Sonic Potions LXR Drum Synthesizer

jtregoat · Post by **jtregoat** » Sun Dec 03, 2017 4:56 pm

in love with my LXR! I'm looking for a drum synth to use alongside it. hats are important for sure.

I make house & techno, which the LXR is great for. just curious to see what's out there that the LXR can't do. LXR can do some pretty solid 808 and 909 impressions but perhaps it could be worth it to get something a bit more dedicated in that sense?

digging the tanzbar for the mid range punch / hats but still a bit of overlap... maybe should just get some dedicated modules? any ideas?

thanks in advance~

Donderdag · Post by **Donderdag** » Sun Dec 03, 2017 6:33 pm

jtregoat wrote:in love with my LXR! I'm looking for a drum synth to use alongside it. hats are important for sure.

I make house & techno, which the LXR is great for. just curious to see what's out there that the LXR can't do. LXR can do some pretty solid 808 and 909 impressions but perhaps it could be worth it to get something a bit more dedicated in that sense?

digging the tanzbar for the mid range punch / hats but still a bit of overlap... maybe should just get some dedicated modules? any ideas?

thanks in advance~

I pair mine with a TR 626 for realistic hats and percussion. I also use it with an old Korg Electribe and they complement each other nicely as the electribe can't do convincing real drums at all but is great for iteresrjng rythm sounds.

odditymedium · Post by **odditymedium** » Sun Jan 14, 2018 9:19 am

bemushroomed wrote:This is such a great machine The only thing i'm not a fan of are the buttons, they feel really cheap and aren't very comfy to press down or to play on, feels like they're gonna get stuck at any moment (has never happened though).

Since i've never been able to get any replies on the Sonic Potions forum i thought i'd try here;

Has anyone figured out how the samples are sorted after uploading?

I have tried simple naming; s1-s10 for Snares, b1-b8 for bass drums etc etc.. it kind of sort them in order but not quite. For example my hihats are all sorted together and at the end (i named them x1-x10), where i want them, but the bass drums and snares are mixed.. It's almost like its looking at the waveforms and trying to do the sorting in an intelligent way (almost making it), but i doubt they'd went through the trouble of doing something that advanced. They are not sorted by date, not by name (not completely at least), and not by size and its also not completely random. For example one of my bassdrums will always be on spot 12, where i don't want it. I can rename the file, reinstall the firmware(removes all samples), and reupload, it will be on spot 12 again.

It's really fun to mess around with the LFO and then having it switch drum samples randomly. just wish i could sort them slightly better so i can get it under a bit better control (e.g just having snares coming in at random, now it mixes with some bass drums).

Edit: ok i have figured it out finally. it gets confused if names starts with e.g both b's and s's and other letters, then it wont sort it properly. i ended up naming them s0-s35, now it sorts them it seems.

@besmushroomed HOW do you use the lfos exactly? how are they musically useful?

odditymedium · Post by **odditymedium** » Tue May 22, 2018 7:08 am

is anyone using the LXR with brendan clarke's firmware? and you use the 60knobs as well? how is it going? how did you map the 60knobs to BC firmware?

Panason · Post by **Panason** » Tue May 22, 2018 8:58 am

I used Brendan's fw on mine. It made it a bit better but it was still too buggy and hard to use (too much stuff crammed in the menus on that little screen) so I sold it. The buttons sucked too. The machine is abandoned by the developer and the bugs are probably at the hardware level...

It was a frustrating experience as I liked the sound and wanted it to work but there were too many issues for me.

It's basically a low budget alternative to a Machinedrum...

TechForze · Post by **TechForze** » Tue May 22, 2018 9:38 am

Yes, which you can build YOURSELF.
lovely noise machine!
What bugs?

Have the 60knobs, but didn't put together yet.

