I’m about to buy a 2nd hand Rytm, currently trying it out and having a blast with it. this machine rocks! I also have an octatrack, which hmm I have kinda love/hate relationship with. besides that, can you give some tips for a nice workflow combining the two aimed towards live? I feel quite comfortable creating stuff, but I’m a bit reluctant regarding organizing, especially with the octa. reshuffling banks, keeping track of the crossfader scenes (how do people do this? I always forget which scene is what - ie. no visual clues). also do patterns/banks have to correspond if you want to trigger them from one machine? I tend to split up ‘songs’ into multiple patterns in the octa, but with the rytm one pattern is often already interesting (mute/unmuting, triggering scenes/performances) thanks!
I always use the same scene layout when performing.
I also stick to the same track layout on OT and AR. Scenes and performance macros on AR are also similar, so I always know what is where. Can always mute/unmute, bring in/bring out stuff without surprises.
Also less is more.
What type of music are you going for?
I’ve not performed live with either instrument yet, so take all this with a pinch of salt. I compose using both.
On sync: you don’t have to match patterns, but it’s probably easier. I suspect that if you’re already overwhelmed by scenes, remembering which patterns go together across two devices will add to the complexity rather than reduce it. I “perform” my compositions to record, rather than sequencing them fully, and I wouldn’t want to do that without pattern sync.
On structure: you can use any configuration you like, but there’s three popular ones talked about here: .one pattern per track, four patterns per track and one bank per track. I’m prepping a live set on AR only at the moment and I’m gonna use bank-per-track, even tho’ they’re mostly one-pattern techno jams. It gives me space to use patterns for arrangement rather than only using mutes. With scenes and performances too, I think juggling mutes may get too hectic. It’ll depend on the track tho’: those that are just grooves wont need it, but some have “key moments” and I think it’ll be easier to cue those up.
On roles: pick a role for each device and stick to it for the set. The AR is the more flexible, and may tempt you to use that flexibility, but I suspect it’s better to make it behave consistently throughout the set.
Most people find the AR’s external in too quiet. I think it’s designed to take hot modular signals so the OT is often quiet when fed to it. But, either device can work as your glue/warmer/limiter so pick one and decide how you’ll handle the levels, then stick to that. Or use a mixer 
If you like doing track transitions with effects or looping tricks, have the AR feed into the OT.
thanks for the input guys!
musicwise, I make a bunch of different stuff but purely composing on the elektrons I gravitate towards polymetric techno. @Schnork I agree less is more, guess i have to force myself a bit into that. with DAW’s I often tend to program fairly complex IDM-ish stuff (remix I did a while ago: https://youtu.be/bF01U2IQGbI ) I don’t think this is feasible with the elektrons. but I see it as a positive thing, embracing the limits and indeed keeping things simple.
@Octagonist i was also doubting of using only the rytm for a while, makes sense to use a couple of patterns per song for ‘arranging’ live. Maybe better to stick with the 4 or 8 patterns/song idea on both machines.
also I’ve been using the octa mostly as a stems playing machine. guess I have to spent some more time composing on both machines together. my main gripes with the octa is some weird bug when using different pattern scaling and different tempo’s between banks (stuff sometimes out of sync) + the lack of ability to switch bank order easily. this one I find really annoying because while building a live set I want to juggle around banks quickly to try different ‘flows’ in the set
@Schnork and @Octagonist make some excellent points, actually very helpful for me too as these are my two main machines.
I agree about pattern changes, decide what works for your style of music/playing and then stick with it. It helps for me to have everything mirrored. I personally do 2 songs per bank on the Octatrack because I usually only use 2 Parts per song- basically just find what works for you and stick with it. And then basically practice practice practice. I was fairly quick to learn the OT and program full sets on it, so I added the Rytm about a year after, but I really underestimated how hard it is to really get good at using both to their full potential when I’m performing. It takes a lot of mental strength/stamina and practice IMO…
For technoish stuff, I’ve found four patterns for a track work well and give enough room to develop the track by fading in stuff, unmuting/muting tracks, playing with scenes and performance macros, playing with fx etc…
So I have four patterns on OT which are on one part and four on AR which together form one track. Blocks of four are easy to see on the machines, so I went for that. If a track does not require four patterns, maybe because there’s not so much variation needed, I’ll leave it blank.
I don’t send program changes from one machine to the other, but rather progress through them as needed.
The next four patterns on OT are on part two, next on part three and last four on part four.
Same layout, same scenes etc.
The first pattern is always an intro type of pattern on both OT and AR, second pattern is “the main pattern of the track”, third is a variation and fourth is basically the outro.
I have a thru track on OT for my AR with eq and filter with scenes for highpass and lowpass easy available on scenes 15 and 16.
Trigs are on every other step so I can low pass filter and use the filter env with short decay to get pulsating rumbling textures which I like to use for transitioning.
Using scenes I can low pass filter the drums, move to the next intro pattern on OT and bring the drums in seamlessly as scenes do the same thing in all parts and parts are saved with scene 16 selected. Just have to remember that everything not locked to scenes can’t be used when going from one part to the other.
I have two static tracks with modulated noise granular-ish loops and one percussive sample chain I can trigger manually (you can quantize manual triggering to 1/16 if you’re lazy. No wrong hits^^)
Thru machines goes thru cue outs to my mixer and the other tracks go through main out to my mixer. I have two fx on aux sends and I use OT to lower the volume via a midi lfo of the reverb to “duck it” a little when the kick hits (just midi lfo to wet level, works perfectly).
Each of the four pattern blocks on AR have their own kit, scenes, macros and layout is similar.
Track levels are also similar, so I always know how much I’ll have to turn a track up when fading in stuff. For example, alll sample tracks on OT go to 80, kick, bass, seq etc. on AR go to 110, hi hats and other percussion go to 60.
So even if the monitoring situation is bad, I can fade tracks in.
If I would not structure in such a strict way, I’d probaply have to look at my notes all the time lol - even such a simple structure has enough room for mistakes left^^
I also use a different setup which uses only one pattern on OT with similar four pattern structure on AR.
I use several plays free tracks on OT, loaded with loops (rhythmic stuff, modulated noises etc) in sample chains so I can manually start and stop tracks, move to the next slice etc.
AR handles drums, bass and lead sequences stuff.
Hope that helps.