Live Instruments with Elektrons

I have created this thread for a general discussion for all those that incorporate live instruments with Elektron and other gear for performance. Talk about setups, workflows, post jams, anything goes… :heart_eyes: :notes:

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Replying from the other thread (how this started)to @Tanburi, I have sequenced the Rytm from the patterning app wirelessly, works great.
I live in the forest with no internet, but I have my own local network which all my music gear and my wireless led lights are all connected to. I can sit downstairs and play my moog little patty from the animoog apps keyboard, while its delay controls target a real analog delay. I can use genome or something and lay down sequencing things… Quite fun.
(Soon to live instruments…)

Wow, nice. I’m not as tech savy with networks and wireless control, but I love to learn. I’m (maybe unfortunately) wanting to use my iPad less and less, though.

You prefer to use the patterning app over sequencing directly on the Rytm?

Regarding live instruments, I want to say that it was an easier purchasing decision to get the OT again last summer, but I brooded over a Rytm + DittoX4 setup or something else entirely. Ultimately I’m happy with my decision to get an OT again, just because of the ease of live instrument integration for what I want to do.

Now, my basic setup is: bass guitar into B7K into OT and tanbur into PZ Deluxe and this + vocal mic into Mackie mixer into the OT. I’m loving it, but the compositional/performative process is slow and evolving.

My setup:
Audio
Moog Little Phatty, Theremini, 104m-sd--------------------------------->Mackie1202vlz4
Guitar/Mic--------------->interface----------------->NI Guitar rig/LogicX fx
IPad->Iconnectmidi4±>interface(aggregate)—>LogicX
------------------------------interface---------------------------------------->Mackie
Rytm->OT(mains and cue separate channels)------------------------->Mackie

Mackie
Mains------------->interface->LogicX
Alt 3/4--------------->OT
Aux 1 ---------------->Moog 104m-sd
Aux 2 ------------>interface->LogicX
Control Room------>Monitors

MIDI controllers:
Nanokontrol2
NI Rig Kontrol

Varying CV connections between the moogs


Everything is connected to the Iconnectmidi4+ which enables midi communication to and from anything to anything else. There is a wifi router connected to the Iconnect which I access from the IPad and can control any midi parameter from any of the gear remotely.
I have a few other midi controllers that usually aren’t hooked up and an iPod touch that can be connected to the Iconnect as the brains of a synth. Not to mention my old analog guitar setup of tube amp and fx, which I usually use just for gigs…

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Sweet diverse setup mate. Looks like a lot of fun :+1:

It’s arguably more fun than a barrel of psychedelic space monkeys! One of these days I’ll get some recordings up here. I need to focus on switching things up more, it’s easy for me to let some loops and beats go on and on as I try different things over them, which is what most of my recordings are. I’d like to cut some pieces out of old recordings so people can get some idea of what I’m doing, but I seem to never feel like doing that :wink:

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Yep, I’m definitely sequencing more things that I’d try to loop before. Just easier and sonically better for my workflow. Plus, on the OT I’m discovering ways to sequence and mangle my acoustic instrument loops to get a result maybe similar to messing with a physical modelling synth. Can only do so much as a solo performer. BUT I’m thinking more in terms of select passages in certain songs that will be live looped or more of this in some pieces and others not so much or not at all. I still find myself final arranging in Ableton for production of finished tracks vs. live performance. But I’ve taken a lot of time off both. Getting back into a really productive time with the right gear feels good :smiley:

Looper’s Delight reminds me of that website with the 90s graphics :wink:

Did they ever list the OT as a hardware looper, I wonder?

Ha, I didn’t know about that site but somehow the phrase sounded familiar to me so maybe I did come across it before. Maybe that’s where my loopers are…
I have been working for years to design my ultimate jam station. I’m mostly improv but there is underlying structure and I put thought into the improv so its not just all over the place and comes out sounding like a track. I have been playing guitar for 24 years but have never written a song. What I do have is all sorts of patterns, riffs, and progressions stored in my brain from over the years that I can mix and match to create things on the fly which sound kind of rehearsed. I never play the exact same thing twice, but my jams can seem familiar…
I’m aiming at performing a hour to two live set with no exact song structures. Totally improve but built of chains of ideas that will make it sound like its a tune I wrote… The only noises that happen without me playing them first are Rytm beats and a few short one shot samples. Eventually I wanna start using a metronome in some headphones and live record the Rytm beats on the spot. My aim is to basically create the music right in front of people. Maybe after awhile of that I’ll add specific lyrics, I don’t know, as of now I freestyle lyrics as well…
I have (at least) two modes: programming, and jamming. The more time I spend programming the machines, the more neat things they can do once I’m jamming…

Oh yeah and the OT is just perfect for what I’m doing, Rytm too. I really feel like these boxes are super great for live improv, I would be bummed to try to shove a song into them, but that’s just me… :totes:

That make sense. I guess that’s an appeal of boxes like these: Lots of different ways of presenting sounds in a live context, I like your live recording with AR idea :wink:

This discussion makes me realise I have a few different ways I’m wanting to approach both production and live presentation. I don’t worry these days of performing a mastered track of mine exactly like the “finished” piece. Thus no shoving of entire songs on the OT, but there’s certainly value in one shot long files for certain things. For me, probably jamming on a stringed instrument during those parts or I’m off scene if it’s some sort of theatrical deal.
Btw I love doing improv type performance too, but just doing more composition at the moment,

I fully support all ways of making music and forms of composition or impovisation. We’re all different and good at different things. I’m wired to play guitar by ear and am very much a jammer at heart, I don’t like memorizing songs, but I’m not opposed to it either. The opposite of me is someone who writes notation for every last note for a bunch of instruments and always performs the song the same. Since that’s not what I do naturally at all I would probably think it’s amazing… That’s what’s nice about all being different…

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I haven’t gotten around to using my acoustic instruments with the OT yet, but I have enjoyed the thread. I tend to get more done when I just play and my workflow has suffered a bit by trying to think in trigs rather than on a larger scale. I have been thinking about simplifying and just using pickup machines and playing into them and seeing what happens. We’ll see.

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I use pickups for looping but then have the same recorder buffer assigned to one or more flex with different pre arranged start point and pitch or other plocks. And of course scenes. When I’m jamming I don’t have to think about trigs or plocks or anything, I just know what the flex remixes or scenes will do to the audio and use at will… :elot:

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Oh, and a couple posts up I mentioned programming mode, and jamming mode. Programming mode for me is usually at night and that’s where I think about trigs and routing and and all things techy, with the help of a nice caffeinated beverage sometimes up till 2 or 3. I don’t really play music in this mode but I listen to things over and over while tweaking and then do little test runs once I have a new idea programmed.
Jamming mode for me is usually in the day, I really like to play music with the sunshine vibes. In this mode I don’t really think about techy stuff at all, I just play music using the stuff I programmed the other night…
There’s some crossover of course but in general that’s how I operate, I also have a few other modes such as funk lab experiment mode. That mode is lots of fun and I get to far off realms by over ridiculous use of routing/processing/modulating, etc…, but it usually pushes me into some corner that’s hard to integrate and doesn’t really get me any closer to a live set, but I get to hear some crazy sauce sounds probably never to be heard again. :dizzy:

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Hey, do you know if you can somehow control the Dittox4 with the A4mk2? I can control the Ditto via a usb MIDI interface but wondering if the A4 can