Excellent review! Been thinking about upgrading from my Digitakt to this, I plan on running my modular rack through it. One question though: Is the external Audio In true stereo or does it sum the stereo image down to mono as the Digitakt does? Thanks!
Hey bro. Do you use this with Digitakt? I am just wanting a "playable" aspect to my set up. Wondering how diff than Dgtakt is as far as for drums. Do you use the synths often in this box? Is there an app you can compare the drum synth sound to with this box? Great job.
11:50 - I'm sure you know by now but it was waiting for you to choose a pattern since you hit A by itself right before doing Func + A. It wasn't because the unit was lagging or anything.
Good catch, though that brings up another issue I forgot to talk about. Sometimes the pattern select screen stays on and won't time out after 3-4 seconds the way it's supposed to. Few other people on Elektronauts having this issue too.
Commenting a few years later: And at 31:10 the UI isn’t lagging behind. He presses once (probably in a habitual attempt to first access the main SRC page, even though doing so is unnecessary regardless) and then presses twice to access the secondary page, but the first of those two presses acts as the second press of the two-press behaviour. Notice how he avoids this moments later, probably once consciously realizing he’s already on the SRC page and skipping that unnecessary press. It’s sort-of user error, sort-of bad Elektron UX, but either way: If the Rytm is anything like my OT in this way, it’s safer to learn the modifier keys instead of the two-press behaviour.
I'm hoping they add some more machinetypes in the future. Especially the toms feel a bit lacking. I think the best feature on the Rytm is the master distortion and compression. The variety in kicks and snares is pretty good too. I can see why you'd say the sound isn't as warm as you'd expect from an analog drummachine. I suppose you can always add warmth either with the distortion or externally.
Superb! I've watched this review three times. Without the unit, it's so hard to understand. I'm not saying your video is confusing. I think I finally get it. Of course, hands on and trying to make something, failing, second project, better etc. It's how it goes. I have the same yes/no save/load thing with the Digitakt/Digitone boxes. I can't seem to break my muscle memory. I save quite a bit and just move forward. This is the only other unit with scenes like the OT right? It's interesting that it's also a gradient like the OT scene slider. We'll see what 2.0+ firmware updates bring. Maybe overheating issues resolved? I have faith in Elektron. It's a 10-ish year instrument to me. I give em a break on software/firmware. It's difficult / tricky and specialized.
Great review rarekith, I got my mk2 at the release and yes it's very disappointing that overbidge still isn't out. Let's hope it's for the good that it will work perfectly :-). Cheers Mark
such a great investigation of this machine, thank you... im pretty surprised (and disappointed) about the limited nature of the synthesis machines... i have a machinedrum and was hoping the rytm2 would be an upgrade in terms of synthesis-based sound design potential, but it seems it's actually a step backwards in that regard? but everything else about that machine, especially in terms of performance-related design, is very superior. again, great review, thanks!
Very great video thanks a lot very useful ,what about sampling Vinyls, I am trying to do it, but I see the time stretching is out with the track that I am building in Logic Pro X, any suggestion?
Oh my goodness, the drum pads of my Analog Rytm mk2 has recently started acting up and the UI has become flakey after playing with it for more than one hour, the unit does really heat up a lot. I'm going to swap the Analog Rytm mk2 for a Roland TR-8S and a Digitakt, under warranty.
Hey buddy quick question. How do I load additional sound banks to this machine? Every time I do it via sysex bank A and B change, and bank A has like 2 sounds... so then I end up having to factory reset the thing... I'm growing pretty tired of this machine and I've owned it for 1 day.... any advice?
what you cant assign sounds freely??? i thought about selling my machinedrum for an analog rytm, but i want to assign 16 Bassdrums if i feel like it. Thats a no go for me.
Just curious on your thoughts about this versus the Digitakt. If you don;t care for analog synthesis would it be better to save money and just get the Digi? Curious.
10 months later and you might have found your answer at this point, but in case someone else needs to know: I have owned a Digitakt for a bit but returned it, because I was lusting for something deeper. But once in awhile I wonder if I should get it again for making drum sounds out of field recordings like Dave Mech (youtuber) does with his. I would say that compared to the Analog Rytm mk2 it's very similar if not exactly the same in terms of sampling. Digitakt doesn't have all those clever performance tricks that the rytm got. That's the main difference along with having no synthesis (you can use single cycle samples to do that though). You don't get analogue overdrive (you could always buy an Analog Heat or something later) and individual physical outs for further processing with hardware fx. But you still have overbridge for multitracking of course. Filters on Rytm are analogue :)
I can never tell in this videos if I’m hearing samples or the actual analog synthesis from the machine. I’m curious how those sounds compare to the Drumbrute Impact
dirt room There really isn't a comparison the analog drums on the rytm is 100 times better than the impact and it should for the price. Don't get me wrong the impact is a great drum machine and sounds good but is weak in comparison.
