OT as a Performance Mixer, but what are the other options?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#21

@HisMostDarxxxellent Its just a stay at home piece, but the more inputs the better. Not too big though, the smaller size the better.
I am leaning towards the MX1 just for the basic performance fx, and small footprint. Also its cheap enough secondhand around here where I live that I can get one and resell if it isnt great.
if i like it I will have to open it up and remove some of the LED’s because that green glow annoys the hell out of me :smile:

Also I should have mentioned that I am not using it to mix down tracks, do not want a studio mixer. I use ableton and reason and have many plugins etc for mixing duties. This would just be for jamming. I have watched some reviews of the MX1 and the inputs are pretty noisy also

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#22

I agree there is a gap in the market, but unfortunately the market is very small. What we are really talking about is a performance mixer for electronic music, a genre where the demand or significance of live performance in front of an audience is questionable, certainly on an economic level. I just worked at a large festival after several years away from the scene. High quality, high profile artists, state of the art sound systems etc. Some of the artists “DJ’d” while others “Played Live” to some extent. The crowd of ca. 60,000 people clearly giveth not a flying f$%^ if there was a groove box on stage to go along with the CDJ’s or not. To everybody outside a very small niche, the whole “live electronic music performance” is almost a nuisance. As this thread demonstrates, even a 4 channel DJ mixer that costs €1600 is too big/too expensive for most of us. Maybe at the higher end someone will come up with a revolutionary product for mixing both finished tunes and raw tracks in way that hasn’t been thought of. It will also likely be rather large and expensive. Or it will be Octatrack Mk3?

7 Likes
#23

Ok found some other options, korg zero series and the Behringer X air series.

#24

Have bunch of get, including OT, A4, drum machines…

I tried many options, DB4 plus MX-1 (sold)
AH xone 424 (like it, but big).
Currently staing with DB4 and want to add some midi controller for Electrons

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#25

Exactly.

Currently on a mackie 1642vlz4 but saving up for a xone96. Still not the perfect deal but i hope to use the limitations creatively.

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#26

Still hoping for an elektron performance mixer too!

5 Likes
#27

Keep in mind that a few mic preamps add very little to the overall price of those mixers. Also, being able to bring low signals up to a usable level can be pretty handy with battery or USB-powers gear (Boutiques, Volcas, etc.)

#28

I ll trade mic pres for stereo sends any time.

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#29

Agreed, that is an inconvenience. OTOH, how important is that really in a live performance context? (Might very well be essential for you. :))

#30

Stereo field is very important to me. All my fx (AH, H9, Space) are stereo and it’s important to my sound. Lacking more stereo busses I’m sending mono to the H9 for now. For some fx algo’s it makes a big difference.

#31

Hypothetical question to OP and everyone else on this thread: if the Octatrack in it’s current form just had 8 stereo inputs, allowing 8 stereo through-machines, would it then be a good performance mixer for you? Would it plug the so called gap in the market?

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#32

That sounds pretty sweet to me. Though i have no hands on experience with OT.

#33

OT have some coloration.
But I am ok with that)

#34

Certainly sounds really good, but question would become at what price and foot print? I’m using all 4 right now, would always like more, but sometimes the restrictions are what gives people ideas on terms of how to work around them.

If price was not an issue, I would live 8 stereo inputs. Hell 2 stereo and 4 mono would be HUGE… for me anyway.

#35

The beauty of hypothetical questions is that one can ignore practicalities such as A. how much it would cost? an B. where would I fit 12 more 1/4" sockets on the back of the OT.
To hypothetically answer A, an extra 200$ which would save me buying a little Mackie should cover the extra production costs. B: a breakout cable should do it, without increasing footprint at all.

My main interest however in posing the question was if people would consider the OT Form and functionality a legitimate mixer? My initial response would be No effing Way, but now I am doubting my own conservatism.

#36

Plus the converters and associated circuitry.

#37

Like someone said this is definitely a market that could use a ‘killer’ product.

Bringing things together OTB in a powerful way is something that needs to be explored more.

Octatrack and MX-1 both have pieces of this (especially the latter) - I’d love something else in this space to appear.

#38

Ecler Nuo 4.0. Simple, straight-forward, awesome with Elektron gear. Especially the OT. No FX, but you have an OT for that, send out to wild OT remixing, back through the cue out… Nice round EQ‘s, gnarly saturation when driven hard. Much better than mixing in the OT. Simple and good.

Most Elektronauts tend to prefer more complicated setups with lots of wiring options, don‘t know why.

2 Likes
#39

I have been using my OT as mixer for a while now. It was a choice I made to keep a minimal set up for gigs, and OT makes it easy to get a nice gluey mix.

However, I am thinking of going back to my little A&H z10. More channels than OT, and it sounds really nice, you can saturate the mix if you drive it hard so that does a similar mix glue type thing.

Running out of inputs on the OT is always a bit of a bummer. Analogue mixers always sound sexy anyway, and yeah, proper EQ per channel.

2 Likes
#40

Even three sets of stereo ins would be sweet.