Hi all,
I haven’t been posting videos of my jams for a while as I’ve been really busy this year, but I wanted to share a jam from the other night.
This demonstrates how I would take a simple single pattern jam and record it in multitrack into Ableton Live 10 using Overbridge. I can later take the tracks, and chop up the audio, fix errors, select the best bits and arrange them into a more finalized song. I have then add some FX and maybe some additional sounds and layers to bring it to a finished product. Then I mix it down, master and I can share with my lovely music friends 
Cheers 
On Off On
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This is super! I’ve been scratching my head trying to decide how best to record the trinity, can I ask how you’ve connected your MIDI and what is the master clock in the setup?
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Of course 
I’m happy to help.
For my setup I have everything hooked up for two modes of operation:
-
Jam/design/production mode
in this mode I have audio from rytm running into Octa and audio from A4 running into octa. Cue outs going into A4 inputs for FX
Midi out from OT to RYTM and midi thru from RYTM to A4. OT sends prg change, sync, and sometimes notes/cc to A4. RYTM set to receive sync and prg change only. Prg change channel is 16. A4 set to receive sync, prg change, and notes again ch 15 for prg chg. This is my same set up for gigs/live sets
-
Recording/Overbridge mode!
This is where it gets a bit run and interesting. So I have both analogs plugged via Overhub into my macbook. They are both set to work in Overbridge mode over USB on the machines. It took me a long time to find out the combination of cables and even which USB plugs were the most reliable. I find Overbridge to be very very finicky. I had to trial and error for a long time. Out of my 4 red USB cables I got from elektron only 2 actually work with Overbridge. Don’t ask why it’s super weird. Also when I have other devices plugged into Overhub, only certain ports will work with both a4 and rytm simultaneously.
So if you successfully get both machines working and showing audio coming in with the control panel, go into your DAW - mine is ableton I haven’t managed to get OB to work with Reaper which is my other DAW. Load up two new tracks with the VST in there. I only use these to initiate the audio. I created audio tracks for RYTM and 5 for A4 (the 4 tracks as well as the ext inputs) and I set them up to receive audio from the correct inputs and I arm all these tracks. I make another audio track for my audio interface which is to record the main outs from OT (arm that track for recording too). After you see everything working correctly save this project as a new OB recording template so you don’t have to repeat every time. I actually don’t use this project for anything other than recording.
Ableton I have set to send midi sync only to Octatrack. OT will receive the sync, but when the VST’s for OB are enabled they will force the machines to sync to ableton not to OT. I can switch between my two modes of operation this way without ever having to change cables. I also record the OT outputs to my Steinberg UR22mk2 interface which serves are a reference track for when I’m chopping up the multitrack and adding FX etc.
When you’re all set to go hit rec and Octa and the analogs should start playing in sync and recording their multitrack. I’ve heard of people getting little hiccups and bugs in their recordings. My suggestion is just make sure nothing at all is running in the BG and you eliminate any other USB devices that aren’t needed. There are some helpful guides to optimizing your OS for audio recording as well that will help.
If you’re successful (keep in mind this took me 6months+ to figure out) you have all your tracks recorded in and almost on grid. The audio interface would have had a different latency than Overbridge. I find overbridge records in about 5ms too early … and my UR22 records about 10ms late. I correct the UR22 using the driver latency correction or whatever its called. So generally the UR22 will be on grid. I use this recording to sync up the OB recorded tracks to grid. I will select all the audio tracks at once and turn off grid snapping and zoom in real close to the kick track and line the kicks up until they are synced. Then with the tracks still highlighted I turn grid snapping back on and I drag the beginning and ends of the track all at once onto grid.
Then you start chopping them up, arranging, correcting, mixing, adding FX and whatever until you get a releasable record ! YEY!
It’s a metric butt-ton of work but really worth it
Cheers - feel free to ask anything else you need.
-Walter (ON OFF ON)
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You are a legend, thank you for taking the time to break down your configuration. I was more or less settled that I’d need a different setup for recording vs. jamming/gigging and this was super helpful!
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You’re very welcome hit me up any time if you need some advice on your config
Hey there. Thanks for the post regarding your overbridge setup. I have come to find that my mk1 AK and AR are fully functional with OB only when using the old red/black braided USB cables. They only transmit 2 channels with the new gray cables and don’t work at all with some USB cables. Do you happen to know the spec of the red/black cables, what makes them different from the current elektron gray cables and if there is a suitable aftermarket option? I have 4 mk1 machines but I am down to one red/black cable!
