Analog Heat: live use on bigger sound systems

Elektron Gear Analog Heat
#1

Hi! Got the AH recently. It is indeed amazing. Main thing in my live setup is the DSI Tempest drum machine / synth. When performing live (in a band with vocals and stuff) I am usually sending stereo outs as main drum track and bass synth from Tempest’s separate voice out, which gives a sound engineer more control over the subs. But now when I run the whole sequence through the AH — it just sounds SO good, JUST the way I always wanted it to sound with richer bass, it just adds soul to it. And it seems to sum up all the elements really well with EQ doing a great job on both ends of the spectrum. But I’ve never heard it outside my home studio.

So is the sound character worth running EVERYTHING through AH when doing it live? Or is it risky and better have bass coming in clean separately? Does anyone have any experience? I’m all curious and restless before the upcoming performance.

Thank you!

#2

If it sounds good it sounds good! :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#3

If you experiment live with It - for safety put some limiter at the end of chain.

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#4

Wouldn’t the Front of House guy / Engineer do this anyway? He’s the one responsible for the venue side of things.

I’d say that if you like the way heat sounds (because it’s so nice), then you could probably just run everything through Heat and let her rip. Or, to preserve your setup, you might have to pick up a small mixer with an aux bus, so you can send only certain things to Heat and still output a stereo pair to the house.

1 Like
#5

Heat is too hot, burning all synths, vinyls, speakers…
I wouldn’t use it in live conditions, too much troubles. :sketchy:

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#6

It truly sounds amazing on big systems, just don’t overdo the resonance on filter sweeps!

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#7

If anything I’ll just splash the whole setup with water that might help I think

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#8

Thanks! Yeah, the resonance can go wild if not tweaked carefully

#9

Get a limite. The resonance is a creeper. I have a Sherman restyler and even with the resonance turned down, a limiter, and low speaker volume the filter can shred my speakers. Fast transients can do it. Be careful.

Years ago I talked to the tech support at Event Electronics and he told me the most common support ticket at the time was people running an 808 kick drum hard and ripping the 8 inch cone to shreds because they fell in love with the detail they heard on the studio precision line. So many customers would pay 100s of dollars to get the cone serviced.

2 Likes
#10

DIRT parameter limits the resonance.

3 Likes
#11

I haven’t used it live yet, but mostly just because I haven’t had the room to pack it >_< Definitely ideal.

#12

Good tip!

#13

Interesting, thank you

#14

I run a Digitone + Korg Electribe er-1 + a bass synth through the Octatrack, and main outs through Analog Heat. I mainly use it very lightly, to add flavour, to control dynamics and filter cutoff as well. And for that it is sooo amazing!

I have not had problems in the rehearsal room, in some tracks i had to lo cut the beat or the bass synth (with the octatrack filter) in order to get rid of some mud in the low frequencies, but overall i’m more than happy also on bigger systems. So my advice is to test it, and lo-cut here and there if you have problems.

That said i also get a bit worried when i can’t send the soundguy (or girl) seperated channels.

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#15

Good tip - I’ve been using patches with lots of dirt lately. Didn’t realize that was what allowed me to take the resonance up from 0.1% to 3 or 4 % (haha).

#16

With max dirt, I used max resonance sometimes. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#17

Yes, that’s what I was thinking. I also use it more as a sound shaping tool than an effect. At least for now