That’s fine, I’ve got nothing against people who have figured out a good workflow. But I think the whole DAWless trend is giving the wrong impression to people just starting out, who may jump into a ton of complex hardware before even figuring out whether or not using a DAW, even to just record the output of their setup, would be appropriate.
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Yeah the word “Dawless” is annoying. I agree. DAW’s are a great way to make and record music. We all have our ways. I kinda think there will be a time in the near future where laptop performances will be cool again. Analog, vinyl, mp3, wavetable whatever, as long as your getting what you want out of it.
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This is a really timely and relevant topic for me.
I’d been trying to convince myself that my minimal hardware only setup was all I needed. That the inherent limitations to such a setup helped me focus. But I recently decided to buy a Soundcard, so at the very least I could use the computer to record my tracks. The Soundcard came with a copy of Studio One Artist and I began having a poke around. Got my hardware connected for audio and midi and started playing around. The immediate sense of versatility and possibilities was very exiting. It made me realise that this setup would enable me to do everything, and be free to combine different environments and workflows. So I’m using the Mpc directly to create more experimental, sample based music and the DAW sequencer, instruments and plugins to produce the IDM/Detroit inspired techno that I’ve traditionally made. And I can bounce back and forth, mutitrack the Mpc, sample from the Mac easily into the Mpc. It’s wonderful, and It’s liberating and inspiring. It has been many many years since I dreamed of the possibility of becoming an established and respected artist. I used to be a hip hop/scratch DJ in my teens and i was motivated by competition. I’m beginning to feel that energy surface again.
As a result it’s made me feel happy with the decision to sell my Octatrack and go forth with the Mpc/Daw setup. All the stuff I might have thought about doing on the OT I’ll now find a way to do on the Computer.
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What about “FuckinComputerLess”? 
I have no pleasure making music with a computer, especially for the creation / improvisation part.
I use my DAW for complex audio editing like timestretch with a grid.
I would probably use it for a complex song mix, album finishing, mastering…
Anyway all my computers are fucked, repairing them is not my priority.
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as a side note what are you using for batch processing?
are the Fx on the blackbox better than those on the sp-303/404?
Strange how a lot of gear coming out recently have “computer” screens on um. 
I actually got a 3 year old desktop for free a couple months ago from a friend who works on them. Basically eWaste. As fast as I’ll ever need. Works great.
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I think it is just about finding a workflow that suits you, for me in the case @GirTheRobot I’d just set up a recorder buffer and record trig, then hit func + REC3 to save (OTmk2). But I don’t have a computer in my setup. I do agree the whole DAWLESS thing has become a bit of a cliche, same goes for “patch from scratch” like they are some kind of achievement, ugh
I use a computer for some audio editing, a windows 7 laptop I got about 8 years ago, it does everything I need. I sometimes think about incorporating a DAW into my setup, but it would probably be Harrison or some other simple DAW like Reaper, I can’t be bothered to use a full featured DAW for music production personally, even though it is a quicker route to finishing, I just don’t enjoy it. If you can spend the time to get everything working properly and don’t mind having to keep on top of updates etc then it seems to make sense.
Modern desktop computer operating systems just grate me though, I pretty much hate them, I tried Windows, OSX and Linux, Linux is by far the best, but not exactly user friendly. I’d never rule using a DAW out if I had faith that one was good enough from a reliability and user friendly perspective.
I kind of laugh though everytime I read a “Midi sync not working” thread, and yep they are using Ableton, I had Live 4 however long ago that was current and it was the same back then, pretty incredible that all these years layer they still have not managed to get proper midi sync working reliably in Ableton.
Also I have a rackmount Tascam SD20M recorder in my setup, so if I want to just record everything then in like 2 seconds I can, only 4 inputs but enough for me. No waiting for it to boot up, or having to run updates when I turn it on (who ever thought that was a good is a total dickhead 
)
But yeah, find what works thats the key.
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Stubborn dawless can easily turn into brainless.
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I have no idea. I doubt it. The effects are very utility. Reverb with a couple knobs and delay with a couple. It does have 3 stereo outputs, so you could use your own effects. Like I said, I just record effects into it. I might in the future set my eventide stuff up in an effect loop, but for now it’s fine for my use.
love the new teenage engineering designs!
