What's the ER-301's role in your setup?

Nah not usually unless it’s extreme timenstretching. TV/Film work is all at 48k, so I’m there to avoid resampling.

That, and 2x CPU juice available on the 301 :slight_smile:

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Are you using the 301 for production audio gigs? Pretty awesome if so.

Yep! Part of the synth sound design arsenal!

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Nice - would be awesome to see/hear what you’ve made.

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Hi! First post. Received my Er301 around August, and have been ripping away with it a ton. For the most part I’ve been using it for oddball sample slicing experimentation, drum loops, and recording tracks made with the rest of my euro setup. Just the other night I played a show which I basically dj’d a bunch of music I made off the 301. Worked perfect!

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Like a swiss army knife.

I have cases that get the 301 round robin when needed.

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Hello! This is my first post here. I got my ER301 last week so I´m just beginning to understand how things work in it. I think the possibility to loop and manipulate audio is the prime function for me. Also I ordered the Vermona midi-cv module and my plan is to try and play four samplers polyphonically. Maybe when I´ve grasped the concept of multiple loopers and samplers doing stuff simultaneously a bit better, it becomes more like the center of my setup. Joe´s video of taking cv out also got me thinking that there could be more interaction with the rest of the system. I also love the idea of getting rid of the computer completely when making music and with the 6-track this seems like a perfect solution for that.

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Welcome! There is a wealth of knowledge and a 1,000,000% supportive community here. Make sure to post what you’re making on your journey with the 301 here so we can see/hear what you’re up to! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks! The vibe on this forum seems to be very nice!

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ER 301 is quickly becoming the centerpiece of my 12ux84hp system, and it ends up being the final output for most of my patches. I use it for mixing purposes, sample mangling, recording, and djing my own material. I absolutely love the work flow, and while it doesn’t necessarily compare to my computer and ableton, I much prefer working with the 301 lately. Also, I’m a Manual Grains Devotee.

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Was about to make a new thread and I saw this thread pop up instead. Here’s a copy/paste of what I was going to post, although most of it has been answered!

"Hello all, new to these forums and OD in general, plus first post here…

I’m also new to Eurorack/modular, though not synthesis/music. I dove right in for creating organic percussion sounds, via IME Piston Honda MK3 and an LPG (currently Make Noise LxD, however I have reserved Rabid Elephant’s Natural Gate) alongside my other few modules. I’m looking for a utility sampling module and the ER-301 has been at the top of my list ever since I watched a few Eurorack performances on YouTube that were heavily reliant on the ER-301 (plus I’m a sucker for dope boutique stuff…). I did some low level coding at Uni and think I’d feel quite comfortable with the 301’s workflow.

So I’m wondering from the community before the shop opens back up and I snag one, how have you used it most?"

First, I want to quickly sample the drum sounds I get going on my current setup, I’ve only got two voices on the Piston Honda MK3 so I need sampling to get a full “kit” going… Second, I don’t like to sing, but I’m down to mangle my voice rhythmically. I do not care about “speedy” workflows per’se. I’m willing to sacrifice speed for efficient use of a deep module through practice. Finishing tracks is my main concern. I like to experiment about 1/4 of the time I’m using my instruments (DAW/VSTs/Novation Summit/Modular synth).

I love Shpongle and the ER-301 seems to be a trippy rhythmic mangling machine.

Anyone think the 301 would be a good fit for me?

Sorry for the rambling, cheers.

Hi and welcome!

Given the huge number of ways to use the ER-301 as a synthesizer, effects processor, and sampler, this is going to sound boring. But the way I’ve used it most is as a mixer and the final output stage of my modular before it gets sent to wherever else it might be going. It’s just exceedingly good at this - it gets used in every single patch in this way. A lot of times (other than my speakers) the ER-301 is the final destination because it’s so easy and efficient to record with it too.

Now having that said, it’s usually doing a lot more than that, and what it’s doing totally depends on what I need from it that day.

