Elektron Machinedrum SPS-1
-sexy percussion synthesizer and arranger
This drum machine was my dream for a long time. Many of people use computers for sequencing beats but
this way doesn't suit me very well. I was impressed with audio samples and a fanbase around Elektron
products.
It's a poweful percussion synthetizer with loads of cute built-in effects (especially I fell in love with
bit reduction aka decimator). An interface is very well designed and intuitive. Talking about arranging
possibilities, MD is capable of working in two modes. The first one is the same as with Roland grooveboxes
(16 step sequencer with possible accent settings). You can change scale and use 32 step seq. But trust me -
that extended mode is much better. You can use so called lock parameter feature. It means you can change
sound parameters (volume, decay, ...), effects (delay, distort, ...) and routing for each of the steps (!).
Other features I'd like to mention:
- LFOs (an easy way how to make sound more 'live')
- Mute (very good way how to control the box for live gig/live recording)
- Lock parameters (mentioned above)
- overall MIDI capabilities
Well, sequencing is very intuitive. If you were using extensively some tracker-like program you will
get used to very fast. Constructing the whole song is a little bit clumsy so I rather use it for making
only patterns and further sequencing is being made in Ableton Live. Anyway, I tried to use it with my
G2 engine (both sequencing and patch randomizing) and it was fun either.
Oh I can't forget to point out that support really kicks ass. I had extremely nice e-mail
conversation with Daniel (RIP).
Things I don't like so much:
I'd love if pads would be velocity sensitive (or at least made of different material). As well,
saving a song means just saving pattern sequence only - it means patterns are saved globally. So if you
want to avoid overwriting existing songs you need to use different patterns.
Price paid: around 1230€ (incl. rackmount kit) (NEW)
