Tutorial on creating Complex Beats Using Elektron Model Samples

The Elektron Model Samples has an amazingly good sequencer which can be used to create complex rhythms and beats that flow naturally using sampled breaks.
This simple tutorial will show you how to balance the decay and chance parameters in conjunction with specific Sample start points to make beats more interesting and organic.
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Kit List : -
Korg NTS-1
Behringer Crave
Behringer TD-3
Novation Circuit
Korg Monotron Delay
Elektron Model:Samples
Korg ES-1 Sampler
Pocket Operator KO 33
Nord Micro Modular
Yamaha SU200
Roland JV-880
novation XioSynth
Yamaha CS 2X
Behringer Flow 8
Phonic Helixboard 12 Firewire Mixer
Phonic 12-2 mixer
Yamaha MV100
Tascam DR40x
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[@auldwav]

As someone who is a total model samples novice, I have to say this is tremendously helpful and interesting. Thank you.

[@DocBolus]

No worries, glad you found it helpful. That's why I do it.

[@mrthingamabob8117]

Extremely interesting ! I'll try that asap ! And of course, you leave it to us to discover the joy of adding effects, lfo, and retrigs to the whole thing. Subscribed !

[@DocBolus]

Thanks for the comment and the subscription. Yep this is just the beginning, there is so much more you can do. I love the trigger functions on the Samples they are so useful so will be doing more on those, and of course I have my favourite uses for the LFOs too.

[@Colcalebcat]

This was awesome! Thanks! Very helpful!

[@DocBolus]

No worries, glad you found it helpful.

[@minimal.camera]

Solid technique! Love it, will try it.

[@DocBolus]

Yep it's a lot of fun, if you actually have the sample playing at the same bpm as the track it is even more effective, but this is the way I do beat matching on the samples too. If you know anyone else who might find it useful please pass it on.

[@jrv8709]

Awesome workflow …thanks for sharing ! Love how you panned for the right sound while the sequencer was playing. Awesomeness !!!

[@DocBolus]

Thanks, one of the really cool things about the Samples is the ability to specify the start point step by step. It allows you to be quite creative with your sequencing of samples.

[@mad.magirus]

Nice tutorial Doc! Thank you.

[@DocBolus]

No worries, glad you found it useful. Always more stuff coming, I did another one using a similar technique to create semi random arps

[@CleverHans1]

I really can't thank you enough for putting these videos out for the M:S. So far, everything that I have seen of yours has helped me out massively and I am clearly not on my own either! Brilliant - thank you very much!

[@DocBolus]

That's so good to hear. I have one more on the Samples planned, and then I am going to take a break from it for a little while to play with some other kit. I will be back with it because I love this box and the workflow it encourages but I miss playing with my MicroModular so look out for that, and watch out for my return to the Samples.

[@CleverHans1]

@@DocBolus Ace! I'm defo going to look through all of your vids. I'll keep my eyes peeled - cheers again!

[@markovichamp]

wow! a great technique, I'm used to slicing samples up on a computer, but this is a lot more intuitive and feedback-driven, thanks!

[@DocBolus]

Yeah I do some slicing on the computer but this allows for a bit more flexibility. You can do something similar on the Circuit but you have to set up longer slices than you need, it's just not quite as flexible and intuitive though. If you know anyone else who might find it useful please pass it on.

[@bigmanlizard7326]

this is just amazing knowledge in general elektron model samples or not thanks!

[@DocBolus]

No worries, I use the same technique with the Circuit Tracks which has a probability feature on the sequencer. I try to make these half arsed tutorials as wide in scope as possible. If you know someone else who would like it please pass it on.

[@Veveve1]

absolutely nice one! power move

[@DocBolus]

Cheers man, a lovely little trick which works quite well for me.

[@pflo-98]

thanks 4 yet another info filled vid..

[@DocBolus]

No worries P Flo glad it was useful, some of the ideas can be applied to other machines. Thanks for dropping by.

[@pflo-98]

@@DocBolus digitakt/cycles too

[@DocBolus]

@@pflo-98 has been one I have thought about for a while but I think I am edging more toward a deluge.

[@ceetronic]

Great video and full of workable ideas. Thank you

[@DocBolus]

No worries, glad you found it helpful. Don't forget to pass it on if you find someone else who might like it, and I hope to see you again.

[@ceetronic]

@@DocBolus Been watching all the other videos you've posted. All really helpful thank you. Nice to have some theory explained rather than bashing into a full on tutorial!

[@DocBolus]

@@ceetronic I think the theory for these kinds of things is important because then you can apply the same idea in other contexts if you know kind of what is going on. I use a similar technique with the Circuit, even more so with the tracks. Of course it is changed slightly but the theory is the same.

[@ceetronic]

@@DocBolus 💯

[@MoeShinola1]

Wow that's cool. You can economize your use of pattern slots this way.

[@DocBolus]

Yep, there is a lot of clever things you can do with the Samples to get more out of the box.

[@q_yrko9067]

Goats notes 😂 Great tuto, for the first time I get a glimpse of the high consideration the M:S has among the mid-low cost sample machines. However, I managed to get some ideas I can apply elsewhere!

[@DocBolus]

I think the Elektron work flow is amazing, I love the sequencers and I am sure there are similar things you can do on the Cycles. You can also do something similar with the PO33 by setting the start points of 'chopped' samples, and on the Circuit you can change the length of the delay on the sample hits.

[@squishmusic]

@@DocBolus what about some delay also, or parameter lock the decay on steps might help get the grooove on

[@DocBolus]

@@squishmusic Sounds like a good plan. A touch of delay with short feedback is definitely a quality technique. I quite like the way it can leave a slight hang over the tail of a drop. Just adds something to a mix to keep it flowing.

