Hi All,
I’m new here. I’ve been following this thread for a while now in hopes of getting closer to understanding which setup might be best for me.
A bit of background:
I’m trying to develop a live-looping setup with some serious muscle. I’m frustrated by live looping techniques that don’t allow some creative part-juggling, true compositional possibilities and sound mangling, as I am by using computers (I sit in front of one all day working for a music software company). I also want to keep things compact: my guitar and pedals, my voice, and some form of percussion generator (with serious low end) and a looper. Naturally (at least to us here), this means at least one Elektron box is in my future.
My question:
I’ve been looking at either an Octatrack plus Nord Drum 2 setup, or an Analog Rhythm with drum triggers. I come from a rock background and want to really play percussion as I would have back when I played drums … with stick, not fingers. As far as I can tell there are advantages to both setups.
OT + ND2:
I get an INSANE looper device (for the ND2 parts at the very least and to post process guitar loops) that will also hold backing tracks or field recordings, a sequencer that will keep my (dedicated) guitar looper sync’d, an amazing sound mangler, a hardware sequencer for the ND2 that will allow me to work with MIDI as well as audio, and probably more that I’m overlooking
AR:
I get an INSANE drum machine that I can also load (smaller) samples and field recordings into, still get a sequencer that will keep my (dedicated) guitar looper sync’d, and a sound mangler for the pre-loaded samples, I can ALSO use the AR’s pads for times when I might not be able to grab a drum stick, etc., and probably more that I’m overlooking. Assuming I can connect V-drum or similar triggers, there’s not much difference from the OT + ND2 setup in regard to playability of drum sounds.
Does anyone see any glaring reasons to choose one setup over the other that I don’t? Intuition tells me that for someone focusing mostly on capturing performances created in the moment, the OT + ND2 setup seems to be a better fit, but I can really be sure (and don’t have the time or cash to put both setups through their paces).
Terribly sorry for the long post. I can’t promise they’ll get any shorter.
Thanks for your time and any help!