For me it only makes sense because of recall. Mixing on mixing boards is much faster for me and generally provides better sounding mix quicker. Also i like to twist the knobs and just focus on what i’m hearing which is much harder when i need to look at the screen. It feels like i’m becoming scientist whenever i look at computer screen, just kills my flow 
3 Likes
All of them: a lot! basically my go to soundsource plugins now (101, Juno and Sampler)
1 Like
Serato Sample is amazing, isn’t it? I just got it as well and I’m blown away too. You can do stuff with it in a few minutes that used to take me hours to get right, and the end result sounds better. For the kind of stuff I like to do, it’s groundbreaking.
1 Like
How is Serato Sample at pitch/key detection on more complex samples? It’s piqued my interest a little though it’s one of those not really needed things. Ableton plus its tuner works ok and with Push, life is really easy for chopping your sample up. But still, always interested in the alternatives!
1 Like
It seems pretty excellent so far, but I’d say just download the demo version and give it a try. I think you can use it for quite a while for free.
Lots of good tips for using it in here.
1 Like
Personaly, im always hesitating between using software and hardware.
Software is cheap, do not take place, sounds great and offer lot of flexibility. In theory it is a gold mine, but working on a computer is not inspiring for me.
Hardware is great to create inspiration, but i find it hard to develop and idea into a finished track. It is just too complex.
Lately I have been wondering if a good middle ground would be to use a laptop running renoise as a VST host + a hardware sequencer like a keystep pro + an elektra one midi controller. It should give a feeling close to using a hardware setup and still have the advantage of working in the box.
1 Like
My focus is to have the best of both worlds, a small rig (5-6 devices) with small footprint that operates independently…but that is easily integrated with Ableton when needed.
5 Likes
I have been thinking on this a bit further today, trying to be honest and ask myself am I making excuses or are the limitations really so restrictive not using a DAW and using hardware instead.
So my conclusion from this is I’m going to make a concerted effort to go back into the box, but the box isn’t a DAW, but the Octatrack.
I intend to make a whole album on the Octatrack, certainly over the years I have probably developed enough techniques and workarounds to get over the limitations, and by employing these and with a certain amount of focus and determination I think I will be able to succeed.
I have made albums with the Octatrack in the past but these have been using it in a different context than a DAW, so if nothing else it will be a good exercise in finding out if it is viable to do all the things that I require from a DAW.
I don’t have all the details pinned down yet, but it will most likely involve using longer audio files made on other gear, and bouncing and mixing in the OT, using a combination of flex and static, most likely the audio will have fx added before loading into the OT, freeing up the 2 fx slots per track for things like eq and compression. I will use the arranger too.
7 Likes
For my purposes this works actually. Main disadvantages for me are, that I’m not as fast as on the laptop (especially things like resampling), the 8 track limit and monophonic tracks. If I could play samples polyphonically I could make it my only soundsource as well.
I think the mixing tools, reverb and delays on my laptop sound superior too, but they sound good enough on the OT to make a good track
1 Like
I’m looking to JFK for inspiration:
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.
5 Likes
Answer to almost all of your questions:
Yes.
DAW is by far more powerful. Does it all.
But I believe, the options you have, the less gets done. You get bogged down with choice. I don’t know many people that werk in DAWs that have the restraint from getting the latest greatest plug or samples. Next thing you know you hundreds if not thousands of plugs. Tens of thousands of samples…the time you save with a DAWs speed is list trying to find the right sample or mucking about with all the plugs.
So easy to get caught in getting the latest. Harder with hardware cuz there is that cost difference.
But in the end, the listener can’t tell where it came from. And if you had fun doing it, whatever way you chose to get there is best.
I like hardware…but it’s tuff, cuz when I use software, as I am probably the worst mixer on the planet…the software shit just sounds SO much better right out the gate. Everything I record from hardware sounds like shit. To the point I feel like maybe my I/O is setup wrong. Then I record a pro released track thru the I/O to test…sounds exactly the same coming out as it went in. 
2 Likes
I’m mostly ITB these days. I’ve been through all sorts of iterations over the past 20 years. Going all hardware never suits me, going all software never suits me. I need a balance for different moods and energy levels. Getting a new plugin or a new box can bring needed inspiration, but if I get too much in my arsenal it leads to paradox of choice and stalling out. Have to thin out everything periodically - plugins, samples, and hardware.
The big thing for me is being able to bounce from project to project as I have ideas for them. Having instant recall in Ableton is huge. I don’t think I ever came close to that feeling of being able to work on whatever song I was in the mood for in a hardware setup. Too much of a pain to get everything dialed in again with various sequencer boxes and also knob-per-function analog synths.
Lately, I’ve been thinking I don’t really need my MS20 mini or Boog. I can get most of those sounds with Diva. I’ll probably keep the NL2x and add a Digitone (again) just for a bit of hardware fun and variety.
I’m not sure I would ever want to go OTB totally again. Way too much money and time reading manuals and getting everything synced properly. Ableton, Push, and a couple bits of (rotating) hardware is the sweet spot for me.
3 Likes
I like that he found his setup and it just stays the same.
5 Likes
I have a strange feeling about this. I started electronic music using FL 3.56 cause it was the most accessible tool, and made a lot of thing on computer, even if I wasn’t happy of result at that time, I produced and learnt a lot.
Before I took enough time to master my stuff, I discovered music forum talking about machine, analog stuff blablabla, and a lot of people was kinda shitting on FL at that time. I was young and I convinced myself that I need to go OTB to sound “real”, to be a real producer. I don’t know why I let myself go that far, to be in the game ? Like old school guys used machines, I have to. I did the same with vinyl, I ve been hyped by a sort of nostalgia of an era I’ll never know.
Finally, I sold a lot of stuff and I came back to ITB, and feel again “at home”. I stopped pushing myself using stuff because it’s the hype but using tool where I can express myself, and for me it is Ableton.
EDIT : Fourtet is an example who gave me the opportunity to think about what really matter for me. I put his picture of his ITB small setup he posted on twitter, over my screen. Hahaha !
This is my personal experience, and I can understand someone feel the opposite about ITB.
4 Likes
In the box --> out of the box —> in the box —> out of the box —>
I consider this to be the essence of life.
8 Likes
Recent pictures and videos show a eurorack setup in his studio 
2 Likes
Yep I saw it searching the old one 
! But that isn’t change what his 2017 made on me 
https://twitter.com/FourTet/status/923307429038907394
The most important thing for me now : I use tool to express myself not because it is cool ! And to be honest I still have some synth, and acoustic instruments (and everybody knows acoustic > analog > digital … 
)
2 Likes
im lost now. What does itb mean anyway? very few producers are creating everything in DAW.
ft like john hopkins use daw for mixing and editing mostly. I find this pure itb concept very similar to dawless in this sense.
1 Like
sure.