Can Elektron gear compete with modern DJ equipment?

Elektron Gear
#1

I personally will likely not find myself behind DJ equipment but I am a huge fanboy of Elektron gear. I own an Octatrack, Digitakt, Digitone, Analog Heat, Analog Drive, and have owned a Rytm. What I am wondering is can I compete with productions made on Ableton/Logic/Bitwig and performed on something like an XDJ with my Octatrack or my Digitakt? This is a hypothetical, lets just assume that I am a talented songwriter and go from there. The workflow on Elektron gear alone allows us to make music you don’t naturally make in a DAW but it also can prevent you from keeping up with productions made on a computer. I am a Bitwig certified instructor and I work at a modular shop. I own plenty of modular and know how to make computer/hardware productions pretty well. However, I am constantly drawn back into my Octatrack or Digitakt to make music. I want to feel like there is a “rockstar” in the Elektron world that I can aspire to be, someone to compete with and look up to. There are plenty of Elektron users I do this with already, I personally like Max Marco’s stuff and of course I love the hell out of Cenk’s (Dataline) music. But can they/we compete with the guy behind the XDJ with a perfectly sculpted song with 48k to 96k sample rate?

Yours truly,
Guy who won’t stop using Elektron gear no matter what :stuck_out_tongue:

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#2

Reading your post reminded me of this video that a user here uploaded recently. Watching the video again, I am not sure if there is anything that a DJ could do better. He has some good notes on his setup and recording as well in the post.

#3

It all depends how you DJ. If you play sets that follow a playlist and you like to use loads of FX you could easily do it on elektron gear. Especially if you play loopy techno for example.

When I DJ I play off the cuff digging out songs that will work in the moment and often cut and and chop in my music, sometimes scratching in a vocal or catching a riff back and forth. It’s very hands on and unrehearsed. I just couldn’t do it with hardware, I’ve tried ableton also and it’s just not the same.

I could though take parts and loops of my crates of music and put them in sections to mix together and mash them together live using an octatrack. It would have similar energy but would be different.

In saying that I believe in using the equipment to its strengths and not trying to emulate something else so if playing live with say an octatrack I’d prepare a DJ set towards its strengths of sample mangling and if using cd or vinyl turntables I’d DJ using their strengths.

If that makes sense

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#4

I wouldn’t use Elektron gear to DJ. I would use turntables or CDJs to DJ. My Elektron gear is to attempt to make new music, not play other people’s music. I might be stating the obvious here though.

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#5

This is a good question and I’ve pondered something similar before, as to how often is there a difference between the gear we most love/enjoy and the ones we’re most effective with?

So for me, I absolutely love my Elektron products (OT, MD, A4). However when I was paid to do a couple pieces of music for a work promo, with a short deadline, I got my Maschine Studio out of storage (where it had been sat for 3 years) as I felt that I could use that and track audio to a DAW and get the work completed quicker and in a more polished way.

So I finished the (admittedly standard/boring) pieces of music quickly, and I put my Maschine straight back into storage where it remains. But the fact is still that with another product other than my favoured Elektrons I knew I could get the job done faster, and maybe better (for the job in hand).

Maybe modern DJ equipment can allow some to knock out a polished sounding product using loops and stems etc. But it doesn’t mean you will love the process as much as using some Elektron stuff etc.

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#6

If you went about performing only your own music in the shape of a DJ set, would you shift your work to DJ gear for the purpose, or let it stay within (for example) the Elektron machines and bring them on stage instead?

#7

Personally I think if you go to the trouble of making your own music and have enough to fill an entire set and use hardware that lets you perform it live it’s a waste burning it to cd to beatmix it together.

I’d far rather see it performed live. DJ sets are better for playing other people’s music and mixing some of your own productions in.

If you make music in a large studio that doesn’t transfer easily to stage then that’s slightly different

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#8

You answered this well and articulated it better than I could.

#9

Elektrons (or any other synths that I used to build that live performance) all the way.

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#10

I am loving to read everyone’s responses here, thanks for chiming in. I do like to write all the music myself, and I sample my voice/singing and my synths yada yada yada… That doesn’t mean anything except that I am taking special care to make it feel like the music is “mine.” No one knows this except for me/us, I don’t advertise that I did it myself for some nickel praise because no one cares except other artists doing the same thing and I’d like to reach a broader audience than a room full of people like me. I am trying to find the four leaf clover in endless field of grass and that is why I love working on gear like the Octatrack. I love the performance and I love the writing.

I guess what I was trying to say, is how can we compete with an artist like Deadmau5 or any other big name electronic artist who is writing their own music but is using a computer with endless potential/optqions.

#11

You are mixing a lot of variables into your question. DJing equipment vs producing with hardware vs producing in the box. Do what works for you the best there is no silver bullet.

My personal view is for any track to be a completely polished high end quality production it must find it’s way into computer software at some stage within the workflow. However a lot of live performances do not require high end polished end result.

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#12

I am just kinda spitballing what is on my mind, haha. Yes, I agree no silver bullet.

