Tips for using A4 as drummachine in a liveset

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Sooo, I have a “liveset” in two weeks in a small club. It’s OT sample based but to spice it up I want to add the A4 as drummachine where I build some patterns live and do some performance.
Since I never did a drummachine type thing live I was wondering if you can give me some tips?

I think I’ll fill up the whole sound pool with drumsounds and then have
Kick on Trk1
Snare on Trk 2
Hihat on Trk3
some percussion sound or clap on Trk4

The building performance macros for parameters like decay, noise or filter settings for timbre change, delay and reverb sends (on snare, hihats) etc.
Thinking about building patterns on the fly… Maybe set up one standard simple 4 on the floor thing and some some prepared fills tah work, and then improvising with this durings the songs, adding trigs, conditionals, soundlocks, recording parameters in realtime etc.
Do you have a suggestion for a good way to return to the default pattern and sounds?
I never used the A4 in such a performance style…
Any other ideas?

Another slightly stupid question:
Can anybody recommend some Kick presets from various soundpacks, that would sound reliable in a club? Maybe someone used the A4 for that?
Sound is inspirated by acts like four tet, so it’s quite 4 on the floor style most of the time, but no banging techno or something like that :wink:

Any input appreciated.

2 Likes
#2

Don’t you just mean reloading the kit and pattern?

#3

Haha. Yes. Is this doable in one move?
Sorry for this basic question, my A4 projects usually are one kit and one pattern with soundlocks and conditional trigs only.
Maybe I should go back to the manual :joy:

#4

Yeah, just press no and kit and it reloads. :grinning:

2 Likes
#5

complicated stuff :slight_smile:

#6

Oh and no and pattern although you could just move to a new pattern and just reload the kit. Slave to the ot and pattern change together

#7

you mean, if I have other patterns prepared?

#8

Right. I would set up a base for each song on the same bank and pattern the ot songs are on and just reload the kit. Or even have variations of the kit for each song

1 Like
#9

Dont forget the CV track on yuor A4.
I had my A4 CV triggering a Minitaur for Kick drum.

#10

Thanks!
good tip. I think I should set up some different kits so the sounds won’t get boring. Although I can do a lot sound change with performance macros. And I still have percussion from the OT. It mixes up in sound.
But some kits and basic patterns should be convenient.
I’m just thinking about using only one reliable kick sound for the whole set. Or only very few. So the trakcs keep same level and intensity when needed.

#11

and dont forget about pressing Yes + Kit to save the actual kit state you want to go back to. If you do No + kit without that done it’ll erase the kit you have as it’s not saved.

2 Likes
#12

I have an 0-coast. Just worrying about tuning stability of the vco. One little touch while performance…
And I always think, the more devices I add the more complicated.
But it would be great for some additional bass lines or drones (for intros and transitions) in this set.
And yes, it can do great kicks actually.

#13

Would you use OT’s midi tracks ?
I would use them with A4’s Multi Map. Much faster / easier than sound locks.
You can also control macros from OT.

3 Likes
#14

yeah I know that from you and it has amazing potential, but it’s quite complicated for me jumping between audio and midi tracks on the OT while keeping focused what’s going on with the songs, levels, mutes etc.
I thought it will be easier for me to keep the OT doing loops and the A4 doing drum patterns and keep the jobs separated… Not sure. Can try it.
For a more glitchy, experimental drum performance I imagine this to be awesome. OT arpeggiating through A4 drummaps and lfo’ing performance macros. But these songs here are more straight forward.

1 Like
#15

I need to try this

2 Likes
#16

It’s really powerful

#17

Don’t know what the simplest. If you use only track sound ok but :

Would be easier for me with midi tracks, little arps for variations between several hihat sounds (open / close etc), or snares. Lfos on VEL / LEN can make kind of TRCs without plocking.
Easy to mute.

Would you use mixer page or track mute mode ?

#18

I’m thinking of preparing a live set myself so anybody with a4 kicks in a club experience would be great. Mine would be more jazzy idm (with a guitarist friend).

My own issue is that i uave a lot of stufff in different formats. Just using one elektron, 2, etc. Different for each song. But…if i were to restart everything i would probably do kick and snare on track one of the a4 (relying on pattern changes to bring each in and out depending on the situation). And leave the other 3 tracks for melodic stuff. Bass, and maybe a 2 voice pad. And on the ot have 2 tracks for the rest of the drums. Maybe hats and cymbals on one and glitch/percussion on the other. Then u have 6 tracks left on the ot.

1 Like
#19

We would LOVE a video tutorial/demonstration doing this…wouldn’t we @Unifono :man_student:t2:

1 Like
#20

I posted this several times but I think it’s a good exemple of OT + Multi Map.
4 midi tracks I mute / unmute + macros.
@taro FM DRUMS sound pool.
Took me less than half an hour to create midi tracks.
Can’t imagine the time needed to do it without OT+MMap, and it can’t be random.
Up to 4 sounds per step.
If you order sounds per octave, easy to create variations on 1 note with arp’s octave range :
C0=kick1 C#0=snare1 D0=hh1…
C1=kick2 C#1=snare2 D1=hh2 etc…

4 Likes