The improvised techno thread

The Lounge General Discussion
#123

I’m still really into this improvisation idea and I’ve become obsessed with Surgeon and the knob twiddlers hangout live jams. I’m always inspired by how much they can get out of the small setups they use. Whenever I try to minimize my gear I just can’t help but keep adding just one more synth… and of course the setup then becomes bloated and unmanageable. It’s definitely a lack of confidence on my part.

So, I’m gonna ask a question - if you had to play a live and improvised set with just 1 drum machine and 1 synth, what would you choose? Let us also know what genre you would be playing. At the minute I’m playing techno with an AR and a Digitone but I’m finding the Digitone has too many menus to be effective for me. I might swap it for something like my DB-01 and use a looper pedal.

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#124

You could sample what you need from Digitone and then double down on just using your AR. Eight voices sounds just about right for techno, especially with 12 sequencer tracks (plus the FX one), the DVCO machine and plenty of performance controls. If I was to attempt a live set, I’d want to be as minimal as possible, so I’d go with AR and Analog Heat for finishing touches and filter sweeps.

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#125

Some good points here. My only issue here is that I struggle to make lead lines using synth one shot samples. My lack of ability no doubt…

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#126

From what I’ve got right now, Nord Drum 2 and Micromonsta 2 in split mode, both sequenced by the T-1, going into the Bluebox. If I could chat and add one more thing, it’d be the Blackbox, mostly just for a little variety, and then maybe the Mini Kaos Pad 2s for some cheesy one-shot effects. Entirely capable and almost pocket-sized.

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#127

Now that’s a kick.

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#128

If you mean completely improvised from scratch, rytm and evolver. My digitone chops still need work so I’d need to have something prepared to play a set with it right now, that might change. Before I had the rytm the drum machine for that type of 100% improvised approach was always the korg er1 because it’s so fast to get something awesome out of it.
As for genre; when going full improv, who knows? Most likely mean, dirty, super funky, techno and I’d probably get in my own way with really complicated syncopation because, well, I tend to.

#129

M:S and Pro 2

M:S is so immediate and knobby, plus a great sequencer, control all, fills, quick probability programming.

Pro 2 also very immediate but can get very deep as well. Great filters, huge sweet spot, but still lots of depth with its multiple waveform types.
And programming it’s sequencer to sound interesting with recorded modulation is real quick.

Send em both to a mixer, mixer out into an Alesis Microlimiter, that out to Analog Heat. :rocket:

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#130

What about transitions? Looper?

#131

Analog Kitchen does some good topics like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJnWuqAMgNA

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#132

To avoid the menu diving I would advise restricting your usage of the Digitone, limiting your options by imposing some rules.
For example, taking a cue from your DB-01 idea, you might use a track only as a simple monophonic “analog” voice and allow yourself to only change a select few parameters like filter cutoff, envelope, resonance and decay. Now Track 1 is your bass synth voice and it will stay like that so that you know its sound, its options and what moves you can make with it.

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#133

Re: transitions. I ‘d take two synths with integral sequencer: AR + M:C. That makes transitions more fluid because one can keep going while i ‘m starting the transition on the other. And it allows for improvisation by combining patterns from both freely. That s not possible with just one seq.

I could see myself really doing sets with those 2, but MC could also be substituted for MD. (My actual live set is those 3 with sometimes Circuit Mono Station too).

I’d bring at least these fx too though: AH and H9 (or Space). And Xone:96 mixer.

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#134

Right now, if I had to pick two bits of gear for improvised techno I’d probably go with my DFAM and my Lyra 8, because, well, how else could you perform with them two other than to improvise?

I think the best way though is to use as much or as little gear as you’re comfortable with. Yep, Surgeon can do amazing things with a pulsar and a monosynth and it’s definitely an approach that works for me too. But then you look at an act like Karenn and they’ve got gear all over the place.

Try starting with just your AR, or even just your DN and see how much you can wring out of it. If there’s something missing, you’ll have a better idea of what that is and what you’ll need to add to your setup to address it. Keep adding until you feel both comfortable and sonically well catered for.

I do think there’s a lot of time and energy wasted worrying about transitions and, although they’re an important part of a performance, if you’re comfortable and in your zone, solutions will present themselves.

