Yeah, cool suggestion. Go and make a thread for it! 
okay… what’s a good duration for a lab? never had one…
I don’t know, maybe a month? Let it run for all of February or something?
You could check how the labs were done at the old elektron-users forum if you’d like, I never participated in one. Or I’m sure some of the old veterans from there will chime in here soon.
Weirdly, the announcement of the RYTM just makes me love the MD even more. I’ve not got any tips beyond what’s already been posted but I still find the MD the most inspiring Elektron box. The RYTM is a cool alternative but I can do anything I want already.
Curious to see/hear these lab sessions.
A month sounds great I reckon.
Over at ohpeewon.com we do something very similar, except we call them battles, give people about 2 weeks to submit their track and then we actually vote for a winner too who then dreams up the next set of battle rules. We’re not overly competitive, but it’s a great way to get lots of people involved and focussed on the same thing and also to dive into a specific piece of functionality of the machine. They’ve been very successful and we’re on battle 18 at the moment
TRX-BD2
EFM-BD
TRX-BD
And the terrifying FM cowbell
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One thing the MD has that the AR doesn’t, is the ability to actually sample right into the machine! AR must have samples uploaded to it. So the MD still rules in the realm of spontaneous beat making/rearranging/self-eating (not considering the OT of course).
Another one is EXTENDED and CLASSIC mode switching. I haven’t had a chance to experiment with this yet, but apparently some people love this feature for creating transitions and pattern variations. Sort of like an “RANDOM IDEA” button!
The AR is going to be sweet, no doubt, but I think it’s going to have a completely different vibe than the MD. I can’t see one being “better” than the other. Just different. No doubt, it would be a very tough decision choosing one over the other.
Science Labs sound like a great idea!
I would find time …somehow!
Is there a tutorial on the ‘self sampling’ somewhere? It’s straightforward on the OT, just configure the recorder to listen to another track.
There’s a RAM Machines tutorial in the appendix A-16.
^ I asked about this the other day, sorta, trying to figure out RAM to ROM copy (record using a RAM Recorder, go to the sample manager and scroll to the bottom where the RAM samples are stored, copy and paste into ROM), and it opens up a lot of territory, especially if you keep tweaking and resampling (p-locking the CTRL-AL is especially cool here…try muting and unmuting the track while recording). Try this: make a loop, set up a Rec and Play machine, trig the first trig on the Rec, then hit play and resample the loop. Now place some trigs and locks on the Play machine, maybe with a CTRL-AL and an additional snare or hat loop, and resample that loop into another Rec. machine. Save the new loop as a ROM sample and sequence it as a new ROM machine, making new patterns as you go.
If anyone has tips on getting good levels for resampling internally, I’m all ears. Far too easy to turn into ear-splitting feedback, even if you mute the Play machines while recording.
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Using +parameter to effect all 16 tracks at once. Then bringing it all back home with +Classic/Extended=Reload Kit.
Also, the using the R&W Minicommand to control the MD delay. Heck, I think I did a video of that.
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3 variations using funtion+Classic and copy-paste-undo paste(pattern)
When done in the correct order you can keep cycling through 3 variations editing parameters on each.
The copy-paste-undo paste is nice because you can introduce trig variations in addition to sound parameter variations.
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This thread is awesome.
TO add something:
When you use p locks to control external synths, you can glide/slide patch changing. Sometimes it sounds really awesome, sometimes kind of “meh.” It’s also worth mentioning that you can p lock different cc values, so techincally you can get more than 6 cc’s per track. Though it is worth mentioning that on the voyager, values dont reset unless you have the kit saved with the correct value for the patch in the MD, or you have to have the next trigger p locked at the correct vlaue. THis is a good and a bad thing, as you can get some hands free mod’ing(like having the AMP release turned up for x steps) but annoying if you do not do the extra work. IDK if its voyager specific yet though I assume it’s the MD. Cant wait to try my poly evolver rack with this thing.
I have been using the MD as the center or my "“battlestation” for soemtime now. Between external control and all the sweet tricks you can do with it, kind of difficult to find anything better. I was goig to think abotu a cirklon but this thing does the trick(and a bti cheaper too).
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See page 111 in the PDF (i. e. A-15 in the printed version).
http://www.elektron.se/sites/default/files/products/files/machinedrum_manual_OS1.63.pdf
Maybe it´s a bit off topic to recommend other hardware in this thread, and yes it´s a quite well known “filter” (sorry!), but runnig the MD through a Sherman Filterbank can really add some crazy (!!!) experiMENTAL/slightly out of control, well, analog dirt* and breath new life into your relationship with the MD and hey, why not resample the Filterbank output into RAM/ROM?!
*Be careful with your ears and monitors! 
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dude the sherman is crazy! I wish i never sold mine 
A couple of tricks I (mistakenly) posted in another thread:
Parallell effects
- Send a bunch of MD tracks through an individual out
- Re-route this output into a physical input
- Route the input to a whole bunch of INP tracks (at least 3)
- Now you have parallell processing (filtering, ring mod, whatever) of a group of internal MD sounds
- Apply LFOs, p-locks etc for mayhem
This can of course be applied to external sounds as well.
UW pseudo time stretch trick
- Set the sample to retrig (short retrig time, infinite retrigs)
- Assign a synced rising linear ramp LFO to Start point.
The LFO i snow moving the sample playback start point in a linear fashion, which means the LFO speed determines the time it takes to play through the sample from start to end.
The retrig time defines the “coarseness”.
The playback time is independent of sample length - the pitch parameter functions as a pitch shifter.
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swing + slide???
can someone elaborate on this magic
also how is everyone using swing in general on the md, any new tips
I have strange one for you all: send a long long wav file to the MDUW via midi while the md is playing sequence, the sequencer will jerk and lock up,slow down, adding some strange swing variations
it’s funky !!
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