Electronic techno, dub, ambient, noise, glitch, mixer feedback, studio experiments, exploring sounds, concepts and creative processes using various pieces of equipment such as the Elektron Analog Rytm MK2, Model:Cycles, Moog Mother-32 and old 80’s and 90’s Roland, Korg, Kawai, Akai etc
Expect Resistance is from people involved in the various creative anarcho-collectivist activities linked below.
∎ WHERE ELSE ∎ Horizontal, anti-capitalist, anarchist behaviours beginning as an agile electronic music label: www.sm-ll.com Bandcamp store: store.sm-ll.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/horizontal_eg... Tape partner label: tapesformates.bandcamp.com Mastering services and support specifically for the independent electronic music community, operating under a pay what you can model: causeandcondition.com Delivering creative output while en-route: linktr.ee/punk_delivery
∎ THX ∎ Play into the algorithm, or don't, that's your choice.
@@shufflephunk cheers, nah the external instrument track is for midi stuff, although really flipping amazing. This is actually using the 101 built in sequencer and triggering it from the rimshot output. As for the sound, it’s just a sawtooth run through the 101 filter. Although I have found a key quality to the sound is the envelope is just a gate, which frees up the adsr for shaping the filter. It gives it an extra bump in vol and drives a little more using gate and sounds really solid.
@@ExpectResistance i had rytm & cycles..sold them for syntakt.. but still asking myself if rytm is better for underground industrial improvisation live setup
Comes down to people’s idea of “professionalism.” For some it’s about creating the perfect product that stands up to posterity (whoever that is). Others want to just mess around and put things out there and maybe feel like,in the process, they’re part of a loosely connected community of similarly enthusiastic and like-minded folks. Regardless, having gaining the financial support to maximize your time and focus doesn’t hurt.
Started on the Digitakt as my first proper “drum machine “ and eventually stepped up to the Rytm after getting a deal on a used MKI. I quickly realized the new features and hardware upgrades on the MKII were worth the extra $$$ and took the plunge on one when a good deal on a used one came up. This was a couple years ago and it’s turned into the central hub of my workflow. What makes it indispensable is the amount of creativity it affords, whether just scratching the surface or plumbing the depths. You could have two of these things and nothing else and have a lifetime of music to explore. Your feelings about the cost (overpriced hardware or an investment in your creativity) really comes down to whether you’re looking for an “instant gratification machine” or a tool to develop serious programming and sound design skills. With the amount that’s on offer in a standalone box, it’s hard to fault Elektron in this regard - especially after the latest upgrade.
I just got a Rytm and I am definitely feeling the learning curve. Even as a very experienced synth and drum machine player this thing is pretty damn deep and wide with lots of multi-key presses. My buddies all say “you’ll get there”. Your sharing of struggles makes me feel less lost; just need a bit of time! Thanks!!!
Happy to hear it’s helping. It’s certainly an odd machine in many ways of coming from classic drum machines and synths, this is my experience too. There are lots of little things that helped me along the way, and thinking about it all in a classic hardware sense, routing, why things might sound good, and then applying that thinking to the Rytm, might be a good way for you to go too. Good luck and feel free to ask me anything and I’ll try and help.
Indeed. The whole thing is primarily designed for looping in time. And although Actions can be used to set up loops that aren’t warped, it’s a very different workflow to looping in say in hardware samplers and the Atari.
You can't buy that nice looking drink in 'merica man. However, it's hot as balls here too, not a doubt; and, I can't wait until winter to sip on some delicious, England imported, barley wine.
It’s been a love hate relationship for a long time, with lots of struggles. I think ultimately through getting more frequent positive results, and using it for RU-vid, has helped me enjoy it more, despite it being a pain to use sometimes. Lots to like about it features wise, but it’s using it and getting something out of it I like, that helps me like it more each time. I still struggle with it though.
Nice to see you messing with one of these. BTW, some of the different engines sound really wacky when you play them "out of range" - don't neglect that note transpose within the sound settings ;D
Thanks. For sure, it definitely has more interesting sounds when pushing the pitch. I’ve not used it in ages, might have to borrow it again and have a revisit.
