Definitely some cool perc sounds from the Tetra in this clip, but lack of HP/BP filter is a big limit to patching drum sounds.
Enjoying the sporadic Modor DR-2 love in here. It’s such a well-built machine and it sounds incredible. There’s something so unique and girthy about those kicks, and it does a lot of weird physical modeling sounds rather well. With the latest firmware it’s even more of a monster. The interface blows and the alpha/beta thing doesn’t do it for me, especially in a post-p-lock world. But holy shit does it sound fabulous.
I hadn’t but wish I’d tried it out as one before I sold mine. The Oxi One would be a wicked controller for it as well.
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I’ve come to learn that the AK is my favorite drum machine.
It has a wide pallet of fantastic sounds from super electronic to acoustic.
The sounds sit in the mix perfectly.
If you spend a lot of time with the performance macros you can morph sounds and rhythms in a very unique way.
If you invest time in the split keys function you can create a very playable set on just the keys.
As with most elektrons the conditional trigs turn simple 1 bar patterns into something evolving and consistently interesting.
Elektron boxes are full of room for patterns, banks, projects etc, and you can copy paste between everything with ease.
The A4/AK is not dependent on samples which I’m starting to prefer in a drum machine, especially one with such a massive range of percussion sounds.
Out of all the drum machines I’ve been through it’s definitely my current favorite.
Have yet to play a Perkons though.
The AK/A4 drums just sound REALLY GOOD
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Machinedrum is still by far my favourite. It can do so much and I also know how to take it to places. The sound just speaks to me on a level that’s hard to explain really.
Lately I’ve been playing a lot with the A4 mk1 I got about a month ago. It can do some wicked drums! I just start sound and p-locking stuff and I usually have something interesting in my hands pretty fast. Coming from the 16-track Machinedrum, I’m still learning how to make music using only four tracks. Interestingly it sorta guides the way I make music cos I can’t rely on my usual comfort zone of having ”four different slowly evolving pads in the background” sort of stuff (I’m a maximalist minimalist at heart).
I also got a DSI Tempest fairly recently. It’s the best-sounding analog drum machine to me, ever. I’m still painfully slow on it and I’m starting to realise I really should separate sound design and making beats on it even more. I can’t say I’m enjoying working om the Tempest yet but if I ever get to that point man is there a crazy amount of potential there.
That’s my current top three, although I do have some other (very) drum-capable boxes here as well. I’d also love to try the Modor and The Division Department drum machines as well as the Nord Drum 2 at some point, and partly I blame my drum machine GAS on the gateway drugs provided by @Claid with his wonderful soundpacks.
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Elektron Machinedrum UW by far.
Because of it’s sound first and foremost, In the right hands it can sound incredible, it sounds much much better than the Analog RYTM (although I do have and am a fan of the Analog RYTM it takes a lot more effort to get the RYTM to sound good) secondly, the features, although it’s not as feature packed as the newer Elektron boxes it still has a plethora of features (some of which the newer machines bizarrely don’t have) but even as is it is an incredible machine, if I was forced to only have/use one drum machine it would be the MDUW hands down.
The demos online are decent but I found that once I actually got one I was able to easily push it in a direction that suited my sound so if you’re doubting it because of the demos and you can somehow demo one from a friend or something I would highly recommend to.
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Imagine if Elektron released a device with the A4/AK synthesis architecture but with the sample support of the Rytm.
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@Claid is my favorite drum machine because he is all of the drum machines and also looks a bit like my cousin that went to Berklee for music. Win.
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That would be cool.
Nevertheless I actually like the boxes being broken up into different things.
Have an OT and RYTM.
I love the A4/AK just the way it is, simple but capable.
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I would say the top 3 are
Roland R8M - original, not the MKII. had em both, R8 is indeed punchier. Get as many cards as you can with it. My fav are the ‘Dance’ for the CR-78 and ‘Dry’
Roland TR-707
Acidlab Miami or the Drumatix - Classy vs Gritty, both are heckin great
honourable mention - Cyclone TT-78 and Alesis HR-16
Hall of Shame:
Casio RZ-1 - Crap
Korg DDM-110 - hell no. that clap is the wurst
Boss DR-880 - the Prowings of drum machines. Generic as hell
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Man I love the Rz1. The feel of the hihats on it’s own is worth the price (well I paid like $200). Pretty much everything sounds great on it besides the kick, but I made a track with the RZ1 and still used that kick and it got me on some really nice playlists. The Rz1 is slept on, it is a house machine. Just ask Ian Pooley.
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I made an RZ-1 sample pack for the Digitakt and gave it away on this forum. I banged out a quick house beat with it and posted it on SC:
But Alas, I didn’t like the build quality of it or any of the drum sounds. I’ve had an SP-1200 and that’s a house machine. of course, it’s always more about the user than the gear.
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It sounds great to me, nice work. The RZ1 drums sound killer.
And yeah the SP1200 is pretty great too, it better be at the prices people want for it now…haha.
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Because of this track (and Work That Motherfucker) I will never write off the RZ-1
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came SO close to pulling the trigger on a RYTM (for the second time!) last night but decided to spend more time with what i’ve got (TR-6S) and was so pleased with the sounds i got going that my GAS is cured for now. fantastic sounding little box. i just really want the performance and arrangement features of the RYTM. find it hard to get enough varation with the limited sequencer of the Roland
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Tetra is my favorite analog synth, but I consider it too precious to waste on such thing as drums.
however, until I bought MBase 11 & MFB-503, I used one Tetra voice for the kick. because kick is utterly important.
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That´s definetlly an interesting point, but dont forget on a single voice you can create more than a kick, similar way to an A4, Monologue, etc… with some programming.
Dont also forget that every layer has 4 sequencers plus some other interesting modulation sources like LFOs, ENVs, etc…
In any case, I loooove so much programming drums and percussions on the Tetra as it sounds amazing, same as like any other sound on this little packed beast. I also have an Mbase11, really into drumSynths, and also love it, it just hits in a pretty different way, same as the volcaKick for example. I love making tracks where the most important part is the rythm one so being able to do them on the Tetra, it is made by a precious instrument. In any way I completelu understand your point too.
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I use Tetra for bass (two subs per voice) and leads/plucks.
damn, you are right, since in fact plucks are chromatic percussion … well, sort of 
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indeed LOVE IT! ahahahahahah
Would love, and probably need to get a job to pay for, the re-issue SP1200…employment….SP1200…employment…SP1200….sigh.
Been really enjoying the Analog Rytm MK2 recently after years of really struggling with it.
Finding ways to work around and find new ways of working, has taken a while. I think also my buying it for a specific purpose but also, probably partly due to how impressive it is, then asking even more of it, ie replicating in some way the studio in a portable format, really ended up me putting high demands on it.
I’ve ended up sitting with it on the sofa in the odd evening, with a lamp so I’m not blinded by the pads 
, trying to learn the machines better, and also find ways to bring the machine alive, bubbling away much like say a selection of gear and a console.
I’ve yet to find a satisfying way to use the samples other than just drum sounds or supporting the engines, which is kinda what it’s designed to do, but still wanna find a way to break that. I think if the loop point didn’t click so loud, a simple curve on loop point option in the settings, would open things up a bit.
Yeah enjoying it!