Exactly, you have to come back to that Surgeon/Lady Starlight principle of “you’re 50% stupider live” and to counter that, every part of your setup must have a single role and stick to it the whole time. That’s why Elektron machines are weird live, since their knobs change functions all the time, and so many use external controllers with functions hardwired to them.
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The A4 does a fantastic job in this regard, as it allows you to re-route the knobs you want to control to a single set of knobs aka performances.
You got some really great stuff online on YT btw 
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Good question!
I think the arranger is great when you have linear set or a least a determined track order.
You can still jump nicely between songs and set scenes in advance - this is great when you the transition technique and want to set the scene correctly - but I have found myself turning off arranger mode during a song.
And to be honest, I want to reduce menu-stuff and switching between trig-layout as little as possible to reduce risk of errors while performing.
It’s funny to have all the option imaginable available but for live you’d want a clear view and little obstacles.
Scenes can be copied, so it’s very easy to have scenes consistent across parts and banks.
I have a system for scenes I use across all my tracks, the last scenes (14, 15, 16) are special, because you can change them easily with one hand.
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Wasn’t expecting that, thanks so much! 
I got my first mki a few months ago, this channel really helped me: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSkKbpciPp4ygyT7bFrcLB3Uy5O-s_QNU
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…preparation is key…and good decision to slim down…more than three elektron machines at once can get easily out of hand in a live situation…
…and do u really need that much of timestretching…?..if u play ur original tracks pretty near to or even IN their original tempo, ot’s stretchalgo is doing a very good job…
quite like ableton in it’s first three/four years…
which is a quality level that worx fine on bigger soundsystems…
do u want to mock ur own stuff as close as possible, or has performing live also a more sound alike live is live approach for u…?
if u wanna recreate ur original track sound on stage, but u don’t have proper mastered versions to drop there, u might consider to leave lo end separate. in ur preprepared stems…
i have the bass line always on it’s own track engine…so does the kik…makes that separated low end, free to adjust to the actual situation at any point…
all the rest can run via stems or even a single stem in slices that cover a row of 8 or 16 bars at once…
have always one or two gimmicks of a track prepared as a single playground to spice it up…
digitone looks like best pick out of that collection to go along with ur ot on a stage…
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I am going back into live preparation mode and while breaking my head on the subject of transitions I had an epiphany yesterday.
My live setup is very much inspired by dub mixing and djing: I want to be able to “play” the structure of my tracks with exported loops and stems in my octatrack, but I also want to be able to go from a track to the other smoothly with a transition that blends parts from the old track, and parts from the new one. For the first part, I really need to use a controller because I need to have control on my levels, filters and effects sends in a more global way than what the OT’s control allow. But I also want to be able to not have a fixed set list but still have smooth transitions.
So the solution I finally found yesterday was to create outro patterns that only use 4 tracks on the 6 I use, silence the other 2, but keep looping when I change pattern. Once I go to the intro pattern of the next track, I get to introduce some elements of it through the 2 tracks that were silenced in the outro pattern, while I can bring down elements from the old one that were still looping, I can also cut the kick and bass from the old track and then launch the new ones. Now I just have to introduce elements from the new tracks and off I go.
Honestly I though this wasn’t possible on the OT and discovering this was such a relief, I am now closer than ever to Ableton’s session view and believe I can finally play a live set that I feel happy with.
No more volume jump, no more brutal transitions, no more digging through folders while playing to load the next track, no more dedicating a track to an untrustworthy looper. Just a bit of preparation and you get a transition process that’s repeatable, smooth and with the possibility of changing your setlist like a DJ.
You can tell I’m happy
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Can you record an example?
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I trust recorders and Flex, not Pickups…
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Haha, yeah I’ve used loopers in my previous setup that only used one pattern and one part, in fact they were extremely useful and crucial to the good flow.
But now that I change pattern and parts, and with 7 tracks to manage, I think my brain is not big enough to add a looper to the equation.
I will try to do that as soon as possible, but right now I prioritize my live preparation
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…stemming out final kik patterns…
…stemming out final bass lines…
…stemming out final rhythmical top end loops…
…stemming out final harmony contents…
…stemming out final lead elements…
after i made my mind up, which elements of the arrangement i will leave open for jammin’, playin’, foolin’ around in realtime…later on during the performance…
organize all that into static and flex engines for playback…
organize the patternstructure, so that i can recall the arrangement in it’s single parts, so that i’m always free todecide where to go/jump around in the arrangement…just as planned from start or if i wanna repeat certain parts further more or get back to certain parts later on again…
so the track can always be totally rearranged on the fly…if i whish so, or the crowd and the moment is asking for it…
most times, i run the patterns half time, statics all triggered with one shots, which suits the overall arrangement parts better and gives me the option,t hat no matter what, each track fits easily within one same bank…
- Sorry, I’m using a translator.
- " The king in the palace" ?))
After your message, the desire to see your example disappeared.
So Ive been working on a little set just for fun. Long Read but TL;DR Octatrack is awesome!
The basis of the set revolve around two longer samples which span from 4 bars or 8 bars.
The loops was made by sequnces on the OP-Z sequencing Nord Lead 2 which i sampled directly into the octatrack.
One sample is Bass and Pads and one Sample is Lead and Arps.
each pattern is a song and i have 7 patterns which the set consist of.
