Some time ago my friend Dominik (aka An Moku) asked me some questions about gear reduction. It was exactly the right timing as I was really into the process of minimizing my hardware and changing my workflow.
In June, I was asked to play a live set at a nice venue in my hometown. It was the right timing to use a restricted set of tools to play live. On top of this, it is Summer meaning more traveling so even better to have a lightweight setup.
As I previously did with my album “Etudes de boucles”, the setup is different but minimal and consisted of 3 devices:
- Elektron Digitakt
- Ipad Air M1
- Chase bliss Mood MK2 (mainly for transitions)
The Ipad was connected to the DT and the Mood MK2 as a send on the mixer of the venue. Everything was set up to be controlled by a tiny Korg Nanokontrol.
The Digitakt was the main audio source (loops or one shot) except for 2 tracks where I used Tines, Speldosa and Pure Piano directly from Ios. Everything was sent via usb to the Ipad and treated inside AUM. One usb cable handled both audio and midi in both ways. The Out of DT was sent to the mixer.
Setup notes: connect usb cable from Ipad (or usb hub) to Digitakt. Inside the Digitakt choose usb audio/midi. In settings go to Audio Routing and set Int to Main option to Off. We need to do this to avoid an audio feedback loop. All set!
In AUM I had the following channels:
Channel 1 / Samplr granular app
Resampling snippet of the Digitakt / 3 samples slots used normal pitch / 1 octave up and 2 octaves up
I will “scan” through the waveform with longer loop lengths and decays to generate a continuous pad and will record my finger movements to add motion and dynamics, as well.
The output of Samplr is fed back into its own channel in AUM, where 3 FX are setup:
EQ from FabFilter Pro-Q3 to notch out some frequencies.
AUM Stereo Width Fx to avoid any phasing later.
Pre-fader send of the Samplr audio to a separate mix bus (Bus A) loaded with additional effects and plugins to create a secondary version of the sound to blend in.
MIX Bus A
On Bus A, several effects are running to radically alter the sound of the Samplr output and blend with the original sound:
Magic Blur
AUM LP/HP filter
AudioThing Lines
Audiomodern Gatelab
AudioThing Things Texture
EQ from FabFilter Pro-Q3
Channel 2 / Patterning
This is by far my preferred drums application. Especially the fact it is now in AUv3 format.
This channel is processed by the following FX:
Audiomodern Gatelab
Fabfilter Volcano
Audiodamage Replicant
Audiodamage Rough Rider
Channel 3 / Moog Model D
Mostly used as a bass layer underneath all the other chaos happening, and this is almost always my most common use case.
Fx chain is only Unfiltered Audio’s Bass-Mint app + AUM LP/HP filter.
Channel 4 / Fugue Machine
A very basic sequence in the fantastic Fugue Machine with just 2 notes, with 4 playheads running across them. This MIDI information can be sent back to AUM to play instruments or to my laptop running Ableton Live 12 Suite over USB (then back via audio using the audio output. Audio comes back to the DT and I can mix this with the rest of the audio tracks. And yes I have an old macbook pro ^^)
Channel 5 / General audio out
This is basically all channels going out back to the DT. Nothing crazy here, just doing some EQ, limiting and compression (if needed).
NB: All tracks are recorded individually and as a master stereo file (for mxing purposes).
ADDITIONAL CHANNELS
Channel 6 / Pure Piano
A favourite of mine on Ios. Really nice “ambient” piano with a lot of options. You can sustain notes to infinity which is pretty nice.
Channel 7 / Weeping Wall
Although I really like my hardware loopers or Loopy Pro, Weeping Wall is a strong contender for micro looping and recording loops.
There is also 3 extra FX on this channel:
Audiodamage Other Desert Cities
AudioThing Things Texture
Eventide Reverb
Channel 8 / Speldosa
When I don’t have an audio interface and no room for an extra device, this music box on steroids is ideal. Integrated FX and a lot of notes to trigger manually.
Below is an example of the extra setup and audio snippet
The live set went well and it was a good night. No stress to setup a lot of hardware and cables and balance audio from each device. No hum, no noise.
Everything fitted in my backpack. Lovely.
I will share some videos and sounds in another post later this summer.
Life can be simple and there is so much to discover in simplicity, pushing myself to do more with less.
Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing your way of working and all the time you've taken to document your entire process...
This is such a helpful article dear Emho. I live in hope that you will share the live audio with us too. Thanks again for sharing.