In my estimation it sounds like it would be perfect for your use case, and it will do a lot more too. It is deep and there is some learning curve for sure, but once you learn it, I think you’ll find the UI very fast to work with.

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well, it has a lot of roles.
coupled with monome grid + ansible it allowed me to get rid of the octatrack which i liked in some areas but totally hated in others.
that said, it is doing a lot of things, a laboratory into which explore new ideas or clone existing concepts to learn more about synthesis and processing, but also to create new, totally custom weapons for sound design. it is necessary for me in live sets because i only use my 12u x 104hp rig, a mixer and an external reverb (plus sometimes microphones, piezos, acoustic instruments and objects), in that case it is a sampler, a drum machine, sometimes a very weird compositional\improvisational tool, a source of endless textures , a live voice mangler, looper, resampler, whatever…

lately i started sometimes gigging with a very small system in an old pulp logic lunchbox (modules: makenoise tempi, ansible + grid, expert sleepersh fh1 with dual footswitch, korg nanokey and nanokontrol, and of course the 301. plus some 1u pulp logic units like attenuverters and pressure sensors), it is small but incredibly powerful. it also has a nice output unit with left and right 1/4" jacks and headphones out.

i already made some studio tracks almost entirely made of 301 (usually with some external tape delay and reverb). my last album (orc ) is so based on the 301 that i had to quote it in the release notes :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the input. I usually record to preamps and don’t have many so even being a mixer is interesting for my modular… It sounds insanely versatile. I was pulled to it as soon as I saw it and for some reason wanted some validation that I’m not crazy for being crazy about it!

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Of course I am going to be a bit biased being a 301 owner, but I think it would be a good fit for anyone who bothers to learn it well (not that I’m an expert or anything) :grin:

As the guys above said its so versatile and customisable to your needs… while you are mangling your samples with grains, feeding back into loopers and modulating delays etc.you might think “oh I could throw in some Karplus Strong bass here as well, or I could process external signs to be mixed with my internal sounds, or I could record my cat and turn it into a horror movie” etc.

That’s kind of how I use it: one stereo channel with synth voices playing lines, mixing in Rings or other sources and adding effects etc., and 2 mono channels playing percussion samples / white noise plus mangling vocal samples with grains, playing one shots and loops or other synth based voices. This also includes a generous helping of units to drive and modulate all these things such as VCA’s, envelopes, EQ’s etc.

The UI is really great and only trips me up occasionally. The scope mode helps as it gives you a birds eye view of your entire patch and allows you to zoom into any part of it to edit.
The use of mini scopes and meters everywhere is genius - it makes everything much more visible and understandable as well as looking cool.

I’m sure you could Shpongle your way into some interesting soundscapes without too much hassle…

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It’s a very elegant instrument and that does a TON of things very well. And it’s not even finished yet (the firmware)!

I think that most people who get one are quite enamored with it - I don’t see them come up used too often. Those that aren’t, from what I’ve been able to gather, it’s most often due to the learning curve being a bit more than they wanted to bite off.

That part is real. It’s a powerful and very flexible tool, and it will require some time investment to get fully productive with it. If that doesn’t bother you, I’d say go for it.

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Thanks my friends. Appreciate the quick and positive feedback. I’d love to own this beautiful instrument now. My lust cannot be quenched elsewhere, it would seem.

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go for it! im pretty sure you’ll fall in love too.
as for the learning curve Joe is right, there is one, but i really like that you can start simple, with easy patches, then let your own curiosity push you into the rabbit hole
(well, i can modulate the phase of this sine vco…lets put another one into that, and modulate the phase of this second one with a velvet noise generator…well maybe put a slew limiter after it…and then why not using the same noise generator to trigger some grains on an effect right after this, oh, i can also loop this stuff, then trigger the looper with…etc etc etc :smiley: )

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I’m not worried about the learning curve. I’ve watched 3+ hours of vids on it and I’ve used every Elektron box except legacy ones. I personally like nuanced things as they have personalities.

Ohh it sounds so sweet D:

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