Drumbrute is a little beast the purity of sound is real Rytm is ok and more of a one man machine if you dont get the dead pads syndrome. For someone who needs one hardware to do em all without the fuss rytm might be the way to go or mpc live or both Much bigger learning curve on rytm but is very fun Good for experimental sounds as you will never be able to achieve your original sound with elektron If you into techno/house I never liked elektron sounds out of the box Jomox alpha kills em all... If you bit more old school Acidlab or mfb is the way
having this and an octatrack would be ideal...octatrack only has 8 tracks and drum sounds take up a lot of tracks...being drums. Having this midis sync'd to an octatrack you could accomplish anything!
If I had an Octatrack, then I wouldn't use it for drums, since I would use it for studio use and I want multitracking to have more control for further editing and mixing. I would rather use Octatrack for textural and atmospheric stuff. It should be pretty good for that with all it's sound mangling possibilities :)
man there are some really concerning limitations here. Seems like the customizability is not what I've been told it is. Really lacking in terms of sound options, plus inability to turn off choking. Damn.
I love the concept of the Analog Rytm, and what it is capable of...but the most important thing is the SOUND, and it just sounds bad. The only thing it's good for in my opinion is making kick drums. The snare machines are OK, not great, and the rest of the sounds suck in my opinion. Basically, the high end sucks. The cymbals and hi-hats are garbage. The tom is crap. It just does not have the analog punch of the 808 toms, which it is obviously emulating. Nothing close to the pounding 909 toms. The cymbals have nowhere near the bite of the 808 or 909 cymbals and hi-hats. As a sampler, I have mixed feelings. The sample editing is so basic as to render it useless outside of basic drum hits. In the end, the sampler is useful only for its ability to play samples through the analog filters. The filters are ok, but not the best analog filters out there. There are many samplers with digital filters that are far superior to these (EMU, ROLAND S750/770). The FX are crap. Overall, I think it's way overrated and overpriced. The MKII should really be about $800-$900. It costs about twice as much as it should. As a kick drum machine, it's very cool and sounds great. Great for sub bass, 909-style thumping Techno kicks. Start throwing in the cymbals, hihats, etc and it sounds HORRIBLE to my ears. I've never been a fan of the Elektron sound. Their machines are designed great, but they use low quality components for their synthesis engines. Too mass-produced, too much focus on profit over basic audio quality.
I'm appreciating your perspective here. Can you please (or anyone else) recommend analog drum machines that sounds better? I do have a model samples so could potentially use that sequencer or an ios sequencer to sequence an analog drum module. Micro-timing and parameter locks are an important part of my workflow at this point. Thanks!
Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to walk us through your thoughts on this unit! Great review!
Happy to help :)
Very good review. Thank you. Just remember, it is analog and various sound engines have to be hard wired. That is why they are limited.
Totally agree on being disappointed by the machines.. that's the reason I sold my mk I. The scenes and performances are incredible though.
One of the best reviews I've seen. Well explained.
Thanks Kevin!
There are velocity curves per pad, so yes there is provision to adjust it, dating back to mk1
Excellent review! Been thinking about upgrading from my Digitakt to this, I plan on running my modular rack through it. One question though: Is the external Audio In true stereo or does it sum the stereo image down to mono as the Digitakt does? Thanks!
Hey bro. Do you use this with Digitakt? I am just wanting a "playable" aspect to my set up. Wondering how diff than Dgtakt is as far as for drums. Do you use the synths often in this box? Is there an app you can compare the drum synth sound to with this box? Great job.
Your reviews are truly good I watched this one and the one on the OB6
Thanks Lee!
11:50 - I'm sure you know by now but it was waiting for you to choose a pattern since you hit A by itself right before doing Func + A. It wasn't because the unit was lagging or anything.
Good catch, though that brings up another issue I forgot to talk about. Sometimes the pattern select screen stays on and won't time out after 3-4 seconds the way it's supposed to. Few other people on Elektronauts having this issue too.
