Let me start by an admission - i have absolutely no grounding in electronic music making or synthesis.
Ive been a guitar player for decades and when confronted with modern DAW software i still do things old school - record from the start to the finish of the song. No comping. No copy and paste. Every bar different. Mainly because i havent the time or intellect to vairiate from that.
One thing ive discovered in all my time playing live, teaching and generally dogging about on the fringes is …
I used to give a fuck about what those dipshit guitar players in the front row with their arms crossed thought. I used to want to ‘impress’ them.
I did this to the degree where all fun and joy was robbed from me - i couldnt just take stock and see the moment for what it was. I was enjoying myself - smiling - happy.
I may not be Vai. I dont want to be. But where im at GETS ME THROUGH. Makes the shitty hours i spend at work away from my family, my son, bringing home the bacon, worthwhile. Because for that relatively small amount of time i dont have to give a fuck about the wolves at my door, or the sad little fuckwits sitting there with their pisswizard arms crossed waitimg for me to impress them.
The reason im rambling? - i now own the dark trinity.
There is a million people more deserving, who could do amazing things with those machines.
Me? Ill probably just play four to the floor plagiaristic shite till the day i die, not even scratching the surface of what one of those instruments can do ( though ill try my best to go beyond that ) But you know what???
Why the fuck not? If it gives me even ONE moment of joy in life then its worth it to me.
Whatever gets you through…
Sorry just had to get that off my chest. I suppose what im saying is, dont get hung up on opinion - whatever gets you through. Sometimes simple beats the shit out of clever 
Peace, love and musical adventure to everyone 
x
Enter Techno. The front row usually consists of heavily medicated girls, who would dance to a kick and a hat
Just kidding lalala
if you would like to escape four to the floor, which essentially is an existential representation of a heartbeat, an industrial pulse, and also the basic weave of the fabric of a magic carpet upon which dance parties levitate on, that is totally cool and understandable.
but if you are cool with staying to four on the floor, that is cool too, it isn’t plagiarism, it is more akin to tuning a guitar to A-440 concert pitch.
the thing is, 440 vibrations per second for the A note was not always the accepted norm. it was as low as 410 vibrations per second and all the way up to 470 vibrations per second. Eventually 440 was settled upon as a tradeoff betwixt note “brightness” and singers’ vocal ranges.
but anyway, try limiting yourself to one bassdrum sounding on the One, at the start of every two bars.
then, sculpt the groove as you like … there will still be that “pulse”, but there will also be a lot more space in which to explore, layer, subtract, interact.
Sounds great, keep it up!
You don’t have to use all features. You don’t have to use every note of a large grand piano, or all combinations of all available notes on a guitar, in one track, either. Simple elements with character and atmosphere, enjoying breaks with just reverb, voila. Guitar or keyboard solos where people are showing how fast their fingers are are often just annoying.
There just seems to be a conflict between your “record full track at once” approach and the pattern logic of elektron machines. You could, for instance, chain 32 (almost --> just one trigless trig etc) empty patterns with 4 bars each as a song and save this as a default project to replicate your approach on elektrons.
reading this post from you … I love it … I gotta tell you, that I am your kind of people! , and you are my kind of people! …if it wasnt for elektron I would be a much more sad more isolated person… these machines cure a lot in my head…I understand every single line in your thread bro !
Ummm … comping, copy pastes and loops are pretty old school. Especially comping. Most of the guitar parts on something like, say, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours were cobbled together from various takes, they used drum loops in a couple of tracks - the Beatles after Sgt. Pepper, etc, etc.
Don’t disagree with most of what you’re saying, though - if you can’t take pleasure from making music, why bother?
An easy way to escape the four to the floor would be, get yourself a copy of a book like “Electronic Dance Music Grooves” by Josh Bess. It’s like reading guitar tabs for drums. There are many others too.
Thanks for all the encouraging words everybody
Ill definately get some books and do some homework on - well even the very basics!! Im very green at it all but im hungry to learn.
Seems a lot of people have a similar outlook - and music to me is about emotion, spirit, feeling and senses. All the usual :))
Totally off topic but im having trouble setting up midi - ive got the OT as master, into the AR and then AK and into my Sub Phatty ( all set as slaves to the OT’s clock and transport.
