Here’s the situation: you’re interested in making beats, grooves and sequences, but you want to go far deeper than just playing samples and presets. You require complete creative control over every parameter of every step of your electronic rhythms and melodies, and you want the option to be able to improvise new music live on stage. Does hardware exist that allows you to do this? The answer is yes, and the manufacturer is the Swedish company Elektron.
You can do a million different incredible things when you use a computer to make music, but it’s also nice to be able to step away from it and make music with just your hands and dedicated hardware instruments. This is exactly what Elektron’s products allow you to do. You have everything you need to create the music of your dreams in beautifully designed hardware boxes. When you want it all: synthesis, sample manipulation and sequencing for both involved composition and an off-the-cuff performance, Elektron is your best choice.
Rock bands often never feel complete unless they have a drummer, a guitarist and a bass player. The same is sometimes true in electronic music, except that a complete sound requires beats, melodies and samples. Elektron’s products can act as your complete electronic band. The lineup consists of the Machinedrum SPS-1UW+ MKII and the Machinedrum SPS-1 MKII (powerful drum machine/sequencers), the Monomachine SFX-60+ (a melodic synthesizer/sequencer) and the Octatrack DPS-1 (a multi-track sampling workstation/sequencer).
You can use each one of these instruments fairly quickly, right out of the box. They don't offer immediate plug-and-play ease of use, but it's fairly painless to get them up and running. However, just using these machines at the surface level, plug-and-play style, isn’t the point. This hardware was designed to give you total control, and you really need to dive in deeper to unlock its true creative potential.
Groove-production workstations typically require you to import a sample and then prepare it to be used. You essentially put a sample on a workbench and start chopping away at it with tools. Once you have it in proper shape, you can start composing and experimenting. Elektron has a different approach. Its machines are geared for real-time creation. Sounds are time-stretched (without changing tempo) and pitch-shifted for immediate use in your music. Your focus is building the song, not performing audio carpentry.
The sequencer is an important attribute to all of Elektron’s products. In your typical step sequencer, you have 16 steps in which to create your sequence. An important distinction that makes Elektron’s sequencers unique is the parameter lock functionality. In essence, parameter locks enable you to adjust a wide range of parameters for each individual step. If you want to tweak the parameter of a single sound of a single step of a large and elaborate sequence, you can do this with parameter locks. Plus, all of Elektron’s products come with a comprehensive three-year warranty. Here’s what’s on Elektron’s menu:
The Octatrack
The most recent (and most radically different) product from Elektron is the Octatrack DPS-1, which is a piece of hardware that can be used for creative live sampling, such as making instant mash-ups, remixing your own songs and samples in real time, DJing and live music performance. It enables you to manipulate and mangle sounds without ever hitting the Stop button. The Octatrack has eight stereo tracks, which can play full-length songs or shorter samples. You stream samples from its CompactFlash slot (which is compatible with cards up to 64GB in size). Audio is treated elastically in the Octatrack, as all of the tracks can be time-stretched to match the BPM of its sequencer.
The sequencer takes the already powerful parameter locks feature to the next level by allowing you to assign two separate sets of parameter locks to each step. You can then glide and cut between the two sets of parameter locks with the Octatrack’s crossfader. All eight of the internal stereo audio tracks have three tempo-synced LFOs each, and you can customize the waveform of each of the LFOs. There are also eight MIDI tracks in the Octatrack, which also have three LFOs and an arpeggiator each. You can control external MIDI devices with the Octatrack, and subject your external gear to all its wildly powerful parameter lock capabilities.
The Octatrack is an unusual device, and it takes a moment to think about how it can be put to work for your needs. However, upon closer inspection, you will discover a tool that’s incredibly versatile. Used in conjunction with the Monomachine and the Machinedrum, the Octatrack can sample from either instrument and provide elastic backing tracks to complete and diversify your overall sound. A DJ can use the Octatrack as a deck and create live, real-time samples to remix and remash on-the-fly. Live bands can use the Octatrack to trigger and play backing tracks, while being able to adjust the tempo and pitch of the playback in real time to match the fluid feel and progression of the live musicians. The Octatrack gives you an incredible amount of power without ever needing to click a mouse.
The Machinedrum
If the Elektron products are your band, then the Machinedrum is your crazy drummer. And even though all percussionists tend to be a little bit nuts, there’s never been a drummer as insane as this. There are two different versions of the Machinedrum available, and they both combine an ultra-powerful sequencer with built-in effects, synthesized drum sounds and the triggering of internal drum samples. The result is an instrument that offers the deepest control and creative freedom available in the groove box market.
| SPS-1 UW+MKII | SPS-1 MKII |
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The Machinedrum SPS-1 UW+ MKII includes the User Wave sampling engine and the +Drive. The User Wave sampling engine lets you create live 12-bit samples of external sounds and devices. The +Drive vastly increases the storage capacity of the Machinedrum. Users love the sound of the 12-bit samples, and find that the sampling engine is essential for creative beat production. If you don’t have the desire to create live samples, and you don’t need a great deal of native storage on your beat box, then you can save a few bucks by going with the Machinedrum SPS-1 MKII, which doesn’t have the User Wave sampling engine or the +Drive.
