Elektron-Users

Hello all,

So, as the MD does, the Monomachine has an accent track. (EDIT: Sorry, that is total BS! Must've dreamt that...) However, this isn't much use if you want that old style 303 accent where the below are increased on that step:

-Note volume (which originally overdrives the filter... so perhaps the Mono's Distortion parameter...?)
-Filter resonance
-Filter envelope depth (shortened time/staccato effect)

Now, excuse me if this is obvious and has been covered before (I did a quick search and didn't find anything) but I was trying to find a work-around for parameter locking in these kind of accents while being able to tweak the parameters, with the locked value following my own parameter changes. i.e. I wanted the parameter locked value to ADD to where my tweaked parameter was at that time.

Then I realised - LFOs!

Set your LFOs to square waves with 0 as the Speed and x1 as the Multiplier. Set the running mode to Trig. This now turns the LFO into a constant value which can be changed with the Depth control. The Depth control should be set to 0 then Parameter locked to small values on the steps where accents should take place. This can therefore be used to add or subtract from certain parameters while they are tweaked manually, and solves the problem of P-Locks jumping back to their programmed value instead of following how the user is tweaking a value at the same time.

I set my 3 LFOs to Volume, Filter Width (with my Base parameter set to 0) and Filter Envelope Decay (this one I had set negative to make the envelope shorter), which, while not being perfectly 303-esque, works pretty damn well, and as said above, let me tweak those parameters without any nasty jumps happening throughout the sequence.

This made me wonder, could Elektron add in a function where the Accent steps change certain parameters by certain amounts? This could be done in the Assign settings window, with Accent as another tab like the Keyboard and Joystick tabs. I'm not sure how they could implement it in the MD though. Perhaps in the Accent level window itself?

Hope that's quite neat to some people - as I said after I had found it, it seemed so obvious to me, but I had never thought about it before.

Finlay

Seems like a nice little trick! I often use the LFOs in trigger mode... so much fun!
Thanks for sharing!

cool technique super-cheers!
im trying to make a P-Lock volume rhythmic gating effect..
although now, i wonder if LFO's would be more precise and clean for making rhythmic open.shut gate effect using incoming audio and a square wave LFO ..

edit: perhaps a random LFO in the mix too.

Good one!

excellent tip man!

did you try to de-activate the key tracking of the filter for your 303`s emulation? try this on the LPF or both, you´ll get a different filter response to your notes

also if you keep the HPF (base) key tracked you can ride the res on it and then tune the fiter so the res peak boost the fundamental, so you got a bass boost that tracks the fundamental of your basslines without sacrifying the EQ at the fx section

im more of a lfo guy than a pl'd one and use techniques like that but i need more lfos

zoot wrote:
im more of a lfo guy than a pl'd one and use techniques like that but i need more lfos

+1

p-locks are awesome but a bit on the static side if you are just trying things...LFOs are much more versatile for some things and also performance techniques

anselmi wrote:
excellent tip man!
did you try to de-activate the key tracking of the filter for your 303`s emulation? try this on the LPF or both, you´ll get a different filter response to your notes
also if you keep the HPF (base) key tracked you can ride the res on it and then tune the fiter so the res peak boost the fundamental, so you got a bass boost that tracks the fundamental of your basslines without sacrifying the EQ at the fx section
Yep, I always have a routine of turning the tracking off then maybe applying it to the HPF if I need more depth. It's a nice feature but I still don't understand why it's on as default...

I too find myself desperate for more LFOs. Sometimes I'll use software to supply LFOs through MIDI CCs.

futureimage wrote:
anselmi wrote:
excellent tip man!
did you try to de-activate the key tracking of the filter for your 303`s emulation? try this on the LPF or both, you´ll get a different filter response to your notes
also if you keep the HPF (base) key tracked you can ride the res on it and then tune the fiter so the res peak boost the fundamental, so you got a bass boost that tracks the fundamental of your basslines without sacrifying the EQ at the fx section
Yep, I always have a routine of turning the tracking off then maybe applying it to the HPF if I need more depth. It's a nice feature but I still don't understand why it's on as default...

I too find myself desperate for more LFOs. Sometimes I'll use software to supply LFOs through MIDI CCs.

I got the same issue in my EMX and ESX...I´d love to got 3 or 4 more LFOs to realtime mangle things

about a year ago I was talking with an electronic engineering about building a box with a DSP generated MIDI LFOs to drive gear fron the outside....something with a MIDI IN for clock and some MIDI OUTs for merged the incomming with the LFO data or just send the generated stuff

but as I said before I´m afraid of MIDI bandwith overload...maybe some "mute LFO out" buttons can be a good addition

Don't forget: you can p-lock the shape, speed, depth, and parameter of the LFOs, too! So, instead of using one LFO for a dedicated purpose (say, filter width), p-lock different parameters on different steps.

Or, let's say you wanted a sharp, one-shot, envelope type filter effect on one step, but a traditional triangle LFO-modulated filter seep on a long note; simply dial in those p-locks on that trig and you're good to go!

I'm going to name my child, "P-Locks" because they're that damn cool.