Thank you. The Case is a Magma XXL Plus DJ case. The Foam is included with the Case. It´s Pick&Pluck Foam so its easy to fit all the gear without cutting. The upper lid has also foam in it and is holding everything together while closed.
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my dream team as well. starting out with the octatrack and will get the a4 next when my skills are up to par. curious - whats that little box over to the right?
That’s the 1010 Blackbox. Gives me 16 more sample loops.
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i see modular stuff… and i quietly step backwards before taking off in a full sprint. the ultimate GAS rabbit hole… made the mistake of checking out the 1010 gear. All of a sudden I need a bluebox. 
runs
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rytm only techno for proof!!
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The DB4 has 5 stereo inputs used by the AR, OT, A4, DN and AB. The model D and Neutron feed into the OT. An alternative way would be to utilize the 4 digital inputs of the DB4 with some AD converters in between and use the input matrix to switch between instruments.
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May I ask, why do you prefer the SH with the A4 over the SE?
Nice!
Here’s my AR only track. It was made several months back, but…
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Lately it has been Digitone + OP-1 (although this is more like deep house tbh)
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2x black and 2x white (+mixer) techno setup. Ofc pic is in black n white also^^ 
Shruthi XT took the place of the small one, my small Shruthi is now backup unit.
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@Schnork Could you share how you’ve routed this? I’ve been doubting which direction to go mixer-wise, and I’ve a similar-ish amount of boxes and one of the options would be the Zed14. So I’m curious how you’ve routed things with the amount of channels on the Zed. (OT on two mono tracks or a stereo? How many aux’es do you send to Fx and how do you return them, stereo?) Cheers!
Sure.
OT tracks 1-4 are drums going through master track -> main out -> stereo channel on the Zed14
OT tracks 5-7 play single cycle waves, stuff I’ve sampled from Analog Keys, other synths or softsynths, sampled fm bass etc. -> cue outs -> stereo channel on the Zed14
Shruthi XT and Bass Bot both go into a mono channel on the Zed14.
Octa sequences Shruthi XT sends program changes. The Bass Bots sequencer is pretty powerful. It’s possible to play patterns with midi notes (a one bar note will play the full 16 steps, 2 bars will play 32 etc.), which also makes it possible to play shorter patterns by simply sending a shorter note from OT.
Eventide H9 is on a post fader send going into a stereo channel on the Zed14.
Sometimes I have my Quadraverb, Lexicon MX200 or smt else on the second post fader send, also going then into a stereo channel.
I return send fx into stereo channels, because I use the eqs to shape the effects and also the faders to fade them in/out.
This also means that control of Drums and everything else coming from OT + fx is possible with one hand.
Fx is usually one delay and one reverb.
I’ll probaply get an Eventide Timefactor which is a dual delay and thus would let me easily mix two different delays or fade from a shorter delay to a longer one.
I wish I had more than two post fader sends, though…H9 + Timefactor will do fine, though.
The setup is pretty close to perfect for jams or live gigs in terms of what it does and what it does not do. I’ve noticed years ago, that 3 boxes are my limit for playing live, with more gear I tend to lose focus pretty fast, so OT + 2 synths + mixer with fx is ideal for me.
The rack under my mixer houses a patchbay, so it’s easy to patch in my mixer while I can still record stuff in my daw or send channels or the mix into my daw.
Setup and routing is pretty simple, it’s supposed to work on stage, so having a simple but flexible little setup kinda was the whole point.
Zed14 is capable of much more ofc.
For example, the two pre fader sends can be linked for stereo, so sampling in stereo using the sends is possible.
It also has dual stereo inputs on two stereo channels. On each of those dual inputs, you can send one of them directly to main out (which then basically turns it into a return input), or you can send them to the stereo channel, the signal then goes through eq and everything else.
So those two stereo channels can take up to four stereo signals or you can use two stereo signals, but have two stereo returns instead.
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Awesome write up!
Would never haver guessed this; why OT5-7 on its own stereo channel on the mixer? To be able to EQ them differently, as melodic parts vs drums? Or?
(I currently am playing around with running a couple of Rytm-outs through a mixer for some aux-fx on dedicated drum tracks. The rest of the Rytm goes mono into OT)
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The idea is to have to stereo mixes coming ready from OT + two synths.