Both Machinedrums feature four different drum-synthesis methods: TRX (which emulates the sound of classic drum machines), P-I (which simulates the sound of acoustic drums), EFM (which generates sounds using Elektron’s Enhanced Feedback Modulation algorithms) and E12 (which recreates a range of rare and hard-to-find drum machines). The 16-track sequencer features Elektron’s powerful parameter locks, which you can use to control external MIDI devices with parameter locks and LFOs. Both Machinedrums offer up to 64 steps per pattern.
The Monomachine
The Monomachine SFX-60+ is an incredibly powerful monophonic synthesizer that incorporates all of the depth of Elektron’s versatile sequencer and applies it to melodic synthesis. It provides you with five different synthesis methods: SuperWave (for recreating analog-style synth sounds), SID (an emulation of the MOS6581 chip, which provided the sound on the ancient Commodore 64 home computer), FM+ (which provides three Frequency Modulation synthesizers), DigiPRO (raw sounding digital waveforms, as well as user waveforms and a set of sampled drum sounds) and VO (formant synthesis for voice modeling, or in other words: robot voices).
There are six tracks in the Monomachine with dedicated track effects (tape-style delay, sample rate reducer, 1-band EQ, resonant multi-mode filter and distortion). In addition it also features FX Machines, which are effects that can be applied where needed (even to the external sounds coming in on the Monomachine’s inputs). The FX Machines include reverb, chorus, compressor, ring modulation, phaser and flanger.
The sequencer in the Monomachine features the all-powerful parameter lock capability, 12 arpeggiators, real-time transposition, as well as slide and swing functions. There are six tracks that are dedicated exclusively to MIDI sequencing, which can apply all of the power of the Monomachine to external devices (including parameter locks, arpeggiation, swing, slide and transposition). The deep CC (Continuous Controller) implementation in the Monomachine allows you to control all of its parameters with external sequencers as well.
Thanks for reading this B&H InDepth article. If you have any further questions or comments about any of the Elektron products, we encourage you to submit them in the Comments section, below.
| Machinedrum SPS-1UW+ |
Machinedrum SPS-1 |
Octatrack DPS-1 |
Monomachine SFX-60+ |
|
| Sequencer | 16 tracks 128 x 64 step patterns 4,096 songs Supports swing, slide and accent 64 possible parameter locks on each pattern step Full real-time control Full MIDI support 384 MIDI controllable parameters |
16 tracks 128 x 64 step patterns 32 songs Supports swing, slide and accent 64 possible parameter locks on each pattern step Full real-time control Full MIDI support 384 MIDI controllable parameters |
8 internal tracks 16 banks per project 256 patterns per project 8 arrangements per project 4 parts per bank 16 scenes per part Supports swing and slide Micro timing Parameter locks Sample locks Full real-time control 8 track external MIDI sequencer |
6 internal sequencer tracks 6 external MIDI sequencer tracks 128 x 64 step patterns 3,072 songs Supports swing, slide and accent 62 possible parameter locks on each pattern step 12 multi functional programmable Arpeggiators 18 tempo synced interlaced LFOs Full MIDI support |
| Track Effects | 16 x Amplitude Modulation 16 x 1-band EQ 16 x Resonant 24 dB LP/BP/HP filter 16 x Sample Rate Reduction 16 x Distortion |
16 x Amplitude Modulation 16 x 1-band EQ 16 x Resonant 24 dB LP/BP/HP filter 16 x Sample Rate Reduction 16 x Distortion |
12/24 dB Multi Mode Filter 2-band Parametric EQ DJ-Style Kill EQ 2-10 Stage Phaser Flanger 2-5 tap Chorus Echo Freeze Delay Gatebox Plate Reverb Compressor Lo-Fi (SRR, BRR, Dist and A.M.) |
Tape-style Tempo-synced Delay 1-Band EQ Resonant 24 dB lp/bp/hp filter Sample rate reduction Distortion |