I’ve got myself down to four bits of kit for doing techno (Quad Swarm, DFAM, Erica Fusion System and OT) QS and DFAM are providing the main Rhythm and lead with the FS dealing with the low end and transitions and the OT doing the mixing, FX and a few samples for extra drums and background. Once I know what I’m doing with the OT, I’ll probably make better use of flex tracks to help with transitions but we’ll see, don’t want to overcomplicate things.

I think the thing that has made me improve the fasted is using gear that doesn’t have presets or pattern saving. I’ve got a few hihat patterns saved on the OT, but everything else is created completely in the moment. It’s hard and I’m still quite shit, but I’m getting better every day and with a chunk more practice I’ll be happy with the sounds I’m making and comfortable with the idea of inflicting them on members of the public.

Sorry, bit long, but I’m bored…

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#135

I’d take just my Blackbox as it’s full of carefully crafted stems.

If stems not allowed, TR-8S + Model:Cycles as a synth.

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#136

Option 1 . TR8-S and Monotribe.

Option 2. TR8-S and Lyra.

Option 3. TR8-S and DFAM.

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#137

As long as your one drum machine and one synth both have their own sequencers, you don’t “need” a looper for transitions. One sequencer can always be running/heard.
How you choose to transition your tracks is just another opportunity for improvisation.

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#138

Very interesting, would love to try that. No idea how to approach it, though. I’m used to starting from scratch for every track, everthing feels very specific and individually tailored…

How do you approach that?

Do you think im terms of different elements - kick, hats, percs, bassline etc. and build patterns or do you think in terms of frequency content - lows, mids, highs or?

Great thread btw!

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#139

I’ve found 1 synth, 1 fx, 1 drum machine/sampler, and a small mixer is more or less the sweet spot for me for making all my live style tracks. fx most for transitions and ambient moments. To me doing dub delay type mixing is much better for transitions than a looper.

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#140

OT and MC is the magic two devices for me right now.
OT is used for Kicks, Bass, Drums, fx Sounds, some 1 / 2 bar loops recorded from MC, a thru track for MC mostly with EQ/ Comp, ALWAYS a flex machine on T7 - resampling Master Track T8, used for creative remixing and for transitions.

MC is being used for more percussion and a Lead, i only use one pattern and change the sound by tweaking and changing the sequence.

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#141

Currently I’m working on a semi-improvised live project (to play at home jajaja). The idea is having everything I can in each box already prepared (sounds and patterns, arps, LFOs, scenes, performance macros, etc., maybe never used) and play with some elements live and arrange on the fly.

My boxes now are DN, OT and AR, and planning to introduce a DT and some sort of different flavor synth, maybe analog, maybe semi-modular (doing some tests with Crave), I don’t really know what I want. I thought about modular, but checking in ModularGrid some small setups I liked made me feel really frightened, they resulted more expensive than expected. I thought about an A4, to have like two decks, but not sure because of money, space and the possible convenience of non-Elektron sound.

The OT is used as a mixer, FX processor and looper with a support track or two, and it receives everything but the kick and the global reverb (I have to decide if sending the reverb to the OT as well).

Each track of the DN and the AR goes separately into Ableton, which I use as a mixer with a DIY 16n Faderbank. I really made two 16n, to have enough faders for the DT and maybe buses or the synth left. Any track can be sent to the AR to sample.

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Then I have a MIDI Fighter Twister for delay and reverb sends and additional filters on the DN and AR groups.

These groups go to the OT and then back to Ableton. This creates some latency so when I want to play the Keystep I change to a production mode (a key mapped to some bus mutes), and if I want to play the AR with the Boppad I prefer connecting the headphones directly to the AR.

The Launchpad Pro Mk3 allows me to change Ableton’s scenes, which are mapped tho the boxes’ patterns. And potentially PFL.

What I want is to find a way to have a different mix for each scene (actually I reserved four patterns for each track, used or not) but still haven’t found a way to do it without getting crazy with effect racks, dummy clips and automations (global delay and reverb are set this way). Anyway it’s a live setup so if I want to produce and finish a track I always can save the project as an specific one.

I got stuck with a lot of Ableton projects, each one for a track, so this way I have one project with seamless access to every pattern on the machines, up to 128, but now aiming at 32.

So, a problem is that there’s the same mix and master effects for all tracks, that sound quite different, but for now I’ll have to deal with it.

Sorry for the length :confounded:.

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#142

I try to prepare as much as possible in one pattern and then play with macros, scenes, midi controller and xone 96.

Jam Snippet:

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