Hexdrums and friends

Noodle the second. Hexdrums plus effects. The routing here has BD1 going to Gallows for a little dirt and reverb; BD2 going to the Boss DM-2w; the machine voice 3 to the Zen delay; and everything else to the Xeno filth machine. A six-minute drum machine solo is a challenge. You're essentially making an "accompaniment" instrument take the lead. Here I again use the mute/unmute to create variations. That's reasonably easy on machine with ten voices. I've often thought that four voices is plenty for me. So is ten voices with mutes better than two patterns with four voices; or four voices one pattern and parameter locks? Is one more efficient than another? Is there any way to quantify such things? Just for laughs I asked Grok this exact question. Predictably (just like any forum) it started with "It really depends...". Later it said that: "In the drum machine world, parameter locks (p-locks) on a single pattern are generally considered far more powerful and creative than having multiple patterns or more voices." Hmmm. maybe. P-locks might allow more voice variation on a single pattern but then you have to program that in. With multiple voice and muting you can create multiple 'scenes'. Of course AI isn't going to tell you anything profound, it's just scraping forums. What really strikes me with Hexdrums is that it hits hard. It's easy to get a very solid bass drum in all sorts of flavors. Why can't cheap drum machines do that? Ah, so many questions... Many thanks to my kind patrons who keep this channel ad-free My website: https://richarddehove.com/ My other channel "IntraCosmos" of long-play dark ambient textures:    / @intracosmos