45 minute OT only live set - need help

Elektron Gear Octatrack
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Hi all.

I’m in a predicament. A good friend of mine has asked me to put on a 45 minute live set, after I’ve sold everything! Something stopped me from selling the OT, maybe this was why. I’m very new to the OT, basically can turn it on. I’d say no, but my friend has been through and is still going through a lot, and this may be the last opportunity we get to jam together (he’s ill).

So I have to make this work.

I can get access to a Maschine Mk.3 set up if needs be. And also a Novation Circuit. But the less to learn the better.

I have 4 weeks to prep this, but luckily can “work from home” because of our lovely friend Mr. Virus. So that gives me a solid amount of time.

He’s after an old school sample based hip hop set, think Endtroducing. Yeah I know, in a month with new gear I don’t know how to use! What could go wrong! I do own Ableton, find it dull as dishwater but can use it. I’m looking for advice on how to create a sample based hip hop set, not in terms of music etc but how to set up the gear.

I was thinking I could have a song/section over 8 patterns quite easy as long as I can trigger one shots to spice it up. That’s where Maschine could maybe come in, or a Novation something? If it’s cheap I’ll buy it then sell it afterwards.

Or can you use scenes to blend between banks? So could I have n songs, each on a bank, and I’m riffing with one set of patterns on the OT and throwing in other samples via another thing. Then as I want to move over to the next section I can have some patterns per bank which are designed to make the transition simpler, then slide over, and on the other scene trigger up the next bank. So the slider is left on bank one, slide to bank to on the right, load up bank 3 on the left scene, keep going.

Also, sometimes I hear things from the right scene with the slider all the way left. Is that normal?

Any advice hugely appreciated. For the next few days I’m hunting down the songs I want to steal from or remix. I have all the Marco Polo Pad Thai packs, plus all the Samples From Mars sets. I have plenty of sample, so all I need is the songs and films I’ll steal parts form.

Can all advice be aimed at somebody who knows how to spell Octatrack but that’s about it. :slight_smile:

Thanks all, and stay safe.

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Does it NEED to be a live set? I’ve actually used the OT to DJ my songs at shows since I don’t have a laptop and can’t spin for shit. I would load in the full songs and trigger them on PLAYSFREE using the slider to fade between them. I also turned off time warping so that I could change the tempos easily to add timed delays and such.

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I dunno, never done any live set but having a small time frame with unknown kit, OT might be difficult. What would make it a lot easier is having a separate device that plays the drum breaks into the OT, OT does the rest.

Of course, if you have plenty of time and want to put in the work this is an opportunity to crash course the OT with a great final project!Go for it.

Update
… damn I should work towards a project like that myself!

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No. I’m thinking of making a DJ set and figuring out how to add some something live to make it more interesting.

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You could use the OT as a mixer and effects processor for the Maschine, laptop, or iPad playing the beats/loops. You said you sold all of your hardware, so replace the Monomachine in this video with an iPad running a MPC/Maschine-like DAW like Beatmaker 3 into the OT. Or the Maschine.

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Yea. I like this direction.

OT is great and turning any gear into a performance.
Spend some time with the Circuit, make 10 to 12 patterns with it.
Use the OT as your mixer, fx box, transitional looper. That’s basically how I did my last live set, but with Model Samples instead of Circuit.

Use your Maschine or iPad, or anything else computer based to play live stuff like pads and atmospheres on top. Since you’ll have to deal with output latency coming from the computer, best to use it for non-beat centered elements.

How much time do you have. Learning how to use the OT in this way could take a week or three. But it’s good to be able to focus on exactly what you need to learn from it, since it can do so much.

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Great idea. I’m going to do this.

Maschine to run stems and chop up/live play samples and drums. Octatrack as mixer and effects. And I’ve been told I need to isolate (cough plus temp) so I get two weeks to focus.

Thanks everyone.