Making grungy breaks on your 606 isn't as hard as you would think.  It mainly
involves just alot of overdriving and distortion.

Firstly we'll take a simple electro drum sequence:

   1234567890123456
BD x-----x---x-----  volume = max
SD ----x-------x---  volume = 12 o'clock
CH x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-  volume = 9 o'clock
OH -x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x  volume = 9 o'clock
CY x---x---x---x---  volume = 9 o'clock

Then put the main volume up to max and plug it directly into your mixer.  In
the mixer channel, turn the gain up to max, and put the channel fader right
up at the top.  You should already be getting a really crackly drumseq.  Then
the EQing gets important.  Low EQ should be at max to amplify the bassdrum,
play with the high EQ till it sounds grungy (i find it best at -15db myself),
and turn the mid EQ up to max.  Use the mid frequency to do EQ sweeps on the
sequence.

By now the sequence will be a pretty industrial thrash, but it gets better =)
Put a distortion unit, or a compressor (or both =) on one of your mixer's fx
loops and send as much of the drumsequence through the distortion as possible.
Don't put the distortion directly after the 606 (pre-mixer) or it doesn't have
the same nice compressing effect that it does on an fx-loop.

You can make it even noisier with flanging and phasing, but that might be
getting a bit crazy depending on how much you dig huge hissy crunchy beats =)

So you see, the 606 isn't such a bouncy little thing after all!


Alex Cavaye 1997