Tracks 5-7 come ready mixed and with effects setup accordingly from OT, I sometimes use send fx for transitions on the cue out tracks (like drenching pads or stuff like that in reverb and then hitting the freeze button), but usually everything is done in OT - I’ve setup lfos on all tracks, I can filter stuff, add flanger, phaser, use lofi and/or reverb/delay.
Same for the drums. Kick has comp and eq, snare has filter and delay, hats and percussion have plate reverb, master track has comp and filter. Scenes are setup similarly across all parts/banks for everything I intend to play live.
I can always filter out the low end or let the low pass filter bite into my drums with resonance cranked up, two scenes are setup to completely low/highpass filter out the drums, so muting kick or muting all drums completely is always possible with the crossfader.
Ofc course I can also use the eq on the mixer, mute on the mixer and when I’m playing with the sends or fading in stuff it’s great to have that possibility.
Also unlike the small Shruthi, XT has a volume knob, so both synths can also brought in or out with their volume knobs. OT is always in mute mode.
So it does not really matter if my hands are near OT or not, I can still do a lot when I’m leaning over the mixer or working on my synths.
I’ve been improving this setup for approx two years and this level of control and flexibility is pretty much ideal for me. It’s very playable and although fx, modulation and scenes are always the same for all tracks I’d play, I never have to check my notes for how to transition or which fx is intended for the intro.
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Very nice! Good to see a well tested set up.
I have the Zed10, but it seems the Zed14 might be a worthwile upgrade at some point. More flexibility.
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digitakt+BS2(+zoom fx pedal for live)(+ableton for recording)
Additional gear might be patched in for recording a part:peak, td-3, microfreak
Example of recent work:
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I wish you could mod the pre fader sends to post fader*, but except for that, I have no issues with the Zed14. (The built in 16 bit usb audio interface supposedly is pretty shit, but I never had any intentions of using that anyways).
*Although with 4 fx sends I’d probaply run into the same problem I do run into when I try to play with more than said 3 boxes - with three boxes + mixer and fx I’m able to follow the track in my head and thus I can really evolve it, when I have to pay attention to more gear, while trying to maintain a sense for the track, things soon start to rush in my head and I try to reach for the next cutoff knob in order to somehow ‘play’. Don’t know if you guys know what I’m talking about…but yeah, 2 fx sends are fine 
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Agree. 3 machines is the maximum to keep the flow and focus.
My mixer only has one send! Haha.
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I really like having some aux-sends, but since I’ve learned already how true it is that three boxes is a real maximum live, I can imagine that same goes with fx. At home in the studio I do like the flexibility though of a couple of aux
Nice to read at length your system @Schnork I really believe in your method of really perfecting óne setup. Working on mine, slowly step by step certain things tend to find their way into my structural way of working.
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Yes, in my experience, the same principle also applies to effects. Especially when you’re tweaking your effects a lot and since you’re at least 50% dumber in a live situation, it’s probaply a good idea to approach this topic with a ‘less is more’ attitude.
I really like my cheap Lexicon MX200 for jamming, because it has just those three knobs for each of the two fx blocks and when I’m using two effects in series (like a reverb into a delay, two different delays or smt like that) it happens that I’m losing focus.
In general I try to maintain a sense of where I am in the track and where I want to go, basically like a daw timeline running in my head. I tend go get positive feedback for tracks I play when I actually manage to maintain that sense for the arrangement.
I thought about how I can implement effects into my live stuff for quite some time and a few months ago I eventually settled for one reverb and one delay on my mixer’s sends.
So it’s either reverb or delay or both - that should be managable, no matter what’s going on.
In my productions I work with fx chains, automation and fx modulation a lot and I tried to implement many of those techniques into my live sets, but eventually even took the insert fx I had on my mono synths out.
Instead of making heavy use of fx chains and automation, I rely on building up tension, releasing tension and more interaction between different elements in general for playing live.
Having said that, the pandemic pretty much put my plans for playing live techno on hold, so far I’ve only played for family&friends.
I’m merely describing the process I went through while trying to develop a live setup. No real test, yet (though it’s not like I have absolutely no experience there). Hopefully next year then…
Absolutely. My setup hasn’t really changed over the years and while all those gadgets are really tempting, nothing beats really learning your gear, learn how to get the most out of it.
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