Going All-Hardware performance is like going off-grid

I found this funny too, I don’t keep up with modern music, unless it’s my own :wink:

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People thinking they’re Jeff Mills.

Hmm, I get it. Maybe can’t get enough cowbell, but I believe you can definitely have too much clap, whatever your name is. :cheeky:

I just wish I had octopus arms so I could play guitar while using the OT crossfader, hitting the Rytm fill button, tweaking effects, mixing, and whatever, at the same time… I wrote Elektron support about this but they said it’s not on the roadmap… Only Hector got this cause he’s in deep with the mothership…
While typing this I realize I need a midi foot controller :wink:

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I’ve been attempting to rock the OT’s pickup machines and crossfader with a tanbur and bass guitar with no foot controller, and it’s a challenge. Now, I’m trying to imagine throwing the AR in there too! Too bad octo-arms are not on Elektron’s road map. Ah well, missed opportunity as they say :smile:

I wholeheartedly agree. Preparation allows for more improvisation during the performance in many cases as well.

edit: I couldn’t tell if it indicated, but this is a reply to the original post.

I’m planning on setting up a lemur template on the OmPad that connects wirelessly to an iconnectmidi4+ that connects to all my gear. I’m going to have the lemur target my most used parameters of all machines and clip it to a mic stand so I can play guitar and sing and still have pretty quick access to what I need. This in combination with a foot pedal that targets looper functions and effects should get me pretty far… Now if I could only find the motivation to program lemur instead of just jamming away!

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Mind messages to elektron boxes via midi cc is coming soon.

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should be noted here that when Jeff Mills plays the 909, too much is not enough. he invented the drum machine solo, i think. or alternatively is one of the early proponents of the drum machine freehand solo. very cool. to do this at a large event with a crowd of thousands, that’s a lot of attitude and conceptual adjacency going on.

I’m very keen to hear how you progress with this setup. I googled OmPad, but I just got a writing app?

OpenMike’siPad :wink:

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Ah! Nice. Only slightly related, and fairly off topic, but last night I went to a performance by a modern dance/musical troupe called Quixotica. They were amazing, and I really enjoyed that the primary musical composer and violinist often came on stage and interacted with the movement artists. He also went into the audience for even more intimacy because he was totally wireless. Makes me rethink investing in a wireless setup.

edit: To bring it around, I wonder if anyone has ever tried taking something like a drum machine or sampler to the wireless level; i.e. being able to walk around in the audience with your magic box.

I’ll add to the mods, please move my post to the thread @Open_Mike just created as you feel appropriate.

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yea im obsessed with having minimal gear too, just 1 box if possible. otherwise I start feelin guilty if I don’t use everything to its fullest at every moment. I fink I have issues :slight_smile:
imo tempest would have been the ultimate all in 1 if it had a sampler n a reverb insert. but I digress.
I way prefer an all hardware setup, both in terms of playability and trying to loosen up my end sound. but I’m new enough to all-hardware so have yet to have much solid finished music from it.
so I find daw easier but less enjoyable. if you gnome wat I am sein

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Glad i’m not the only one. Does anyone else think the Dark Trinity is an overpowered setup? I have OT+AR+A4+AH and this setup is too much for me to handle! Thinking about limiting myself to 2 Elektrons at once, but I love Elektron so much I don’t think I can get rid of them!

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Just the ot. The four parts thing really throws me off so I basically use it as a fancy mixer live. In the studio I get more adventurous.

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the way to unconfuse the OT Parts scenario? Enforce a rule of a new one every four Patterns, or visually, a new Part on every coloured-in Trig.

On the Machinedrum, I’ve enforced a rule of One Kit per Two Consecutive Patterns.

128 Patterns

64 Kits

perfect :slight_smile:

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Actually that sounds like a cool setup.

AR into OT stereo in
A4 thru AH into OT stereo in

use OT as a choice looper and make songs or perform …

hey that is 4 units … the Dark Quantum

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I currently use the OT as the brain/mixer/midisequencer/clock/realtime FX unit with a drummachine to the left and a synthesizer through an fx pedal to the right.

Maybe it feels ‘off the grind’ because it was the basic setup for people making music at home with electronic gear long before affordable software (and cpu power) to do so was available!

I remember going full hardware…

My favorite setup was my rm1x + akai sampler setup, I upgraded from dr sample and a S2000 to a S1100, my sound, my favorite sampler (still is). It was my middlefinger to the rich kids with their shiny MPC2000xl’s (I knew only two)… Even years later when I had a better job and more money to buy a MPC, I guilt shamed myself into needing to be different and I didn’t buy it.
The RM1x wasn’t used anymore, I learned sequencing from digital performer, protools, ableton or arps in max or any other software, I even ran some Atari’s to experiment with Cubase 2 and DrT, I tried and I tried, nothing seemed to work, nothing could shake that nasty lower belly aching of not being one of the cool kids with their nice MPC fatpads… I wanted a box for sequencing. I wanted to stop and focus fulltime on the band, I wanted out of the box, I wanted to sell everything and use the money to travel…
But no, I started working almost completely in the box, I used all the hippest shit on MacOS9, even got into circuit bending, I went academic, full time audio engineer, spent most of my days mixing, recording, reading the fucking manuals, programming, being online. I was losing it, my studio grew and grew and became this uncontrollable DIY beast, I had nothing but a bed and that huge beast of a homesetup next to me.
I was scared, unable to sit down, relax and drop some beats. I needed something small and tamed, something immediate and fun. Fueled by GAS and ignorance that led to the purchase of the machinedrum. A sequencer and percussion synthesizer with real-time sampling options, it blew my mind, changed my life (as an electronic music hobbyist) and helped me move on.

Years flew by…

Gas, consumption and better income got the better of me and I decided to stop using my apple laptop as the brain/mixer/midisequencer/clock/realtime FX unit of my homestudio, but get another shiny box to do so…

The octatrack became that brain. The computer my taperecorder.

And over time my friends in bands got married and have careers and kids, the RM1x broke down and was sold for spare parts to an angry old synthcollector complaining about the smudge and nicotine stains on the unit. “Hey, I was young, we tried to be different!” I saw a slight sparkle in his eye when I used the word ‘young’, other than that no response, not even a coffee, just 50,- for a broken dreammachine…
Now I sit here with my OT+MD+Blofeld+M5 combo, all fitting in a small travelcase with my field recorder and a microphone, life is good. I can write electronic music with this, I can perform with this, I am completely “off the grill”.

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I’ve really enjoyed returning to hardware for the last 8 or 9 years. I’m starting to dip my toes into MAX a bit to interface with my modular and possibly replace my Octatrack depending on how ‘off the grid’ I want to be from more traditional timing approaches, but overall, it’s been very therapeutic moving away from the computer. I’ve even had a few moments with MAX where I start wondering what the heck I’m thinking dipping back in! :slight_smile:

Some of the most beautiful sets I’ve seen in recent years were by my friend Eric Lanham playing solo Octatrack sets. It is absolutely possible.

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exactly, Octatrack is capable of amazement and very cool to rock up with as the only device.