Hey Guys, I find myself in the somewhat unexpected position of being asked to play some electronic / DJ sets and have basically got no idea how to do it.
When i Say DJ i really mean, play my own material in a DJ environment, so its not just a straight up matching two records setup which i’m already ok with. I mean more a boiler room type session (thought not actually boiler room alas). I actually record most of my stuff as live takes, but the gear setup is big :and not really practical to get to most gigs with the setup time i will have so im trying to think of a more practical solution to play live in a DJ environment and came up with the following idea
Basically i think i want to split each of my tracks into 4 stems,
1) kick
2) other beats
3) pads and samples
4) synths
Play them back and manipulate the streams differently. I’ll run everything through my modular and process them there to make some interesting loops / sounds etc… so kind of live remixing my stuff using the same processes i used to create the audio in the first place. I’l probably add a synth for jamming along for good measure
Anyways, my question is this. I dont like using my laptop onstage for reliability concerns and i really dont like using the octatrack as the workflow doesnt suit me at all, so what other option are there for doing multi track playback in this kind of Context? Perhaps a multi track recorder of somekind? I was thinking perhaps a 4 track casette may also work. Any ideas or thought welcome!
Yeah, that was part of what gave me the initial idea! @hdd im looking at 4 mono, but i’ll work on a mid / side principal putting the beats and synths in the mid and the pads in the side so i’ll get a stereo image from the output.
@docshermsticks, SP404 is a good call, but it only has stereo outs. I guess i could midi sync two of them perhaps…
Have you got an iPad? SAMPLR app will give you 6 channels that you can loop, add fx, play, mangle. http://samplr.net/
Can you not splice up your set for use on the OP-1?
You’ve got 4 channels you can bring in and out. You’ve got all the tape effects as well as master effects. You can also make use of the L and R channels. Have you tried putting L to mixer and R to FX pedal then into mixer.
This means you can control which channel on the OP-1 you send to the mixer by using the L-R pan.
It’s pretty damn effective!
Using a tape multitrack well in a live situation involves lots of practice and you’ll find it throws up it’s own problems and will be just as risky as using a laptop.
I’d just take the laptop and run the 4 outs from that into your modular. Take a mp3 player/op-1/mini-disc/microgranny along too and have it on the sidelines so that if the laptop does crash then you can wack it on and still play stuff and no one will be any the wiser as you reboot.
If you don't want an OT and want control over stems, multiple outs etc, I'd definitely check out an MPC, probably the 1000.
Solid call, thanks!
@spacetravelmadeeasy - I dont have an ipad unfortunately, but samplr does indeed look good! OP1 only set is lovely thought but unfortunately i dont think it will have enough storage memory as i have some pretty long loops. I’ll try it out though! Wish there was a way to save and load a new ‘tape’ to the OP1 somehow. You;re right about the multitrack creating new problems, i love the thought though
MPC2500 or MPC1000 (although I think the RAM is limited to 128 mb and loading from the MPC mid-set is a nightmare). you might be able to find an old Roland SP-808 on the cheap with 4 stereo-out expansion card; I’ve used one countless times in a similar fashion. only caveat besides age: zip disks. but I think you can record 45+ mins of samples/tracks with virtually no loading time… it reads directly from zip