I remember finding your blog when I started my Nord Modular G1 learning experience in 2013. A decade later and I have no better idea of what i'm doing than I did then. The best advice I ever got related to the "Helsinki Bus Station" analogy. Stay on the bus - keep working on what you're doing - you will get better. I haven't followed this advice. But i'm going to share your video with my students as it has a perspective I don't hear everywhere.
@@brainlego ah amazing to think you were about in the blog era, that was a hugely important moment for things. There is definitely something to take from staying foolish, it’s almost like a quick catch all to counter complacency. I often find myself concerned when things do well in a certain way, as perhaps it’s not experimenting enough at that point. The bus analogy is a good one actually, I haven’t heard that one, but yeah, just doing the work, much like a builder adding bricks, something will get built eventually. Keen to learn what your students reactions are. Where/what do you teach?
@@ExpectResistance Teaching Sound Design at JMC Academy in Australia. Mixing sounds for release is becoming more like a game of "Katamari Damacy". Rolling up a whole bunch of disparate layers of audio into a Frankenstein assemblage. Certainly not best practice but how else to demonstrate "Professional Development" and justify my employment?
Hahaha! I love this. I started at Point Blank Music School Oct last year and enjoying it loads, especially after previous jobs mainly around Service Transformation, which I didn’t want but also felt I needed to constantly justify my employment. That can be tough. Luckily not feel this at all in the new job, and working with sound and getting paid for it, is kinda surreal. Really nice to meet you and good luck with tweaking those students minds. ✊
The pads are pretty hard to push in performance mode, I have been meaning to alter the sensitivity since I first got it but with the rytm it’s so easy to just get sucked into playing it.
@@ExpectResistance cheers, i was one of those that just read the quick start guide then just tried things out. Which got me where i needed but theres a lot of little tricks its easy to overlook. Starting to dig deeper now. Next phase download the latest o.s!
@@ExpectResistance 🤣 yep, tbh it took me a long time to figure out when i tweaked a kit then saved my project it was affecting it for all patterns in the project id used it on! Found myself swearing it sounded better yesterday 🤦
One thing I love about the rytm is just when I think I’ve rinsed it, I watch a few videos and realise I’ve barely scratched the surface. It was only last week I accidentally discovered the extra lfo in the master section 🤦🏻😃
Back in 97 remember FSOL doing their IDSN streaming thing at Brighton Essential festival. Is was a bit weird. It was just a light show on the main stage with some crude video walls of them in the studio mixed in with some visuals. Also the stream dropped out on occasion if i recall. It was a bit crap really TBH after a while, but i guess early days so shouldn't be too hard on it. Just very sterile looking at an empty stage, but maybe that was the vibe of it all. There's some footage on here of that night i found a while back, some of it of the backstage area while it was happening. Actually having looked its on Dailymotion.
Yeah I can imagine that was a challenge and suspect partly the point. The stage and audience setup is so often oriented towards rock band style presentation, even down to inadequate fold back speakers when doing electronic music. The ones I caught where through the radio which was super excited as the only visual was the mind and the wall I stared at throughout. Still, would have loved to experience the empty stage.
@@ExpectResistance Actually the footage is worth a watch. Apparently their slot got cut short as Dreadzone over ran and the site had a strict curfew of 11pm i read. It did seem to end quite abruptly from what i remember. Glad to of been there though, those full on partying days of the 90's have long gone 😆
@@ExpectResistance well tbh I had a similar experience with the Rytm to what you explained in your “5 years with Rytm video” or whatever you named it, but out of necessity really started to click with it late last year as I had a lot of gigs coming up. So I base my kit and patterns solely around how much variation and performance aspects I can squeeze out it, which it turns out is a lot, I’m a heavy user of the performance pads and Quick Performance knob and Scenes, and often end up tailoring kits to suit the performance aspects. In an attempt to keep cohesion between track ideas within sets I tend to copy kits over to new ones when writing new patterns and tweak the sounds into something new that suit the vibe of the triggers I set, and it most often becomes a totally different sounding kit with level and similar performance aspects being the only cohesive element. I do like to have the same or similar performance control on the pads in both scene and performance so I generally know what to expect for instance top right performance pad which is usually associated with the Quick Perf Amount is either or Botha reverb wash and high pass filter on all sounds for transitions, and bottom left pad in scenes is a reverse for the kick or all sounds. Hard to describe my flow in a couple of paragraphs but that is for asking.
