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A live, semi-improvised track performed entirely on hardware.

I've been trying to put together a live setup for a while, something I could do an entire set with. It would need flexibility in audio routing, good sounds, lots of hands-on control, and to be performance-oriented at its core. This is my first attempt at making that setup.

At the centre of the setup is the Elektron Octatrack, which is performing at least four roles. The Octatrack is the sequencer for all the other synths. It's also a sampler that excels at loops and time stretching; here, I'm running four sets of samples mostly out of the Octatrack's cue outputs. Then, on the other side of the mixer (more on that in a moment), the Octatrack is acting as a master-level mixer, allowing me to use its amp envelopes to make the constrain and pulse all the output from the mixer. And finally, this end-of-chain section allows me to add scenes to the master output, e.g. effects for a variety of transitions and wild, weird moments. It's incredible how versatile, unique, and powerful the Octatrack is. There's truly nothing else like it.

In the middle of that audio chain I've added another mixer, the Playdifferently Model One. The Model One has plenty of inputs, two stereo sends and returns, low-pass and high-pass filter on every track, master low-pass and high-pass filters, drive on every track, and more. Plus, it just sounds really great. I needed more audio inputs for synths but what I ended up getting was a device that, in and of itself, is playable and hands-on.

For synths, I chose the Moog Minitaur, Dreadbox Typhon, and Dreadbox Nymphes. These were chosen first and foremost for their sound (nothing beats that Minitaur bass), but also because of their small footprints and lots of knobs for real-time control. While I mostly used the Model One's filters to control the Typhon and Nymphes' sounds, I imagine I'll be reaching for them a lot in the future.

And for effects, I went with the Empress Reverb and the Erica Synths Zen Delay. The Empress is among my very favourite reverbs and can do a variety of great sounds; the Zen Delay isn't necessarily my favourite delay, but it is perfect live-performance device with perfectly tuned controls. I may add a third effect using the Model One's cue outs and one of the unused tracks in the future.

Altogether, I really enjoyed this setup and was happy with how quickly the song cohered. The temptation is always there to abandon these sort of live-set ideas, but I'll try to make at least one more track with this (or a similar) setup!

Performed and recorded live to a stereo output, with EQ, compression, and limiting on the master.

https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com