Panason · Post by **Panason** » Tue May 22, 2018 1:31 pm

Yeah if you just use it as a noise machine the bugs are actually features... and you won't be using MIDI which is where it becomes obvious.

odditymedium · Post by **odditymedium** » Tue May 22, 2018 1:33 pm

what are you all on about? what bugs? what noise? what midi issues?

dogoftears · Post by **dogoftears** » Tue May 22, 2018 2:07 pm

i've been using an LXR for a couple of months now and there are no bugs or midi issues whatsoever. none. midi works great. i use it in conjunction with a cirklon often. everything it says it does, it does. that's not to say that the thing isn't slightly obtuse, but obtuse does not = buggy.

user Panason is probably just pissed because it does not meet his exact fantasy spec for features or whatever-the-fuck. he hates all gear, especially elektron stuff and any thing resembling an elektron box (like the LXR, for example). at the same time it seems that he considers the elektron sequencer the de-facto standard for how all sequencers should operate. his posts are often filled with vitriol, and he has been known to insult other forum members music if it does not live up to his gold standard. he can be seen above throwing shade in an off handed way, by basically alluding that TechForze is using the machine in an amateur fashion.

long story short: Panason is an obvious troll who has racked up 700+ posts in less than 3 months. mods, take heed (are there any mods here??)

mongrol · Post by **mongrol** » Tue May 22, 2018 9:05 pm

It does have midi bugs and it's hardware level as well. The voltages on the ports are incompatible with some midi hardware (like my Midibox) which causes pops and clicks. it has a few other menu bugs with the odd crash but no show stoppers.

I liked my LXR and wouldn't mind having it again.. Midi bugs can be worked around with some clever routing and Brendan's firmware does help a lot. As for buttons, it's DIY so these can be fixed too. Official firmware has been abandonware for some time now but it's all open source and for a great sounding machine it's cheap as chips.

Panason · Post by **Panason** » Wed May 23, 2018 11:03 am

dogoftears wrote:i've been using an LXR for a couple of months now and there are no bugs or midi issues whatsoever. none. midi works great. i use it in conjunction with a cirklon often. everything it says it does, it does. that's not to say that the thing isn't slightly obtuse, but obtuse does not = buggy.

user Panason is probably just pissed because it does not meet his exact fantasy spec for features or whatever-the-fuck. he hates all gear, especially elektron stuff and any thing resembling an elektron box (like the LXR, for example). at the same time it seems that he considers the elektron sequencer the de-facto standard for how all sequencers should operate. his posts are often filled with vitriol, and he has been known to insult other forum members music if it does not live up to his gold standard. he can be seen above throwing shade in an off handed way, by basically alluding that TechForze is using the machine in an amateur fashion.

long story short: Panason is an obvious troll who has racked up 700+ posts
in less than 3 months. mods, take heed (are there any mods here??)

I'm pissed? I could not care less what you spend your money on!

The LXR has well reported bugs (check the sonic potions forum) and does not resemble anything elektron whatsoever.

Any other kindergarten fantasies and butthurt you care to share? In your mind, people should not "rack up" posts, because this is some kind of monkey competition?

The mods are here and they should be looking at you and the likes of you... As for "insulting other member's music" .... Totally unprovoked insults can be met with insults, who knew?

Grow up and learn to discuss and argue without getting into personal attacks.. Or just go back to Kansas, you sad little sycophant.

"Dad, he insulted my favourite toys"

BugBrand · Post by **BugBrand** » Wed May 23, 2018 11:08 am

The LXR was produced by, I think, a one man team.
He clearly supported it for a good while - I don't see it at all as unreasonable that at some stage he said enough is enough. Being open-source, it can be taken onwards by someone willing to put in the considerable hours.

Very cool machine - great direct sequencer, super with the Trigger I/O.
One button on mine is starting to be slightly dodgy after a few years, but it will be an easy replace when I get round to it.

People can make their own minds up.

TechForze · Post by **TechForze** » Thu May 24, 2018 5:51 am

Ah, MIDI..
I am using the trigger IO and its solid hooked to my modular. Never reconnected midi again after building that.
60 knobs is specially designed to work with the LXR, so I pressume this works flawless.

With noise I meant the 2 distortions and crushing functionality.
I will never sell this.

L4nd3R · Post by **L4nd3R** » Thu May 24, 2018 6:10 am

TechForze wrote: I am using the trigger IO and its solid hooked to my modular. Never reconnected midi again after building that.

- Can confirm. It's the ticking heart of my setup now.

TechForze wrote:I will never sell this.

- Neither will I. <3 the LXR

Mr. Sound Boy King · Post by **Mr. Sound Boy King** » Thu May 24, 2018 8:44 am

L4nd3R wrote:
TechForze wrote: I am using the trigger IO and its solid hooked to my modular. Never reconnected midi again after building that.
- Can confirm. It's the ticking heart of my setup now.