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OTB is just giving me something different. I’m programming software all day. It’s so nice to feel like I’m in another environment. I make music for fun right now and don’t try to keep anything though and if I ever wanted more than jam I’m not excited for the prospect of getting all the hardware recorded itb.
I will say that I’m thinking about my mpc live being a bigger part of my setup. I don’t need OT, DT, and MPC in one setup though so it may mean DT has to move on. But usb midi host and longer midi patterns are hard to resist.
I am also sitting in front of a computer most of the day, and I am happy to make music on acoustic instruments and dedicated machines. But I have always been more interested in playing/performing than in composing/producing.
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If you are tempted by Harrison, get 32c. They have frequent sales, every once in a while you can get a 50% discount or more. 32c has a very special vibe because of the summing busses and EQ/comp algo’s directly modeled from their 32c analog console. I’m very happy with it. You basically don’t need any 3rd party plugins: it sounds great as-is: really reminds me of how my recordings sounded when I still used tape recorders. Workflow is pretty neat too.
I have all my gear hooked up to a Soundcraft digital mixer, that sends 32 channels to Harrison Mixbus over USB, and have a template set up so that I can easily hit “record” when I’m jamming with the hardware and feel something interesting is happening. My master clock being derived from SMPTE LTC I can cut/edit/overdub in sync, and even punch in/out running sequencers (For this purpose, I coded a Arduino sketch for the RK002 cable that interprets SPP to adapt the linear song-paradigm to the pattern based timing of my hardware set-up). I’m an old-school linear recording guy, not a Ableton Live “launch clip” guy so this set-up and workflow is near perfect for me.
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I stopped using my OT 2.5 years ago for the same reason as OP: the sampling/saving process is cumbersome.
It worked for me for the 7 years OT was the centerpiece of my setup, but once I dove into Ableton I haven’t missed setting up my track to record, going in to make tiny fades at the start and end of the recorded sample (autofade feature always had too much of a gap when I tried it), saving the sample, most likely with the generated filename because entering something takes too long when you have 10 other ideas you’re looking to get down, then finally, since I was also usually trying to use those samples in a track, assigning to a static sample slot and setting up a track to play it back (almost always with individual scale settings because I’d record longer than 4 bar loops). The last part isn’t as relevant to a sampling session, but I simply prefer setting the input of my audio track on Ableton, recording my phrase, then drag and drop the file into my sample folder.
Nothing wrong with doing everything in the OT, especially if getting a computer involved isn’t going to make things more convenient. OT is probably the best sample mangler I can think of, but actually recording/saving samples into it isn’t its strongest point.
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I was browsing stereo samplers, but then finally, I have Bitwig recording exactly on the line, every time, perfect sync. So yeah, that’s saved me some cash, even for looping it works great now. Plus you can slice up clips and it will loop raw audio unlike Ableton.
I think I’d be quite happy with no DAW and just use RX7, I’d be pissing in the wind to do that at this point, maybe this time next year… An OT and some external FX and a mixer.
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It’s so interesting how people react differently.
I did exactly the opposite, I was spending too much time caring about useless details, naming everything properly, etc but till I got the Octatrack everything change.
Everything I need it’s in front of me and I can achieve most of the task with a press of a button or a combo. The Octatrack layout make so much sense to me, I found a lot of buttons combo just by logic, I probably read the manual once.
I found the keyboard system of the Octatrack really smart and fast, I generally use abbreviation or now I don’t bother renaming at all.
My workflow changed a lot since I got the Octatrack.
Before I was doing a lot of packs and preparation, which is convenient and once I want to arrange something I had all my sounds ready to go.
With the Octatrack instead I tend to make the process in once and all the sound get used for just that process.
I just have really generic drum sounds and loops on the Octatrack since my main source of sound comes from synths. With the Octatrack I realise is useless to buy sample pack when with the same money I can buy a synth and have much more control.
Somehow the total process take less on the Octatrack and it’s much more fun. I think mainly because with the Octatrack the various sound design modulation become part of the song and dynamically change using Scene.
I use to multisample my synths and make really fine tuning to the sound, I end up sample myself playing freely on the Octatrack and surprisingly I think my music is much more expressive.
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Love the title of this thread!!
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That’s interesting. I’ve got a Mk1 and I’m not sure if its that quick and easy to save a sample. I could just stop caring about the name of the sample seeing as they’re just fx sounds…its not like I named my samples on the 404! But I thought to save it I had to go into the AED and press save then assign to free static or whatever…