Wow thanks for great practical advices, I appreciate that! Being using octatrack for 3 years like just a beat making machine (some of the tracks I made only with it), now it’s time to start a real learnings curve. I wonder if there are performers in house/techno genres around?
I can recommend Ricky Tinez on youtube for ideas on how to use the Octatrack in a House/techno live setup (he’s more on the house side)
The only thing missing in his videos is more time spent on how he organizes his sounds/patterns on the OT, and less time on how the gear is connected/interacting
He’s got a few videos on this topic:
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Thanks for that tip, I never got problems with connecting but still feeling confused by the core/progression organization. Octatrack offers too many ways… want to figure the most functional for minimalistic house and techno set. I saw Bluetrain aka Steve O’Sullivan performing on mpc 1000+octatrack+old midas mixer and was blown away by that minimalistic story he told.
Why not just sample everything and use the arranger as Elektron presumably intended? There may be more to it but it seems to me everyone is over complicating this for just paying a set as minimally as possible. Set and forget, it’ll even automatically line your scenes up
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Most of the stuff I do is live techno and house, particularly on the dubby / deep side.
I have two aux sends from the mixer on a prefader to inputs A and B and then C and D are stereo outs from a DJ mixer + turntable. Everything can be sent to another prefader cue in a submixer so I can audition stuff before it comes into the mix on the octa in the form of a flex machine with live sampling / resampling.
edit* and for the most part I use scenes to transition between everything. When it’s more than 50% improvised I stick almost exclusively to scenes. If there’s more prepared stuff I usually assign 4 patterns to 4 parts so that I can jump between them without having annoying part changing complications
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So I just did this one. Normally I do a lot of live resampling and improvisation but this was kind of an exercise in planning and using the whole hog. All the sounds are from a DSI monoevolver and the whole performance is simply one take with an octatrack in studio mode and some mixer sends to a big sky reverb and Ibanez AD202 delay. I have it set up so that “section” goes through a couple of scenes, and then I switch a pattern to move over to another part to have more new tracks. (A couple of times I just change the trig sample but that’s pretty minor)
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Here’s how I setup my Octatrack to perform live. I highly recommend it.
https://www.jvond.com/2020-08-26_jvond_octatracksetuptutorial/
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This started a little funny with “it’s really complicated” and “I don’t really use parts” but overall is legit good and honest. Well played - and much appreciated.
Your welcome. I main reason I don’t use parts is because it will mess with the scenes.
Programming the Octatrack for almost a decade and still learning new stuff and realizing that I need to re-make my templates… But this setup will probably stick. Being able to shift the down beat and to mute sample tracks with the patterns was key to making the jam sessions super smooth and simple. Have a great one! Come jam via cyber space with us sometime. Good luck! ~J
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Yup, the idea of having a few patterns around of shorter durations to re-sync with other sources that may have gotten mis-aligned phrase/bar wise is really clever. I also liked the idea of having the same ‘types’ of scenes in the same order on different parts/banks - gives some hope of knowing what might happen when you throw the fader.
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Standardization is huge for me. Otherwise you have to look things up and write them done in the first place. Also it helps with “knowing” your way around when in the middle of the heat.
Scene 16 for example is always for transitions.
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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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