Elektron Machinedrum (Words By Tarekith)

The Elektron Machinedrum is one of those pieces of gear that has by now attained almost mythical status in some circles.  It’s pricey, relatively rare, and you’re doubtful to find one for sale in a store as they can usually only be ordered directly from Elektron online.  I admit, I’m an electronic drum junkie, and have been lusting after the Machinedrum (MD) since it was released.  However, it wasn’t until earlier this year that I was finally able to actually get my hands on one. Like a lot of you I’m sure, my main concern was, “is it worth the high price?”.  I hope this review will help you answer that question for yourself.

For starters, the MD is an extremely well built piece of gear.  The entire casing is metal, the top panel is brushed aluminum, the gold plated connectors are all very secure, and the endless rotary knobs (with push button functionality) are easily some the best I’ve ever felt on a piece of music gear. I do wish these were grippier though, they can be a tad slick if your hands are sweaty for instance.  If I had to make any other complaints against the build quality of the MD, it would be that Elektron are almost TOO precise.  The edges of the top panel were sharp enough out of the box to give me a decent cut on my finger while unpacking it!  Not ten minutes in the studio and the MD had already drawn first blood!  Oh well, I took some light sandpaper to the very edges and solved this problem in 30 seconds.

On the back there’s 6 ¼” outputs, 2 as the main outs and 4 additional outs if you need them.  Tracks routed to these additional outs cannot be routed through the global effects however.  You also get a headphone output, 2 audio inputs (which can be used with drum triggers), and MIDI in/out/thru connectors.  The front panel has a deep red LCD, a volume pot, 8 endless push-button rotary pots, a row of 16 buttons for grid programming and selecting patterns (as well as other functions), and a few other buttons for navigating around the MD and accessing global settings, songs, patterns and kits.  All in all it’s very well laid out, and simple to use, in a package that’s just the right size in my opinion.

The basic ‘patch’ in the Machinedrum is called a drum synth, or machine.  The MD has a few different synthesis methods for creating it’s drum sounds, including Physical Modeling (PI), Classic Subtractive Synthesis (TRX), Frequency Modulation (EFM), and Sampled Based (E12 and ROM/RAM machines).  Each synthesis method has a few different algorithms for creating specific drum sounds.  So within the TRX category for instance, you’ll find dedicated machines for kick drums, toms, snares, high hats, etc, though of course you can use these for any sounds you want.  Altogether this means that you have at your disposal over 2 dozen different ways of generating drum sounds, and this doesn’t even take into consideration those samples you load yourself if you bought the Userwave version of the MD (more on this later).

All of the drum synths are laid out and programmed in more or less the same way, which makes it very easy to program.  The 8 endless knobs affect three pages of parameters for each synth.  Two of the banks (2 and 3) are the same for all synths, regardless of the synthesis method they used.  Some of the parameters you’ll find here are Amplitude modulation, pan, volume, distortion (available per synth), delay and reverb (global effects) send levels, a one band parametric EQ, and a unique resonant filter arrangement that lets you create anything from a low pass to a notch to a hi pass filter.  This is one of the cleverest filter implementations I’ve seen to date BTW.  

The first bank of endless rotary controls are specific to each drum synth type, and really it’s these 8 controls that you use to create your sounds.  TRX synths might have controls for pitch ramp time and amount, a dedicated lo-cut filter, overall pitch, beater click, etc.  The Physical Modeling synths let you specify drum size, head tension, amount of ring, etc.  The sampling and E12 machines have a function called retrigger that is useful for creating flam sounds and glitchy “stutter” type sounds.  All in all Elektron has made coming up with unique drum sounds fast and easy.  The display even mimics the position of the knobs, so it’s easy to see what controls you are tweaking.  There are also 16 tempo-syncable LFO’s available that can be freely assigned to ALL of the drum synth parameters, with many shapes and rates.  You can use 1 LFO per track, assign all 16 to a single track, or any combination in-between, it’s up to you. It’s not possible to save individual drum synth settings though, these are always stored as part of the Kit.  Which brings me to…

The next layer in the MD are Kits, which are basically how you store up to 16 different drum synths into a single patch.  Drum synth types can be freely mixed and matched in Kits, and there are options for layering sounds of different synths, and choke groups for things like closed and open high hats.  All the global effect settings are stored with the kit as well, of which there are reverb and delay, and a master EQ and compressor.  The effects are pretty plain, but good sounding.  The reverb is metallic sounding and a bit lo fi, but works great for smaller rooms if you low pass filter the tail.  The compressor can be used to really tighten up the kits, and you can high pass the side-chain to prevent loud sounds (i.e., kick drums) from triggering the compressor if you want.   You can store up to 64 Kits.

