My current rack:
Apart from the DFAM, the LL8+Bitbox+Optodist is a deadly combination.
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Thanks @Lauli @SierraOskar @modelar @musikoljo @acidhouseforall this is all very helpful for me. Aside from the specifics I think we can agree that 2 x 104hp can go a long way.
@SierraOskar I understand that VCAs are used to modulate attenuate all signal types and not just audio amplitude but thanks for clarifying. I guess I’m just curious about some of these “build a techno groovebox” videos where some of the setups are very compact and are very light on utility modules, focusing on modules that can generate sounds by themselves or with very little extra help. I also note that some modulator modules also have attenuation built in at the source, which is arguably less flexible but means you get more “value” in a smaller space if they don’t need to be attenuated further down the chain.
I need to get back on Modular Grid and have a play. I think I definitely want a DFAM because it’s so much fun and so much “bang for buck” with lots of functions in one “module” and I could make some techno just with that, giving me a bit of time to decide what else to buy afterwards. When I owned one before I found it hard to make anything that sounded bad, it’s one giant sweet spot!
Yeah absolutely - and it depends on what you want to do. For my small case that I pair with Analog Rytm I use a couple of modules (Lapsus Os and Makrow) to modulate things remotely because it makes it easier to perform with. With my other case, which is more for exploring sounds I’m happier to use the built in attenuators/ attenuverters and so on.
I have found though after a few years that it’s really true I get more excited about utilities now because those let me get the most out of my voices 
Highly recommend this article on the Noise Engineering blog about modular systems for techno production and live improvisation.
It goes into many concepts and ideas, it’s a great read even for People not interested in modular:
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Midi beat clock syncing my TR8s to my SP-16 is great. The SP-16 live samples so it in essence turns into a multi track recorder. In the SP you can just jam your parts like Ableton or something. Plus use Pioneers FX. Fun stuff for being in the moment.
I think these short 20 second grainy poor audio quality snippets qualify as techno
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G.R.I.T. is one of my oldest friends and every release up until now has been produce with Reason only.
I know that he’s been trying out additional software like Ableton and Omnipshere, but I don’t know if he’s yet to have incorporated those into any new productions.
And with that said he’s only just started making tracks again after a few years break.
The bottom image on this link is both of us in 1990. What was your first studio recording experience - #3 by Leo-iSL
I’m still learning. What I do
Record track for drums
Another for pads and synths
One for bass and kick drum
I spend time tweaking before and after to avoid clipping issues and so forth. Mixing is an art and skill in itself and I’m still working on these areas myself.
I am actually shocked in a funny way, being in to scifi stuff, I never heard of this show.
Born July 77.
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But regarding the actual topic - and people telling you you need a DAW - this and this equipment is the shizniss and needed and other gear is crap e.g. Roland Boutiques that get a lot of shit from many people - you don’t.
Don’t listen to the interwebz, learn and commence no matter with and what you’ve got: Elektron Octatrack MKII Live resampling the Roland TB03 & TR09 - YouTube
The Cut Off is real!
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yeah 6 months in the grand scheme of things is very little time, I didn’t feel “good” at my gear until I had been working with it regularly for about 2 years, and every 6 months that go by I feel like I have another moment of “leveling up” where I’ve learned more and thus do things differently than I was before
it’s this constantly spiraling path that sometimes feels flat, but always moves upwards somehow, lots of fun being a musician 
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Take enough time to learn your music tools to a medium level, as an advanced level will only come with time and lots of practice.
I would also encourage you to limit yourself to the least possible amount of tools, as more than two or three would probably be harder to manage on live environments.
Get a good enough soundcard allowing you to record/mixing your live equipment on a computer or hardware device but also to use as an external mixer live.
Listen to your tracks live or recorded into any DAW and do A/B comparison, using an spectrum analyser, with the type of sound/artist/tracks you would like to sound like. Apply processing and shape it till your production sounds similar to the reference.
Invest on external processors to mimic the ones you use on the DAW and then probably you would sound a bit more closer to the reference, but get ready to spend a lot of money I would say.
I would rather just record your hardware stuff into your preferred DAW, using different tracks for each instrument/sound, and then process and mix it there to your liking, again A/B comparison.
You are always gonna need some pro mastering to end with, but that should be enough to practice for now
Enjoy the ride, it is a long one, and don’t stop having fun with it.
Some good headphones for mixing and an acoustic treated room may also help.
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I am early in my DAWLESS journey but I’m really having a difficult time getting a good mix.
