If a person really knows their gear front to back, inside and out, then any of it is perfect for improv.
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I like stuff with a dedicated fader or knob for commonly used parameters because …
- This helps you see your setting.
- You can blend-to (rather than switch-to) a new setting.
- It is easy to do two (or more) things at once … if you have the hands
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Hands are great
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YMMV
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I really love the Strega paired with A4 and/or 0-Coast. You get lively drones out of it, and I’m more attracted by it than the Lyra.
Octatrack is my main instrument for improvisation, whatever the other piece I gather it with.
For pure drums, I think the Machinedrum is very hard to beat.
With any gear other than full hands on, I like to have a few sounds prepared that I can pick and start from quickly.
To me, improvising with other people is the most interesting way to play music, and Elektron machines are my favorite instruments for it: I feel like all has been done to start from scratch and create a full track in no time, or even play for 4 hours without a pause ^^
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I bought a used Eowave Quadrantid Swarm a couple of months ago and love it for improvising with the AR. Other important improvisation ingredients for me: an external mixer with fx sends to AH and a nice and easy to tweak delay/reverb (DrA).
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Simply owning a Handsonic was enough to get me invited to play with a jam band. My poor drumming skill did not even matter. It helped the band already had a kit drummer and a percussionist with real skills already.
So because there two other drummers already, I was free to experiment with Handsonic sounds, using the ribbons, pad pressure, etc. It was a lot of fun!
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Digitone because it has nice init sound.
Maybe keep the syn levels low, that it doesn‘t get harsh, the rest can be improvised or randomized.
In my other place I have erica fusionbox for a quick lazy impro on drums attached ( since too long already, should change). Not the nicest sounding snippet, (edit change to a bit more variation but forgotten camera…)
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The OT is great for improv, especially if you get into looping and mangling incoming sound sources. This is mostly how I use it
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Excited to see Digitone mentioned here, it doesn’t come often come up in the context of improvisation. Anyone else have tips?
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For the Digitone, my best step was to create Sounds I can use in any case, and carefully name and label them, all in the last bank to be able to load a good set of Sounds in a blank Project Pool.
If you have interesting sounds to start with, you can concentrate your improvisation on sequencing and tweaking them. A really good accelerator!
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For me it’s a “mise en place” thing. Everything hooked up and set up, so I can just start playing. I jam with a guitar or with synths, so I have an “init” preset and start sculpting sounds or progressions.
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One of my weapons for jamming and improvising is the Microfreak. I actually got it for other reasons, but figured out then how great the arpeggiator is. Some nice randomisation with the spice & dice features, perfect to sequence other synths and then even layer the Microfreaks voice on top of it.
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Not to be a dck (…which is obvs a precursor to being one…
) but improvisation is a mindset, it’s not really a ‘which gear’ question.
If you’re comfortable improvising, you can improvise on pretty much any instrument or piece of gear.
That said, Analog Four mk2 and MPC Live 2 are my favourite improv devices (outside of my guitar rig).
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and here’s my secret weapon.
this is both for playing (in finger-drumming manner) and arpeggiating, made with gigs in mind.
i loved the idea of Scale Mode in (older) Launchpad Pro, but found the implementation too basic & limiting, so assembled / partially wrote my own, and hybridized it with arpeggiator – as one big Axoloti patch.
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Agreed.
My drum kit takes way longer to set up than any of the gear listed in this thread so far.
I improvise on that as well.
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This seems relevant:
The crux seems to be that the more complex gear becomes the less immediate it is to use. That’s what killed the Isla S2400 for me. Feature bloat.
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that’s why i bought HandSonic.
drum kit takes long to set up, is a nightmare to transport (even e-drums), and there’s just no physical place for a drum kit in many electronic-oriented venues.
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I fully get where you’re coming from. I started to get so lost in settings and saving locations and would lose inspiration by the time I got organized. Admittedly, the gear can’t be blamed for this, but I’m starting to find my preferred way of working.
I too, have TR-8s, and I find it easy to get a groove going quickly.
The Norand mono is great for this too (with a little reverb and delay).
The Octatrack has become indispensable for me and is the glue that holds everything together in my setup. It has taken some time to get to know, and I still have much to learn, but I wouldn’t want to be without it. It’s my mixer, loop recorder, and live remixer. I highly recommend getting one, if you’re willing to put the time in to get to know it, because once you get comfortable with it, it is so much fun.
You might be right about the minibrute 2, it’s possible it could have been good for this kind of setup, once you got to know it.
I’m thinking about adding a Pro3 as my forever mono and primary bass machine. It looks like it could be good for this kind of setup.
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I’m with the “it’s not the equipment, it’s you” mindset. I have improvised material from using a mouse/software only. Doesn’t matter how simple or complex the setup is, you just have to make it work. That’s the mindset: making it work.
There are of course more comfortable or direct ways to improvise but that doesn’t matter in the moment. Trust that one day you’ll get close enough to your dreams and enjoy the journey.