why is the machine drum better than the korg esx 1

[Measax]

"btw... i have never played on one til i got mine. it is the only real drum machine/ sampler i own. "

so to add to this one for you - its my room mate and he likes all drum machines... he means he just saved all his money to get this... but he does a have few piecies of gear but mainly synths... one has drums but its a dx and is really better on the fm side.

edit

the sound is 12 bit [a classic 12 bit device would include the emu sp12/1200]. crunchy and electric if you will but somehow smooth at the sametime... the programmers of this digital box are off the hook is all i can say.... the tube on the emx is nasty as well... really like what i get out of that.

[AK]

Just buy one or the other, if you don't like what opinions people have on the 2 pieces of gear, don't ask for them.

As always, you should make your own mind up when it comes to gear, if it makes noises that you like who cares what anyone else thinks?

[S]

I think if you visit the machinedrum site and read a little on the specs and then compare to other boxes you might get a better idea.

for me the attractions are the different types of synthesis available, the number of effects processors and types of effect, endless encoders and the 16 lfo's, the outputs - bla bla. Just has great specs! Hopefully Korg are going to introduce a new electribe closer to the machinedrum

[wtf]

I think I'll buy one eventually. I am sick of programming drums in the computer. I definitely think the sounds (machinedrum) have a special quality to them and the modulation sounds dope. I was just curious why people were talking about this product in such a vague way, especially since we are talking about digital synthesis, so there's a specific sound that it produces and things it does.
Sometimes when there's a product that people talk about in this way, it feels like a conspiracy. Or just funny.

[oz_music]

oh come on...machinedrum is just brilliant..got one 1 month ago and im really excited.i own other stuff as well pretty famous..but this is the sh!t...

[4am]

only point where i'm not finding my way on the md is the kick.
i'm thinking about getting a jomox base1 (kick module) to use with the md
but i own the md only since a couple of weeks, so i will wait and see what happens with more patience...

[ao]

Regarding WHY the MD is considered "better" than the ESX (or other boxes) is in it's depth of sound programming. The samples on the Elektron site really don't do the MD justice. However, w/ some exploring and tweaking, you can get SO many sounds of it, it really is a percussive synth. Granted, the MD's kick, out of the box it isn't so great, but w/ some tweaking (especially compression settings), it can really pound.

As for the ESX, it's a really intuitive and fun sequencer, but you have to provide all the sounds (or use the factory sounds which are limited), and it doesn't have as many editing features/parameters, and although it has a lot of efx, I don't think they're the highest quality (and only have two parameters of control each, as opposed to the MD where you have 8-24 parameters per sound). More flexible LFOs on the MD as well.

So, if you're all about making sounds/samples on the computer, then the ESX would be a better way to go hardware-wise; if you're looking for a source of sounds, go MD.

I have and use both, but as has been said previously, if I had to choose, I'd keep the MD.

Here's a short recording that's 99% MD sounds:
http://www.technoetc.net/audio/aomalley ... 080505.mp3

Since it's just a drum machine it's obviously very percussive

[async]

Eh, for like 1/10th the price you can get a microtonic plugin and make yourself a kit that sounds pretty damned good. Plus it's all inside your computer, so you don't have to worry about all of the crap like line noise that comes along with recording.

Sure, you don't have professionals designing your drum kit, but I really love the ability for a novice such as myself to make very clean, clear, predictable sounds pretty quickly with the microtonic. I use like 4 8-wide instances per track, I like it that much.

It's a trade-off. The machine drum is a great instrument for _way_ too many reasons to list here (like the ability to sequence modulation of parameters on the fly and all of the performance features and the ability to run as an effect and the fact that it's hardware, etc).