[@pk3776]

Please do a complete top tips video on this machine….. Doc, you is the best at this …… 🙏👍❤️🖖💯🤟🎶

[@DocBolus]

Cheers, glad you are enjoying. Certainly might be an idea for a top 5 tips.

[@gradientledge]

i got it dirt cheap not expecting allot but wow the sequencer is a beast but i see where some might of been disappointed but if you understand the samplelock feature this ultimately turns into a 26 track 6 master strip device

[@DocBolus]

Yep the sample locks change the game entirely. The one thing that really annoys me is lack of control over the panning via the sequencer. The only way you can get any motion in the panning is using the LFO which I don't always want to do. It is a really fantastic introductory sampler as long as you know how to play with the sequencer properly.

[@slimpyman]

hey. someone figured out live transpose but he thinks its a bug. when the sequence is playing, the active track will transpose the sequence of that track if you hit a trig (instead of one shotting chromatically choking) but he cant figure it out reliably.

[@DocBolus]

OOOooooohhhhh now that sounds interesting. Going to have to mess with that one. Thanks for the heads up.

[@goodnota]

did you resample it thru PO-33 before feeding M:S with the loop ? ;)

[@DocBolus]

Nice idea, but no this loop was put through the samples without any resampling. Just took the break and copied it onto the samples and worked with it on there.

[@goodnota]

@@DocBolus it just sounded properly aged/bitcrushed

[@DocBolus]

@@goodnota I think it was a pretty old loop I had lying around. I like a bit of ancient flavour to my loops.

[@DeGroove]

This actually sounds kinda like how I would want a drum machine to sound…nice, most demo’s are aiming at electronic dance music and are rather sterile sounding to me, but I’m searching for more natural sounding drum loops. Didn’t entirely understand just what you were doing, but I’m new to this. Is this one sample you are using or is every kick/snare/cymbal a sample on it’s own? I’m actually a guitarist trying to find a drum machine for backing tracks/jams. Which one would you recommend: the elektron or the novation circuit? Thank you, kind regards.

[@DocBolus]

On the Samples, I am using one loop, and then just changing the point at which the loop is triggered. It makes sense if you have a play with it. I started as a guitarist so I feel your pain in how a lot of DAWless youtube vids seems setup for electronic dance stuff. Either the Novation Circuit Tracks or the Samples should work, though with the Circuit Tracks you have to do a bit more work to make this technique work properly check out this video here kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGq5eaF_hsZ3bc0 which shows you how I go about that. In my opnion, the Samples is a more powerful machine but requires more work to get the best out of it, but the Tracks is kind of much more intuitive and hands on as a drum machine. Glad you found the video useful and always happy to help.

[@DeGroove]

@@DocBolus thanks for your reply and time, I really appreciate it. I’ll look into the video you recommend. Any reason why you recommend the circuit Tracks over the circuit rhythm? I’ll have to look into that as well, don’t quite get the difference. Again thanks for narrowing down my rabbit hole. Take care.

[@DocBolus]

I mention the Tracks because I own one so have had a chance to play with it. The Tracks is a sample based Drum machine with a couple of synth tracks on it. The rhythm is an actual sampler so the way it generates its sounds is different. The Rhythm is actually on my GAS list but I think it will be way into next year before I can pick one up. They do look very good and I think they may give my Samples a run for it's money.

[@DeGroove]

@@DocBolus In the meantime I’ve done some reading and indeed, the circuit tracks has the ability to record samples into, which I kinda like. It doesn’t do polyphony, but as for me as a guitarist, that shouldn’t be a problem. It did make me wonder if you could do the sample overlap thing you did in the other vid? Recording my guitar into it could also be an advantage. I’m gonna look around on your channel, there seems to be more interesting stuff there. Again, thanks for your help and time. Much appreciated. Take care!

[@DocBolus]

No worries, glad you found some of my stuff helpful. Don't get the Tracks and the Rhythm confused though because the Tracks is a very different machine. However at the very least you should be able to do something on the Rhythm like I did on the Tracks with beats.

[@neonblack211]

Needs more goats notes.... haah nah great video mate

[@DocBolus]

You can never have enough Goat notes!!!! That's what makes me a pro N that!!!!!

[@Colcalebcat]

I'd probably just put some key beats at a higher chance percent to keep everything grounded, and bam.

[@DocBolus]

There are some weird things that happen when you try and use fixed probabilities and the chance control. I will do a video about it, but it is one of the few things that bugs me about the samples. You can't fix a 100% probability otherwise I would fix the first beat and then use the chance control on all the other beats. The best you can do is fix at 99%, but then it is always 99% and you can't change it to 100.

[@thegrinderman1090]

@@DocBolus Couldn't you leave the trigs you want 100% probability on as they are, and only change the probability of other individual trigs, without changing the probability settings of the track as a whole? You could even do a temp save at that point, then mess with the track probability knob, and hit function->pattern to load straight back into your base beat. Or maybe I misunderstood.

[@DocBolus]

@@thegrinderman1090 The problem is that once you fix a probability as a trig condition it overrides the probability control knob so you can't actually change the probability of events on the track on the fly. I can see how that might work for having 'fixed probability' ghost notes, but it wouldn't work if you wanted a skeleton beat that you knew would always play and then some real time control over the 'ghost' notes. Does that make sense. The probability settings on the Samples is definitely one of my favourite features though.

[@thegrinderman1090]

@@DocBolus Ah I get you! Thanks. Yeah I've been playing with the M:S for a few months now, very fun device, the conditional stuff is a great feature. It might not be ideal but maybe you could dedicate 2 tracks to the breakbeat, 1 with only the 100% trigs, and another for condition knob twiddling? Nice vid anyway, I never thought of doing things that way.