Playing live without a laptop

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Jamal
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Re: Playing live without a laptop

Post by Jamal »

Octatrack :D
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coldfuture
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Re: Playing live without a laptop

Post by coldfuture »

I too have an octatrack and am working on a live set with it the MD and the MnM. Still figuring out a lot of stuff tho haha a bit lost in the options. The whole elektron setup is so flexible and powerful.
"Why does this process have to be SO complex" -- Ritardo Montalban
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hydrogen
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Re: Playing live without a laptop

Post by hydrogen »

How do you guys like the octatrack? Replacement for ableton? How do you load up your songs on it? Loops? How much material can you get on it? Do you feel like there is a lack of outputs? I've been considering getting on for live pa as well.
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coldfuture
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Re: Playing live without a laptop

Post by coldfuture »

Hmm, I can't rightly say Octatrack is a replacement for Ableton. It depends on how you use Ableton.

Its definitely a replacement for me because I hated using Ableton and always wanted a box like the Octatrack for studio and live use.

As to how much audio you can load into it, I forget, but it works differently for the "flex" and "static" machines, both of which have timestretching but in different ways: flex machines can be warped all to heck and static machines just use simple "beatmatching." They can be parameter locked and all sorts of stuff. I think the real strength of the Octatrack is the same strength in all of the Elektron line. Its a wonderful interface on a powerful music machine that brings the best of new tech to old-skool 16 step sequencing. The Octatrack simply adds a sampler in that style to the line.

I am not sure if I would want to use just the Octatrack alone for a livePA myself, but that being said my friend HighSage is doing just that already to great effect. I know Skudge are also using one in their livePA but with other gear I think.

Myself I use the Octatrack, Machinedrum, and Monomachine in the studio along with a TB303, Virus TI, and some other pieces. I am trying to work out a simple workflow where I sequence everything from the Elektron center then sample all the other gear into Octatrack and then only take the three Elektrons to a gig.

I'd like to be where even in the studio I am working with just the Elektrons, but I want to create a ton of original sample source material first so I have all the gear hooked up.

I think the Octatrack does indeed have a lack of outputs as far as general principle, but I am not bothered at the moment because I am enjoying using it as a mixer for the Elektron gear. My other gear is actually running parallel to the Elektron trinity into the desk and once those stems are recorded and processed it will all go into the Octatrack and get remixed and experimented upon.

This is all in process right now. I'll try to come back at times and post my findings here.
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Wutzlhofer
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Re: Playing live without a laptop

Post by Wutzlhofer »

why do you wan to abandon ableton and your laptop? I mean i understand that its very stylish and a different workflow when you do it like this, but abeton is a good sequencer and you can route your syths back into it and use abletons effects. maybe you should just put that thing under your desk and dont touch it (dont even look at it) and controll it just via the APC40 or other midi stuff. than you can have the feeling and look of just hardware but have the advantages of ableton.
Is there a video of you performing live? Would be interesting for me...
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Ingemar
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Re: Playing live without a laptop

Post by Ingemar »

that 8 page thread on livepa was definitly worth the read. Basically the first half is "it looks crap judging from demos, but could still be Ableton in a box", and the second half is "mindfook, mindf@@k, this is great" after people had started laying their hands on it.

Actually I might try to pick one up myself
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TechnoMusic
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Re: Playing live without a laptop

Post by TechnoMusic »

Wutzlhofer wrote:why do you wan to abandon ableton and your laptop? I mean i understand that its very stylish and a different workflow when you do it like this, but abeton is a good sequencer and you can route your syths back into it and use abletons effects.
I've always found Ableton to be annoying to work with and it tends to get me stuck me in extended bouts of "loopitis". I now avoid it like the plague, to the point where Ive deleted it from my hard drive so I'm not tempted back into using it.
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Re: Playing live without a laptop

Post by simonb »

TechnoMusic wrote:
Wutzlhofer wrote:why do you wan to abandon ableton and your laptop? I mean i understand that its very stylish and a different workflow when you do it like this, but abeton is a good sequencer and you can route your syths back into it and use abletons effects.
I've always found Ableton to be annoying to work with and it tends to get me stuck me in extended bouts of "loopitis". I now avoid it like the plague, to the point where Ive deleted it from my hard drive so I'm not tempted back into using it.
I found I hit a bit of a wall with it and getting more into hardware solved that problem.

I still use Ableton to record, and to fill out the tune once I've got the basics down on the hardware - don't feel ready to go 100% hardware yet - but it would be pretty hard to go back to pissing about with MIDI clips and Session View now that I've got a feel for sequencing with a hardware drum machine.
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