It depends on the synth. If it’s my Typhon, I’ll keep it as a THRU track and MIDI track, so that I can tweak it live. It helps that the Typhon has an HPF filter and high quality FX so I can make it sound good live without having to record it. I’ll also p-lock the thru track to get some pseudo side chain compression going.
Things like Pro 2 and plug-ins get recorded as audio in my DAW and then turned into stem chains with either other track elements, or other hooks, and then imported to static slots for reimagining as p-locked and sliced audio.
I think you’ll get the “both” answer often because they each have distinct advantages. On one hand, being able to tweak a synth live affords a lot more improvisation.
On the other hand, tweaking a stem sample in the OT can take it to new and interesting places and make the tune more compelling.
Yes, the answer is of course “both”, because it depends on quite a few factors like:
amount of synths (== setup + testing time)
their weight and size (transportation)
reproducibility (think of Eurorack or synths without patch storage)
“live” tweaking (wanted/needed?)
But of course this list isn’t nowhere near complete. For example: would you bring very rare and precious gear to a live set? What’s about a backup strategy when gear fails? etc. pp.
Always sample sounds, as with an Octatrack, you can make sooooooo much from even a single cycle wave, but also save the sound an midi sequence it for live situations.
