This looks like fun. I wanna see if I can recreate the machines in Audulus, naturally.
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āGroove boxā ā bad title IM not so HO. āLook, it makes the music for you, you donāt even need to know what you are doing.ā All the better for us. 
I just watched the video on the elektronauts forum thread and got super hyped to build in Audulus. We have so many wide open FM tools. I have some GAS relief here. It would be fun if someone could open that patch and start repatching it. Donāt bother with the soundcloud stuff, if anything notice how all I did was record the raw patch in AUM. I think the patch stands against the elektron example in terms of punch and possibility.
Can we get into that? One way I got comfortable was to take other peoples demos and just mess with them. Anyone?
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Pretty attractive price for a piece of Elektron gear. Theyāve alway had a good feel for sequencers judging from what Iāve seen. I saw that Sweetwater has dropped the price on the Model:Samples to $299 as well.
The FM part should be do-able, the really sophisticated sequencer, not so much so. With no way to store a sequence at this point other than by using a million knobs, getting much beyond sequencing a single parameter becomes too tedious to be fun. I think that the interface is the key to good, usable sequencer design.
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I know what you mean regarding āgroove boxā. I play around with the Blocs Wave and Launchpad iOS apps from Ampify from time to time as well as their GrooveBox app and all of them are kind of a music construction kit. Pick one from column A, one from column B sort of deal. Always in 4/4 and a minor key. You can buy scads of loops for them so thereās a fair bit of variety in the tonal palette available, but are you really creating music? Fun in their own way I guess, but I find them pretty unsatisfying compared to actually composing something.
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I basically try to ignore āthings on sale,ā or āthatās a good deal.ā Iād rather work my ass off and buy the red bike in the window and treasure it.
Just ordered digitakt floor model though, but that was a surprise deal. That was possible because I went without for two years.
@robertsyrettās 2 OP FM is a hell of a tool. The punch is insane and the variety out of it is untapped. He should make a Royal version with a few more breakouts.
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Yeah, it looks like they have reconsidered the price point, which can only be a good thing. Itās a great sequencer, I like it so much I have bought it three times already. Now that itās in the same price bracket as the novation circuit, I think itās approaching no-brainer territory.
100% what I was thinking. I was thinking more of a suite of modules that I could sequence with my current sequencers. I am chasing the sound, not the workflow.
That seems like a good way to warm up also, what break-outs did you have in mind?
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Like @robertsyrett, I think that Elektron has lowered the price rather than running some sort of temporary sale. In any case, my point was that they now will have two units in the sub $400 price range. Iāve always admired their gear, but most of it is a bit pricey for my budget. Itās not that I donāt think itās good value but Iāve got so much stuff already that I have to be pretty selective. Kind of like the Behringer synths. Not my first choice, but a whole lot of bang for the buck. Theyāve turned out to be a lot of fun and surprisingly versatile. A good way to experiment with analog hardware without breaking the bank. I would prefer a full modular setup but it would get pretty expensive.
The Push and Live make a pretty good sequencer thatās very powerful, but I would still like a hardware unit thatās not tied to a DAW. Seems like I see Elektron gear in an awful lot of the videos I watch.
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I really admire the setup you are creating and I know you can see through to ā yeah, but what chip is in it?ā At the same time I disagree about the modular being expensive. Itās available everywhere used. You know what though, if you want to do it all on modular itās pretty complicated and very expensive ā Mylar Melodies has shown this. There seems to be a lot of repackaging and fluff around.
I like how you often see through to āhow many oscillators for how much?ā I like thinking this stuff through with people. If it wasnāt for Audulus I would be lost in it right now, and not well informed on the understanding of synthesis, which has more to do with inner joy than impressing others by being a live synth performer .
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I think this should be thought out, rather than a shot for the hip. Chokes are useful I think. So would be some kind of rhythm integration. There could also be sweet spots like a Tom area. But these are just fast responses. I know I need to sit down and really get my fill game right ā- Tom ta Tom Tom snare snare hat hat cymbal.
- also EQing is a practical challenge that could be addressed more upriver than in post.
Another angle would be to look try to find some ancient percussion sounds. But this is me being selfish because I want the Future Aztec thing to span timeāI need to develop some sort of reliable identity better.
On the flip, I am going to turn toward some ambient since @stevo3985 inspired me with his module. Also like what Galaxian is doing in his ambient turn away from electro.
https://soundcloud.com/galaxian/the-dreaming-planet
Then, from ambient come back to drums. Hereās the rub; what about fm blown sounds ā ancient wind?
