I’ve got a band and while I originally wrote all the music for guitar, bass and drums - it’s been a challenge to find the right drummer, and as a result we just keep losing momentum rehearsing for shows.
To be more independent I’ve decided to go down the gear route rather than relying on humans
It’ll just be me on vox and guitar, with a bassist.
I’m drawn to Elektronaut gear cos I’ve heard and read lots of great things. I’m aware I won’t really be replicating a drummer and that I’m essentially going to rebuild the songs to work in the context of using Elektronaut gear for live performance, with a much more electronic flavor to it, which is exciting.
My question is, really, what’s the best piece of gear to go for? Ideally with good song mode so that certain tracks can be played relatively hands-off, with more focus on guitar. I’d like to also connect my MicroKorg and possibly some pedals.
I liked the sound of Digitakt but think it’s possibly not the best for this purpose because of the lack of song mode? Octatrack and Rytm sounded more suitable, but not sure what’s better for the setup. Or perhaps there is another option that’d work better?
The most hands on is the Analog Rytm, otherwise it would be TR8-S from Roland. Rytm might benefit from an external midi fader box, but its not 100% neccessary. If you want dynamic drums - you should have one person operating the unit.
If you dont have that person, a MPC One, is a portable solution, you should then think about possible midi pedals, sending program changes. (or other controllers to move the beat sequence forward.)
The Rytm would probably be the best device for this as it has got pads and it sounds great.
It does samples as well and has a great compressor and master distortion.
I’d say a mix of both!
Have a listen to “jorindecroese” on SoundCloud. That’s the stuff I made with Logic but will now probably completely rework with whichever machine I’ll end up
I’d like it to be dynamic but likewise I’m also somewhat keen to stay a 2-piece “band” to be less reliant on others. So I’m willing to take a compromise, so to say, on how dynamic it is. I’ve seen a great video by Ponchy on YouTube of the song mode on a Rytm, which seemed quite suitable.
How do the Rytm and MPC One compare?
Also, wonder if there’s a big difference between the Rytm MK1 and MK2?
Brilliant - that’s of the latest model? Is that similar to how Rytm’s song mode works, by lining up different patterns and setting the amount of repeats etc?
MK2 can sample, its a nice feature, if you have other synth, or instruments you want to sample, and sequence some sounds with the rytm - MK2 is a one stop shop in this regard. MK1 requires that you load up samples up front. But honestly its better to keep the sample pool down to 128 samples anyway - be sure to only use some kits, that you tuned for your music.
I use a sample liberian to check all samples for tonal content, i filter them down to the musical scale, select 12 to be a kit in the rytm. You could also have sample chains, and set multiple start points within a sample, if you for example have multiple hihat hits, you want to alternate between, then this is the way to go.
To keep the live set consistent, its better to reduce it so that you have similar kicks /clicks, with body in tune with the root note of your song. So essentially i exchange often only 3-4 sounds from kit to kit. (Kit = 12 Sounds, you use over mutiple sequenced pattern.) 4 patterns can go a long way on the rytm, as you have probability , fills to trigger, can live play over basic beat etc. (intro bridge /verse /outro ) next 4 patterns is the next song, this structure works for many of electron users. (sure other formats with more pattern is always a possibility aswell.
KISS is important - keep it simple, only expand if you masterd one stage. Rytm can take 8 weeks learning time.
I also pre process the samples before loading them to the RYTM -i.e applying a clipper, bake in a reverb (no tail, suble fx to thicken it, EQ the sample beforehand. ) shorten the decay etc. Layering multiple samples for the perfect sound. (At least for the most important ones. (Kick, Clap, Hat, Snare) the rest to taste.
An Analog Rytm will do the job, but I feel it is kind of overkill for what you want (in terms of price).
You might wanna look into a Roland MC-707:
It can do drums with basic sampling. It has a basic song mode.
With its 8 tracks, you can also add much more to you band: each track can be a 16 part drum kit, a looper track (which is very basic) or a synth track. The synth engine is very deep and sounds great. It has thousands of presets, so you can start composing a song without a lot of knowledge about sound design.
And it is a lot cheaper than a Rytm (about half the price).
Digitakt. Very user-friendly, particularly if you haven’t used Elektron stuff before, but capable of depth too. Nice form factor, sturdy and super-portable. Great midi spec. Affordable
Octatrack would probably be total overkill, plus getting to a point where youre confident with it in a live situation would take some time. The compressor/distortion in the Rytm is lovely, other than that its expensive and (IMO) pretty one dimensional
I’m not sure what the point is here: if you are playing live guitar and your friend plays live bass, and you want to play on top of a backing track, why don’t you just use your phone? If you are worried by the coolness effect, you can hide it in a golden box with $10k written on it.
First of all, it depends on the kind of music you want to do, but for live situations no machine will be a substitute of a real drummer. All the rest is wishful thinking.
Having a machine without interaction equals having a backing track, with the only difference your pocket is lighter $$$.
And I’m saying this, from the point of view of someone that started a duo with me playing on 3 drum machines and a friend playing effected guitar and bass and looping those live.
Or you have a backing track made on Ableton or whatever Drum software that will cost you much less than a hardware.
If you plan to loop guitar and interact with your gear, you need to see how to loop. I would not recommend the OT for instance as it’s way to convoluted for a live set IMO. A traditional looper would be enough.
You also probably want/need a midi foot pedal unless you use song mode on all the songs (then you need a device that has song mode).
In my old band Wintering I used a RYTM and it worked pretty well
I was also playing keyboards and everything went through MainStage on the laptop (don’t knock it til you’ve tired it! MainStage is a very powerful tool). The BPM was sent from the laptop to the RYTM to save faffing about and all tracks were programmed using song mode, All tracks were processed with MainStage and outputted to a Focusrite. A very neat solution
Playing in a band a doing electronic music I would consider the following options:
If you want a natural feel to your drums I would consider making the drums on the laptop with EZ drummer. That will more easily sound like real drums than the other options. Then you can play the resulting files from a sampler of choice or your phone.
MPC: preferably another model than the one if you want connect pedals as you will probably want multiple outputs. Advantage of the mpc line is the pads for playing in the drums, many effects, great sequencer, can play longer files too. Disadvantage is less hands on control.
Elektron box: advantage is lots of handson control. Disadvantages will be only one stereo out for the digitakt, sounds rather more electronic than natural without digging in deep, and digitakt can only play short audio files of 30 seconds, and little fx for digitakt (reverb, delay). The octatrack would offer you long files, multiple outs, and more fx which sound more dated than the mpc but more options for sequencing the fx. Disadvantage for the octa would be that it is complex to learn for most people.
get a drumpad with a sequencer like a roland drumpad. Advantage will be more natural playing with the pads, great acoustic kits, great fx, and little handson control for sequencing.
OT with creative use of sample chain start and retrigs using the crossfader can absolutely sound like a “real” drummer. I’ve used an expression pedal plugged into a keystep and mapped it to the crossfader cc for hands free use while playing guitar.
agree with all of this. Digitakt would for sure be my pick. OT is overkill.
cool band idea. I played a show with a band like that once, but it was two people on bass and git, one singer. they carried a PA with them for the drums so there was a “stage sound” for them. I would suggest considering that, unless you’re always playing venues with significant stage monitoring.
