How best to organise a live set across multiple Elektron devices

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hi guys,

Would like to ask your advice on the following -

With a few friends, I’ve been gradually getting a live set together with AR + AK + MnM and it was fairly easy to keep organised before I recently purchased my OT.

Previously we had 8 songs per project, with each song having it’s own bank (on AK + AR - MnM is less of a problem as it’s mainly playing supporting lines rather than a bulk of any of the songs).

Bank A being song 1, Bank B being song 2 and so on…
We also made sure that each bank had it’s own Kit so that we could have different sounds, and track parameters in each song.

However the OT has thrown a spanner in the works. As (please correct me if I’m wrong, as relatively new to OT) an OT can only have 4 Parts (or Kits as they are known in the Analog series) and so this is fine for the first 4 songs in the project, but the final 4 leave me with a problem.

Would I have to organise it so that half of our live set is in one OT project, and the other half is in another OT project? Which would then allow us to have 8 parts, 1 for each song in our live set?

Or is there another way around this?

I’ve read Merlin’s guide, particularly the section about parts, and this seems to be the only way?

I was planning on using the crossfader trick to transition between our songs by recording a loop of the previous track playing into the OT, which would then enable us to crossfade the next track in, similar to how a DJ would.
However this process means the OT is pretty key to transitioning between tracks, and so changing projects in the middle of a set on the OT would be less than ideal as would prevent the ability to do this.

I’m sure we could work around it by having one blend of two of tracks less dependent on the OT, which would enable me to switch projects on the OT while the other machines handle the transition.
However, again, this isn’t ideal either as would mean not having the OT as master clock, as we have it currently set up. And as I have the midi in on the OT taken up by my Virus TI, I wouldn’t be able to play notes into the OT from the Virus as the midi in would now be required to receive Midi Clock from either AR or AK

Would be really interested in hearing how you guys have your live set configured, and if anyone could offer any advice specific to our case!

Really appreciate the help, and hopefully the above makes sense!

#2

"…
However the OT has thrown a spanner in the works. As (please correct me if I’m wrong, as relatively new to OT) an OT can only have 4 Parts (or Kits as they are known in the Analog series) and so this is fine for the first 4 songs in the project, but the final 4 leave me with a problem.

Would I have to organise it so that half of our live set is in one OT project, and the other half is in another OT project? Which would then allow us to have 8 parts, 1 for each song in our live set?

Or is there another way around this?"

If you use Banks instead of parts, you can have 16 banks/songs with individual samples, patterns, scenes, fx and whatnots…that´s the way i use it, but there´s always several ways on the OT :wink:

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#3

Think of it like this,
For every bank you have 4 parts, those parts are assigned to patterns.

So from what your saying, you’d have 1 bank and 4 parts (sort of like “kits”), dedicated to each song.

jackmate makes a good point though, several ways with the OT.

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#4

Great! So I clearly had a fundamental misunderstanding of parts!

As I believed it be the case that there are 4 parts per project, but 4 parts per bank is more than workable - great in fact!

So changing bank automatically changes to another set of 4 parts?

@Jackmate - would be intrigued to hear you develop on the point that there are several ways of doing it on OT, as we are currently at the stage where to get this live set to a performable state we need to make decisions on how songs are spread across parts, banks etc - so the more angles I have to consider, with which to decide the best route for us, the better!

Thanks for your responses guys, really appreciate you taking the time.

#5

Exactly.

I think it’s in the Merlin’s guide to the OT where it talks about assigning a part to a set of four patterns.

So basically Trig 1-4 is Part 1
Trig 5-8 is Part 2
and so on…

Or maybe Trigs 1 - 13 are Part 1
and 14 is P2, 15 is P3 and 16 is P4

#6

ok, my way to work the OT:

i see banks as “kits”(or Programs, if you´re Akai) where every slot contains individual samples, patterns, scenes,etc…
and i use the 4 parts within the banks to make sonic changes, for example part 1 is very dry, part 2 dubby…etc. so i can suit different club-systems or change the mood and feel of the set.

so 16 banks equal 16 songs for me…
in these banks i organise my patterns, like pattern 1 always is the transition from the last bank/song i played with, where i use the slot-trigger to trigger the recording buffer that always samples my main-out.

pattern 2 is the build-up, pattern 3 the bassline comes in…etc.
edit: track-mutes for example remain if you change banks!

guess the way you approach this piece is very personal, just the way it suits your workflow…
a friend uses the OT completely different and we discuss for hours on ways to do things…on the same f…ing machine!

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#7

very informative thread this. Thanks all for your input.

#8

Don’t forget each bank offers you another 16 patterns, 4 parts (each part containing 8 machines) and 64 scenes.

#9

@ JuanSolo -

That’s interesting - thanks for clarifying Merlin’s suggestion with regards to assigning a part per 4 patterns in each bank.

I can see this being a really useful way to organise parts, and have them follow a progression through the bank’s patterns.