I leaned on Overbridge for my first few tracks and it felt like a performance enhancing drug to be back in Ableton again to mix, EQ, and then heck, while I’m here, this arrangement sure could use some work…
In the end I was making tracks that had diverged enough from the stuff I wrote using my hardware that I’d be hard pressed to play it live. And that’s what I really want to do!
Overbridge also causes you to lose most of your FX unless you laboriously record one track at a time. Which kind of kills the live performance mood even further.
So I’m back to DAWLESS and I mean it this time. But so far I’m completely failing at making a listenable mix.
I decided to use an iOS oscilloscope app to measure the frequency of each track, then attempted to roll off the appropriate highs and lows of each track band pass filter available on the digi-boxes to keep them clean and free of mud. But it feels like the band pass just isn’t as brutally effective as my trust old Ableton EQ8. I’m still hopelessly stuck in the mud. (I would also love suggestions on how to better monitor frequencies, the Blue Mangoo oscilloscope isn’t quite the right visualization. I thought about Filterfab but it’s a little too spendy and I don’t plan to actually use the filters, just the visualizer.)
I wish I had multiple analog outs on these digis, I would love to use a per-channel EQ on a mixer. But as it stands, I have these little digital filters and I’m not sure I can get a good clean mix out of them.
Anyone else stuck on this level of the DAWLESS game?
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You might want to expand on this a bit because it doesn’t sound right. Overbridge allows you to record every individual track and the send FX so you shouldn’t be losing anything. Possible exception is older boxes that have less bandwidth over the older USB port so they can’t do all the tracks at once.
Someone else posted (some time ago) about recording the delay and reverb FX along with each track but that’s not possible due to the signal flow and this was a fundamental misunderstanding. You can’t do that with send FX in software either as all the tracks “sending” into a given effect are getting mixed together like paint that cannot then be separated again.
If I’ve misunderstood then please explain again. I’m sure someone here can help even if it’s not me!
Thanks for clarifying. I actually agree with the spirit of what the other poster said because I always lost my mojo setting up Overbridge and trying to multi-track record.
I note with interest that some of the high profile techno producers here like @AdamJay and @DaveMech often seem to advocate recording their jams as a stereo pair through a relatively basic mastering chain.
The main problem of any inexperienced musician is that he does not always understand how this or that instrument should sound. at one time, the way of listening to each instrument against the background of pink noise helped me a lot to understand this issue. this method is good because it helps to quickly determine the frequency dominants in each instrument.
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Right, sorry, I should have been more clear. I meant that if you want to use Overbridge to multitrack in order to EQ each track separately, you no longer get to make use of the FX send channels.
A relatively simple mastering chain sounds nice. I think I need to think more about mixing and mastering during the sound design process.
The whole concept of live mixing takes time to learn, practice and master.
You can’t get away with nearly as much as you would mixing with a DAW, as there just aren’t the tools available for fixing a mix. This is especially true with anything below a few hundred Hz. If you’re not ducking it, you need to choose between having a subby kick or a subby bassline, because you can’t really have both.
It’s a cliche, but less really is more. If you’ve got more than about 8 tracks running, it’s going to start to get difficult to maintain a good mix. Also, the further I go down the live mixing rabbit hole, the less and less effects I find that I’m using. I use the odd little bit of reverb here and there and a bit of delay on my hats and maybe sometimes my synth, but often very short and chorus like.
Something on the end of the chain can be nice. The Analog Heat is great, because it adds some nice sparkle, and the EQ and filter can be really useful for cutting and bumping frequencies. But something on the master isn’t going to sound good if your mix isn’t already pretty good.
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I recorded the AR with a qupac digital mixer, it sounded a lot cleaner with a bit of eq from the mixer. It allows for different scenes to be set up, for live usage this is what many live bands do. Having a digital mixer is quiete beneficial.
Essentially i learn mixing with my daw, because i can use proQ3 and cross check frequency overlap, and use dynamic eq, with a digital mixer one has to be more rigorous and set fixed frequency bands. To create ebb and flow is much easier in a DAW. I suggest to use Octatrack as stem player, and to do a baseline and additonal percussions with a drum maschine, maybe one hands on synth to play live
Also its a good idea to additionally connect a cheap boom box to your mixer to x reference the mix on end user equipment. Also having a reference track to switch to is good to reset your ears. I.e create as many listening enviroments as possible. (different headphones etc.)
Also there is that fx problem, modern daw poduction uses distortion, delay, phaser etc mostly everywhere, if you have to setup different fx chains on your outboard gear, that alone can get expensive.