Do your MIDI tracks = your audio tracks?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

At the moment mine do. Each instrument has the same MIDI & audio track (and mixer channels actually), except for 8=master. It’s methodical but there are more sound sources than OT tracks:

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So I’m wondering if it’s better to organise the audio tracks by song element (e.g. bassline, melody etc) irrespective of how the sound was generated. After all, any synth can make most elements of a song. If I’m playing live it’s much easier to have song elements in my head - e.g mute the bassline, filter the melody rather than ‘mute the Volca which is made the bassline, what track is that again’? Plus that stacks up with what happens on the Rytm with mutes. If playing live I would be using OT. Rytm, 1-2 synths - nearly all the sounds would have been sampled into the OT prior, e.g:

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What do people do? Seems the first way better for studio, second way better for live. It would help muscle memory/brain power to be consistent though.

#2

I would suggest doing the second method and organizing things by what role they play as opposed to what synth made it. Seems like that would be much easier to remember on the fly.

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#3

Yes that’s what I’m thinking. For a live application I could also split the two sides of the OT - tracks 1-4 are samples, tracks 5-7 for live synths and 8 master. Probably the synths would be Evolver, Avalon & Virus.

#4

Then find a way to be consistent. I wouldnt worry too much what other people do, it most likely wont help you. Eg, your lists there make no sense to me at all, but then, Im not you, and I dont work how you work.

My set up is very simple. It has to be because I have a small mixer, so I cant have everything plugged in all the time, even if I use Octrack as a sub-mixer . The upside of that is, I find the limitation useful, it keeps me focussed.

When I do use OT for midi sequencing, if I use thru machines for the synth, then yes, in general I’ll match the midi and audio track, if nothing else it feels like its tidy.

#5

Thanks. This is definitely a problem for me, as well as overthinking things. Maybe I should switch off from the forum for a bit and use the damn machines instead!

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#6

If you decide for a layout and then just stick to it for a while, it will become second nature. :slight_smile:

For me it’s easier to use one single layout, allways, for jamming, when I practise for live gigs and when I’m recording, but maybe you find that very restricting and want to repurpose tracks when you’re recording and instead have one fixed layout for jamming/playing live…

I match thru machines and their associated midi tracks as well, because I often want to do something on the midi track and then quickly change to the thru machine. For me it’s faster this way and simply feels logical.

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#7

This is what I need, I have enough things pinging around in my head and couldn’t cope with switching systems! I think the real answer is one system and maybe a bit less gear, but y’know…

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