#169

Yeah, my favorite kick is an fm’ed & synced complex oscillator mixed with a little pink noise, combined with a touch of short room reverb.

My second favorite kick is simply a filter, because that always works.

In real life recording, it’s never the heaviest or hardest kicks that sound good, it’s the ones that sit in the mix correctly for a particular song and tempo i.e. those with low mids texture (similar to complex oscillator example), maybe recorded with a U47 Fet some feet back, or close without being super pointy, such as with a Beyer M88 of M380 (more like the filter). Or a mix of the two.

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#170

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I recently added a sample-based percussion section to my system which I’m having a lot of fun with. It’s by no means as clever or resourceful as solutions which fit a true modular paradigm like the excellent ideas posted by Joseph above, but it does offer a somewhat immediate and literal workflow which might appeal to various people.

For me the impetus was regularly using up too many Hermod tracks to trigger and modulate percussion, so I ended up with the Steppy for sample trigs. The Sample Drum has six assignable CV ins to manipulate various params (sample position & selection, fx levels, etc). I use the A-160-2 to send clocked gates & trigs to these at varying divisions which can create some really lively patterns.

As an aside, with this module arrangement I can also limit the extent of clock distribution to the first half of the first row of the cabinet. (AUM master -> Hermod -> Pam’s -> Steppy -> A-160-2 -> Voltage Block).

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#171

Adding a waveshaper into your setup can make a whole difference in sound. I used to have a Mutant BD which I passed through a A137-1 in order to get the gnarliest, meanest, brutalest (?) sounds
Here’s an example

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#172

+1 for the Sample Drum.

I also have 2. Modulating decay and amplitude via the CV inputs can produce some very expressive sequences. The Performance menu, where you can assign the 6 encoders to change any number of parameters is also super-useful.

You can load it with a single WAV that contains slightly different versions of a sound one after another, chop the sample into x number of chunks in the Sample Drum and set it so that it plays through those chunks in sequence each time it receives a trigger. So you get variety in the drum hits.

Lots of possibilities.

The only downside is the menu-ness of it. But most of them are only one layer deep and navigation is pretty self-explanatory, so it’s not too much hassle.

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#173

It’s really a fantastic module. In some ways it’s like having a little bit of Elektron DNA in your case.

I know this thread is about drums, but since it can also record, SD also opens up a lot of possibilities for mangling and sequencing your other modules. YouTube user ‘tl3ss’ has a recent video or two showing some pretty gnarly explorations in that area.

#174

I bounced off Sample Drum. It can do a lot, but I found it unpleasant to actually use the interface. Slicing/editting samples on board is a really poor experience. Recording is weird as well, and the input they use doesn’t match the bitrate of the output. The effects are nice to have, but I found that many of them weren’t especialy useful on their own. I’d personally suggest Squid Salmple over it.

#175

What he said.

I’ve been combing Bitbox with Robaux SWT 16. Which adds up to a 40 HP sample player drum computer combo. I haven’t worked out a patch that uses all 16 triggers with all 16 sample inputs yet, but it seems like a challenge that needs to be met.

#176

If anyone is looking for a versatile kick drum in 8ph, you should definitely check out WMD’s Crater. It is basically an analog kick, with the option to layer various click/attack samples on top. It has a lot of modulation options and 3 overdrive flavors on board. It can produce kicks ranging from poppy electro to full on hardcore techno. I played with a concept version at Superbooth ‘19 and got it once it was available. Highly recommended.

2 Likes
#177

while I had a camera set up to demo some Stages ideas (including using it as a clock divider & decay envelopes to make a drum machine!), I also did a quick test of the ADDAC 104 VC T-Networks that had just shown up. It was mentioned once earlier in the thread, but in general there’s not a ton out there about this rad module.

I loooooove the sound of old drum machines like the Maestro Rhythm King and the TR-77. I sampled my Rhythm King before selling it to a friend, but I do dearly miss it. The T-Networks is based on the same circuit and it nails the sound of those classic kicks, congas/toms, and clave/rim.

It’s not nearly as versatile as other kick options, but in terms of bang for your buck & hp, it’s a fantastic way to add some extra percussion voices for extra rhythmic complexity.

6 Likes
#178

I’ve been doing the same but smaller; Bitbox micro and the Robaux LL8!

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#179

My synthesizer voices are particularly focused around melody, chords, pads, fm percs etc (Just Friends, TNSM + Rings, Lorre Mill + Akemies Taiko) I don’t currently have a plan for integrating sampling/percussion in a deeper way. Long term I’m really interested in a pams + squid sample combo but right now I am looking for something simpler. Any suggestions for like four on the floor drum machine that’s simple to integrate into a eurorack setup? I’ve been looking at some of the pocket operators like KO or Rhythm, or maybe one of the volca drums? What’s your favourite?

#180

Do you want to trigger the drums from your modular? My favorite drum synth is the Nord Drum line but unless you want to hit some pads you’d need something outputting MIDI to sequence it.

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#181

Yeah I’m looking for something that’ll sync to my main eurorack clock source, volca and PO seem to be good candidate for this but I’m curious as to what else is out there.

#182

I haven’t used it personally but the Vermona DRM1 MKIII sounds great and has trigger inputs. Could also grab an old Simmons or similar drum synth on Reverb/eBay. Those expect triggers from the piezo in a drum pad so if you put a modular trigger through a VCA you should get velocity.

#183

The IK Uno has really excellent sounding analog 808-type drum voices, along with built in compression and drive. It also has space for 8 12-bit sampled drum voices. At the moment you can’t upload your own but they provide libraries of classic drum machines as part of the package. (It would be nice if someone would hack a package for making your own sample uploads.)
It’s very portable, and can be run on batteries.
On the downside the build quality is very plastic and lightweight, and there is a touch senstive membrane rather than buttons. Also only a single audio out, though some people have hacked separate voice outs. (Soldering wires to SMD components. Yeech.)
You can find it going cheap though, and if you pick it up in a sale you really get a lot. In particular the analog drums easily justify the cost (compare with buying individual eurorack voices), but you also get a fully programmable drum machine with stutter, roll, etc. It syncs over usb or external midi as well as having internal clock.
If only they made one with decent hardware that supported custom sample uploads. Programming it is fun but I find in the long term the membrane interface discourages me from interacting with it. You can control it from software though.

#184

The Elektron Model line seems like a couple of great boxes. Bigger than the ones you mentioned though.

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#185

I’ve been eyeing the model:cycles for this use-case, but what are folks doing for sync? Right now all my gear is synced with analogue clock signals… not too keen to figure out a midi routing scheme (but maybe that is inevitable?)

#186

I don’t have a Cycles but a couple of other Elektron boxes and their sequencer is righteous, especially tempo per pattern save. Plus you’d have 6 possible midi sequences with trig conditions and probability…good times.

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#187

Add a cv.ocd and you’re good to go!

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#188

Have really been looking at the same. The :cycles seems great. But committed to integrating the Octatrack for now. Will be trying with the ALM mmMidi for a few simple midi to CV channels.