I can see the benefit of this when performing whole solo sets out of OT + AR, (or even just OT), As allows for a wide variety of sounds to come out of just two boxes and can set it so that each part contains completely different machines (as J.m said) which enables whole track arrangements to be carefully divided amongst the parts in each bank.

@jackmate -

really like your way of doing it where you have, different sonic changes available for each bank via the parts. Rather than it containing different machine settings.

I think this way may suit our setup more, as our tracks are fairly open to improvisation, so to have parts carefully made to offer sonic variation would be a nice performance tool.

Also I think that 8 tracks of Sampler ability + 8 tracks of midi sequencing per bank/song is enough for the OT to be handling in our live setup, as that is a lot of power per song + will leave me some attention time available to tweak the Rytm while performing.

Also the two stereo outputs is a factor I’m considering too in that, I don’t want to rely exclusively on internal fx, as would like to use basic desk outboard fx too, so not squeezing too much out of any output across the various machines is good for us in that sense.

As you said Jackmate - there are several ways on the OT!

I think I’d approach it differently when performing solo, but parts = sonic changes for our group stuff is the route I’m going to explore first I think.

Really quite overwhelming the possibilities of these machines, in a good way!

Just keep discovering potential that blows my mind. Such as using OT’s midi sequencer LFO’s on Rytm’s parameters and performance cc’s… that in itself is a crazy amount of control over an Analog machine…!! And really eases only have one LFO per track on the Rytm.

#10

Key point to remember! Nice edit, thanks!

#11

"Also I think that 8 tracks of Sampler ability + 8 tracks of midi sequencing per bank/song is enough for the OT to be handling in our live setup, as that is a lot of power per song + will leave me some attention time available to tweak the Rytm while performing. "

if you use stems on the audio-tracks and slice em up, you can have certain parts of your track connected to individual patterns using the start-point locks!
so it´s just 8 tracks, but within each track you can still use up to 64 samples/slices…

#12

Just keep discovering potential that blows my mind. Such as using OT’s midi sequencer LFO’s on Rytm’s parameters and performance cc’s… that in itself is a crazy amount of control over an Analog machine…!! And really eases only have one LFO per track on the Rytm.

Nice! Just got an OT and hadn’t thought of that one. This forum never disappoints.

#13

if you use stems on the audio-tracks and slice em up, you can have certain parts of your track connected to individual patterns using the start-point locks!
so it´s just 8 tracks, but within each track you can still use up to 64 samples/slices…

… and another awesome tip! Thanks.

#14

I think the way you are describing how you use the OT is what I am trying to achieve. For example (if you don’t mind), bank A=song 1; bank B=song 2, so on and so forth. My issue is that when I switch from bank A-B, my samples stay as the previous bank. The trigs and p-locks change but not the samples. Is this a setting I need to correct in the play back menu or something another?

#15

No settings need changing. But as advised in the other thread, you should probably read Merlins Guide. It will help you to visualise the OT hierarchy. Available samples are shared across banks. If you want different samples in different banks you need to select those different samples from your static/flex sample lists, you can choose different samples within each bank if you like. It’s really straight forward but you need to understand the OT hierarchy before it’ll make sense.

#16

Hi,

I have been struggling for a while now to create a liveset with these instruments.
I know the octratrack very well, but together with the machinedrum it makes the whole thing a whole lot more complex.

I would like to get tips on how to structure tracks in the creation process on both the octatrack and the machinedrum in order for it to be formatted as a “live project”.

Any tips and tricks are welcome!

#17

I’ve been livesetting with these two instruments as the core of my setup for several years, happy to try to help.

Tell us a bit more about your music’s structure and style. Do your compositions have a lot of distinct sections? Tempo shifts? How much improvising do you do, and what do you do when you improvise?

Also how you envision using both instruments together in general. What features on each one do you like using? What are you using the OT tracks for (playing back stems you create on a DAW, short loops made of hits/oneshots, etc.)? What roles do you see the MD playing? Are you planning to process it with the OT or run it through a mixer separately?

A few answers will help us zero in on some possibilities useful for your situation.

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#18

Hey all,

I just wanted to pop on here and say thanks for the info!
I’ve had my Octatrack for about 4 months now and, like a classic noob, I’ve been starting a new Project for every new ‘beat’ I work on, believing I should tie them all together with the Arranger for live shows.

I’ve spent the last few days frustrated as I found out you can’t have more than one Project per Arrangement. I think, somewhere over the summer I must have just forgotten some of the info I researched before buying the OT.

I’d even started thinking about buying a mixer and a SP-404, thinking I’ll need another sampler separate from my Octa-setup so I can keep the beats going while I load up the next Project!

Anyway, I came here to find out some more info on how other users set up their live shows and I’m so pleased and relieved to find the above chat because it’s set me back on the right path, and I’m back to being super excited about playing some live electronic music.

Thanks to you all, and @dave_angel I hope your gigs went well!
Spec-D x

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