Kaoss Pads as transition loopers

Ah yeah, good point!

Took a little roll around the block with the reverb and delay. The reverb could be used as buildup-ish stuff if you used the high-pass filters on the pads… It does have dampening and decay. Decay all the way up on super high-passed stuff sounds pretty good. With mid and lower freq, kinda sounds like your in high school gym style room (at max decay). But a bit of tweaking you might get what you need. I’m sure a 75 dollar pedal would sound better. Delay is just super utilitarian. Can sound quite interesting with the tin can reverb… I’m not gonna sell my Space real soon (I use the OT for everything else really. Will prolly play live with the OT, the Blackbox into OT thru with effects, cue on the headphones. simple dj techno setup). Hope that helped.

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With correct gainstaging, it shouldn’t sound flat. :slight_smile:

To clarify, I’m talking about pretty small nuances. Not enough to matter too much when playing out, but definitely enough to matter in a recording context. I A/B tested it quite carefully with proper gain staging and mastering grade equipment. I definitely felt something was getting lost when running the AR through the OT as opposed to running it straight into my converter (Prism Titan). It makes complete sense to me as the internal AD/DA conversion of the OT can not be of the same quality as Prism or other comparable interfaces.

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Cool thanks for the info. So far the Blackbox seems like the most intuitive option. I might still first see if the iOS app looping would work for me though as it would be considerably cheaper for me.

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I’ve done this quite a lot - in different setup iterations… now it’s a lot more straight-forward if you’re using the Digi machines (in my case, my set revolves mostly around the Digitakt) since you can do class compliant audio+MIDI over USB.

Although I eventually settled on Digitakt+Octatrack (more on this later), I’ve been doing some new tests using Digitakt +iPad + Faderfox UC4 (for a super portable, powerful setup).

I use AUM (essential imho) as a mixer, and Enso as an AUv3 looper. The most complicated part is the crossfading. If you use two faders, you’re all good - but if you’re a nerd like me and want to crossfade with a single fader, same as a dj mixer, it’s a bit more complicated.
Yes, you can map a single fader with opposite values as to raise the volume on one track while lowering the other… but in that case, both tracks end up having 50% gain in the middle - which is not how crossfaders work. To address this, I bought another app called MIDIFlow (can’t remember if it’s free, but I know that I bought and Inter-App Purchase module to be able to do this) and configured in such a way as to have logarithmic curves for the faders… it’s too boring and long to explain here, but just to note it takes a bit of planning, if you want to do it this way.

I’ve also used Kaoss Pad 3 to transition in the past (the only gear I bought - and sold - twice)… while it’s absolutely great for looping and sync is pretty great for transitioning between patterns, the effect quality is not great (more quantity than quality) and it ended being a bit complicated for whole other aspects. First of all, I needed a dj mixer or something to crossfade between the OG signal and the loop - and also, if I wanted to use KP3’s effects on the loop, I would have to remember to change the input to the mic (as to avoid the OG signal to come through as well as the loop when pressing on the XY pad)… and of course this would mean remembering to switch it back to the RCA input before looping the next pattern.

I finally went back to using my Octatrack for live performance, since it seemed more stable/easier for me (as a mixer, stem/long audio player, transitioning between tracks, fx box, etc.)
I did look into the 1010BB (portable, dead simple to use, multiple outputs, good for sketching ideas and recording long stems) but I decided I have more than enough gear already, plus I feel I might be able to pull something better for my workflow using Digitakt + iPad, an enviroment I already own and know.
As a sidenote, I can’t believe there isn’t any (single-device) alternative other than the Octatrack for transitioning from source to loop with a crossfader. Seems like a pretty big gap in the hardware musician world, and that it could be solved with a well-thought out, portable option.

Anyway, sorry for the long post!

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How are you routing all this? Is everything going thru the iPad using a soundcard? If you are getting a good sync with the iPad, why not use your OT? Send the output of the iPad to a thru, and crossfade within the OT? But, I do see your point if you are trying to use all the power of the iPad on your DT.

