Looking for an alternative Drummachine to Mixfood Knock

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electrofux
Posts: 863
Joined: 21 Jan 2015

20 Apr 2021

I am currently using Knock as my main Drum Machine and the reason is that it has a pretty big sample library integrated in a way that i can browse sounds via remote. This not only leads to click free selection of sounds on my controller but also means i can create random soundsets with the press of one pad, can switch drumchannels easily etc. etc.

Is there another Drum Machine that can do this that i am missing?
Maybe even a VST? Though VST needs to have way less parameters than Knock because after a certain number of parameters (128?) they dont get exposed to the remote system.

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integerpoet
Posts: 832
Joined: 30 Dec 2020
Location: East Bay, California
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20 Apr 2021

I didn't find a KnockKnock on the store.

Are you referring to Mixfood Knock?

https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... m-machine/

electrofux
Posts: 863
Joined: 21 Jan 2015

21 Apr 2021

Yeah thats the one i use. It is ugly but pretty damn good in terms of features and most importantly remotablity. I just wish it had a bit more modern sounds integrated.

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MrFigg
Competition Winner
Posts: 9123
Joined: 20 Apr 2018

21 Apr 2021

electrofux wrote:
21 Apr 2021
Yeah thats the one i use. It is ugly but pretty damn good in terms of features and most importantly remotablity. I just wish it had a bit more modern sounds integrated.
Load your own samples into slot 10. Alternatively get this one and stack them...
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... assistant/
🗲 2ॐ ᛉ

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lowtom
Posts: 196
Joined: 29 Sep 2017

21 Apr 2021

I used Knock for the same purpose but now I just load samples to Kong and create sound switching by selecting notes via Matrix or Select CV Switch paired with CV8X4 CV Generator.

When using Matrix I can have max 32 sounds to select/switch (because of 32 patterns) or 8 when using Select CV Switch.

Another solution is to use UTL Player as switch and load 128 samples into NN-XT.

Here is my example Combinator with 128 kick samples from Drum Supply ReFill loaded into NN-XT which are then selected via UTL player and triggered by Redrum via CV Tap.

[Tool] 128 Bass Drums NN-XT.cmb.zip
(78.81 KiB) Downloaded 41 times
Attachments
bassdrum.png
bassdrum.png (612.99 KiB) Viewed 1055 times
:reason: :refill: :re:

electrofux
Posts: 863
Joined: 21 Jan 2015

21 Apr 2021

I want to get away from loading samples via the Browser because it is not remotable.
And i had a Modpanel/NNXT setup to control 8 NNXTs and chose sounds via notes. The problem with that though was that even if all NNXTs used the same samples the loading times were 8 times as long which was pretty annoying.

I guess it is a pretty niche thing i am looking for and Mixfood Knock is indeed the only Drum Machine RE that does it. But how about VSTIs?
Maybe someone has an idea in that area. As said before one thing that limits VSTi in a remote context is the restrictive number of remote items a VSTI exposes to the Reason System. So when a VSTi has 8 Channels and a ton of parameters for each channel it is likely that they are exposed top down and then suddenly you cant control basic parameters of eg channel 6 because you run out of items.

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lowtom
Posts: 196
Joined: 29 Sep 2017

21 Apr 2021

The only VSTi drum machine I use is Sonic Charge Microtonic. In my template I have 4 instances loaded and each instance act as 8 slot drum cell bank for one type of sound.
In each I have 8 kicks, 8 claps/snares, 8 hihats/shakers and 8 percussion/cymbal. I could go further and add different sounds across 16 programs so this would get me to 128 sounds total per instance.
I use only Morph slider to have some additional variation of the sound.
:reason: :refill: :re:


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phithegoldenratio
Posts: 55
Joined: 30 Jul 2018

21 Apr 2021

gawd.. why is it so butt-ugly ... I have a low treshold for minimum taste of GUI choice and do use ancient Reaktor ensembles that look .. well ancient. but honestly THIS blows it all. Sad for Mixfood - I think more people would jump on their devices if they looked decent.

on a side note: I wish some dev would show up with a fresh approach to sample based drum synth (maybe even mixed algo+sample). there is really a lack of those. We have Knock, Umpf, the standard Reason devices... not too much..

in VST Sugar Bytes drum machine is a handsome chick, combining Sample, Wavetable and Physical Modeling.. probably it does not do what the OP wishes for, but worth checking for some fresh air in this field...

