I’m curious - thanks 
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All instruments go into an Octatrack,
OT main outs to Ableton Live, and record.
A little EQing, a lil compression, render.
You bounce and process one complete track rather than recording and processing individual stems?
The issue I’m finding is getting individual sounds to stand out.
The one filter limits me to either using it as an effect, or an eq if I want to cut the bass from a snare or add sizzle to a hat.
Plus, I’d like to compress the kick to shape it.
There’s trade offs, I guess. I could run individual outs and lose the sends, or keep the sends and lose the ability to compress. Interesting.
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I just like things as simple as possible.
I used to get all laptop tweaky with everything, multiple outs to soundcards/mixer etc.
I got completely burned out.
If I think a snare or something needs EQing to stand out, and it’s really getting on my nerves, I’ll just do what I need with EQ’s/comp and resample.
I surrendered to the idea that limitations were my parameters and I should work within that and not worry much about perfection.
These days I’d rather spend time trying to get better song structures and interesting compositions than worrying about micro mixing.
Dont get me wrong, I spend time mixing, I just try not to waste time mixing.
When I think about it most of my favorite tracks by other people are shit mixes, or at least have an odd character about them. If those tracks were to be re-mixed “properly,” I probably wouldn’t like them as much.
I started getting into Elektron boxes so I would quit messing with individual out’s. The built in sends were a major selling point for me.
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I hear ya. I feel like I’m at a good place with programming and using the various boxes. Now it’s time to improve my mixing and mastering skills. Hence the question.
I posted a track on Soundcloud the other day. It played, then another random track from another artist started playing. The sound quality between my track and theirs was night and day. Mine sounded like crap, theirs was loud, clear and pumping. Now I’m determined to make my tracks sound better.
I’m coming to the conclusion that a solid arrangement only goes so far if the mix sucks. And vice versa. Striking that balance between a good arrangement and solid production using the Elektron boxes is the holy quest for me right now.
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I think a lot of a good mix comes down to selecting the right sounds in the first place.
Straight into Mackie CR-1604 (Pre VLZ) then into Revox B77 and Sony Broadcast DAT
I use overbridge…
bahahaha
just kidding!
I think the key to the Rytm sounding good is not to crowd the sounds. Most of the stuff coming out of the AR is pretty fat, especially in the low end, so it’s easy to take up too much energy in the mix. The results are, more often than not, muddy. Keeping it minimal, if you can manage to use one sound at a time, it will sound marvelous. And huge.
RYTM to SSL X Desk into emu 1616m to record stems
Live or logic x pro for mixing then output master into SSL X desk back into sound interface in. master track to record The final analogue mix
Top tip!
I’ve got a few devices aggregated to give me 8 inputs:
[ul]
[li]Apogee Duet 2[/li]
[li]NI Audio 4 DJ[/li]
[li]DBX 386 tube pre/DI coax spdif going to optical converter and into Mac Pro optical input…[/li]
[/ul]
Mix in Ableton Live 9 with Audio Damage plugins.
Needless to say, I’ll be happy when Overbridge arrives. DBX is already on eBay.
Everything goes through small mixer (rolls mx28), then to a stereo compressor (RMS755 ), and finally, to my stereo recorder (DA-3000). Once recorded, I will occasionally import it to Live for further processing, but rarely does this happen.
I run Master LR and Kick separately out to a Behringer X32 mixer, track in Live.
The separate kick I use as a sidechain input within the X32 to duck outputs from OT and A4.
Have not yet settled on a post-processing workflow. I’m guessing a little parallel, multiband compression, a little limiting and a little EQ should do the trick.
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When Overbridge comes out it will probably be the only way to do it. I believe in Elektron and know that the sound quality will be tops. Why go through latencies etc. Overbridge is the solution to everything.
Pure and simple.
As simple as it gets.
Interesting: not a lot of individual stem mixing - curious.
So what are people doing inside the box to get their sounds to sit right, shine, etc?
Overbridge will definitely make things easier with routing in and out and will make production workflow faster BUT, I for one, bought the AR for its Analog capabilities…not so much for its AD/DA capabilities. In fact, I’m not sure how good of a converter it has.
I am currently having the main outs and all separate outs normalled to my RME Fireface and into my DAW. The sound quality is superb and the signal chain is as short and clean as it gets.
I will definitely make comparisons when OverBridge comes out to see what I’m “losing” if at all when just streaming audio through its USB port straight to my DAW.
Eitan
IMO, the AR is one of the few drum machines out there that doesn’t necessarily need external processing. You got filters, which can act as EQ if needed. You got a compressor. You got good sounding analog synthesis + samples. You definitely don’t NEED anything else than the AR for your drums.
I had an old Mackie 1402 in the closet I busted out.
Now I’m running the 8 individual outs plus the mains for the send fx. I previously thought the sends would go away when using the individual outs.
I’m also running my A4 out’s into the mixer.
All these are bussed to the Alt 3-4 outs which goes to two inputs on the Octatrack and the OT goes to my Motu. Easy.
I don’t have any fancy insert gear but the EQs help for the individual outs - adding a little bass here, mids there and terrible all over the place.
Pretty simple set-up to get a better mix.
Comparison is the thief of joy…