Moving on, the next layer is the Pattern, of which there are 128 available on the MD.  This is where the majority of your sequencing takes place.  Patterns are made up of 16 tracks (one for each drum synth in a Kit), they can be up to 32 steps long, in many resolutions and time signatures, and can be created in grid mode (like on Roland drum machines), or with real-time record.  Patterns are always LIVE, that is to say they are saved continuously and automatically.  If you accidentally mess up a pattern you are working on, there’s no way to get it back, so it’s a good idea to get in the habit of working on copies of Patterns you really like.  In addition triggering drum sounds, each Pattern also has settings for swing and accent, and the user is in charge of which notes will get accented and swung, and how much these are applied on a track by track basis.  In addition, there are two Pattern modes, Classic and Extended.  Classic mode means that Patterns and Kits are not tied together at all.  You can freely select Patterns and have them always trigger the current Kit.  Extended mode ties these two together, calling up a new Pattern will always load whatever Kit is assigned to it.  Extended mode is by far what most people use (I’ve never even used Classic mode for instance), as it also allows you to use Parameter Locks.

Parameter Locks are certainly one of the coolest things about the MD, and they are far easier to use than to explain.  Basically, it’s possible to tie the position of a knob to any step in a pattern. For instance, say you have a Pattern where you want your Tom sound to increase in pitch on one hit.  To do this with parameter locks, you simply enter grid record mode, and make sure the synth page with the Pitch parameter is showing.  Now, press and hold the grid location button where you want to insert the hit with the higher pitch, and while still pressing this location, turn the pitch knob to the desired value and then release the grid button.  Now, every hit on that track, in that grid position, will play back at the pitch you selected.  This is really a fundamental way the MD works, and opens up MANY possibilities.  You could have only one drum hit with a huge reverb tail, or add delay to just one snare hit, or vary the volumes of all your hits to make them more realistic.  Each pattern track can have up to 24 parameters locked to each step, which means that you can parameter lock all the synth parameters on each track!

You can take your sequencing a step further by using Song Mode, which lets you chain your patterns to make a song.  There’s lots of nice, unique touches the Elektron crew have added here as well, including the ability to only trigger certain portions of a pattern, loop specified patterns indefinitely, change the tempo or time signature per step, etc.  Really a lot to dive into if this is how you want to compose your drums, definitely worth a quick look in the manual to see all that you can do here.  A lot of these functions would come in handy in organizing a live set as well.

For a piece of hardware, the MD is really well spec’d in terms of it’s global functions and operations.  It’s very simple to cut, copy, and paste Patterns, Tracks, Kits, and Drum Synths within a Kit if you so desire.  This makes organizing the MD a breeze compared to some external gear.  You are also given 8 global “scenes” that can store info about what midi channels you want to use, how MIDI sync is transmitted and received, what outputs are active, etc.  Very nice if you want to configure the MD one way for the stage, and another for your studio.  The MD uses sysex to store and load it’s data, and Elektron have included a free sysex program called “C6” for doing this.  The only issues I’ve ever had with C6 were when I was trying to update the OS of the MD, seems C6 is not good for this.  The freebie MIDI OX application worked fine though.

The last feature I want to talk about is the newer Userwave function that Elektron has added recently to the MD.  I know a lot of people are wondering if $400 is really worth 2 MB of sampling time, I know I certainly was.  I’ll save you the suspense and say right away that most definitely it is well worth the additional cash.  So, what does the UW option add?  You get 2048kb of ROM sample memory, allowing you to store up to 32 of your own samples.  All samples are reduced to 12bits when you upload to the MD, and can be mono or stereo at 4 to 44.1kHz.  You also get 2 RAM machines, which allow you to record and trigger external audio or the global output of the MD internally.  