Commenting a few years later: And at 31:10 the UI isn’t lagging behind. He presses once (probably in a habitual attempt to first access the main SRC page, even though doing so is unnecessary regardless) and then presses twice to access the secondary page, but the first of those two presses acts as the second press of the two-press behaviour. Notice how he avoids this moments later, probably once consciously realizing he’s already on the SRC page and skipping that unnecessary press. It’s sort-of user error, sort-of bad Elektron UX, but either way: If the Rytm is anything like my OT in this way, it’s safer to learn the modifier keys instead of the two-press behaviour.
I'm hoping they add some more machinetypes in the future. Especially the toms feel a bit lacking.
I think the best feature on the Rytm is the master distortion and compression. The variety in kicks and snares is pretty good too.
I can see why you'd say the sound isn't as warm as you'd expect from an analog drummachine. I suppose you can always add warmth either with the distortion or externally.
Superb! I've watched this review three times. Without the unit, it's so hard to understand. I'm not saying your video is confusing. I think I finally get it. Of course, hands on and trying to make something, failing, second project, better etc. It's how it goes. I have the same yes/no save/load thing with the Digitakt/Digitone boxes. I can't seem to break my muscle memory. I save quite a bit and just move forward.
This is the only other unit with scenes like the OT right? It's interesting that it's also a gradient like the OT scene slider. We'll see what 2.0+ firmware updates bring. Maybe overheating issues resolved? I have faith in Elektron. It's a 10-ish year instrument to me. I give em a break on software/firmware. It's difficult / tricky and specialized.
Great review rarekith, I got my mk2 at the release and yes it's very disappointing that overbidge still isn't out. Let's hope it's for the good that it will work perfectly :-). Cheers Mark
Thanks, and fingers crossed!
such a great investigation of this machine, thank you... im pretty surprised (and disappointed) about the limited nature of the synthesis machines... i have a machinedrum and was hoping the rytm2 would be an upgrade in terms of synthesis-based sound design potential, but it seems it's actually a step backwards in that regard? but everything else about that machine, especially in terms of performance-related design, is very superior. again, great review, thanks!
Dark Arps wich machine drum ver u got?
The reason is that this one is analog. The machinedrum is digital only.
@@diegolovi6924 dj tiiger
There are now a bunch more machines and even a dual VCO mono synth built in with the latest firmware :D
Very great video thanks a lot very useful ,what about sampling Vinyls, I am trying to do it, but I see the time stretching is out with the track that I am building in Logic Pro X, any suggestion?
Frankie Deep the digitakt would serve you better
Very insightful, thank you for sharing this!
Excellent review, thanks for sharing your opinion
The recent OS update fixes the overheating issue which would cause the UI software glitches.
Lamont Stigler yes, but it doesn’t fix the issue with the unit locking up due to heat they said.
Ouch!! So far my unit hasn't locked up, keeping my fingers crossed.
Oh my goodness, the drum pads of my Analog Rytm mk2 has recently started acting up and the UI has become flakey after playing with it for more than one hour, the unit does really heat up a lot. I'm going to swap the Analog Rytm mk2 for a Roland TR-8S and a Digitakt, under warranty.
Can this do Basslines ? Or do you really need the Analog Four for that kinda of stuff ?
old post but it has a 2 osc bass synth so yeah, the tom makes bass lines easy too, it also plays samples so
How do you export/bounce a song to upload it on the interwebz without Overbridge?
i disagree with the sound quality, i like it. but who cares :) video was interesting and fun to watch thx
Has the AR a song mode? And chain patterns mode?
Hey buddy quick question. How do I load additional sound banks to this machine? Every time I do it via sysex bank A and B change, and bank A has like 2 sounds... so then I end up having to factory reset the thing... I'm growing pretty tired of this machine and I've owned it for 1 day.... any advice?
I don't own the AR anymore, so it's not easy for me to remember the actual procedure. You're probably better off asking on the elektronauts forum.
what you cant assign sounds freely??? i thought about selling my machinedrum for an analog rytm, but i want to assign 16 Bassdrums if i feel like it. Thats a no go for me.
Creative limits bro :)
Yeah changing filter type on Digitakt and Digitone are also a bit dificult. Jumps way too fast :)
Just curious on your thoughts about this versus the Digitakt. If you don;t care for analog synthesis would it be better to save money and just get the Digi? Curious.
I have not used the Digitakt, so I'm probably not the best person to ask.
