#109

You have a cool drum rack! Food for thought :slight_smile: Thanks for sharing it.

The SSF Percussion Synth is excellent. It wasn’t used in ‘State of DR’, which is just a simple, initial exploration of Metron. Next time!

State%20of%20DR
State of DR.jpeg1998×1319 926 KB

2 Likes
#110

I see you both have dinkys and akemies. I have a dinkys and am considering akemies taiko, I assume you find them more complementing than overlapping. From the demos akemies sounds quite different than dinkys. I’d love some comments one this from someone with first hand experience :slight_smile:

#111

The Akemie’s Taiko functions less as a drum module and more as a fully functional FM synth voice (to me). As frequently as I use it for short, drum like sounds, I use it for longer tone melodic content. Everything becomes wonderful when you start to place its various parameters under CV modulation.

A seriously deep module, the Akemie’s Taiko utilizes an original, old school Yamaha FM chip. No mortal has exhausted the sonic possibilities of this chip. There is an excellent video of Mylar Melodies demonstrating the Akemie’s Castle (a lust-worthy module in its own right; I’ve never touched one) wherein he mentions the mysterious nature of FM synthesis and our incomplete knowledge of its possibilities.

I agree! Those yet to be discovered possibilities are what make playing with the Akemie’s so much fun. Recommended if you like experimenting to find new tones. It also can produce a really mean snare drum if that is where your heart lies.

1 Like
#112

One thing about the Akemie’s Taiko is that with every trigger, it captures a ‘snapshot’ of current settings and plays a tone with those. So in other words, you cannot create evolving tones across one “note”, you can only create variation from note to note.

This does not mean that it’s not excellent – because it is! – but just that there is that slight limitation, which might be good to know in advance.

#113

I’ve really been struggling with how I want to work drums into my fairly new modular setup. I do a lot of work in Ableton, so my original plan was to just use the rack for melodic stuff, and build the beats in Ableton. I did, however, buy a BIA since I loved the sound and figured I could do basic beats, and use it for basslines. As I’ve worked though, I don’t always want to turn on my computer but I still want to create something more musical. I’ve purchased a Pico Drums2, so I have some very basic drum functionality in my rack now.

So, now I’m a bit torn on how to proceed. This thread has a lot of great recommendations for drum modules, but I’m not sure I can really build a drum module in my rack, as it stands. I do have a 1U steppy, so I can sequence a few drums at least, but I don’t have a ton of extra space, and to me it feels like drum modules can start to take a LOT of space really quickly. I’m not even sure I want to keep the steppy in the rack. So while I’m not totally against dedicated drum modules, I feel like it’s not the ideal choice.

So my question for you guys is what non-rack options do you guys like for drums? I’ve had my eye on the digitakt, since it can sequence and sample, both live and in advance. It seems like a really solid way to integrate a lot of drum options without taking rack space. Basically, I’m interested in all your thoughts on the following options:

  1. Get a few dedicated drum modules and a drum sampler (maybe just steppy). Takes a lot of space but allows for a lot of live drum sound creation
  2. External drum synth/sampler. No rack space, but requires out of the rack equipment. Less expandable
  3. In rack sampler, like the Salmple. Sort of a compromise. Might still need steppy, but can do all the drums in less space.

Any other thoughts on this? Anyone else in the same position. I currently have the Intellijel 7U 104HP case, and my rack is here:

Any thoughts on what you’d do with my rack to get some solid drum beats to compliment the sound generation

#114

Bear in mind with the Pr0k drums, that, like the Radio Music module they’re heavily based on, their audio output is 12-bit, and quality is fairly poor (noisy, very obvious aliasing artefacts, especially with low-frequency sounds and longer decay times).

I can’t help thinking this is a real shame. I’m sure the modules operate internally at 16 or 32 bits, and it seems a shame that the output doesn’t do the synthesis, and particularly the really cool morphing concept justice.

Also, it’s a shame the developer(s) didn’t take the opportunity to correct any of the glaring errors/omissions of the original Radio Music hardware. I’m thinking especially of the lack of any kind of mechanical support between the front and back circuit boards.

All that said, I have the complete set, and they do still sound pretty good, and the morphing thing is definitely a killer feature!

#115

I have a prok bass drum module and the aliasing is definitely noticeable. It’s not necessarily a deal breaker, but it was for me. I’d try one out before committing.

#116

I have the BD and SN. Might snag a CP some time. I will say I’ve been disappointed by the post launch support. I get the impression they haven’t sold as well as they were hoping?

The inability to disable the hit on a button press kinda sucks, because you can’t change the sound bank without causing a hit. So you have to mute the audio to cover the change. It seems like they’re resistant to posting firmwares as it would open any-ole-radio-music to become a prOk which is, frankly, a terrible business model if you went in with open hardware in mind?

Additionally, I haven’t verified this, but the only way to use presets implemented in the editor at this point seems to be that you have to hold the button down during power on to load the bank from the SD, which is not a great way of doing it. I dunno. I’d feel a lot better about recommending them if they actually made good on a public firmware update, because there are a few small changes that would improve the modules. They’ve suggested they would happen, but I have the sense that the above “we need to sell these chips pre-flashed” business model is posing a problem for distributing minor updates? That’s entirely supostition on my part, but makes a sense to me.

