Ben Morrall

Welcome to my collection of discoveries and thoughts on Programming, Low-FODMAP Cooking, Travel and anything else that takes my interest.

Loved the FM Drums from the Digitone, but didn’t want to sacrifice one of the four available tracks for a Drum Sequence, which is considerably less flexible when controlled via an external sequencer.

Got an offer that was too good for it, so that adds 6 simpler tracks I can sequence while freeing up other devices for Chords and other more complex sounds.

Tutorials

Covers the basic operations of the Model:Cycles, a good launching point for learning how to use it.

True Cuckoo’s music is something else, but this goes through his process of assembing several songs with some great optimisations for song arrangement.

  • Use each Track/Bank for each song, treat each pattern in the bank as part of the one song.
    • Use the blank patterns (right side) to experiment with new sounds, and save them to presets

  • The Fill trigger can be used for fills to bring complexity to a pattern.

  • Use two notes together with a condition trig, 1:2 and 2:2 and move the second one’s timing all the way back so it sounds like the same note. (trig trick for Elektron Sequencers)

  • [Track] + [Dial] Changes the value for all tracks at once.

  • Work with the Limitations of the device, rather than fight them.

  • Use Kick Engine for Bass

  • Ask yourself, is this fun… then go with fun!

  • Sets up a basic drum pattern to begin with:
    • Kick on 1 and 7
    • Snare on 5 and 11
    • HiHat on Odd Numbers
  • High Hat configured to short, edgy, and tiny sound.
    • Use Random Panning with an LFO for a more natural sound.
    • Use Delay for Ghost notes
  • Use Perc Machine for Snare, making it short and sounding like a RIM Shot.
    • Raise Delay for Accents

  • Add a small amount of swing for some groove

  • Add Random Fills to the Kick and Snare, with Repeats on the Trigger and Conditionals set to 4% to 25%.
    • Changing Pitch,
    • Adding Different Repeat lenght/speed

  • Some random fills on the High Hats, with a very high probability (98%)

  • Different track lengths makes the sound more random
    • Kick 48 steps
    • Snare 64 steps
    • High Hat 24 steps
  • Get everything working, then balance the tracks

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