Drum Machines vs Sequencers ... Samples, One Hits, & Stuff

[BoatRich]

How's the SP404 for drum machine uses? Also looking at a MC505? I mostly want it to do slow and weird shit behind drones with samples/sparse drums.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

if u want the sequencer, the SP one is not so great. otherwise its a fantastic sampler.

[popvulture]

I'm a total interloper on this thread at this point, but chiming in to say maybe check out the Elektron Analog Rytm if you're still looking for a solution to your drum machine vs sampler issues.

I was previously using a Drumbrute, which is a very cool drum machine, especially for the money, but I sold it and upgraded to the Rytm because of its integration of samples. Despite being analog, the DB had some of the issues of that realm, mainly that it was a little too manual and basic. Presets only remembered step/accent positions, not knob positions, and the drums themselves really didn't sound particularly awesome on their own, rather only getting there once I ran them through at least one or two external effects.

The Rytm has all of the awesome analog sounds, but also tons of effects and sample integration. You can layer a sample underneath the analog sound, or get rid of the analog sound completely and only use a sample. It doesn't have the degree of sample manipulation of the Octatrack (their full-on, hoss sampler) or the Digitakt (awesome, but a little more budget and thus a few downgrades like mono samples), but you can do PLENTY. Start/end, pitch etc, and you can certainly trigger samples to occur at fixed points in your sequence like the OP mentioned (though I'm not sure on length. I think you can go pretty long?).

So yep, just wanted to throw that out there. I haven't had mine for long, but I LOVE it.

[aen]

I've always done my sampling on the computer until very recently. I loaded some clips of a tape loop into my Electribe Sampler 2, and got some pretty cool samples going... and then I turned off the power and it ERASED ALL MY WORK. Apparently you have to menu-dive and tell it to "export all sample" or some shit.

[popvulture]

Ugh yeah I feel like every piece of synth hardware I've ever used has had one of those learn-by-losing-everything moments. Fucking blowwwws.

[JereFuzz]

Ok, so share some tips and tricks. Here's one which may be known by all ... if you want to capture audio from online content use Audacity ... on the lefthand corner, next to the microphone icon, change the setting from MME to Windows WASAI and you record what is coming out of your speakers. You may have to change the settings from mono to stereo for it to work ... you can capture movie quotes, war sounds, machine sounds, whatever ...

[D Rock]

Digitakt is the shit. You won't regret it. Most fun i've had with a piece of gear in a long time and the workflow is just so quick and easy. Working on making it the centerpiece in my live shows when that comes to fruition.

[JereFuzz]

I've always done my sampling on the computer until very recently. I loaded some clips of a tape loop into my Electribe Sampler 2, and got some pretty cool samples going... and then I turned off the power and it ERASED ALL MY WORK. Apparently you have to menu-dive and tell it to "export all sample" or some shit.

Were you ever able to recover? Margo kidder lost a whole script when her computer crashed and it sent her to the asylum … she passed away recently ...

[JereFuzz]

Pro-tip:

Want to grab weird staticy noise for atmosphere? Go to http://websdr.org/ and go down to the bottom of the page for the world map so you can pull a short wave feed from a specific receiver. If you go to a foreign language feed you can hear feeds from local (local to the feed location) transmissions that can be a bit weird/creepy, especially when there is warbly distortions occurring. What's really cool is that if you are using a Chrome or Firefox browser you can record what you hear and download a wav file through the actual feed, no extra software required. I went to a Russian feed and pulled this:

https://soundcloud.com/outofphaser/shortwave-noise-5272018

This session produced nothing special but on some nights you can get some really interesting stuff.

[JereFuzz]

Here's a better one I captured a while back:

https://soundcloud.com/outofphaser/shortwave

[Paul_C]

Ok, so share some tips and tricks. Here's one which may be known by all ... if you want to capture audio from online content use Audacity ... on the lefthand corner, next to the microphone icon, change the setting from MME to Windows WASAI and you record what is coming out of your speakers. You may have to change the settings from mono to stereo for it to work ... you can capture movie quotes, war sounds, machine sounds, whatever ...

I didn't know that, the last time I recorded something off my PC I used my trusty Tascam DR-07 and then imported it into Audacity, so that will save me time and encourage me to get more online stuff recorded

cheers !

[JereFuzz]

go and sin no more my child