Hardware fun vs. DAW productivity

Your post made me think a bit. Daws can do everything all under one roof and its not focussed enough for me. If there was some sort of platform that was just a bunch of modules that you could link together and it hosted VSTs too I think that would be great. Not like Reason… with no arrangement view whatsoever like hardware

So… VCV rack basically ? :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

erm maybe yeah I dunno

Audiomulch

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Check out Plogue Bidule

wow, that is my feeling put into words.

+1

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I got a decent deal on Mk. I OT in the middle of last year because I was enjoying my DT so much (indeed that’ll be the brain for if ever get a live setup sorted) but not really had time to use it much yet. But I’ll be starting on a new album soon and want to make the OT the central part for all my sequencing along with the MDUW. So, I think you and @Soarer have persuaded me I need to get the kettle on then check this video out. Cheers!!!

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basically, any Linux/JACK-based system.

of course, conventional DAWs (including commercial) available, but in a nutshell JACK-based audio system works like a construction kit, where you route audio & MIDI from/to your instruments and/or external gear.

and it’s also capable of running many of foreign (windows) VSTs via WINE.
of course, foreign VSTs consume more CPU, but that’s not a critical problem when one needs them working.

but… i am on Linux for about 20 years, and switched to 100% hardware live rig anyway.

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Good for you obviously! (:

I’m painfully aware how much more I could get ‘done’ in software in the same amount of time, or the naturally limited complexity of whatever I do in hardware due to budget and time restrictions. But still, you can’t get more than one voice on a flute or six voice polyphony when playing a guitar, and very limited variability in timbre, or years and years of training to be not restricted by your or the instruments limitations. And still ppl pick up 19th century hardware and devote decades to master it. Why? Cause playing an instrument is intensely gratifying, cause it responds to your every whim within milliseconds, right in the moment.

So that’s why I’m here. Bought a Digitone to have an Instrument I can improvise or spontaniously create ahm, anything from bog standard techno to vantguarde electronica if I wish to do so, and get the same responsiveness and immediacy as I’d get from mentione flute or guitar or whatever. How awesome is that? Working in a DAW, for me is a slow deliberate process without the feel of playing an instrument, That’s what drove me to buy an Elektron box, among other things. I don’t doubt that getting shit done, and getting insanely complicated shit done fast, you’re better off with any DAW. (:

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Carla and Cadence plus all the associated modules have been a great discovery for me on Linux, mostly for getting recording into (now native Linux) Reaper working properly from my soundcard.

If only Overbridge could be added into the mix somehow… sadly it refuses to work under WINE.

Sorry but I don’t see how you can compare your Digitakt to an acoustic instrument like a flute or a guitar.

With the right MIDI controller, and an appropriate template, you can work pretty much the same inside a DAW as you can with a Digitakt.

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Sorry Newsflash, Synthesizer, and Digitone is no exemption, are instruments. (:

And yes just to defend my pride here, I do play several common instruments pretty well, and I did not think a second of placing the elektron boxes in a diffferent category.

Sure I fooled around with Midi Controllers. Still way happier with dedicated hardware. But that just may be me.

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I certainly don’t deny that the Digitone is a musical instrument and, as it contains the same basic ingredients as a DAW (sound source, FX and sequencer), I personally don’t think that a DAW is any less a musical instrument.

My point was that, to me, Elektron boxes are more similar to a DAW in functionality than to an acoustic instrument.

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The quote you replied to just says its good not to be against a process or concept as it may end up limiting you. It doesn’t seem to imply anything about using DAWs and not using hardware, it just implies that if you do use hardware it might be a good idea to not be against DAW’s, because they might come in handy one day…

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true. (:

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Paraphrasing Genesis P. Orridge

Any thing that makes a sound can be said to be a musical instrument. Therefore the person provoking the thing to make a sound can be said to be a musician.

Whoa, sounds way more pretentious written down :slight_smile:

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An instrument that relies only on human dexterity is more highly thought of. The computer in boxed electronic equipment is the brain. Not the operator. But now we are talking degrees of status on the musical instrument shelf.

everyone likes P.Orridge, but playing something structured on an instrument sounds better to my ears, than just provoking an instrument to sound :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I don’t see why anything has to be “versus” anything else. As already stated, you can look at things any way you wish, on any given day.

It may be beneficial to put things in boxes in order to understand them, initially. But once you do, you are free to look at it in a new way. I believe that if you categorize something too strongly, you limit your creative approach to it.

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Yup. This thread got me thinking and reevaluating my setup over the past few weeks. My hardware/software balance tends to ebb and flow throughout the years anyways, but I suddenly found myself, once again, with too much hardware - too many distractions. Just sold another bunch of hardware this weekend. Shipped it out today. I feel a lot lighter!

This is huge for me. I work on 4-5 tracks at a time and if I have an idea for one, it’s amazing to be able to simply open it up and get to work. I find it very irritating and time-consuming to attempt doing that across 4 synths, 3 drum machines, 1 sampler, 3 fx units, mixer, etc.

I think the key for me is slimming down to one sequencer - Ableton Live. Any hardware remaining will probably just be knob-per-function synths with no sequencer, or if it has one, it’s not integral or robust like an Elektron.

Anything else can be handled via plugins + Push 2.

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