#13

For live, elektron is as good as or better than anything. Put a finished polished mixed mastered 24bit track into the octatrack, wear a beercap with double straws, push buttons, and your the coolest looking best sounding dj around.

For production, daw music will always win in terms of designer details and polish.

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#14

Can a piano compete with a modern streaming service?
Can a box of oil paints compete with a modern camera?

Can a (real) live show compete with fully mastered recordings?

Of course you always can just replay some elsewhere pre-produced stems and it won’t make a difference on which device you press play. But that’s not the point of Elektron devices, isn’t it?

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#15

everything is all about the situation you are in.
sometimes only the elektron gear is enough but most of the times the traditional dj mixing with media players, cds or turntables will take over you!

just take a look what the big names of the djing uses when they go playing their dj sets in a club or festival. almost 100% cdjs and dj mixers! some go hybrid and some without a triditional dj rig but is very rare

even if you are a master of all the music gear in the world or master in music theory, you will have a hard time djing without a dj gear

just imagine how you will suffer playing in a wedding, religious party or any private party that you will have a lot of songs request without a traditional dj rig, multimedia player (mostly cdj) and dj mixer!

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#16

I bought a dj controller a while back thinking it would be way easier to play my tracks live. easy to use, easy to learn and all that… but i didn’t like it as doing the same thing with say, the Octatrack.

Same goes with never wanting an automatic gear car, always prefered manual.
Sure the car still goes from first gear to second either way, it just feels better to manually do it.
Ok bad example, but you get the point… personal preference.

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#17

A Digitakt or a Octatrack is modern DJ gear.

#18

Kind of hard to beatmatch with a digitakt

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#19

I am currently thinking about getting a XONE 96 for mixing, my plan is to use NI Maschine on two USB, and a P12 Module on a third channel. Maybe Rythm on the 4th channel. The 96 can send out midi clock, maybe i will combine it with a Novation Mid remote, to have more control over the individual channels.

I dont know if that could compete with a “standard” DJ performance, with complete pre produced tracks, for what i have seen successfull live act does some parts pre produced, and allows interaction with played parts. So going for interactivity without loosing the red line, is key, this might improve when one gets more proficient with his abilitys to control the setup.

#20

If the question is Can Elektron gear (without workarounds) sound like full blown mixed down/mastered tracks?, the answer must be NO?

I like to think Elektron gear is built towards ‘music creation’, while DJ gear is not.

DJ gear is (mostly) about playback of audio. Cue-ing up tracks, autotune, auto sync bpm, markers, mutes, fades, EQ riding (frequency juggling), and added creative FX, to glue it all together i presume. Not talking about taste, skill. (Ofcourse any Ableton Live-jockey can also easily incorporate bits and pieces of their own audio productions, as its also a fullfledged DAW. NI Traktor-Jockeys not so much? It’s just a pimped up jukebox. The Pioneer pronounced standards of today will probably have all the auto-cue, bpm, tuning, marker features as well, as to being unfamiliar terrain)

If the question is: Can you do an awesome Live performance with Elektron gear, the answer is a profound YES.! (as its reverse engineered purely from alien technology)

You can easily use the equipment you already know and lovingly abuse to make music, shake the crowd. A small bag of tricks and quick fixes, you’ve already tasted all the meat, you’ve got all the bones, now you just need to plate it up and serve! There will be error, there will be happy accidents and it will be rewarding. It’s just not anything close to cue-ing up & pressing play compared to deejaying. You are much more the Master at the controls whereas the DJ is but a Slave (in many ways). Not to offend all aspiring/active DJs here. (yes its me down in the gutter, and you the DJ with the fancy cars, Lux, VIP treatment & tasty golddigging whores, i know, i know… you dont have to rub it in) To my personal opinion its all ‘Apples and Oranges’ In comparison: Doing it with hardware is like landing on the moon, Doing it like a DJ is like driving a bike and going out for icecream.

The terrain of the battlefied is obviously also shaped differently.
You can leave the axe at home going to a craft-beer festival. Just jazz up your perfectly groomed beards and whip up a quick man-bun and you’ll survive the horror just fine.

Choice of weapon also depends on the venue and the crowd you are trying to pease, as to how it will be received i recon. Big (commercial) festivals are obviously dedicated towards making stacks of money, therefore pleasing everybody with stumped mainstream mediocre music (all packed together like sheep, raised up smartphones, staring at the booth, consuming, barely moving, just watching a line-up of overpriced/overhyped DJs press play on their Pioneers with an autopilot current beatport topped of chart playlist on autocue straight from the usb) (! making tons of money faking it ! + getting all the action and having a great time)

Underground venues will probably not be that demanding towards polished sound and prefer it more RAW, wilder and generally more genuine. Mor tech-nerdy types to be found here. And will be more memorable if done right, while barely aiming for gas money & some coin to a free beer)?

I dunno, i’m just old/dumb, and what do i know these days… almost 43
Just an Elektron Fanboy i guess?

One more thing: hats off to the ‘oldskool’ deejays: 2 turntables, basic mixer and mic, thats showing some skills! Someone jerked around with a record player and totally shaped the direction of music! Imagine what some fool jerking around with Elektron gear could flame?

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