Machinedrum Userwave: World's most expensive sampler?

meh. elektron-bashing is a popular sport among the uninitiated {for lack of a better, less loaded term} and people who confuse spec for musicality. the actual sound quality, creativity enablement and other immeasurables are rarely discussed, and for the life of me, i can't figure out why. it's probably because one actually needs to spend a little time in front of these instruments, rather than regurgitate their specs on internet forums.

elektron succeed because their instruments resist rote commodification, and the appeal of their hardware cannot be summed neatly in terms of polyphony, effects instantiation and bitrates, or even in a typically thorough review in _sound on sound_. they are a perfect illustration of the difference between something being priced beyond one's immediate means and something being too expensive. buy or crack as many sp-1200, old digital synth and lofi sampler emulators as you* like, and spend as little or as much as you care, but you still won't have a machinedrum or a monomachine. o, and i guess you won't be in our exclusive club, or whatever other strawman you'll** present in lieu of an informed argument. sorry.

* well, not you, personally, mister whitwell.

** just a reminder, not you, either. love and kisses!
 

I own the machinedrum, as well as the monomachine. I am super happy with both of them. I can honestly say that if I was forced to sell all my gear, they would be the 2 last items to go.

What I enjoy so much about the two are:

SOUND! SOUND! SOUND!
Rock solid build quality
Super reliable
extremely easy to use interface
Awesome customer support
Huge web community
Sound creation is a snap
Super easy to create a grove.
Cant find a better hardware sequencer on the market.

You get what you pay for... why else do you think the Elektron has a cult following?

The Userwave is not just a sampler, it is a full blown machinedrum, with 2MB of storage. This 2MB is exactly what some users needed. (some were seeking the ability to use a sampled snare, HH, kick...)

Don't forget not all the details are known about the Machinedrum Userwave. There might be a USB storage device?!
 

2mb of space is a lot! if you are talking old school samplers ;) for 12-bit
drums you don't need a lot of space. I hope it sounds good in the end, my
wish is that it's like there is an EMU sp-12 in the MD, then I will buy one.
 

I have to agree to disagree. Buying the Machinedrum is probably the best thing I ever bought myself. If I had to sell my gear I wouldn't sell the Machinedrum. Dedicated user? I'm almost criminal.

I'll probably upgrade it to the UW version before I get and audio card, which I need.
 

Also don't forget this isn't just a piece of SDRAM or SIMM u'll find in other samplers, it's 2 MB of very fast DSP RAM wich is very very expensive indeed. The ROM samples are probably stored on other memory.
 

do you reliaze you get the full machinedrum synth (TRX, EFM, E12, etc. machines) with the extra sampling in the user wave? it's not like its sound generating is only from the sample memory...
 

As any elektron/machinedrum owner will proudly tell you, this is a poorly researched description of what this AMAZING feature will add to an already brilliant system. Since purchasing the original machinedrum, I have been nothing but impressed from this (yes, pricey, but unquestionably worth it) king of drum machines. The ability to sample is the icing on the cake! Worth every hard earned penny!
 

i've been sampling for years: fasttracker, akai3000xl, Cubase, Battery...

But none of them can do what the UW can.
(not even all of them together).

...but i don't have to be defending the MDUW !
she's perfectly capable of doing that herself ;)

- Bart

p.s. I am using it since yesterday (the UWpart) ;)
 

can someone please let me know more about the userwave from someone who has it,

my question is, does the 2.5 mb of sampling basicly give the same controls as the sample based synth with your own sounds or is it more (or less)

also what does 2.5 mb sampling time boil down to at 12bit
 

I love elektron products. people find so many ways be expressive with them if you think its expensive you arent shopping for quality synths. its half the cost of a moog voyager.