Elektron Model:Samples Revisited | Still a Great Groovebox!

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A performance on the Elektron Model:Samples Groovebox


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A few things I don't make any secrets of:
- I love grooveboxes
- I'm perfectly content with "cheap" gear
- Elektron workflows and I get along really well

Now if you'll allow me to wax poetic a little...

Recently I've been very interested in the fundamentals and theory of good, dance music. I think there's something about a really great groove that becomes more than the sum of its parts. There's a balance to the harmonic frequencies. There's a great interplay between the percussion and the bass. There's a compelling energy within the notation that makes it both hypnotic and captivating at the same time. It's all of these things coming together in the right ratio and I've been trying to better understand that.

On paper (at least to me) it can seem deceptively simple. For example, a "4-on-the-floor" kick drum pattern is about as rudimentary as sequencing can get, but like a great chef can tell you, having a simple to follow recipe does not necessarily equate to a well prepared dish. There are artistic flourishes within the process, almost subversive and at times imperceptible, but they are there and they are extremely important and those are the elusive elements I'm trying to find and better utilize myself.

Dance music is symbiotic to the rhythm of our own heartbeats and when a great track taps into that primal, human core, it can be very powerful. I am fascinated by that. It's psychological. It's scientific, but it's also art and emotion from a deep, almost, unnamed place within the human condition.

So, the other day, I started and stopped working with several pieces of gear with the specific purpose of finding something that gave me that feeling. First I grabbed my MonoMachine. I made some really interesting sounds but the groove just wasn't there. Then I grabbed my MachineDrum, which is absolutely killer for things like minimal techno, but nope, that wasn't doing it for me either. I thought I had made good choices for tool selection but i was coming up short and getting frustrated.

I nearly gave up for the day when I decided to see if I could coax anything good out of the Model:Samples. I wasn't expecting to get very far and I've been contemplating selling it, but then all of a sudden I managed to find that little spark and then I was off and running.

Maybe all of this is "No Duh" for some of you or maybe I'm just boring you with a rant here, but I found the journey to be interesting and I'm intentionally trying to analyze some of this now to perhaps be more focused in the future.

Anyways I spent a couple of hours one day writing this and then a couple of hours the next day filming and recording it.

A solid 90% - 95% of this piece was made on the M:S but if you watch the video there are a couple of added elements, mainly a brassy/string pad from my Analog4 mk1 and a very simple high hat pattern from my RYTM mk1.

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, and maybe it doesn't do it for you, but it gives me that elusive, primal, dance energy I was hunting for.

Thanks for watching!
- Matty G.

#synthesizer #techno #modelsamples #elektron