TechForze wrote:I will never sell this.
- Neither will I. <3 the LXR

I don't leave mine connected to a modular all the time but can also confirm the trigger IO function slays face and melts rocks hard core. Always good times.

Plus the synth engine sounds great.

To conclude, A++ would machine again.

soup · Post by **soup** » Thu May 24, 2018 11:49 am

dogoftears wrote:i've been using an LXR for a couple of months now and there are no bugs or midi issues whatsoever. none. midi works great.

I can't see what that other dude wrote (thankfully) but ... if you send the lxr midi clock and try to trigger it over midi you will get a lot of missed notes. The midi thru out will also be missing these notes. Obviously the lxr has a sequencer and was not intended as a midi module so whether this is a bug or not is up to you but it had me quite confused for a while.

Altitude909 · Post by **Altitude909** » Thu May 24, 2018 12:10 pm

soup wrote:
dogoftears wrote:i've been using an LXR for a couple of months now and there are no bugs or midi issues whatsoever. none. midi works great.
I can't see what that other dude wrote (thankfully) but ... if you send the lxr midi clock and try to trigger it over midi you will get a lot of missed notes. The midi thru out will also be missing these notes. Obviously the lxr has a sequencer and was not intended as a midi module so whether this is a bug or not is up to you but it had me quite confused for a while.

There is a pattern sync bug when it will go off beat when changing patterns when slaved to midi or external clock

Panason · Post by **Panason** » Thu May 24, 2018 1:08 pm

dogoftears · Post by **dogoftears** » Thu May 24, 2018 1:13 pm

soup wrote:
dogoftears wrote:i've been using an LXR for a couple of months now and there are no bugs or midi issues whatsoever. none. midi works great.
I can't see what that other dude wrote (thankfully) but ... if you send the lxr midi clock and try to trigger it over midi you will get a lot of missed notes. The midi thru out will also be missing these notes. Obviously the lxr has a sequencer and was not intended as a midi module so whether this is a bug or not is up to you but it had me quite confused for a while.

weird, that doesn't happen to me. i control it with the Cirklon. no missed notes. haven't messed with the thru out.

soup · Post by **soup** » Thu May 24, 2018 3:04 pm

I always had this problem with the octatrack. Turning clock out off on the octatrack made it go away instantly. It's been a little while but I remember other people were seeing the same behavior with mpc's and maybe other things as well. I've never used a cirklon so can't speak on them but they always appeared a little more robust and maybe made with less compromises? I'm glad it's working for you. I think lxr's are pretty cool regardless just wanted to point out there was a known issue with common gear especially when using it as midi>trigger interface.

The midi thru thing was the same issue since it only had a soft thru. Whatever events the cpu was dropping were also dropped on the midi thru except it would drop notes on other channels too.

odditymedium · Post by **odditymedium** » Thu May 24, 2018 4:38 pm

i dont have trigger i/o how can i use this, whats the advantage

roger · Post by **roger** » Thu May 24, 2018 5:30 pm

Do you have something with a trigger in? A stand-alone synth or a modular system or some kind? If not, you won't get anything out of the trigger expansion. If yes, you might be able to trigger an arpeggiator or do all kinds of stuff in the modular world.

odditymedium · Post by **odditymedium** » Thu May 24, 2018 5:33 pm

no i dont understand whats the fun of having a drum trigger stuff, what can i do with it

PeterRabbit · Post by **PeterRabbit** » Sun May 27, 2018 11:36 am

Is it possible to control parameters such as decay, filter cutoff, drive, bit rate etc via MIDI? I would like to automate such parameters for individual tracks but am not sure how to do so using Cubase.

I have read the manual and I see the CC list but am not sure what NRPN messages are and how to set this all up in Cubase.

Any help would be great and in the meantime, I am going to do a little more digging in order to familiarize myself with working with CC messages in Cubase.

lapdog · Post by **lapdog** » Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:06 am

Hey,

I'm having my LXR since January 2017 now, and though it was never the most solid gear I had, it was working fine. Yesterday it suddenly died on me.
You'll see the symptom in video 1. Video 2 is showing what happens when I try to reinstall the firmware: "File n".
Seems like a hardware issue. Can someone help me solving this?

Video 1:
[video][/video]

Video 2:
[video][/video]

MOD WIGGLER

MOD WIGGLER

Sonic Potions LXR Drum Synthesizer

LXR failure