| Fx Synths | N/A | N/A | N/A | Reverb, gated stereo plate reverb Chorus, stereo 6 tap chorus Dynamix, dynamics compressor Ring Modulator Phaser Flanger |
| Master Effects | Rhythm Echo delay Gatebox reverb Hi/Lo-shelf + parametric EQ Dynamix processor |
Rhythm Echo delay Gatebox reverb Hi/Lo-shelf + parametric EQ Dynamix processor |
N/A | N/A |
| Sound Generation | 5 MD Synths 46 individual audio generating machines 5 effects on each track 4 stereo master effects 16 part synthesis 64 kits 8,192 kits 6,144 ROM slots 4 RAM Machines for real time sampling |
4 MD Synths 46 individual audio generating machines 5 effects on each track 4 stereo master effects 16 part synthesis 64 kits 8,192 kits |
N/A | 5 Mono Synths 14 individual audio generating machines 4 individual stereo effect machines 5 effects on each track 6 part synthesis 16,384 kits 8,192 user waveform slots |
| Hardware | 128 x 64 backlit LCD MIDI In/Out/Thru 6 x 1/4" impedance balanced audio out jacks 2 x 1/4" audio in jacks 1 x 1/4" stereo headphone jack Advanced dual DSP system 44.1 kHz, 24-bit D/A and A/D converters Flash-EEPROM upgradable OS 2.5MB sample memory +Drive |
128 x 64 backlit LCD MIDI In/Out/Thru 6 x 1/4" impedance balanced audio out jacks 2 x 1/4" audio in jacks 1 x 1/4" stereo headphone jack Advanced dual DSP system 44.1 kHz, 24-bit D/A and A/D converters Flash-EEPROM upgradable OS |
128 x 64 backlit LCD MIDI In/Out/Thru 4 x 1/4" impedance balanced audio out jacks 4 x 1/4" audio in jacks 1 x 1/4" stereo headphone jack Advanced triple DSP system 44.1 kHz, 24-bit D/A and A/D converters Flash-EEPROM upgradable OS USB 2.0 port Compact Flash card reader Infinium optical crossfader 80MB Flex RAM per project Static sample streaming from CF card Sample engine reads 24-bit samples |
6 x 1/4" impedance balanced audio out jacks 2 x 1/4" audio in jacks 1 x 1/4" stereo headphone jack Advanced dual DSP system 44.1 kHz, 24-bit D/A and A/D converters Flash-EEPROM upgradable OS +Drive |
| Balanced Audio Outputs | Main out level: +15 dBu Assignable outs level: +10 dBu Output impedance: 100Ω unbalanced S/N ratio: 100 dBFS (20 Hz-20 kHz) |
Main out level: +15 dBu Assignable outs level: +10 dBu Output impedance: 100Ω unbalanced S/N ratio: 100dBFS (20 Hz-20 kHz) |
Headphones out level: +15 dBu Main/cue outputs level: +10 dBu Output impedance: 550Ω unbalanced S/N ratio: 102 dBFS (20 Hz-20 kHz) |
Main out level: +15 dBu Assignable outs level: +10 dBu Output impedance: 100Ω unbalanced S/N ratio: 100 dBFS (20 Hz-20 kHz) |
| Unbalanced Audio Inputs | Input level: +7 dBu max Audio input impedance: 9kΩ SNR inputs: 98 dBFS (20 Hz-20 kHz) |
Input level: +7 dBu max Audio input impedance: 9kΩ SNR inputs: 98dBFS (20 Hz-20 kHz) |
Input level: +8d Bu max Audio input impedance: 9kΩ SNR inputs: 99 dBFS (20 Hz-20 kHz) |
Input level: +7 dBu max Audio input impedance: 9kΩ SNR inputs: 98 dBFS (20 Hz-20 kHz) |
| Electrical Specifications | Unit power consumption: 8W typical, 18W max Recommended power supply: 6V DC, 3A |
Unit power consumption: 8W typical, 18W max Recommended power supply: 6V DC, 3A |
Unit power consumption: 8W typical, 18W max Recommended power supply: 6V DC, 3 A |
Unit power consumption: 8W typical, 18W max Recommended power supply: 6V DC, 3A |
| Included Accessories | TM-1 USB MIDI Interface USB Cable Printed User's Manual |
TM-1 USB MIDI Interface USB Cable Printed User's Manual |
4GB compact flash card 2GB of Loopmasters samples (on the included CF card) USB Cable Printed User's Manual |
Printed User's Manual |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) |
13.4 x 7 x 2.4" (340 x 181 x 63mm) | 13.4 x 7 x 2.4" (340 x 181 x 63mm) | 13.4 x 7 x 2.4" (340 x 181 x 63mm) | 13.4 x 7 x 2.4" (340 x 181 x 63mm) |
| Weight | Approx 6.2 lb (2.8 kg) |
Approx 6.2 lb (2.8 kg) |
Approx 5.2 lb (2.4 kg) |
Approx 6.2 lb (2.8 kg) |
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