>Yes, a pulse divider and a MOTM-440 filter will be a very useful tool
>to create analog bass drum and tom sounds.
>I was very "anti drum machine" in the past, mostly because I'm not
>good at programming drum patterns, and I'm not very skilled to record
>drums by hitting pads either.
Frankly, I don't think the two have much to do with each other. When I
first got into electronic music, I wondered out loud whether or not I would
be good at drum programming. I was told, "of course you could program
drums you can play drums!" In retrospect, it was idiotic advice for a
number of reasons. It was like saying, "of course you can do speech
synthesis you can talk!"
Rhythm has to do with feeling, but drum programming has much more to do
with forethought, and has extremely little to do with the physical ability
to play real drums. I know a number of electronic musicians who went out
and got drum pads to help with their drum programming who sold them soon
afterward.
However, some of the best "non-drummers" I've known were jazz pianists, and
schooled drummers often take piano lessons. I believe the reason is that a
pianist learns the theory behind building tension and syncopation, and is
taught to "look ahead". Imho, that ability to set things up for future
events, along with the ability to feel what you are doing in the present
moment, is what is important in drum programming. That is why complicated
interfaces, or lagged systems such as MIDI, are no good.
>So for my first CD (that was around 1998)
>I used a very simple clock source (basically extracted the beat from a
>pre-recorded bass line with an envelope generator module - ∗not∗
>envelope follower, but this is another story), a 8-step sequencer
>and a VC-divider.
Was this a Serge module, did you build it yourself, or is this a stupid
question?? :)
>Tweaking the divider factor with one
>hand, and the cutoff frequency of a SSM2040 filter with high resonance
>with the other hand, I got my drum track in real time.
I don't think I understand what the 8-step sequencer did in this setup --
was that to control the pitch of of the filter (high tom, low tom kick,
etc.)?? Although the system you describe is oddly innovative, it is still
simple, immediate and tactile. That's what you want!! :)
Just to keep this on-topic, using the pedal interface or CV source (like an
800) with the future VC pulse divider, or by using the 700 with a fixed
divider and a mixer, one could drop rests in the manner you describe. With
both a VC pulse divider and a fixed divider using a fast clock (such as DIN
sync) I imagine with enough practice one could do rolls, shuffles, flams,
etc. Never underestimate the power of a good flam. Listen to Bruford's
5/5 on Larks Toungues in Aspic -- you can't do that with MIDI!! Why
computers can only do triplet and even time signatures is beyond me.
>It was a slow, sparse drum orchestration, and I had to do a second run
>for hihats and the like (noise thru a resonant HP-VCF this time), but I
>>liked the result a lot. The sound generation is very similar to the
>classic analogue drum computers, only that I had not several instruments
>in parallel, but reconfigured one and the same filter for different
>instruments on the fly. This is ∗bad∗ if you want to repeat the same
>pattern several times, of course, but it's ∗good∗ if repetition is
>something you want to avoid.
Yes, exactly -- unlike samples, analogue drums sound a little bit different
each time, like real drums.
>Actually the reverse of adding randomness to a perfect repetition:
>My trying (but failing) to make exact repetitions just created the
>"right" (to me) "controlled randomness". And the ∗one∗ thing where I
>would have been completely helpless (keeping the exact timing) was of
>>course taken care for by the prerecorded master clock: The VC divider
>>allowed for variation, but not for missing the beat.
It wasn't so much "randomness", as "human inperfection". It's one reason
why I don't like MIDI -- its inperfections are random and have no sort of
feeling. I prefer trying to make electronics sound more human, as opposed
to taking recordings of humans and making them sound more electronic. I
know there are a number of MOTM junglists, but that's one of the reasons I
don't like jungle.
>I don't want to sound like a TC Electronic sales man, but after a long time
>of fighting the thought about spending more than 500 Dollars for a delay,
>when the decision was finally made, I could not await to get my D-Two.
>There actually was a shortage in Germany, and I called Thomann every day
>why their web page said "available" and they could not deliver it. (;->)
>This box is really awesome, and if I could only keep ∗one∗ delay, I'd
>probably sell my collection of BBD boxes and the Deltalab, and keep the
>D-Two. (Ok, I would probably not sell my Roland RE-201.)
Does it do a reverse delay?? That's one of the reasons why I'm keeping my
SDE-330. That, and it has a uniquely warm flanger. Come to think of it,
it's rather odd how much digital flangers differ in sound!! You would
think they would all basically do the same thing. Anyway, since I don't
think I could justify having six DSP boxes, I would have to sell one before
buying a used D-Two. (I wouldn't sell my RE-201 either, unless maybe I
found a 301).
>Then Paul would have to hire 10 people to make the layouts and the
>mechanical parts to keep track (;->) - This is no stupid self-praise;
>it's just that the circuit is only a small part of the whole thing -, and
>>with such inflation, MOTM might go the sad way of Moog and ARP and other
>>great companies ...
Let's hope not!!! While the dollar here seems fairly stable, I know what
you mean. Business is business. I wish Paul all the best with his NAMM
show and these new micro-modules. Even though I have little interest in
them myself personally, I'm all for the micro series if it is good for the
company. I know I frequently complain about modules that haven't come out
yet, but it would be far worse if Synthesis Technology went out of business
entirely. When soldering season rolls around (you can't leave the windows
open in New England during winter), I plan on contributing as much as I can
afford.