Now, i want to be able to sequence the Moog, im guessing ill have to set it up to recieve on. The same midi channel as i send from the OT?! I was going to use 9 cos the internal tracks seem to take up 1-8.
So if i set the OT up to send on ch 9 and the SP to recieve on ch 9 then i can trig notes on the SP? Sorry for the noob question hopefully someone can help
Peace
As for your midi-setup … almost there you are … 
My suggestion for midi would be:
AK out -> OT in
OT-out -> AR in
AR-through -> AK in
AK-through -> Phatty in
With this OT would send midi clock and midi notes/CC to the setup and your AK would be the masterkeyboard. If you have an A4 make the Phatty your masterkeyboard.
Now, make a decision on the midi channels. Each midi-track of the OT can send midi on channel 1-16. This does not be in conflict with the audio-tracks of the OT. Set your OT-midi-Track to what ever you like and your Phatty to the same channel and it should do.
Enjoy Yourself 
We call in Playing Music, don’t we ? 
Im very green at it all but im hungry to learn.
This gives you the great advantage of being wonderlingly !
New grounds to discover in all freedom. Beeing Young again in your Hart and soul. There’s al lot of surprizes waiting for you.
Be a child and play - forget all you’ve heard about what music should be.
PLAY 
Soundrider thank you i have set it up like that.
Just another ( stoopid! ) question - how do i set the OT up via midi so i can sequence the SP? I guess i set one of the tracks to the midi channel i need? Also ive turned all the mutes etc on the keys and rytm to internal so it doesnt affect anythimg else would you advise changing them - could i then control mutes/paramaters on the other units?
Yes it is makimg me feel young again - midlife crisis haha! 
Ian: I welcome you to copy AND contribute here… Little tutorial w/ rand rytm on t4 at 133 bpm
Thanks Trabant will do :))))
There is nothing like stupid questions - only stupid answers
Maybe I don’t understand your question right, but let me try.
Let’s assume we want put the Phatty on midi channel 16 just to get it out of the way for a first try. Then let’s assign midi-track 1 of the OT to midi-channel 16.
I would suggest to start with a new empty project.
On the Phatty you must find your way to set it up of your own. I haven’t got the synth and I guess, it should be different from my Sub 37. But there should be something like a menu for midi setup too … set it to 16
On the OT:
- select (the button left bottom side of the display, right of Mixer), the light beside the button should now be on
- select track 1 and make sure that the track is not muted
- now, , this should open the menu for the midi channel selection
- dial in 16 and then hit <Enter/yes>
Now your OT/Phatty setup should be ready to go. If you have setup all your gear and linked with the midi cables as suggested earlier, I think it’s necessary that every box is ON. To make a simple test you could also connect OT and Phatty directly without the others.
For a first simple test sequence go to record mode on the OT, hit some trigs, and start play. In a clean project all trigs should send out C3 to midi channel 16 and your Phatty should come to life.
You can get the AR and the AK out of the way by disabling midi input. You don’t need to mute the tracks and with this the audio too.
From here you can begin to get your first sequences going.
If the setup is as suggested and your AK is sending midi via “External” on the auto channel of the OT, you should be able to play the Phatty via the AK keyboard.
Hope this helps and tell us, how you get on with your setup …
For me it was like the beginning of an adventure trip - musical and soundwise, when I started with my OT and later, when I got my dark trinity completed … 
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Man i got a shiteating grin a mile wide as im capering about my living room hahahahaha!! This setup is just absolutely outrageously good!!! Just my first sequence listening to the lovely bass off the moog… Hahahahhaha!!! And this is the simplest of stuff… I know i made the right decision with the dark trinity now - with help from people like you on here it makes gettimg over stumbling blocks not so frustrating. Thank you
I also sampled some loops off the AR and AK last night and twisted them beyond recognition with the OT. Amazing machines… Im loving them!!!
Havi g quite got the AK playing theSP yet - struggl g to understand the ‘auto channel’ but illkeep at it
Great to hear that your setup is working for you
Now … have fun …