The Hardware Megathread

#2250

What attracts me instead is the creating and tinkering, I mostly use Live just for the final mixing and to edit the final structure of my tracks, but I like the idea of trying a visual scripting language to make music stuff.
I just need to find the time to get started…

#2252

I must be the only person on the planet who dislikes their filter to self oscillate, sword in the heart from a sine wave, tacky sound to my ears.

#2253

You are.

#2254

I like the sound, but I don’t want to be forced into using it. Although, don’t self oscillating filters only do that at really extreme settings?

#2256

those filters where you only get to 7 o clock and this horrible sine wave is screeching in your ears, the AMS-synths Snowfall spring to mind just horrible.

#2257

Self-oscillating is great for crazy FX I find, but rubbish for workman sounds. I may be biased. I have had heaps of fun with self-oscillating down the years but I just don’t have much use for it day-to-day.

But now we’ve been talking about it I suddenly want to go play with it again :smiley:

#2258

I’ve got a very Elektron-focused set up that I love. Such versatile sequencers. Digitak + Digitone + Cycles, though I’m probably going to ditch the cycles when I can save up for another piece, as I can just use the Digitone to create better FM drum sounds and then sample them onto the Digitakt.

I’m powering it all with a Launchpad Pro Mk3. The onboard sequencers in standalone mode are fantastic. Can create some really wild runs by swithcing the start and end points in the loop and sort of “scrubbing” through it.

#2259

I hav a Digitakt and it’s great for sequencing and sampling, even though I also have an Akai Force.
There’s something about the Digitakt that makes everything sound good…

#2260

Yeah, I love it. Never played with the Akai Force though. Digitakt has very nice filters despite not even really trying to emulate analg sounding ones. I think the lack of character really works. Bit Crush is fun too

#2262

I’ve been toying with the idea of trading my Alpha Juno for some other gear, especially a semi-modular, and you may have just sealed the deal.

#2263

MPC2500 aaplreciation post.

Drums coming out of this thing knock.

#2264

Nice.
I finally connected my mpc 1000 and am relearning it all.

#2265

I saw your BoC video, good stuff.
Did you program or finger drum?
For as much as I diss Akai, my best Automageddon stuff was done on an MPC

#2266

I played it in. Some of it w note repeat but mainly finger drumming. I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve not gotten into the step sequencer yet, I’m just beating on the thing like a Neanderthal

Edit: I tend to program beats across many tracks, for example one pass would be the primary kick snare pattern and then all of the other percussive bits span 4 or 5 different tracks, and then I’ll have tracks for end of phrase turnarounds and whatnot.

#2267

Dito. Makes using mutes much easier.

#2268

It’s crazy to me, having owned a 2500 and a live, how much better stuff sounds coming out of MPC’s than any other hardware I’ve owned. It’s seriously a very marked, noticeable difference. Crazy.

#2269

Cracking the code here. Ive begun working w Ableton Live and the MPC2500 to develop the framework for a new live rig, you know for when we can have shows again in the US.

My MPC is limited to 128meg of ram, which is more than enough to develop tracks on, but is it enough for a say… 45 min performance? Well, in all actuality the answer is YES but I’m no MPC virtuoso, so I’ve come up with this workaround.

Port A of the midi outs on the MPC are routed to my Laptop based Ableton rig, triggering midi via a Motu Ultralite. Midi notes have been mapped to scenes that control Ableton’s global tempo, this is important because im using a few channels of IO to use plugins on the sends and returns of my mixer, which is the heart of this rig, but I’ll get back to that. Currently I’m only triggering long atmospheric samples in Ableton as the system is only as latent as the weakest link and i’ve fount that triggering one shot drums is a little sloppy (though i could certainly use that to my advantage in some regards). The nice thing about working this way is that I can keep my short percussive samples in the MPC and the longer ones in Ableton, and allow me to use some fx plugins that sound vastly better than the hardware fx I own.

Another benefit of relying on scene launches to control my Ableton session’s BPM; i don’t need to send midi clock between the two, Ableton is simply acting as a sound module and fx processor vs a sync’ed device.

This is helpful because if need be i can stop the MPC during a set and load different sample banks or sequences on the fly, kind of letting Ableton autopilot for the time it takes to get the new material on the MPC. I sort of took the idea from the concept of 2 turntables and a mixer, one can play while the DJ digs for another tune.

Back to my mixer. I have a 16 channel rackmounted soundcraft console on a rolling rack that has a tilt so i can change the pitch of the mixer. When standing i can leave it nearly horizontal to the floor and its a great heigh to have an overview of my mix. I have the stereo outs from the MPC and 6 of the individual outs on 1-8, and then I have 2 stereo channels for sounds coming from Ableton on 9-12 and then finally i have stereo returns from Ableton’s fX channels returning on 15/16 so i can feed those channels to other auxes as i need (dub and dub techno is sort of the flavor of the week). As is, the MPC is on the left, the mixer center and the laptop on the right. Its feeling very natural and with the right labelling scheme and some mightybrite led lamps, i think i’ll be able to overview the mix at a glance.

Lastly, sample transfers and management. I do a lot of sound design for the MPC in Ableton, and its been great to, via USB, simply render my samples at 44.1/16 bit directly to the memory card of the Akai. So, i can be jamming with this setup, and simultaneously develop new material in Ableton while the whole rig is running. If i come up with something I like, can stop the setup and do a quick render that’ll populate directly to the MPC. so any drum sounds/samples are “auditioned” within the set, more or less taking guesswork out of the equation.

This all took a few days to wrap my head around (it started where most good ideas come from, the shower) and I’m certain it’ll get more involved as i learn the strengths and weakness of this setup but HOLY SHIT is it fun. I’m saving some outputs from both devices to use with Ableton’s CV toolkit and outs on the Akai to trigger gates for a small modular I’m planning, so there will certainly be some chaos to this setup as well.

Anyhow, I’m excited, and thanks for attending my TED talk. :stuck_out_tongue:

#2270

Fantabulous TED talk!

#2271

Nice, thanks for this thought! I am in a similar position, but with some Elektron boxes where I want to load projects at some point between sets but also keep the ball rolling musically, even if it is just ambient filler.

#2272

And it works…!!!