How do you modify drum machines like The Sisters?

[demolitionsisters]

This has been on my mind recently, how the heck did Andrew modify the Doktor to sound so mean especially on Floodland, more specifically on Neverland (A Fragment)? It sounds like a whopping thunderous drum beat that is ready to kick your ass anytime you hear it! Has any of the fans here tried to create something similar drum-machine-wise, if so post your results for the sake of it! Help the Doktor rise and reverberate again!

[markfiend]

http://www.the-sisters-of-mercy.com/tech/doktors.htm is probably a good place to start:

By the time 'Floodland' was recorded, we had an Akai S900 sampler. Like manna from heaven. Most of the drums on 'Floodland' came via the Akai.

[Big Si]

I recall a now extremely old posting on here that had a link to playing an Oberheim online at your leisure....

[sultan2075]

Floodland, at least, sometimes has boatloads of reverb applied to the drums. Sometimes I think hear a bit of delay as well (ie, the Bonham-esque drums on Never Land).

Also, many drum machines allow the user to tweak pitch, decay, etc. on the samples.

[AmericanDream]

I think the drums on Floodland are using gated reverb, a specific type of reverb that was really popular in the 80's (it's the effect Prince used to make his Linn LM1 sound so bombastic). There are also other effects placed on the drums at different times. John Ashton says here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuQm27kgheQ that when producing Alice they plugged the drum machine they had (I think it was either an 808 or a 909) into an amplifier and recorded it with a mic to make it sound like it did, so perhaps Andrew used the same method on Floodland?

[majorsixth]

http://www.the-sisters-of-mercy.com/tech/doktors.htm is probably a good place to start:

By the time 'Floodland' was recorded, we had an Akai S900 sampler. Like manna from heaven. Most of the drums on 'Floodland' came via the Akai.

And it goes on to say he used the Akai to sample the kick and snare from a Yamaha RX5, the sounds of which you can find around the internet. For example: http://www.denhaku.com/r_box/rx5/rx5.htm

This has been on my mind recently, how the heck did Andrew modify the Doktor to sound so mean especially on Floodland, more specifically on Neverland (A Fragment)?

Play around with equalization and distortion, and delay and reverb like mentioned above, and bass drum #2 and snare #1 above should begin to sound VERY familiar.

I think an actual RX5 has EQ built in but software like Reaper or Audacity, downloadable for free, can do the job as well. If you're fairly tonedeaf as expected (or required?) of a Sisters fan, I noticed in trying this that it can be helpful to try to match the frequency spectrums visually instead of by ear. I could post directions for my own attempt at the Never Land sound if I get it a bit more faithful, but some distortion and top end EQ seem to bring the RX5 samples pretty close already.

[Pista]

Hello majorsixth & welcome to myheartland

[djmemewinter]

The Akai samplers also add their own character (low bit rate, etc). There's a plugin that tries to model the sound here https://www.mathieudemange.fr/rx950-cla ... converter/

[demolitionsisters]

not Floodland, FALAA-era-related, I found this vid in youtube about a modified oberheim DMX drum machine ala sisters' style, click here people ----> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIKOAsfz6Sk

[dora]

This has been on my mind recently, how the heck did Andrew modify the Doktor to sound so mean especially on Floodland, more specifically on Neverland (A Fragment)? It sounds like a whopping thunderous drum beat that is ready to kick your ass anytime you hear it! Has any of the fans here tried to create something similar drum-machine-wise, if so post your results for the sake of it! Help the Doktor rise and reverberate again!

maybe not the same as dr Avalanche but close to orginal and a lot of fun Especially in quarantine time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_IbizAOlPI

Our main stuff is Yamaha RX5 via MAGIX software, synth BASS from MAGIX with a lot of DISTORTION (really awuf :/). All paths in MAGIX with a lot effects like EQ, reverb (in snare 3 different reverbs) delay, copression, Gate

[eastmidswhizzkid]

the official site articlen pretty much covers the tweakling up to the PC era. DMX's inititially had no individual sound of their own, utilising as they did pre-chipped 80, 909 etc sounds.
ive owned all of those apart from the DMX at one time or another. 808 was the best.