10 months later and you might have found your answer at this point, but in case someone else needs to know: I have owned a Digitakt for a bit but returned it, because I was lusting for something deeper. But once in awhile I wonder if I should get it again for making drum sounds out of field recordings like Dave Mech (youtuber) does with his. I would say that compared to the Analog Rytm mk2 it's very similar if not exactly the same in terms of sampling. Digitakt doesn't have all those clever performance tricks that the rytm got. That's the main difference along with having no synthesis (you can use single cycle samples to do that though). You don't get analogue overdrive (you could always buy an Analog Heat or something later) and individual physical outs for further processing with hardware fx. But you still have overbridge for multitracking of course. Filters on Rytm are analogue :)
Great upload, many thanks for sharing :-)
I can never tell in this videos if I’m hearing samples or the actual analog synthesis from the machine. I’m curious how those sounds compare to the Drumbrute Impact
It's the analog synths in the video. I've never used a drumbrute, sorry.
dirt room There really isn't a comparison the analog drums on the rytm is 100 times better than the impact and it should for the price. Don't get me wrong the impact is a great drum machine and sounds good but is weak in comparison.
Drumbrute is a little beast the purity of sound is real
Rytm is ok and more of a one man machine if you dont get the dead pads syndrome. For someone who needs one hardware to do em all without the fuss rytm might be the way to go or mpc live or both
Much bigger learning curve on rytm but is very fun
Good for experimental sounds as you will never be able to achieve your original sound with elektron
If you into techno/house
I never liked elektron sounds out of the box
Jomox alpha kills em all...
If you bit more old school
Acidlab or mfb is the way
Awesome speakers!!
Thank you, Tyler Acoustic D2x's.
looks really cool, the pad assignment is not for me though. I got the octatrack and haven’t looked back. Sweet video dude
Thanks very much!
Where do you source your drum sounds from then ?
having this and an octatrack would be ideal...octatrack only has 8 tracks and drum sounds take up a lot of tracks...being drums. Having this midis sync'd to an octatrack you could accomplish anything!
If I had an Octatrack, then I wouldn't use it for drums, since I would use it for studio use and I want multitracking to have more control for further editing and mixing. I would rather use Octatrack for textural and atmospheric stuff. It should be pretty good for that with all it's sound mangling possibilities :)
Does your machine ever freeze ?
Check out part 2 of the interview :)
tarekith I will be alright with Yes or No answer, thank you.
@@natura808 Ok, as long as you're ok with it.
@@tarekith latest 1.50 OS smashed all of the freezes and lag issues btw... probably good time to pull the trigger ;)
man there are some really concerning limitations here. Seems like the customizability is not what I've been told it is. Really lacking in terms of sound options, plus inability to turn off choking. Damn.
Nice speakers
My babies, custom Tyler Acoustic D2x's. XPA-2 providing the power.
I love the concept of the Analog Rytm, and what it is capable of...but the most important thing is the SOUND, and it just sounds bad. The only thing it's good for in my opinion is making kick drums. The snare machines are OK, not great, and the rest of the sounds suck in my opinion. Basically, the high end sucks. The cymbals and hi-hats are garbage. The tom is crap. It just does not have the analog punch of the 808 toms, which it is obviously emulating. Nothing close to the pounding 909 toms. The cymbals have nowhere near the bite of the 808 or 909 cymbals and hi-hats.
As a sampler, I have mixed feelings. The sample editing is so basic as to render it useless outside of basic drum hits. In the end, the sampler is useful only for its ability to play samples through the analog filters. The filters are ok, but not the best analog filters out there. There are many samplers with digital filters that are far superior to these (EMU, ROLAND S750/770). The FX are crap. Overall, I think it's way overrated and overpriced. The MKII should really be about $800-$900. It costs about twice as much as it should. As a kick drum machine, it's very cool and sounds great. Great for sub bass, 909-style thumping Techno kicks. Start throwing in the cymbals, hihats, etc and it sounds HORRIBLE to my ears. I've never been a fan of the Elektron sound. Their machines are designed great, but they use low quality components for their synthesis engines. Too mass-produced, too much focus on profit over basic audio quality.
I'm appreciating your perspective here. Can you please (or anyone else) recommend analog drum machines that sounds better? I do have a model samples so could potentially use that sequencer or an ios sequencer to sequence an analog drum module. Micro-timing and parameter locks are an important part of my workflow at this point. Thanks!
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