Thank you! I’m glad you like it. It took some time for me to learn how to mix slowly and don’t rush it. It’s not for everybody but i especially enjoy slowly evolving mixes while dancing to fully get into some trancelike state.
It took me some years to find out what parameters i needed on the controllers to play around as much as possible with the sound while mixing.
The Akai knobs for tracks 3-7 are for filter cutoff, reverb send and delay send.
Track 1 and 2 are for kick and bass.
The kick has no fx sends and the bass fx sends are set to the faders below track 2 and 3. The fader from track 1 is for bit reduction of the bass.
The 3 green knobs on top are for reverb filter, predelay, decay and the 3 black knobs are for delay filter, time and feedback.
The Novation knobs are the same for track 2-8. They control filter resonance, pitch and amp hold time.
The yellow knobs above track 1 are for the filter envelope of the bass.
The knob on the very top of track 1 is for finer tuning of the delay feedback. It goes only up to 50 or something.
The buttons on the bottom are for reversing the samples. But i don’t use them because i got confused and now control that directly from the Digitakt.
The buttons on the right are for delay feedback and reverb time. When i hold the delay button the feedback goes up to 116 or something and when i let go of it, it goes down to 103 or so. That way i can let the delay build up and let it come down slowly again for these dubby space delay sounds i love.
The last fader from the Akai controls the overall delay level. So if my delay space sounds build up they get louder but i can still let them feedback and just turn down the delay level
a bit.
Same with the reverb button. It goes up to infinity and when i let go it goes back to 126 to let the reverb ring out real slow. And when i use the button above it goes back to 115 or so and rings out a bit faster.
There are caveats to this but I actually have enjoyed using the Drumbrute Impact the most for improv. Downside is you dont get super clean cymbals. Upside is better mute modes for builds, cant really mangle the sounds beyond recognition, and you don’t have to prep samples. You just hit play, toss in some kick trigs, and go from there. Its very organic.
Naturally, because I like to make my life hard, I sold it. And now use a Digitakt. @Dr.K videos are super helpful too
I think the drumbrute impact is great and like you say perfect for improv-you really don’t have to think too much. I also sold it! Doh-I might get another thought.
Other than that the TR8S is the obvious winner for me. At a push you can do a whole techno set. The things is great, sounds amazing and sliders are awesome. Build a kit and then play for hours.
The other fav of mine is the model cycles. Loads of hands on sound shaping and works great for techno stuff
Question for the the ableton gurus: I’m playing clips of drums in session view and have an external synth running a sequence in its own audio channel. I now want to record a clip of the synth and then have that clip play immediately which then mutes the synth and allows me to program a new pattern before I introduce it to the jam. What’s the best way to do that?
I believe the looper effect is build exactly for that.
However, if you have a track with an external input playing, launch record in a clip in session view and then push the red play button it will play back, overiding the playing input
Been listening to a lot of the Karenn sets that are online. They have such a thick and heavy sound but without high levels of distortion. Is that saturation or some other wizardry? Any tips?
Live improvised techno performers - how much do you prepare beforehand and how much is made on the fly? I know this is a can of worms but I’m personally struggling to make drums, bass, leads etc. all by improvisation. Either I’m too slow twiddling those knobs or it just takes too long to get something going and then too long to switch it up. I’m probably trying to do too much.
From what I do, I’d say between 20-60% is prepared. Have curated sounds prepared on devices that can do that (Digitakt/TR8s,LXR-02), my other devices such as eowave Swarm & DFAM this is not really possible and I improvise the sound on them. Regarding prepared patterns, it is no bad thing to a few ready to go, you use them as a starting point, add stuff whilst they’re playing and then reload the pattern, reuse the same pattern with another sound. Get to know a 1,2 or 3 of your devices machines really well at the beginning and just find what works for you and is enjoyable.
What devices/boxes/synths are you using?
[EDIT] also, I find for a seq/hook/lead or whatever you want to call it, keeping the number of steps at 8 or below is the best.
I feel inspired to try something similar, get a nice set of sounds and go from there….
