I bought a Model:Cycles for pretty much this purpose.
I have a bunch of other gear and sometimes carve myself longer slices of time for music sessions… but I wanted a quick jam/sketch box I could use on the sofa or on a train. I could use a phone or a tablet + apps but a) my iPad’s struggling these days and b) I love the physicality of knobs and buttons.
Octatrack, TR-8s and Norand Mono are a dream team.
some of the best music i’ve heard on this site!
really sick
I’m in the same situation as you with a family running around the house most of the day. So I like to optimize too and have been trying to find the “best” solution for live improvised electronic music creation for a number of years. To be honest, I’ve not really found the DT / DN to be all that great for improv.
I would spend half my time programming a pattern so I can then drop mutes in and out and tweak a filter. I found myself questioning the whole improv aspect of what I was trying to do.
The most important thing you want to consider is going to be your sequencer. I’ve played many of them on this search for live play. The Elektron sequencers, while great, still require quite a bit of high level programming before you’re going to have anything useful.
I can recommend the NDLR, the Vector from 512, and (if you don’t mind software) the Ableton Push. The Push might be a stretch because of software and all that but given all of the max4live devices on offer you could really build yourself a live improvisational performance template that would blow anything else out of the water.
I have examples of various live performance rigs, from eurorack to the other devices mentioned above, on my YouTube channel. Here’s my most recent, using Push 2 and a max4live application called ACDGEN. Have a look at the video description for a detail of everything that is going on. It’s all live though, no clips or prepared midi even……
Yeah DT and / or DN is the obvious.
A box like MC 101 / 707 might be suitable as well.
Or maybe - if you have a computer nearby - Maschine (e.g. MK3) could be a good choice, too. Very flexible, easy and immediate to use, fun to play, just one device and does not cost a fortune.
Great post RFJ.
… Five 12.
Add to that the Torso T1 algorithmic sequencer.
Spektro Audio also makes a hardware version of ACDGEN, that fits in your hand, with lots of control in a small package.
( ACDGEN HW thread )
Ha thanks! I had fun making it
I would say an acoustic instrument of your choice, and a Norns shield or laptop+daw to process and record it. Can be small and portable.
Look up what Rodrigo Constanzo is doing with a single snare drum
On a laptop, drums would be really easy, can just use a midi controller to play in and live loop. There’s a million ways to do this. You can also have all the effects your heart desires.
On Norns, drums could be done in something like cheat codes with a drum loop, then you can live sample your acoustic playing too.
Octatrack plus a couple of Softsynths.
Yeah, that was really good. I’d love to know more about your method.
I started with a slowed down loop of the monotribe recorded on the microcosm
I faded in a basic beat on the monotribe and matched the beats the best I could in a hurry.
The microcosm provides stutters and variation to the beat as well as ambience
riding the filter on the microcosm fx gives it even more liveliness
I try and keep it moving and not get too attached to any beat or sequence
The monotribe synth sequencer is no thinky, it quantizes the rhythm and was set to overdub the entire recording.
I played it through my OB-4 and recorded it in my living room with a zoom f1n and shotgun mic
I then put it through my mastering chain in ableton
Can I ask you what you like about it? That would be really helpful for me
I heard it as “a jam” or “a sketch”. It didn’t sound “finished” to me. With that framing, it had an involving flow and nice sound design. The first time through I played it on laptop speakers whilst working: the initial drum pattern sounded good and the synths and ambiance evolved in a pleasing way. On second listen, through headphones, I hear more room noise which reinforced the “jam” vibe, along with the hand-synced loops. The multiple synth lines wriggle around each other in a nice way; you bring patterns in an out in a way that mostly held my attention; I particularly like the brittle, spiky kick and more washy “snare” in the original drum loop.
thank you for the feedback! it was definitely 90% improvised and a jam
I love that you hear it as multiple synth parts, but most of the time it is just the one monotribe track.
the initial loop sounds fantastic, and this is the monotribe being recorded and slowed down.
you can really hear the fizz and steam that way. 
giving me ideas…
thanks again
Same situation here: family, dayjob, lot‘s of stuff to do and almost no time for music…
I found a combination of an iPad and an OP-Z to be quite productive. It‘s only four items: The iPad, the OP-Z, camera connection kit to connect the two and headphones.
The iPad is running MiRack, an iOS-version of VCV-Rack. Having all the possibilities of modular is a bit overwhelming first. My solution was to build a very basic patch first, just to have more synth capabilities for the OP-Z, the I gradually extended it.
There‘s a few examples on the results in the improvised techno thread:
Maybe not the most brilliant stuff, but I definitely have fun. And the setup is completely mobile (battery powered and lightweight).
Circuit Tracks + something else.
BOSS RC505 + soundsource(s)
Excellent advice. 
I just put together a pedalboard with a Norns, Polyend Tracker and a Zoia with a little mini mixer. All battery powered, insane amount of flexibility. I can move it around the house and stash it on a shelf when I’m done with it.
I would suggest to approach the issue from a different angle in addition to looking at specific equipment - think about how well you know yourself.
Improvisation from a blank slate is not an easy situation to get to, even with a traditional instrument. You have to get to know what you are doing and get there through practice and experimentation, often for a long time. I would approach an electronic instrument in a similar way.
Nothing in the electronic world is perfect for this in my experience, because you have to hit that balance between flexibility and immediacy. In addition to that, you have to rely on somebody else’s idea of that balance for you (unless you DIY it of course).
That’s why it’s probably best in the short run to just make do and get on with less than ideal pieces of gear in order to break through any possible mental barriers before looking at what may or may not do it for you.
In other words, improvisation is an attitude and can not be contained in a box. Imagine you had a very appreciative audience in front of you and you were forced to just come up with anything at all in the spur of the moment. Don’t worry about the quality and have fun with it.
Start there and you will learn in the long term what really works for you. Hopefully.