Which Elektronauts (or famous techno/electronic producers) don't use multitrack recording?

[Fin25]

@ESIS_Labs

and what you do here is point to the examples of some of the best of our colleagues who can pull it all off in one take — but still, presumably, have only a couple of songs/eps recorded like that, am I wrong again?

Most of Drexiya’s catalogue was recorded pretty much live as far as I know and Surgeon has been through various different recording setups, including recording live on the two buss, but these days he pretty much does about 4 to six tracks with as little post editing as he can get away with.

Try not to get so worked up, none of this matters.

[ESIS_Labs]

1. about workflow: when this statement is used, the ‘workflow’ itself isn’t usually defined. there’s no ‘daw workflow’ per se, ie I use daw for recording but I don’t even look at it. all my instruments are h/w, and the daw is just a recording tape (and then a mixing desk at a later stage), I never even see it. so I’d argue that a daw is not a ‘workflow killer’ for everyone in terms stated by the topic starter: a multitracking machine
2. daw sound —fully agree
3. it’s not about constant reworking of the same composition, pal. it’s about constantly growing understanding of how you compose, produce, mix and master by having a chance to change things within at all: you edit it, then record another one, edit, and so on, with each month you need less of those edits to the new tracks (similar how performing skills grow as you play, but my argument here is that multitracking allows you to progress quicker while doing more complex things). and I do fully agree again that an overproduced track is often worse than its starting point.
   also, if we talk about performing live, alone with multiple instruments, or with other people, then mistakes are unavoidable, and it’s so much more liberating that you can just cut out a part of one instrument and let others close that gap — such a simple thing that can save you an entire unique performance, and it’s only possible with multitracking (overdubbing later works just as bad usually as the ‘overproduction’ that you mention)

[darenager]

Fair enough - I did say if reworking is needed, rather than implying it as the sole reason

[Sternenlicht]

I still have the qu pac mixer, it has 8 outs, 18 in, and a matrix mixer, so anything can be send to anything.

I can route syntakt /digitone /a4 as mono tracks thro the qu pac to octatrack inputs. It has EQ per track. i can record with a press of a button, having sum of OT out + all inputs recorded.

My hw tracks suck still compared to my DAW tracks, i had reconfigured the hw setup too often, in my opinion one need fixed roles for all involved synths, and then good sound design skills, and practice is a huge part also.

The transitions part Is what i find hard, i need to get better with the Octatrack.

[blushresponse]

my EP with Thomas P Heckmann was recorded entirely to two track with no computer and he mixed it live as we were doing them, all one take:

Drax Response - The Burden Imprisons The Mind [SG1883]

my track chiralium was done in one take with an E-MU XL-7:

Blush Response - Chiralium [MS002]

on more recent stuff I have been getting away from multitracking and doing my best to use the mixing features of each machine well, just as a personal challenge. it doesn’t always work out!

[petezoid]

all of my releases are one-shots too ! … some dicing in aucacity [lately ableton!] and it stays hot

[mplhd]

Great! I think it’s the nature of techno, ambient and some close genres to be played live and to be recorded live, no matter with or without listeners in the hall or just in bedroom.

[blushresponse]

Cheers!

I used to do hyper edited music that was more collage style assembled and meticulously overcooked in ableton. I got so tired of working that way that I changed my approach over the years and could never go back.

I much prefer the sort of intuitive / instinctual mind / body flow of recording tracks live. All my tracks since 2015 are done this way, though also with a lot of use of multitracking those live stems. I have 30 inputs on my interface so getting everything separate isn’t an issue

[lesstalkmoredisco]

@blushresponse

I much prefer the sort of intuitive / instinctual mind / body flow of recording tracks live.

This is probably also my dream way of doing it.

With less experience the hurdle is that I sometimes prep gainstaging and patches very well - but then don’t dare to touch things anymore after that lol, so the songs I record tend to end up quite static and stale.

I think I just need to keep up with raking up experience; to build up the confidence (or foster the instinct) to really improvise and experiment freely when recording.

