I’m looking to create a small setup based around my newly aquired AR mk2 that allows me to perform tracks in a ‘dub’ style. By this I mean treat individual tracks with eq and fx sends and then also feedback those sends and returns, building arrangements by riding the faders. Pretty standard. I should add that I mostly use the AR with samples (including resampled sounds from the rytm) and when I currently perform my tracks I use channel mutes and performance macros a lot. I think my options are:
Get a hardware mixer with plenty of aux sends, send out the individual tracks from the rytm and bobs your uncle. Only downside I see to this is that I lose the AR master compressor. It also becomes quite tricky working the mixer and the AR at the same time, so I may have focus just on the mixer and forget about my AR mutes and perfromance macros for the most part.
Go the USB route and use either overbridge or something like an ipad. The good side of this is I can use a load of cool FX I have on my mac. The downside is I would need a very large or multiple midi controllers for a good hands on workflow.
Stick with the AR and just use 1 individual out (such as the stab) that goes to an FX chain and then back in to the AR. The benefit here is I don’t need any new gear and I continue my workflow as it is. The downside is that it’s not really a classic dub workflow.
I would love some of your input. Cheers.
p.s. all this comes from my ongoing obsession with Mick Harris
Proper dub style is definitely choice number 1. Riding a fader on a mixer is half the fun of dub so I would definitely go that route. And I would add, get a mixer with faders instead of knobs for individual level control. So much better for this kind of thing. Much more visceral in my experience.
AR compressor is nothing special imo. But also the external input comes in right before the compressor so I think if you’re using all of the tracks as individual outs, and then just plug the output of your mixer into the ext in you should be able to use the compressor that way. I haven’t tried it though.
It’s also worth playing with the internal fx and setting up scenes and performances on the pads to perform changes dub-style.
I think with some careful ergonomic placement this will be much easier than you think. And a TON of fun.
The bigger issue for me is keeping mutes straight because it adds a layer of mutes to your flow (song mode mutes, trig mutes, global mutes and now mixer mutes).
Mackie 1642 has 8 mono & 4x stereo channels and 4x aux. So you can use all the individual outs, the stereo out and have up to 4x fx boxes for play with. And it’s pretty small for a studio mixer too! And a decent price.
I can vouch for the 1642 + armk2.
pots are a bit stiff at first but it gets better over time. Used them together back when I had the AR, also massively inspired by scorn/hednod. only thing that I didn’t like was not being able to use the AR’s internal delay and reverb via the ext ins of the AR / the mixer aux sends… that was a bit of a shame, otherwise it was a killer setup.
I used my iPad running auv3 fx via an audio interface, which was pretty hands-on. Bit of latency when doing feedback routing but I didn’t mind, ymmv.
Not really, it was quite simple. AR individual outs into mono channels on the 1642, aux sends connected to inputs of audio interface connected to iPad, several stereo out pairs of the iPad connected to stereo tracks on 1642 as return channels. That’s really all there is to it to be honest….
Just wanted to point you to a nice video I remembered in another thread from earlier this year. Just to find out you started that conversation back then, too.
There’s a lot of inspiration in there. And no way around finding out what works/sounds best for you. The fun in dub is imho explorative experimentation with routing and sounds. Be brave, you can’t go wrong.
Another good one that’s just mostly based around controllers…
One thing I did for the AR was to get a Launch Control XL (latest) which have MIDI out. This way I can always have hands on track volume, sends, filters etc for 8 channels. Highly recommended for a compact but hands on setup!
