A little remark first: OS010 has been superseded by OS011 in the meantime. OS011 fixes a bug that messes up drumsets in memory, after receiving non-listed MidiCCs. This bug was created in firmware OS007. Upgrade your firmware! It can be found here.
POLYRHYTHMS, OR STRETCHED CLOCKS FOR THE DR-2 ! 
We are very proud we can bring you this new upgrade for the DR-2, OS010. Built in cooperation with Berlin-based Canadian electronic music artist Nicolas Bougaïeff!
Bougaïeff frequently uses polyrhythmic structures, dividing bars or musical phrases of different instruments into different numbers of steps. Have one instrument play 17 steps in the time another instrument plays only 16 steps, or 8 steps in 5 steps, or... Like stretching N steps of one instrument over M steps of a second one, giving them an N:M speed ratio.
He felt that there were only rather limited possibilities in hardware sequencers and drum machines to achieve this. And so the question reached us at Modor... 'Is this possible?'
It was quite challenging, but the result's really worth it! We're introducing a very intuitive way to work with polyrhythms, making use of stretched clocks. It is ready for download now at our download page!
Apart from the main sequencer clock, the DR-2 now has 2 polyrhythmic clocks (or 'polyclocks'), called polyclock α and β. Each of these 2 clocks relates to the regular 'main' clock with a certain N:M ratio. The polyclock takes N steps in the time the main clock takes M steps.
Next, every instrument can separately choose a clock:
- the main clock,
- the α polyrhythmic clock,
- or the β polyrhythmic clock.
This means, you can let, for example, a snaredrum play 7 steps while the rest of the instruments plays 8 steps. The 7 steps are stretched equally in time over the 8 steps of the other instruments.
How is this done?
- Keep the α or β button down, and set the N:M ratio using the SELECT/BPM (for N) and VALUE/SWING (for M) knobs.
- Keep an instrument button A...F down and hit the α or β button to assign that instrument to one of the polyrhythmic clocks. Hit it again to return to the main clock.
That's basically it!
Hmmm.... But isn't this just a gimmick? Can you actually use it to make music? Absolutely! Let's hear a few examples!
Polyclock12_16.mp3 // Example with a 12:16 polyclock on the snaredrum, playing triplets
Polyclock10_16.mp3 // Example with a 10:16 polyclock on the snaredrum.
Polyclock7_16.mp3 // Example with a 7:16 polyclock on the snaredrum.
Polyclock_example.mp3 // Example with a 10:16 polyclock on the bassdrum and a 12:16 on the claps.
CLICK VOLUME
There's also a second new feature in the new upgrade: you can now set the click volume on the bassdrums and a few other models!
- Use SHIFT+AMP CURVE to set the click volume
On certain settings of the kick drums, especially with shorter pitch envelopes and little overtones, the initial click sound can appear somewhat annoying. You can reduce, or even completely remove it from now on!
ClickVolume.mp3 // Playing with the click volume (SHIFT+CURVE) on the kickdrum.
