The untold perils of riding in style.
Cheers!
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Is that a chop job on that Nord Drum 3 I see there? Unless they made one without the pads I’ve not seen…
Started out with a used Digitakt back in March and went on a massive and seemingly uncontrollable ‘dawless’ spending spree (in part I’m sure in response to my mother being critically ill, several times this summer).
The Digitakt was followed by a Blofeld, Keystep 37, Moog Mother, Lyra 8, Typhon, Oxi One, Vermona Perfourmer none of which inspired me (or were overkill) and I’d made the classic mistake of going crazy with too many options, none which I had any time to learn, given I was at the hospital most nights.
As things progressed, I have moved all that gear (except the Digitakt) on and traded up for fewer, but hopefully more intuitive and rewarding pieces; Iridium, Pro 3 and Rev 2. I abandoned the dawless concept and bought Bitwig and have been having a blast as time allows. Still have Nord Drum that is underused, and I missed that Vermona sound, so got a Mono Lancet.
Still have not completely learned my lesson as I bought a NDLR, which I find boring and unrewarding (same as I did the Oxi). Also, the Microcosm is almost certainly getting moved on and I haven’t yet fallen in love with the Space, nor Timefactor, preferring plugins for the most part.
Pleased to say mum is doing better and I’ve actually managed get a bit of a workflow happening, the results are mostly dubious, but it feels like I’m starting to find my way (not financially, obviously), learning to play, having fun.
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I grew up in KS man. The Wizard of Oz jokes never get old😂
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Final improv setup. Have been working on this for about 6 months and it’s getting close to being ready to perform with. And then I can keep on developing this. It’s a bit much to explain here but basically the idea is to be able to perform at whatever event at whatever bpm and vibe. So I can poor everything I have in me into this and let things flow. At least that’s the idea. It works quite well so far.
Need to do some more color coding on push and some final touches on structuring the midi controller but that’s basically it. 
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No Elektrons? Heresy! 
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Hell yes, Dave. I’m excited for you and this setup. Hope you’ll post a recording when the set is finished.
I’m also very curious about the color coding on the FaderFox controller, I’m guessing there’s a system to it but it’s a very colorful (complicated?) system.
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That looks awesome. There’s a lotta sound in a small space!
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Love that the Push is the small piece of gear in this setup!
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I guess the time has come: Elektron is not relevant anymore in 2024?
Or the Elektrons are of course used to create all that magnificant content now being played by the Push 3.
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Looks great, but is it not a bit overkill and a bit much for real live improvisation?
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Two synths, a mixer, a controller, Ableton, and an end of chain is too much to perform with?!
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For genuine improvising I would say yes. With pre-made loops etc. then no. But I guess it comes down to semantics about what is improvising. Either way, it’s a great setup.
Great set-up….that MFB 
always fancied one. It was a shame about Manfred Fricke. Anyone know if MFB has totally gone now?
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I sequence pretty much everything live with this setup there are some textures and percussive loops that I can throw in and optionally some midi sequences that I can send to dominion. But there are no preplanned tracks etc. No premade sequences or kits on the perkons. No presets on dominion etc.
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I assumed you were using sounds from the push as well… So the Push is sequencing and FX?
Yeah from a picture you can’t really see what’s going on
In a nutshell:
Push is acting as a pre-mixer and heavy processor, 1 synth (wavetable), 1 drum rack, midi notes to Dominion with AT and pressure mapped. Perkons voices go into push via adat interface and get heavily processed and those processes and fx get controlled with midi controller. Out from push via adat and headphone plus main out into 4 channels op model 1 and the return channels. Model 1 sends to push for send fx.
And on push a few channels with texture loops and atmospheres and percussive loops to add extra energy when needed. But the drum rack perkons etc is all sequenced live or looped with a looper in push.
Seems a bit contradictory. If I’d just played loops push plus a controller would be sufficient. The pieces I chose are exactly there to be able to improvise 
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I do use some percussion loops that I create on Elektrons. And a few pads etc. As fillers and extra layers. No full tracks or full grooves.
But the Elektrons still get a lot of use in other projects I’m working on
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Any audio examples? I’m a big fan of improvised techno (Karenn, Surgeon, Speedy J).
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