Xils Stix is pretty wild too..

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selig
RE Developer
Posts: 11685
Joined: 15 Jan 2015
Location: The NorthWoods, CT, USA

21 Apr 2021

phithegoldenratio wrote:
21 Apr 2021
on a side note: I wish some dev would show up with a fresh approach to sample based drum synth (maybe even mixed algo+sample).
Xils Stix is pretty wild too..
"Mixed algo + sample" = we're almost there with Kong, if you start to layer things.
Selig Audio, LLC

electrofux
Posts: 863
Joined: 21 Jan 2015

22 Apr 2021

Just to give you an idea why i want to have the sample selection remotable.

With Drums you are likely to search alot for sounds. While for people who work mostly in the DAW it might not be an issue to switch to the Drum Machine in the Rack, select the Channel, hit the Sample button and go to the browser to select their desired sample or browse.

I have my Drummachine connected to 8 Stepnote Recorders where i sequence remotely (at least in the creative phase until i got a good loop running) and control the Drum Machine all via one Livid Base controller. In this setup switching back and forth between controller and Browser is kinda distracting.

BUT furthermore with remotable sample selection you can do very cool stuff on your controller that you cant do with the Browser. For example i have setup 8 Pads on the Livid Base as channel selectors. I can select more than one channel at a time and perform actions on them. When i start a loop i normaly select all channels, hit a pad and it randomizes all Sounds in each channel. It can be within the current Category (BD, SN etc) or totally random. If i like parts of it i can exclude them from the next randomization. I can also switch 2 channels entirely when i like the rythm on the Snare track but want it to play the Clap. I can make snapshots of everything, i can even do Control All like on the Digitakt etc etc.

Mixfood can do this, i just wish it had some more modern sounds like in Umpf.

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lowtom
Posts: 196
Joined: 29 Sep 2017

23 Apr 2021

electrofux wrote:
22 Apr 2021
Just to give you an idea why i want to have the sample selection remotable.

With Drums you are likely to search alot for sounds. While for people who work mostly in the DAW it might not be an issue to switch to the Drum Machine in the Rack, select the Channel, hit the Sample button and go to the browser to select their desired sample or browse.

I have my Drummachine connected to 8 Stepnote Recorders where i sequence remotely (at least in the creative phase until i got a good loop running) and control the Drum Machine all via one Livid Base controller. In this setup switching back and forth between controller and Browser is kinda distracting.

BUT furthermore with remotable sample selection you can do very cool stuff on your controller that you cant do with the Browser. For example i have setup 8 Pads on the Livid Base as channel selectors. I can select more than one channel at a time and perform actions on them. When i start a loop i normaly select all channels, hit a pad and it randomizes all Sounds in each channel. It can be within the current Category (BD, SN etc) or totally random. If i like parts of it i can exclude them from the next randomization. I can also switch 2 channels entirely when i like the rythm on the Snare track but want it to play the Clap. I can make snapshots of everything, i can even do Control All like on the Digitakt etc etc.

Mixfood can do this, i just wish it had some more modern sounds like in Umpf.

I got the sample selection sorted using method I mentioned earlier but it needs preparation of selected 128 samples and mapping it all in NN-XT which is one time operation.

Still, I do not use that method much as I prefer drum synthesis. I have some additional classic TR hi-hats and other percussion elements loaded in Kong and that's all.
For the style I make (minimal house and techno) I preselected 8 different sounds for each of 4 drum types which still gives me great number of possible kits to create. Additionally I can alter any sound parameters further - hence the use of synthesis and not samples.

I use A&H Xone:K1 for controlling it all. My Remote script is nothing fancy. Just basic control over Redrum sequencer with LED feedback of steps. I plan to develop it further but for now lack the knowledge and need to experiment more with Lua.

Do you use Remote override or everything is mapping automatically as you insert devices?
:reason: :refill: :re:

electrofux
Posts: 863
Joined: 21 Jan 2015

23 Apr 2021

I dont use remote overrides i have a script for the Livid Base and another humongous script (40k lines of spaghetti code) for the Launchpad Pro.

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