The first iteration had the following track structure.
Track 1-3 = one shot drum samples consisting of one drum chain sample.
Track 4 = Transition track, Flex recorder set to record QUE output. Used for transitioning between patterns.
Track 5-6 = Melodic Samples mentioned above
Track 7 = Empty, planned on having Vocal samples here but i canned that because the melodic samples had so much going on already.
Track 8 = Master track EQ and Compressor.
Detailed explanation:
Track 5-6: Static Machine
On these tracks i have filter and delay as effects which i use with scenes to varying effect.
examples being having a scene where i cut the lows and one where i cut the highs. i also have a scene which affects depth of the filter envelope which makes the samples come much more alive.
it is crucial in the last example that you set the FX envelopes to R+T (you do that on the AMP setup page) R+T makes it possible for the envelope to trigger with trigless trigs, if you do not have this setting the filter will only trigger when the sample is first triggered. with this setting you can make the filter trig and open up, accentuating different things in the sample.
Track 4: Flex Machine
Why is Flex recording set to QUE?
I do this so that i can be flexible, because in this iteration i transition with the melodic parts, but mid pattern i switch and record the drum track and create fill tracks and risers and similar. In my next iteration i will change this process a bit which i will explain further down.
One this to mention is that i already have set up a 16 step slice grid and set the sample start to slices and end to slices. with this i can use the full sample to play a long sample but i can also start slicing up the sample on the fly creating rhythmic effects ad hoc.
the way i transition (which probably is standard for a lot of OT users) is that i have a trig already set for each pattern on track 4 which will run for 1 bar.
Before i change pattern i make sure to record a loop (usually on the first bar of the melodic parts)
i record by either being active on track 4 and pressing the REC3 button or by pressing FUNC+PATTERN to enter trig mode and move down to the record trig mode, i then set a trig when the pattern is on its last bar and remove it once it is once again on its 1st bar. this is so i ensure an exact loop at beginning of the sample.
i have two scenes set up for track 4 and transitions. one scene has the drum tracks level set to MIN and track 4 level set to MAX and the other have Track 5-6 levels set to MIN and track 4 set to MAX. one thing to note here is that all the other scenes have track 4 level set to MIN, this is so i dont accidentally have track 4 audible. first mentioned scene is for when im doing drum transitions and the second is for melodic transitions.
when i want to start transition to another pattern with melodic parts i have scene B set to the melodic transition scene and quickly switch to that scene after a pass of track 5-6 and now i switch to the next pattern, since track 4 always have a trig set you wont here any difference in the transition its still that 1 bar loop playing. depending if my drum tracks are muted or not a new drum pattern will begin. Now the fun begins now i start playing around the sample changing start position, retrig amount and speed, pitch, playback direction, filter effect, delay effect. This is where the fun lies with using Octatrack, you can really create a new groove on the fly with this.
i usually end with filtering out the low ends and let the delay ring out and then start going back to scene A with slider introducing the new pattern.
I found using the Octrack like this is incredbly fun and creative and you only need an octatrack to do full slamming gig. bring your Octatrack and lets party.
Next Iteration:
I found that while this set up was really flexible, spontaneous and structured i wanted to be able to both have a transiton track for drums and melodic parts at the same time. (which i could if i decide to not have vocals on track 7)
i wanted instead to use a drum machine in conjunction with the octatrack.
so i have introduced Pulsar 23 to the mix. so instead of 3 tracks of drums i can i have 1-2 tracks of drums with THRU and NEIGBOUR and have lots of cool effects on the drums and have one specific transition track for drums.
aditionally i can now have more flexibility in the drum sequences for each pattern since i now have 8 midi tracks to use for each pattern.
so regarding midi i have 4 tracks set up that is the base pattern and then i have track 5 as a “energizer” sequence which is an ARP fireing of with lower velocity on selected Pulsar tracks. this is to inject some energy in to the pattern.
what i want to do with the drum transition track is i want the flixibility to create a 4 to floor rave-aton without changing up the midi tracks so i can play around with the transition drum track much like the melodic transition track.
Well thats it. i will probably do a live stream of this set once i feel like its ready, but this has made me realize that i dont need any other sampler then the Octatrack. and it also shows what an incredible device it is still after 10 years!
Edit: here is a 43 min set i live streamed for lulz. based on the principle descibed above. lotsof fun to perform since i had more to do then just tweaking a filter and switching patterns…
Edit 2: listening back on this, i relaize how incredbly fun it is to experiment wit hthe loops ad hoc and come up with new sequences and even timbre´s. Theres one instance at 28 minutes in where i have the sequnce in a loop and im experimenting with the filter envelope and delay and the results is almost a completly new sequence.
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Okay so I worked on an explanation of what I was describing earlier, it is in this thread:
And here are a few examples of the results if you want to check what it sounds like before reading. Everything is OT controlled by Launch Control XL, with some fun on a Model Samples and delay pedals on top:
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really nice man. Good stuff. Very well done imo
I will be reading how you did this when I’m back in the game and hope to be able to ask a question or two.
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Thanks a lot, hope I can help!
Ask the club to provide you your own Pioneer DJ mixer?
Plug all your boxes into DJ mixer, Bob’s your uncle.
and if you’re REAL clever, you figure out how to use your octatrack with the send/return and can punch in/out all those nifty x-fader tricks with the FX send button.