This is super helpful. I have thought often about how to do longer sets or create variations on sets and your approach of copying kits, even if specific to a track and then tweaking, is a really good idea. I need to try this. Thanks. I was thinking similar in the past, emulating the Roland R8 flow which the Rytm has some comparisons to, in that you can have separate kits and sequences, although in the R8 the nature of its limits in saving often means previous older sequences get paired up with the newly adjusted kit, which is really great as you find new grooves, yet they are familiar in either the kit or the sequence. I think this has been a key part of the various experiments and key sounds across multiple tracks in early Autechre and Aphex Twin.
@@ExpectResistance I’ve had the A4 for over 10 years and it took me a long time to get my head around the kit architecture, as in I’d often re use a kit for a new pattern and my edits would destroy the feel of past patterns that used the kit…so… to combat that, and because you have 128 patterns and 128 kit slots I started to put a kit per pattern even if I was using the same kit over 4 or 8 consecutive patterns, then if I did do a tweak that I really liked for a single pattern I would save the kit which left the other patterns with their original kit and sounds. It’s similar to my workflow these days I tend to only resave a kit to a specific pattern if I have made changes to it, because I do like to be able to tweak live and move to another pattern/part without a massive jump in the sound which happens if it’s a new kit, so these days and at least with my Rytm workflow I tend to use the same kit for 4 or 8 pattern slots e.g 1 intro, 2 main,3 main/breakdown, 4 build up or transition and because I don’t tend to use a kit per pattern I can freely tweak any parameters live while switching between the parts without it sounding wack. I hope that rant made sense.
That rant make perfect sense 👍😁 This is super helpful, gonna try and do something like this over the next few weeks and see how I get on. The audio jump is the killer, but thinking through what you described I can already see it’s manageable if not entirely solved. Sweet, cheers
Lots of sweet spots! I would have pressed save a couple of times already, specially if I'm drinking ;) It'd be interesting to see how you would go from here to recording a track really. What would be the next step?
Cheers. Generally I’d hit record and then maybe tidy it up after in the master or it would just be a file on the computer. I tend to like doing things in a take and then documenting that, doing another take, documenting that. A track that gets released ends up being the better captures, but I would consider them all tracks, no matter how raw or simple.
the music today sound degraded it sounded better in the 90s due to analogue i would love to have my old rig from the 90s again over today setup to much to choose from these days it make people less creative
I agree. I’ve been switching between laptop based and hardware based and definitely agree, it’s very noticeable that older hardware has a very pleasing sound to my ears.
Found an amazing FSOL ISDN live recording on the Dutch broadcaster from 1994. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mBnopaQpA1Q.html Interesting comments under the video as well. Mesmerizing.
Ah nice find. I wonder how different it is to the BBC one. Worth checking out this channel as well. It’s pretty dry but definitely full of useful information. youtube.com/@absentwithconcept?si=YXhVub_m8IROSqFH
@@dmks2146 nice, yeah they take up a huge amount of space, especially if an young person. The smell was a huge part. Do you know what make it was? Ours was a Kentucky twin keyboard and pedal organ.
@@ExpectResistance could have been a Farisfa Pergamon. It had those faux mother of pearl switches. I was way too young to interact with it in a musically meaningful way but that must have been when I caught the synth bug. Wouldn't have made that connection without your video.
@@dmks2146 Nice. It reminds me of an earlier experience before our organ was put into the garage, where before I could play it “properly” I sat there for ages just holding keys down making huge drones. I think I only learned how to play as to prove i could and to get it back in the living room and not be thrown away.
pretty exciting magazine when you were just finding out about stuff. thing with prices now is that people who bought this magazine are now in their 50's and have the money to buy whatever they want, and also you don't now need to buy a specific magazine to find out what makes what noise, so everyone knows what is what. But back then, people buying the records didn't know what went into the music.
