Help: Tech Rider for Digitakt, Octatrack and other pieces of gear

So you’re saying I may want to have a DI for the instruments running through my mixer (DT, OT and Volca Beats), and then one DI for the Minilogue to make sure its volume cuts through?

FYI at least here in the UK it’s OK to ask for a small mixer on your tech rider, venues will usually have one or be happy to get you one from somewhere. Maybe not if you’re the support but worth asking before you shell out and have to carry another box.

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Is the volca beats that stereo though? If it isn’t, you could fit 4 ins to OT:
track 1 volca beats L
track 5 monologue
track 3 digitakt L
track 7 digitakt R

therefore, you run everything to OT and only need to supply one stereo (impedance) balanced line via TRS jacks? Or failing that, one stereo DI?

But tbh I see nothing wrong with using a tiny mackie for summing the instruments… you just lose OT mangling/resampling abilities is all :nyan: EDIT: hmm, maybe keeping thing simple would be safest after all? If you are not super familiar with the OT, accidents could happen… :zonked:

Due to the way the volca audio is set up, mono split into two channels, to get the proper volume out of them you need to hook them into a stereo channel.

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Hm? This is specific to volca beats? Just asking cuz volca bass and keys work jus fine in mono TS IMO…

It’s the same for all the volcas. I’ve got 4 of them. They can be used ts to ts but your only getting half the audio signal that way and it needs to have a bit of gain added. This is part of the reason people find the volcas “noisey”. Boosting the volume too much and raising the noise floor.

Didn’t have time to read all the replies today, but if you’re bringing a mixer, all the sound guy needs to know is that you have stereo outs and that’s it.

Also, be honest with them when they say give ‘em your loudest. That way they can dial you in optimally. A lot of people hold back on this and they creep louder and louder through the set, distorting an otherwise clean mix unnecessarily

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Yeah, I just worry that something will go wrong with the OT if I try using it as a mixer. haha I plan to use the OT to trigger 5 different 30 to 60-second ambient loops that I can play as I’m loading a new project on my Digitakt. The idea being that the OT will give me time to navigate the DT to load the projects that have certain songs on them, make sure trigs are muted where they need to be, but also get my Minologue dialed into the write patch, and just think about what I need to play. (The 5 OT loops will also give the audience something to listen to while I’m doing all of this.)

That said, I could get comfortable enough with the OT as a possible mixer by May 17 (when the show is on) that I’ll be able to confidently use it that way.

If you have enough channels on the mixer have everything routed through that, and a stereo DI on stage for just for the mixer.

If you don’t have space and need to request extra DI’s, make sure to check the levels on the front of house speakers and communicate clearly with the engineer that the level in the monitor is correct.

Hope that makes sense! :slight_smile:

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not TS to TS but TRS to two 1/4” TS and connecting only one side. FWIW we have used this config lots of times and noise issues havent really been a problem.

Cable looks like this

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Those are the cables I use, plugging in one side like you do gets you half the signal. The volcas being “noisey” is a pretty well known thing. If it works great for you that is awesome. I personally hate having to boost gain if it’s unnecessary.

Perhaps I’m just not that fussy about noise floors, as I’ve never had probs getting my volcas to sound decent. Even with bigger PAs during gigs the noise hasnt been objectionable IME. subjective things…

You can also adjust the noise floor on the octatrack, works well for these boxes too

The noisey part is Quite subjective, but the fact that the volcas send a split mono signal isn’t. The reason it’s done Is so the output jack can also be a headphone jack. I do mostly ambient stuff so a noise floor that is too high is no good for a lot of what I do. Ultimately it come down to what works for each individual’s style of music and performing.

Hey, my brother and i have a pretty big gig coming up and they’re asking for a tech rider, I’ve never done this and I’m terrible at explaining these things so if anyone could offer advice, please message me. And I will do my best to explain my set up. I’ve never played a gig like this before.

Thank you kindly.

From a sound/stage point of view they just need to know:

  • How many outputs you have (to go to the mixing desk) and what connection type (XLR/jack etc)
  • A rough idea of which/how much of these you need in monitors
  • Power requirements (where and how many sockets you need)
  • How much space you need (table/stands etc)
  • Any preferences on lighting if you have them

Thanks for the response, are di boxes necessary? If so how many should I request?
Setup is pretty minimal.

Setup:
Polyend tracker (midi out) to digitone (midi in) digitone (midi out) to digitone keys (midi in)

…at first glance, looks like ur planning to work ur own mix via the mackie mixer…
which means u gonna send that summing output to front of house “only”…
and that means, u must request for one stereo di box…
i guess, u gonna “simply” daisy chain all those pedal fx exclusively for the korg minilogue…
do u have all the power supplies sorted out?
if yes…all u further need is one master socket that’ll feed ur whole setup…
think of monitoring…request two wedges…
u might wanna consider one compressor for ur overall signal…but that’s hard to tell, since many things could go wrong here…
a decent brickwall limiter at the foh might do…
keep an eye on ur low end management…that’s growing too big/boomy/muddy pretty fast in bigger venues/on bigger sound systems…
better request a little sound check slot always upfront…do a line check in any case…

and i hope u got all that ball park well considered and under control, rehearsed properly…
since it’s quite a lot of different stuff to handle…good to have all this setted up on one board, so that the whole thing can be easily moved as one thing…think about pre cabeling…

if i’m assuming correct…ur tech rider is a solid shorty…two monitor wedges, one stereo di box, one power socket…

have fun…

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DI boxes - yes, you need one for each individual jack output you intend to send to the sound engineer.

If you are submixing with your own mixer, then just need to let them know about the main two outputs.
If you are sending lots of individual outputs separately, then some detail on what sounds are coming out if each one and relative levels.

I would recommend the submixer approach personally, as you know what level things should be. BUT, an option would be to send one digitone through the other, then send the digitakt separately (so 4DIs total) if you are using the DT just for drums and the DNs just for synths.

Midi - sound engineers don’t care about, that’s just for you and doesn’t affect them at all.

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Thanks a bunch for your help! Figured that this would be the best place to ask. I do not have a mixer currently. It’s probably a good idea to pick one up.