Elektron-Users

where you press stop on the transport, and sometimes the kit just randomly switches to whatever is saved in the first slot of the memory.
it's happened to me on more then one occassion, and destroyed some good kits a couple times too.

i'm using the newest OS and everything.

:@

yes it has happened to me, much too frequently with previous OS's but i think it never happened with OS 1.05, or at least only once or twice (ofcoure it should never happen!)

but hey, you don't lose the pattern, load the undo-pattern next time when it happens, you should have the previous pattern there!

cheers

yeah, it has happened to me some times too, more with earlier os-versions than 1.05 but it still occurs once in a while. I wouldn't call it randomly. Im not certain but I think it's whe n I edit a pattern with a kit I've made earlier, switching to another pattern and start using these new sounds and somehow switch back to the old pattern and press stop and it reverses.. something like that....

That has happened to me at least twice in the last week(1.05) Always reverts to the kit in the first position. Haven't lost any work however...

it was happening to me when working on a pattern, and switching to a new blank pattern while in play mode, i learned to stop doing that quick enough. but it's also doing it without switching patetrs, and it is random, because sometimes you can stop, and all is fine, other times not so good.
the times that it has ruined kits is when it is a brand new kit (not yet saved) and it does the switcheroo. hitting undo on the kit didn't work so well then.

i emailed elektron about it's on the 'to-do list', so it's hurry up and wait i guess.

steve

Hey guys, new on the board. MD-UW is my first Elektron unit. Family life and work has limited the time spent with hardware so I'm just re-familiarizing me with step editing and doing some simple sequencing.

My weekend DJ gigs have actually provided most of the time I spend with hardware. I've been dragging my mpc1000 all summer just for bomb drops, hand claps, percussion, heavy drinking and laughs.

Now I want to bring the MD-UW out for the same type of fun. Since I've only just begun programming and saving my own kits and patterns, and doing some slaving to the mpc1k, I'm uncertain of the workflow for sampling on the MD-UW. I noticed the dedicated machines. But what may I expect when setting up next to two turntables and a dj-mixer? It's one of the key selling points for the MD-UW but I can't find a manual for this type of work flow.

Currently I have no means of trying much out at home, since most my stuff is in boxes. Any advice and hints will be greatly appreciated!

hello - and welcome to the board!

Firstly, I must admit that I do not have the UW, but I can tell you a thing or 2 about the nature of the elektron workflow. Basically, there is none - you have to invent the workflow. Elektron kind of makes these amazing boxes and then throws their hands in the air and says "you do it" and what I think they mean by that is that we can control the workflow any way we wish simply by using the machines and integrating them into our existing kit.

The Machinedrum can do whatever the hell you want it to do - but the best way to learn how to do this (the manual is like the legend on a map - its a rough guide for how the OS works and thats about it) is to just spend time with the thing and expiriment. When I first got my monomachine, I was like "what the hell is this thing?!?!" it was nothing like any of my other gear, and I almost did not even like it. Then I spent more and more time just digging into the thing, and soon I realized that it leaves my other gear in the dust because its beyond sophistication. The workflow is dictated by my new understading of the machine, mostly based on expirimentation.

So, if I had the UW - I would just load a bunch of random samples into it, mangle them and parameter lock them to death. Hook it up to the rest of the kit (turntables and MPC in your case) and just tweak for hours trying out new features etc. Use the inputs, the various outputs - run the thing into itself, run it off an aux of your mixer, run the MPC into it - run it into the MPC - route that signal all over the place and find your flow! You;ll have the hang of it soon enough :-D

Also, the tap tempo (function+tempo) and nudge functions (in tempo mode, push left or right keys) make the MD pretty easy to beatmatch w/ records.

Once you're looked onto the tempo of your tunes, you could drop sounds by pressing the trig buttons, or start programming patterns on top in real time . . . As mentioned above, workflow is pretty flexible.

Everytime I jam on the MD and play w/ a different function or effect, I learn something new (and often musically useful)!

sounds like you're after the RAM machines. these capture live audio and allow you to resequence/tweak/effect/filter/chop/pitch it. You can sample from either of the audio inputs (or a mix of the two, but only in mono), or resample the MD's output. For DJ work I imagine you'd be more interested in sampling the inputs. The way that recording works with the RAM record machines may be a little different from what you're used to, and by that, I mean completely ass-different. You will set up one pattern with a REC machine trigger (set length param to the entire pattern). Make sure the MD is synced to tempo at this point. Let the record pattern play, each loop it will capture one measure worth of sound. When you record the measure that you want, switch to your RAM play pattern (which you set up beforehand). Of course, this pattern will sound totally different depending on what you fed the RAM record with. Make sure you use lots of parameter locks with the RAM play machine...you can use it as a simple phrase sampler, I guess, but that would be a grave injustice.

edit: to clarify: the ram record machine will sample audio whenever it is triggered in a pattern...the MD itself doesn't have to be in record mode for this to work. You can even live-trigger the RAM machine if you want (I think).

Note: this is just the most basic, off-the-top-of-my-head way to use this thing. I certainly haven't begun to scratch the surface of the full potential of the RAM machines myself.

Great and very motivational answers - thank you all! The tap tempo also struck me as the obvious way to tag on to whatever record is playing (didn't know there was a nudge function tho'!). I guess matching a measure to a pattern just got a lot easier. I'll need to try some of these things, and make sure to learn the idea of working those RAM-machine properly. I've had some trouble getting parameter locks to work for me, but I'll get around to it.