For sure. I feel you. The OT is just extremely capable. It can do anything most of my gear can do, including synthesis using single cycle waveforms…But, for me having something simple, that does one thing really well is “fun”. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
:grin:

Totally hear you on the iPad man. If you get it working, let me know how it goes. I have an iPad and use it mostly for the synths and samplers. Never liked using it live cuz switching between apps is kinda fumbly (Sometimes that robot lady ends up asking me questions if I press the button the wrong way :rofl:)

Edit: that just reminded me…I turned off Siri. Jeez. Soulda done that a while ago.

In my latest incarnation at least, I don’t need a soundcard - I just use DT and iPad (DT sends MIDI and audio via USB with the latest, class-compliant firmware.)
I don’t use both iPad and OT with my DT because it’s a bit overkill for me - in both cases I use them as a sidekick for the DT (mainly handling the transitions and playing long/stereo samples)… also, I don’t like big setups - before going DT+OT+Faderfox controller, I used to also have a Virus Snow live… which I only used for one gig and it was a bit too much, I rather focus on less variables (I made a whole post about this)…
so that’s why I eventually resorted to sampling long stems and play them from the OT. Even this way, I sometimes feel like I could simplify more (ie. have loops instead of long stems, reducing the number of elements in use for each track, etc.)
If you would like me to explain my iPad setup in more detail, let me know.

Of course! I 100% undestand this. In fact, i’ts the reason I bought the Kaoss Pad the second time - I love it’s immediacy, simplicity, visual feedback… but in the end, it also had it’s caveats, as I already commented. And that’s what seduced me about the 1010BB, but I can’t justify it when already having so much gear around (including things I could dive deeper into).

I have some videos here playing tracks and livesets with my setups… I don’t think I have any full liveset with DT+iPad (yet), but I’m looking into it’s possibilities… I love Samplr (the app) so it might end up being my companion app for that ride, I want to keep it (somewhat) simple. (ie. no iOS synth sequencing… I’ve been done that road and it ends up being too time consuming / falible imho)

I’ve been using an iPad for the better part of 5 years now live and I’ve build some dedicated midi controlled to limit touching.

This mapped to command+tab keys has been a lifesaver (~20$)

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Very interesting. If those were midi out buttons, that would be awesome for triggering record tracks. But, yeah how do you use those buttons?

Totally. That and the ivcs3/ moog whatsit app. Most of anything I use on the iPad is years old. But yeah Samplr!

You can use computer keyboards with iPads, and most of the Mac shortcuts work, so command tab cycles through the open applications without touching the iPad.
(Does not cycle through open AU plugins)

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I wonder if any iOS DJ apps might be suitable.
Loops / tracks / syncd Via ableton … i cant remember if Traktor has only tracks or also loops etc.
Or use loops in aum wav player.

So many options.

Most of them sync with Ableton link. MidiLinkSync works fine for hardware. Timing is pretty spot on, but gotta time things right otherwise you can end up a bar off.

And how did you build this? very interesting.
Also: So, one button scrolls through your apps and then one to get to the app. Very good thinking

Don’t bother building one. There’s a billion out there.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/235682175/rgb-keypad-for-osu?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_b-electronics_and_accessories-video_games&utm_custom1=ab8bb310-750b-4a99-a83f-f57adfc07f58&utm_content=go_2063581587_76452867735_367965825564_pla-353987697789_t__235682175&utm_custom2=2063581587&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpLa5nYHs6gIVENbACh1DmQePEAQYASABEgJiwPD_BwE

You need both, because you have to hold down the command key and tap the other one to cycle, just like on a regular Mac keyboard.

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Wow…thanks. Loving this idea

Totally, I get that. I’ve been pretty diligent about getting super deep into my stuff for a while. For like 2 years, I pretty much concentrated on the OT. Super glad I did that. I would suggest really practicing with Elektron stuff. Until they are second nature. Then Move to whats next thing.

https://vimeo.com/manage/441873745/general

I rarely touch my iPad live.

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