Trondc (Kolibiri for one), but I'm interested in hearing more from others. As I convalesce, I'm trying to get deeper into the MD, but sometimes I just drift off from the meds and don't really catch what I should be doing! I'm hoping I'm on the right track here or should I just be looking at it for drums 'n' perc only and rely on another instrument for my bass?

Thanks in advance!

totally doable. my current favorite approach is to use single-cycle waves, but sampled synth hits and the internal machines both can work well too, depending on the sound you want.

huge subject, so if you're feeling up to it, read the tips & tricks document (files section) ... it's a great resource for bass and many other things mduw.

Hey man,
You can definitely make melodic songs on the machinedrum only. I've used internal machines as well as single cycle samples. Many have used one shot synth samples, but I never really liked doing this personally, as I couldn't control the length of the notes. With the single cycle samples, you can control the length, as they will automatically loop. If you want to create a synth hit with a slower attack, you can use an LFO on ramp for the volume.
I'll post links to some track on another post.
Cheers,
M.

Here's some tracks using the machinedrum for melodic music. All synth elements are single cycle samples. I have done tracks using only the machinedrum sounds, but since soundcloud caps your minutes, I had to erase them.

https://soundcloud.com/doktor-fibonacci/tamc-march-machinedrum-acid

https://soundcloud.com/doktor-fibonacci/acid-in-february-al

Regards,
M.

my fav approach is using E12 or ROM machines and retrigger.
it's simple but very effective and gives unique "plasticky" tones imo.

put RTRG to max, RTIM is the pitch, lowpass filter it..
the STRT & pitch parameters are great for shaping the tone.. if you modulate these, it's kind of like a weird minimalistic wavetable synth.

double up the track with slightly different RTIM parameters and pan the tracks hard left/right respectively for a strong lo-fi chorus effect.

and of course experiment with multiple LFOs..

TRX-2 bassdrum, pitch up to audible range, turn up the distortion (the synth parameter, not the one on the fx page) increase resoncance and turn down the filter. Add some LFO action set to TRIG and route it to the filter. Voila, you now have a beefy and versatile bass sound to play with.

Also, any machine with a retrig-option is gold. Like Void says it gives off some weird and rubbery bass sounds, although you have a slightly smaller frequency range to work with. I for one LOVE the bass coming from the MD, it's on par with many bass sounds on both the Monomachine and A4.

Thanks for the replies - that's a lot to work with! Since I can't find it anywhere else, I'm assuming, though, that I cannot use a keyboard to "play" the basses, though, right? All pitch changes must be made with the Plocks?

yep.
there are trickery fancy ways of doing this externellay, e.g. with the minicommand controller. but on the device itself, p-locks are the way to go.

OK. Just looked up the Mini Controller and in that thread it mentioned using the iPad instead. I wonder if the QuNexus would work? Guess I'd better ask Halo, eh?

iPad is a good call.
I'm working on an App for controlling the Machinedrum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSCrMi248uE

it has support for this sort of stuff, a dedicated melody generator is planned.. but it's not released yet and will take another few months at least.