Outboard FX with Elektron Gear?

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

What do you guys use, and how do you use outboard FX with Elektron stuff?

I consider the on board FX to be pretty nice especially on the DT and DN. AR is at least flexible and usable (a lot of open parameters that other devices don’t offer). Because of that, I’ve always struggled a bit to see the point of outboard FX with Elektron Gear, but I see it a lot. However, recently I have found this to be really nice and subtle on the DN as an FX send:

Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water and DigDugDIY Purple Rain (8-bit mod) with Boss HA-5 (Chorus or Slapback)

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#2

Personal taste innit.
I like using my newly acquired Quadraverb as a send on my mixer. Digitone sounds peachy through it. Sounds grand and also helps glue the mix together.

Different strokes for different folks.

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#3

Nice, I can imagine that sounding nice. Do you use it in addition to all the internal DN effects (including reverb)?

#4

Yes and no. Ive always liked the digi chorus and delay.
I dont believe in stacking reverbs. Unless you are collecting boutique reverb pedals as part of some fetish activity.

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#5

I do. It’s pretty much the entire basis of my current Shoegaze project.
Digitone reverb + Quadraverb = aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

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#6

Analog Heat?

I’ll see myself out…

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#7

To be a little more serious, I’ve more or less made the same observation as you - removing my Kurzweil Rumour (a fantastic unit) and Behringer V-Verb (almost equally fantastic) from my console’s sends and only keeping the FX from the Elektrons and the Prophet X themselves.

This also allows me to use the UAD reverbs in a more prominent way if tracking to DAW for mixing (which is my main workflow).

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#8

In the studio, I mainly use plug-in effects under Ableton or Cubase.

Live, I mostly use the in-built effects (reverbs mostly) on my A&H QU24.

…but, I do still have a fair few rack units (plus dedicated guitar effects). TC M-OneXL and TC D-Two are the main units I’d normally use with an analogue mixer. The M-OneXL can take 2 mono inputs and process separately with 2 engines, which means (for example) a long and a short reverb, or a reverb and a ping-pong delay. The TC units also do a good job of midi clock synchronisation.

They’re a bit of a pain to set up on-stage in a short space of time though, which is why I now use the QU24’s effects.

#9

I’m kind of all about ripping up hardware with pedals. Individual outs are nice, but the old hard-panning works in a pinch. Or mono. I make horrible magic anyway.

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#10

I’d also give a big thumbs up to using external FX with Elektron stuff. The internal FX are great for a lot of cirumstances but it’s nice to hear how different things can sound with different algo’s… plus, it’s also great to have hands-on controls without needing to page back and forth - dub-delay japes etc!

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#11

How are you dealing with line level etc with pedals

#12

I generally use outputs with volume controls, just in case. But a lot of pedals are cool with louder signals, too.

#13

I wish the octatrack had digitones reverb

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#14

I wish the Analog Rytm had it too :drooling_face:

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#15

That is a good point and especially nice if your pedal is mono is and stereo out! (if you want/need that)

#16

I recently dug out and racked my Yamaha A5000 sampler which has some really nice fx (and possibility to use those on other gear). But the noisy fan totally ruins the experience :pensive: wasn’t a problem back when computers were the noisiest things in the room. I have to do something about this if I’m gonna continue to use it.
This is a bit sad cause it ticked a lot of boxes, besides sampling, nice fx, great va synth capabilities using the built in waveforms, filters, modulators etc… :broken_heart:

#17

I also tried my A3000, just as noisy

#18

Ha, the age when gear had fans! What’s the problem if you’re not using mics on anything?

#19

I guess I’ve become spoiled by my noiseless gear. The fan was very noticeable but not awful when I started the machine, but after about an hour I was so appealed by the thought of silence that I just turned the thing off without saving. Wearing closed back cans reduced the noise but has a tendency to tire my ears very quickly :pensive:

#20

I actually use the A4 and the Keys as extra fx units for my Rytm. Adding some more filters and send fx with different settings (especially different parameter locked time settings on delay) complements to the built in fx in the Rytm.

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