My first "live set" - Part 1

So I'm getting things together for my first live set of electronic music, tentatively scheduled for the end of January.   I know, I know... pretty scary.   To take some of the edge off, I've decided that I'd jot down a few of the things I learned along the way.

Project Concept

• Play a live set of electronic music, basically real time re-mixes of material that I had previously recorded, along with some other added parts.
• Around 12 to 16 songs, broken up into two sets.
• Use the Elektron gear for the most part.   This hopefully will make things simpler and more fun.
• Record the show with the laptop.

Sounds good.  Now I need to figure out how to organize the gear and the content so that I can play an hour or so of music.

Hardware Setup

The OctaTrack seemed like the logical thing for the main 'brain'/mixer, so that will be first in the MIDI chain.   The Machinedrum and Monomachine can be chained up with their thru/in ports in the usual way:

• MIDI chain: OT out->MD in, MD thru->MnM in, MnM thru-> (maybe something else?)

The audio can be fed into the OctaTrack via the four inputs:

• MD main outs -> Input A/B
• MnM main outs -> Input C/D

If I decide to bring along another synth, I can plug it into the Monomachine inputs:

• Other synth -> MnM input A/B

Then, I can either route the MD/MnM directly to the OT main output with the OT mixer, or I can use Thru tracks if I want to put effects on the MD/MnM.   Since the MD and MnM already have effects, I'll use the direct routing for now so that I can get on with configuring the machines.

Configuration

I want to store the configurations and the song data in a way that is isolated, so that I can work on other things if I want to without interfering with the material for the live set.   The Machinedrum and the Monomachine have +Drive, so I can use snapshots there.   The OctaTrack has Set/Project directories on its CF card, so that's pretty easy.   The MD/MNM snapshots and the OctaTrack Project also store the MIDI settings, which is very important for making setup quick, easy, and reliable.

MIDI Configuration

• Use channel 1 for program change.  This way, the OctaTrack will select patterns / kits on the MachineDrum and the Monomachine.
• Clock and Song Position Pointer (a.k.a. Transport on Elektron machines).
• Since the MD and MNM have (IMO great) internal sequencers and will be synced via MIDI clock, they don't need any incoming MIDI notes or CCs.   This makes it easy to leave at least one MIDI channel for some other synth if I want.

Slots, Banks, Patterns, Parts and Kits

Since all the Elektron machines have 16 banks, I can easily put enough patterns for each song in one bank, possibly two songs with creative use of muting and scenes.   On the OctaTrack, If I'm putting more than one song into a bank, I can use two Parts for each song.   That's pretty convenient.

• Create a new Snapshot on the Machinedrum and the Monomachine for the live set.
• Create a new Set and Project on the OctaTrack for the live set.
• Use the same global slot on the Machinedrum and the Monomachine to make it easy to recall the settings.
• Create a new Snapshot on the Machinedrum and the Monomachine.

 Here's the full setup, after creating the snapshots, the set and the project:

• Chain: OT->MD->MNM->Other (not sure which yet)
  
  • Channel 1 : OT Program Change Out
  • Channel 2-7 : Monomachine tracks 1-6
  • Channel 8 : Monomachine auto
  • Channel 11 : Shruthi
• Octatrack Setup  (Saved with Project)
  
  • MIDI->SYNC : Transp send, Clock send, Prog Ch - send, Ch 1
  • MIDI->CONTROL : Audio CC out INT, Audio note out INT
  • CONTROL->Audio: Track 8 Master
    
• Machinedrum - Slot 3 : Receive External clock, SPP, PC on chan 1.  Don't receive notes or CCs.
  
  • Global->CONTROL->BASE CHANNEL : --
  • Global->CONTROL->PROG CHANGE: Prog change in ON, Prog change out OFF, Channel 01
  • Global->SYNC->TEMPO IN : EXTERNAL
  • Global->SYNC->CTRL IN: ON
• Monomachine - Slot 3 : Receive External clock, SPP, PC on chan 1.  Ch 2-7 for tracks, 8 for auto track.
  
  • Global->CONTROL->MIDI CHANLS : Base channel 02, Channel span 06, Auto track ch. 08
  • Global->CONTROL->CONTROL IN : Tempo sync EXT, Transport ACCEPT, Prog change CHAN01
• Shruthi
  • SW5 (led off)-> SW4 twice -> chn: 11
    
• OT Shruthi Chan 11
  
  • MIDI-><track>->Note (double click) : A knob, chan 11, YES
  • Prog #s on OT are off by one : Bank 0, Prog 0 -> Shruthi prog 1, Bank 0 Prog 10 -> Shruthi Prog 11
  • Function->Knob Press in Ctrl1 / Ctrl2 to enable PB, CC, etc.

Seems like a lot of setup after writing it down, but it's not that bad and it only needs to be done once.   Unless... the data gets lost, which would be awful.   ALWAYS BACK STUFF UP.  Also, don't forget to restore from backup once in a while to make sure you've got it right.

In the next post, I'm thinking that I'll go over how I'm exporting loops and samples from Ableton Live for the OctaTrack.