For sure, although I’ll be 46 this week, but got into stuff young. I think the ignorance previously, meant more experimenting happened. Sometimes music now sounds like someone showing they understood a tutorial. There was a lot of shit music back then and a lot of shit music now, although perhaps the techniques in new music is generally stronger, the ideas in both are still where it’s sounding good or not, for me. It’s all very subjective but for sure there is a shit ton more music, and most of it is crap so it’s just harder to find the good stuff, even with the search technology we have, as typically all this stuff accomodates more the popular, and popular rarely means good.
Impressive. Do you, or did you make music? My brother was similar, still now actually with some magazines. He’d disappear into his room and read the whole thing. I would steal his music magazines all the time to page through, although I was pretty selective on what I read. Certain artists, or certain gear normally.
i once threw out two, yes two atari 1040 ste's with dongles and screens in the late 90s. i put them on the wall outside. this is a very true and disturbing fact.
The scary thing is I used to collect this magazine and it makes me realize how much time has past! I began buying from day one when it first came out. I had loads of them along with the CD's. The one day I gave them away. Wish I never did now :(
Oh wow!!! Nice work! I wore the t-shirt you guys put out until it fell off my body. Very cool to meet you here What was the reason for you to make the Deep Bass Nine?
@@cate8096 Thats them! great times! I joined them in 1999. Sadly the synths weren’t my dept, but anything Computer related after 1999 was me you would have spoken to. we were like family for many years!
Of course I bloody sub'd! Them's was the days. I had bought an Atari St, with the 4meg hard drive, running a “borrowed” copy of Cubase. Tracked down and purchased a second hand a Korg M1. bought an Alesis D4 drum module, a Novation Bass Station rack mount and a sweet second hand Akai MG614 multitrack. Already had a set of 1210s, Jamo 400 Pros, and an RSD800b amp, so I was ready..... for, errrrrr, something to happen. I had zero musical knowledge, couldn't even really mix on the decks properly, very hit-and-miss beat matching, but, I had the gear. Just zero idea. No friends or aquaintances with any interest in DJing or Producing. Just, my gear, and no clue what to do with it all. Most of it actually scared me!!! Kids today, pfffft, don't know they're born. RU-vid tutorials coming out their bloody ears. Forums to meet folk. Hell, I didn't even get online until the mid 2000s! Anyhoo, all that gears long gone. Sold for pennies, I guess, but aged 53, just finished building my studio performance, DJ console, mixing suite desk yesterday!! Gonna plug her all in today and make it happen. Probably. Great video. I was living and dreaming the exact same life. Looking at they posh, futuristic pics in FM, Sound on Sound, etc, and KNOWING that if I only had the mixer/module/synth/software/etc, I'd be creating like a champion!!
Hahah! What a great comment.💜 Hoping this time around you find the enjoyment in it all. Doesn’t matter if you make music or do anything for that matter, if you’re having fun then that’s good I reckon. A friend of mine bought a whole load of gear after an insurance payout, his plan was to release some hardcore records. He never did. Never wrote a track, never wrote a beat, barely worked out how to use the gear he bought. He still has it all actually, barely used. The Akai S3000XL, Bass Station rack, Soundcraft Absolute Monitors. His excuse was and still is these nearly 30 years later “no time”, “tired”, “needed fx” 😂
@@jimbotron70 Not gonna lie, brother, I depleted my brain cells HARD through the late 80s early 90s, and then moved onto harder pursuits once all the up stuff broke my mind, so my memory ain't what cha might call tickety-boo! Pretty sure the ST had 2.5 meg of ram, yeah boyeeee, I was rollin' deep! I bought a big beige box which the ST monitor sat atop, and I'm sure it was a 4meg hdd. But, if I'm wrong, sue me!
@@ExpectResistance Yep, gotta have fx, defo cannot make music without fx. Or proper monitors. Or maybe decent headphones. Probably struggle if you didn't have any outboard. There's always a reason why you can't, not so easy to find a reason why you CAN! 🤣
The disturbing thing is that if you were on 13k in 1994 you were probably no worse of than someone on 35k today and house prices and bills and food were far cheaper so quality of life and cost of living has completely plummeted.
@@ExpectResistance I'll dig them out and look, I seem to remember it, so I think I do (must have about 30 issues, I was buying them monthly when I studied for my music tech A.N.D.).
