16 thoughts on “Cuckoo’s Analog Rytm Mega Tutorial”

1. Great job by Cuckoo’s (I love his OP-1 stuff) but I am really not getting these devices, they are so complicated to use (shift, global, tiny screen scroll to tiny sample folder…) a maschine Micro and cheap lap top will do far more for half the cost. This isn’t battery powered, so its not a portable use it in the garden toy (my justification for owning and Op-1!) so I am assuming most people would have it plugged in ‘by’ their computer….I kind of get the ‘analog’ thing (although less so recently with Diva et al being almost identical in a mix) but not hardware samplers with lots of menu diving and double key shift to find stuff…..I will take my 29inch monitors, mouse and Maschine and Live.

   1. Once you get the hang of it, Elektron workflow become second nature and quite fast for live performance. There are lots of shortcuts to jump around without menu diving. No doubt it takes a few months – but for me it was worth it.

      I’m almost never plugged in near a computer and often run on an external battery http://www.modulatethis.com/2013/10/lektron-octatrack-battery-tekkeon.html.

      I don’t have a Rytm, but as an Octatrack owner, morphing via pad pressure “Pressure Mode” interesting. It is is like having 12 OT cross-faders.

   2. Yeah, I hear you. I mean, you can just go over to loop masters and buy all the parts of your song and put them together in Acid DJ too! So much cheaper and easier then dealing with all those pesky buttons and remembering when and how to push them. I bet those small screens don’t even have tool tips!

      I know some people are doing this for fun and they somehow enjoy dealing with all these expensive ‘toys’. But come on, just find the easiest and cheapest way to bang out a hit tune and call it day!

      Take the extra money you saved and purchase some nice clothes, a huge TV (and the cable package to run the thing so your not stuck watch PBS) and just update your cell phone every 3 to 6 months.

      Make tracks in way less time and just go to the club and impress your super cool DJ friends with the latest fashions and just talk about Waking Dead and Game of Thrones! That’s how you get gigs and placements! Not by fooling around with these silly toys that you can’t even enjoy in the garden!

      1. Actually I’m a giving guitarist, not a button presser – if you somehow think putting a computer in a black box with knobs on is different to pluging Maschine in to a laptop you are deluding yourself. Nothing wrong with being a hipster, but don’t kid yourself it’s a higher form of art.

         1. image that …an article talking about (and showing) information on synths…on synthtopia.

         2. I’m a guitarist AND a button presser, and I can say for certain that one is not a higher form of art than the other. That being said the argument of hardware (“analog” and harder to use) vs software (computer based and easy to use) is an age old one. As an owner of a bit of some Elektron stuff I can give a few reasons why I choose to use it more and more.
            1 It sounds good… it just does. You can push it hard and it distorts in a pleasing way, and because every time you hit a pad it sounds a little bit different. As an example pull up a guitar sample and hit the same not over and over… sounds pretty shitty right? Why is a drum any different?
            2 Its fun to use. Everyone says the stuff is hard to learn but playing the sounds or programing a 1 to 4 bar loop is pretty intuitive. I started making loops without reading the manual at all.
            3 It feels more like an instrument. There is something about having no latency. It just makes you feel more connected to the instrument. Its subtle but its there I promise. Also you don’t need to open anything to play it. Just like a guitar. You just turn it on and boom… its ready to go.
            4 Its great to get away from the computer screen. I love computers but working on tracks everyday makes me hate looking at that screen. Any chance to get away is a blessing.

            There are more reasons but those are my top 4. Synths are instruments and while I wouldn’t call all button pressers musicians, there are lots that are. I think of learning the menus of a synth in the same way I think of establishing the muscle memory of playing a guitar. Learning to play a guitar isn’t really intuitive, but it is rewarding.

      2. Well played sir, well played.

   3. I went from Maschine to Analog Rytm and it was a great move.
      I never bonded with Maschine. To me it’s like worst of both worlds. I need to boot the laptop, start the app, have to decide if I run Maschine in standalone or as an Ableton plugin. Like with Elektron, the controller also has a lot of hidden functionality you have to learn. Then I get a million crappy sounds and samples to choose from, jump between mouse and controller, and this is the point where my original idea is gone.
      With Rytm I just switch it on and create a beat.
      Elektron is famous for strange and complicated workflow and this is true, it took me weeks to properly understand how things work, but now I get it and I can get to results very fast and straightforward. And it always sounds great. It’s hard to get something really bad sounding out of an Elektron box. Can’t say the same about Maschine/Ableton.
      Maschine isn’t exactly simple to use by the way. Both systems are complicated and deep, compared to something like a TR-606 drum computer, or Ableton drum racks on the software side.
      Elektron is more expensive than plugins/controllers of course. But they build great machines, no doubt. Tiny display or not.

      1. Now they need to take it to the Bridge; the OverBridge!

2. I hate you for doing this. It just cost me a lot of money. 🙂

3. Oh…can you do one for OT?

4. Speaks volumes when a machine needs a tutorial that takes more than an hour.
   Love the Elektron stuff, I think it’s off the charts, but it’s hardly intuitive.
   Cuckoo is a legend.

   1. Another way of looking at it though, is that this is a deep device that will reward you if you spend the time to learn it. It’s not something that you gonna learn instantly, but it’s also something that you probably won’t outgrow for a long time, if ever.

      1. Another way of looking at it, is that you might never grow to like something that is that counter intuitive. Ever will likely become never. Better spend your time becoming a better player.

5. WHO’S THE NERD NOW?

   heh

6. I bought an Elektron RYTM and haven’t even looked at the manual.

   I’ve managed to do everything I need on it and even construct kits from my own imported samples.

   It is a great machine that goes as deep as you want it to.

   I turned my PC on the other day. Various updates and much pissing around later I’d lost the will to live.

   With hardware you plug it in and it’s ready to go.