Care to help me with advice to meet a preferred workflow?

[dobermate]

Ok, a bit long post here but I hope at least some of you can soldier through the reading .

So, I’ve been an Elektron user for quite some time, but have not yet really gone into full depth of any of my Elektrons (, AK, AR and ). Now, I’ve recently been buying up to meet my “complete” OTB production/mixing direction that I’ve been dreaming about for some time (computer based production does not really motivate me as it is right now) and I am currently putting the finishing touches to the wiring and installation. What I would like to bounce with you guys, is a few questions about workflow that I have in mind.

Quick background
The studio is based on a Midas Venice 320 analog console. To that console, my OT, AK, AR, Moog Minitaur, Korg Volca FM and E-MU Morpheus connect directly on separate channels (all separate outs from the s). Outboard consist of TC, Kurzweil and Lexicon Send FXs and quite a few compressors and gates. Console is all filled up and ready to go.

I’m trying to produce electronic music that may be a bit more old school (mind you, I am), more in the traditional “song” way than dance/beat dominated. Depeche has had that much of influence on me :).

So now on to my workflow idea…

Workflow idea
Basically, what I would like to do is the following:

• Jam around with the entire studio as one big instrument to get into a state where I think it’s starting to sound good - * here I use AK and AR sequencers synced to the who’s driving it all and sequencing midi
• Create variations of the theme, different dynamics of the verse/chorus etc
• Start printing loops/stems/samples onto the as separate parts, say drums, bass, keys 1, FX, etc to end up with a component library for the track
• In the , start planning out the arrangement using the Arranger - sounds may be assigned to either master or cue out stereos
• When playing back the arrangement I’d like to be able to create live dynamics using the crossfader and pedals - I’m not after extreme delta, rather more to be able to switch between “states” of a section. For example, being able to have the verse 1 running and using the crossfader to add more variations, switching between loops/stems back and forth instantly, etc
• Finally, this live performance is then being bounced as stereo track into the Mac

Sooo, a few questions around this then…

1. You think it will be sufficient for “song” production, or will the sampling stem approach impact that negatively? Will I end up in static 4-bar loops too easily?
2. Making and controlling variations of stems with the crossfader - doable? If so, how?
3. Your take on bouncing it all down to and finalize the arrangement there vs syncing the AK & AR sequencers and have it “live” running until final bounce to Mac?
4. Anything else you see I need to think about - kill some darlings or other?

Very thankful for all kinds of input here, guys!

[William_WiLD]

Sooo, a few questions around this then…

You think it will be sufficient for “song” production, or will the sampling stem approach impact that negatively? Will I end up in static 4-bar loops too easily?

No i use some longer stem with the Static Stream and One shot Trigs in Loop mode it work like a charm. but you need to focus to make that happen, it’s up to you to get out of the 4/4 Loop on 4bars make those more interesting in term of LIFE and on 16 bars or even longer Looped then so it’s long sequence … 16 is nice it’s like 2 or 3 times your INTRO

Making and controlling variations of stems with the crossfader - doable? If so, how?

it’s depend on the variations you would like to achieve in fact… without knowing exactly what you have in mind it difficult to explain as there’s many ways to work with the crossfader and variations of stems.

Your take on bouncing it all down to and finalize the arrangement there vs syncing the AK & AR sequencers and have it “live” running until final bounce to Mac?

I usually make the track Live (and recorded as max separate outputs as i can) as a Draft then i reworked under the DAW the whole song.

Anything else you see I need to think about - kill some darlings or other?

No you seem to be on the good path ! ENJOY

[William_WiLD]

Read that too

A polished version of Merlin's OT guide here

As you should all be aware, a few years back @Merlin wrote an excellent guide to understanding how to approach the complexity of the Octatrack. It certainly helped me get to grips with the relationship between patterns and parts, which I think trip up a lot of new users. Consider it essential reading alongside the user manual. After reading it again recently, the technical writer in me (it's what I do for a living) thought it could be tidied up to enhance readability. I've left the meat of …

[dobermate]

Thanks, very good input! As for the variations, I’m thinking switching/jumping between versions of each stem. I’ll print one stem with some fx added, and one without, some note variations etc - and then it would be cool to live jump between them without changing pattern.