PS funny how this subjective thinking out loud is in response to your comment - definitely an inspiration, you

[nilsec]

I don’t at all -> everything is always recorded in one go, to tape. ( this might change in the future )

Cassilda and Carcosa - Starling 8

Aphex Twin is guilty of this as well, especially on the stuff from Syro.

[d4ydream]

@AdamJay

OT out to Heat and Blackhole.

In that order? OT => Heat => BH? Curious about how you setup the BH in this context. You’ve mentioned it a few times in posts in the past. There’s a used one at the local music shop I was eyeballing for this purpose.

[AdamJay]

How many of you apply reverb on the master?

Yea, one of the reasons I bought the Blackhole was the 2 band eq. I cut the lows, and adjust the highs in real-time, to taste. Mix is usually around 9 or 10 o’clock. I’ll tweak the mix to be a wetter during breakdowns sometimes, helps me live out the pioneer DJ dream for at least 2 bars Decay is short-ish, almost plate style, but I’ll elongate it on more sparse tunes, and shorten it on busier tunes. Gravity knob is also fun to tweak on more minimal tracks. The need for these prog…

Fx pedal for the OT

Yes. I previously used OT Dark Reverb in Master track FX2 The key is to roll off all the lows, some of the very high frequency highs, and use a very low mix setting 20-25%, size/density/decay to taste. Talked about at length over in the Blackhole pedal thread.

What features on the OT do you NOT use?

Cool thread! The only recording I do with it is for live remixing of my Model Samples, and Typhon. And for transitions. I don’t record into it to bring in audio to work on tunes, in the traditional sense. I just use a DAW for that. The audio I use to write tracks on it all come in on the CF card. The MIDI sequencer is rarely used since I got the MS. Previously I used it to sequence Ableton Drum Racks. see: Octatrack MIDI + Ableton Drum Racks = Powerful Drum Machine! I never use the arranger…

New Blackhole pedal from Eventide

Early impressions: Pleased with this device. Once you get your head around using the foot switches as well as the little red lights (which are also buttons) above them to load and save presets, it’s easy to use. Even for one algorithm there’s a lot of variety available. From short almost plate style reverbs to complex rooms, to the wild modulated sound the algorithm is known for. The interaction between the Size knob and Gravity knob makes for a lot of variation, even though slight adjustmen…

[dhunterrr]

OK I have a couple breaks/techno songs recorded each to a stereo wav file. Any tips on mastering/finishing them in Audacity?

On my old computer I had a macro to boost the volume of the track so it is good for Spotify/streaming but that computer is gone and I can’t find where I got the macro recipe from.

[wPEPEq]

I’m currently in the process of producing a digitakt only EP. My initial plan was to compose on the digitakt then multitrack via Overbridge into daw and finish it there. The more I play around with this process the more I tend to to do the whole mixdown (with a decent compressor settings on the master) and then record the stereo out into the daw to put a mastering chain on it and that’s it

It won’t be perfect but It will be good enough I think

[mess5]

i did it for a while, but when they asked me to make some adjustments during mastering process, and i couldn’t do it, i returned to multi tracking.

[technolover303]

@AdamJay

And I ain’t as techno famous as I once was.

You still are !

[Pulsar]

@darenager

Yes and no, yes because lots of people (amateurs, I might add) all do the same thing as whoever’s video tutorial they are following, in some misguided notion that it is “the way”. Same mixing, same plug ins, same techniques, same samples, etc.

This is basically my production history in a nutshell.

1. Search for tutorial for a track that I like.
2. Follow tutorial on laptop and feel satisfied that I made that sound.
3. Dopamine rush fades and I ask myself ‘I can copy someone else, now what?’
4. Turn hardware back on and close the laptop

[dreamedm]

I wish I multitracked at least some of my productions. Maybe they would’ve been more popular and played out more…but that’s a bit of a narcissistic thing, perhaps.

But perhaps also they would’ve sounded better, especially where I use more than one synth in a track.