That said, I was drawn to the fact they actually do on board synthesis, which makes them potentially quite versitile (the editor design and the preset morphing are cool), and they sound good to my ears! I just hope they make good on some updates some how.

I’ve switched to Squid Salmple more recently, but as I noted in that thread, for live use, I have concerns about loading over my entire sample bank by accident, so I may switch back to individual modules. I dunno. Something I’m still debating.

Additionally, on this subject, since the thread bubbled up again, I’ve changed up my percussion section from Grids to a combination if manual triggers and a custom crow script that does Grids-like percussion with custom patters, and it’s working well so far, but I want to experiment with it more before posting it up.

1 Like
#117

To anyone looking for a secret weapon: Dinky’s Taiko produces the best kicks in eurorack. That fact alone makes it worth the cost but it can also produce tons of other noise-centric layered percussion sounds. You see, it has a “mix” knob to mix its wavetables (12!) with a noise generator running a rainbow spectrum. You can control one parameter with voltage or all of them.

3 Likes
#119

I’m always wary of proper kick modules. Is there actually that much range on it (as a kick) that makes it useful in a performatice capacity? As noted, my draw to prOk was the potential editor which lets you define how your controls perform transformations between useful points in a tight form factor. I mean, it just seems like one could sample a few of their favorite kicks from it and move on? I guess I’m curious for why that isn’t what I’d want to do. If that makes sense?

2 Likes
#120

Hi @grey Many of the concerns you expressed are being addressed in the upcoming firmware and editor versions, which are now in beta.

They’re also working on a separate desktop application that allows firmware updating, and also for any firmware to be loaded onto any module.

There are also multiple mapping modes, including several where all 16 presets/corners are available at the same time.

My beef is with the quality of the hardware, rather than the software. I think they need to redesign the hardware from scratch to improve sound quality and the UI, and make the whole thing mechanically and electronically more robust.

1 Like
#121

Glad to hear there is stuff forth coming. I guess it would be cool if they had a better way to communicate this? :relaxed:

#122

+1 for the kick on Dinky’s Taiko. I’m enjoying It in combination with Akemie’s Taiko, Intellijel Plonk, some noise generators, and some filters.

1 Like
#123

I like Dinky’s too, though prefer to use it for high-frequency blips, like those at the beginning of this track:

I find the kicks unpleasantly grainy, in the same way as the Pr0k one (and for the same reason - it’s also 12-bit, though less noisy).

1 Like
#124

That grainy texture is exactly what I like about it. Beautiful rich timbres when modulated.

Especially nice with the Noise Engineering Viol Ruina.

1 Like
#125

One could sample a few favorite kicks.

Putting a kick in motion, though, either through modulation of the release parameter or use of the accent jack, or any of the other inputs, creates a dynamism in the low-end which sounds pleasing to me. At core, my music is percussion based so having a stretchable kicker rules for me.

Creative use of the end frequency and speed parameters can also yield cartoon sounds. Without cartoon sounds, I would have no-where to hang my hat!

One should not construe my words as meaning I dislike sampled kicks or drums because I do. I use a TipTop One in pretty much every patch for an extra snare, hat, or kicker. I use MSXII sample packs called “Schlump Shots” because they rule for a lo-fi hip-hop vibration which fits in almost anywhere.

3 Likes
#126

I’m planning out a bit more of my attempt at a 4U 62hp drum rack and had a question about BIA – for those who use it, how essential is pairing it with a bunch of attenuators/attenuverters? With 9 CV ins and 0 built-in attenuversion, I’m worried that it’ll be really hard to dial in the right amount of modulation.

#127

I really think that BIA and PNW is a match made in heaven. If you’re willing to use a few of the PNW outputs directly into the BIA, you can dial in some pretty awesome sounding lines with a bunch of movements. You can choose the levels and dial in exactly what you want. But yeah, outside of that, I think attenuversion definitely helps you dial in on that multi drum sound. That said, you can get some pretty great sounds of BIA just by playing with the knobs.

2 Likes
#128

I can recommend MI Frames for controlling and morphing up to 4 parameters at the same time.

Works well with BIA and Dinky’s.

1 Like
#129

That’s good to hear :smile: I plan to pair it with Pam’s and use most of Pam’s outs as LFOs/etc because I’ll have plenty of other trigger sources (Grids, Steppy). I guess I’m mainly just worried about menu-diving to set the output levels on Pam’s breaking my flow :thinking:

My other option is to sub out the Ears & Quad-Atten for something like Atn8? (full rack here: https://cdn.modulargrid.net/img/racks/modulargrid_1125526.jpg) I was really excited to use the contact mic -> env/gate out of Ears to “play” the rack itself, but maybe that’s too niche of a toy to lose 4 more attenuators (not to mention Atn8 gives me CV mixing and more as well)

EDIT: thinking about it more, maybe I just lose the stereo image from Q-MIX, swap to mono via 2hp Mix, and use that extra 4hp (plus losing the Quad-Atten) to get the Atn8 :thinking:

For sure, I just don’t know if I can spend 18hp on Frames :cry:

1 Like