The RAM machines have been great fun in my DJ sets, I can record audio from the turntables, then loop, stutter, repitch, and do pretty much all of the functions available to the other drum synths.  This feature alone is worth the extra price, especially when you start resampling the MD’s main out and effecting it in real time.  The implementation is a little weird however, you need to record the audio with a RAM Record machine by setting trigger points in the grid, and then play it back with a RAM Play machine, again via grid location points.  So realistically this eats up two tracks in a Pattern for each of the RAM machines, which really isn’t a big deal for most people.  Takes a little while to get all the settings of the RAM machines ideal for this, but lots of help available on the net if you’re having issues.

The ROM machines are handy as well.  Samples are transferred to the MD via the MIDI sample transfer protocol, which is achingly slow in this day and age.  Takes about 15 minutes to load up all 2MB of sample data, though luckily you can use C6 for this as well.  Elektron have long been promising a new application called “Turbo MIDI” to speed up these transfers, but nothing definitive about it has been said.  A few rumors that their new x10 device might be this, but no one is sure yet.

One thing the MD does not do superbly is realistic high hats, so I loaded most of my ROM locations up with quality HH samples.  Well, they were quality until they were reduced to 12 bit samples!  Seriously though the 12 bit limitation is hardly a limitation at all, it adds a nice, barely lo fi sound that fits in with the rest of the MD nicely.  The remainder of my ROM locations were filled with samples from my Virus keyboard, this way I can use the MD for synth sounds as well as percussion, my goal being to one day do an entire live set with just the MD!  

The 2MB storage size is not as much of a limitation to me as only having 32 sample locations to store to.  With careful planning, it’s easy to fit all your samples into 2MB, heck many early synth workstations only had this much memory for all their samples!  What’s harder for me is that I can fit all my 32 samples into only 1MB, and the other 1 MB is going to waste.  Some people have found a workaround by creating 1 sample with many different drum sounds in it, and then using the ROM machine’s ‘sample start’ parameter to access the individual sounds.  This works for some samples, but I find the start parameter to be too course to always home in on the start of the sample accurately.  Depending on the samples you use though, this might be a perfect workaround.

And now we come to the big question, how does it all sound?  Words like loud, punchy, and crisp, spring to mind.  This thing is capable of some serious drum sounds, and it goes very low in the frequency spectrum for earth shaking kicks.  However, no matter what, it pretty much always sounds like an electronic drum machine. This is not a bad thing IMO, just a heads up for those that might think the MD is the be all and end all of drum sounds.  Certainly for electronic sounds the MD has it covered in more ways than you can imagine.  But it’s not going to ever sound like a real drum kit, or replace that MPC and sample collection you use all the time.  That’s not it’s purpose, so if you rely on those types of sounds for your music, or things like Microtonic and the Korg ER-1 don’t tickle your fancy, then perhaps the MD is not the drum machine is not for you.  The preset sounds are only so so, you really need to dig in and spend time programming it to get those fantastic results.  If you just turned it on and called up the default drum synths as is, I can imagine you’d be very disappointed.  This is not a machine for those that like presets.

If you DO like programming electronic drums, this is it.  This is the only drum machine you’re likely to ever need or want again.  The range of sounds and textures the MD is capable of is vast.  Start adding parameter locks and long, slow LFO's to modulate parameters and you can transform ordinary drum loops into completely new and evolving sounds.  Sample the output of these loops to the RAM machines and tweak them even more into obscurity.  This is one of those boxes that you’ll sit down at, and the next time you look at the clock, hours have passed cause you were having so much fun.  It’s equally at home in the studio or on stage, Elektron have made sure the MD is easy to program live, and everything can be done without stopping playback.

One of the first things you’ll realize when playing with the Machinedrum, is that it’s a lot of fun to program.  Elektron really did a good job of keep things simple, intuitive, while still being very flexible and deep if you want.  This is by far my favorite piece of gear ever, and definitely the one that’s the most fun to play.  It was well worth the 5 year wait that it took me to get one, I’d have no issues recommending that others start saving as well, as long as electronic drums are your thing.  The MD really is worth all the hype it gets.