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With me itās really more hardware vs. software. With Audulus, Live Suite and the other software tools I have available, there really arenāt many sounds I canāt create. Without opening the digital vs. analog can of worms, I also wanted to explore the analog side but without making a large investment in gear. I can see the appeal of modular from a performance perspective, but I donāt see that happening for me. At this point, I think Iāll probably stay on the studio side of things. Itās the sound coming out at the end that really matters. My focus is more on trying to minimize the barriers between my concept and the tools at hand. The user interface is really the key. Although I have seen some amazing work done with the Push as a keyboard, I donāt think it can replace a good traditional layout. The ergonomics are just wrong. A dial on a screen just isnāt as intuitive as a physical knob. Knobs, sliders, pads, switches are much less distracting than a mouse. Most software focuses on the sound and doesnāt pay too much attention to the UI. If itās a pain to change something you probably wonāt. I love the sound of the analog gear and playing patch cable monkey has a certain appeal, but what really makes it worthwhile is the very direct connection between a simple gesture and its result. Turn a knob, push a switch, move a wire and you have an immediate and noticeable change. Often software puts too many layers in the way of this one to one correspondence. I love the sound of my UltraNova but too many menus. I think in the end weāll see better controllers which make no sound on their own but serve as a bridge between the software world and that of our physical senses. There are certainly still areas where digital has challenges, filters and other non-linear systems are difficult to model well, and aliasing can still be a problem at times, but if you look at the latest generation of poly synths, they are almost all digital/analog hybrids. Over time I think they will gradually become more and more digital. I donāt expect analog gear to disappear, after all itās no problem to buy vinyl, but I think it will become a niche. Of course traditional physical instruments will be with us for as long as I can see. Nothing can replace the sound of a well played violin or guitar despite what the software vendors would have you believe. Synths are by definition synthetic and donāt really follow the same rules.
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I always enjoy when you take the time to share your thoughts. Yes, it seems to me that interfacing is the key. I like the closed world of audulus for making music machines. You get into flow states. I also enjoy guiding the machines, and I hope that will just get better for us here.
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Q&A after the performance is pretty elucidating.
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I wanted to make some patches but my hand wonāt do it. I have repetitive strain from carpentry work and probably building patches on iOS the lest few months has not helped.
So I have to just relax. I think this is actually a live problem for audulus. I was thinking about VR and how it would be nice to interact with audulus using more of the whole body ā not as a kitschy performance thing but as a straightforward ergonomic concern.
I am not sure how I will deal with this. All the pinching and dragging with one hand is a serious issue I would say. At least I am hitting a wall there to the point that I canāt participate this week.
I find these resistance bands help a fair bit if anyone else has this problem.
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You have my sympathy. I have arthritis in both hands probably from years of carrying a toolbox followed by more years of keyboard work. I love to play video games but I can only manage a PS or Xbox controller for a few minutes. I use a mouse and keyboard with an adaptor and take a pretty strong NSAID (Diclofenac) every morning.
Iām hoping youāve seen a professional regarding the repetitive stress. Thereās no magic bullet but they can often help.
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@futureaztec Sorry to hear of your troubles. Have you considered the Accessibility menu and examining what workarounds might be available for your condition? This immediately sprung to mind as I read your post.
I am more familiar with the hearing menu, due to my mom suffering a rare medical condition that started with vertigo so extreme she had to be hospitalized, and became a total loss of hearing within hours. Luckily, it only affected one ear, so she was still able to hear some things.
About a year later, doctors at a research hospital In Chicago contacted her about an experimental surgical procedure to implant a biomedical hearing device that connects artificial synapses to your real ones, and via a very very expensive and ingenious invention whose similarities compare with the ADC node in the library, which is implanted in her inner ear now, her hearing has been partially (70%) restored, which is where my familiarity with this menu begins.
Take a look, experiment with some stuff, and see if something works for you. These highly advanced technology devices we work with are built with people from all walks of life in mind. I hope you will be able to find something that helps you with your hands/wrists @futureaztec (and @stschoen). I find nothing more depressing than hearing of debilitating illness taking away the things that family, friends, etc. enjoy most in life. You are both very talented, and I hate reading that your troubles get in the way of your passions 
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One thing I got out of this q&a was clarification on the digitakt being mono. Since I have one coming it was nice to hear that that was a practical design decision to do with digital sampling, rather than a decision in terms of profit and marketing.
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Just wanted to crosslink to this thread over on the Elektron forum. In it, the designer of the talks a little about how he made the synth engines in MAX. It seems like there is a lot of complex mapping for the machines that change across the range of the macro parameter. Unfortunately he declined to spill the means entirely.
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I was into this guyās productions before I ever saw him review gear. I like his take on gear ā I like how he will complain and champion various aspects. He will get a machine to sing, but then heāll also trash it. A bit different than YouTubers who get sent free gear and make a show of it. He seems to have a way to address novices and heads well.
I am kind of hesitant to keep posting but I value peopleās perspectives on the forum and with all the work done on FM/PM I think itās a nice benchmark for Audulus.
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