Elektron-Users

lcvl wrote:
regarding distortion when compressing low freq sounds, in my experience that's pretty normal when you use attack/release times shorter than the actual wavelenght of the sound itself.
It's not just the MD...
As a rule of thumb, always use longer values when compressing bass drums and bass sounds.

Also I find it better to use lfos to make it pump nicely. U can use different trigg tracks to achieve a sorts of pumping. On the negative side sometimes u got to sacrifice a track.

you know what's cool about this thread?

it shows you how cool the md is.

all of us are working on different techniques/ideas/solutions.

peace

Opuswerk wrote:
How I do it, sidechaining with the MD is to use the LFO of the kick to affect the VOL of the element I want to sidechain, which is usually the bass. But this can also be done using other sounds, like the hihats influencing a shaker line for example, also try having it affect the filter. Sidechaining really is about setting up an fx chain, where one sound will trigger a compressor, a filter or a gate of another element of the track.

I haven't tried what you propose yet, so I'm not sure as to how it does actually sound. But from my experience I wouldn't do it in such a way as it'd more muddy up the low-end than anything else...

+1 this is more like a true side chain, There is no need to use any machine, just use a blank one if ya want, that way it can be independant of the kick and continue to duck the signal when you mute the kick.. if that's your bag.

amenbrother wrote:
lcvl wrote:
regarding distortion when compressing low freq sounds, in my experience that's pretty normal when you use attack/release times shorter than the actual wavelenght of the sound itself.
It's not just the MD...
As a rule of thumb, always use longer values when compressing bass drums and bass sounds.

Also I find it better to use lfos to make it pump nicely. U can use different trigg tracks to achieve a sorts of pumping. On the negative side sometimes u got to sacrifice a track.

DOh! sorry i kinda repeated this. Sorry.

With regards to comp settings, just use either a fast attack/slow decay or slow attack/fast decay or keep them both pretty slow, that should prevent the Amplitude modulation caused by them being too short. I do think the dials on the MD for comrpessor times are too geared towards the very short times though.

Smoof wrote:
sometimes its very nice to have some hihats with long decay (i like the efm-cc for that) and then kick in the bassdrum!

that's one of the effects I want I also imagine that a straight noise-signal being ducked by the BD should be nice for techno/house sound.

(will read the rest of the thread now..)

johnathon doe wrote:
you know what's cool about this thread?

it shows you how cool the md is.

all of us are working on different techniques/ideas/solutions.

peace

Nice one,

I use a variant of your techniqe as well often i a combination with lfo one Opuswerk described first(missed his answer ). Mostly to get a more regular compressor pump, which is nice too. Check Machine 009 on my myspace for some pumping. Its very obvious when the rides enter.
Per

lcvl wrote:
regarding distortion when compressing low freq sounds, in my experience that's pretty normal when you use attack/release times shorter than the actual wavelenght of the sound itself.
It's not just the MD...
As a rule of thumb, always use longer values when compressing bass drums and bass sounds.

You know what's funny about this is that despite the frequency of the sound (as long as it is somewhat low, e.g., BD or toms), and despite the compressor settings (anything smaller than 75-80), the MD compressor noise is always the same pitch. Maybe an acoustical physicist will explain this to me someday

Also the MD compressor's artifact noise is much more noticeable to me than any other compressor I can think of, including the Mono's compressor. So as a rule of thumb, I'd go outboard (the FMR comps are nice, small and inexpensive) but I will give some of these other strategies a go (esp. the LFO trigs).

allright, I thried this, and it does indeed sound like the sound I hear in so much music (both good and very cheezy). it took some noodling with the EQ to not make the BD have a metallic ringing sound to it, but works like a charm with the long-decay hihats

now, to take this further, I will, when I get more cables, send the Monomachine to the MD inputs, through the dynamix and see how well this works with drums, pads and all.

tried lowering volume on parts, but I don't find that it makes much of a difference imo...

Nice tips, thanks.
If i need a "sidechaining" on the md ( rides, basslines), i simply route the Lfo from the desired track to the volume parameter. Lfo waveform is a negative exponential decay. Then set the triggers on the desired steps ( lfod p-lock with the desired value and lfos p-lock with the desired value).
Thats it.
Sound good but sometimes if a do p-locks with the volume parameter, it makes weird crackles and/or noises. Does anybody know why this happens?

Toni wrote:
Another way to play with dynamics:

1. Take your regular MD pattern
2. Add CTRL-EQ machine
3. Route LFO to EQ-GAIN, with exponential curve inversed
4. Program trigs all over the pattern to make it sway



And if you route your kick to a separate output, it won't be affected by the EQ-GAIN. Everything on the main outs can duck under the kick.