DSI Tetr4 synth I’m digging through my analog synths right now and taking stock of stuff. I have a bunch of boxes that I bought four tabletop/live pa use. I’m getting kind of philosophical about the things that I own right now and trying to find the reasons that I should have them. I don’t generally sell anything. I usually…

Octatrack MIDI multi I’m still jamming on my Octatrack today. I hooked up my Waldorf Blofeld to the mix. Same kind of setup where I have MIDI going out of the OT and into the Blofeld. I chose the Blofeld for this experiment because it’s 16 part multitimbral and I can trigger a few different sounds at once from different…

Octatrack as an arpeggiator I was digging through Octatrack settings and realized that the “plays free” feature is pretty useful as an arpeggiator. I never used this feature much and thought it was more for people who did ambient music to just fire off something that plays for like a half hour. There are some things that make it pretty…

Audio file format conversion I’m digging through some AKAI format sample CDs that I have in my collection. I converted some things in the past but I’m getting back into the process now. I don’t think I ever wrote anything down before so it feels like I’m starting over now. The CDs are image files of varying formats. Some are…

Octatrack re-learnings I’m digging back into using my Octatrack and I’m finding that I have to re-learn a bunch of things about how it works. Saying that it’s a quirky machine is an understatement. There are some guides like Merlin’s OT manual that go into the philosophy of the machine, but I’m writing things here with my own live use…

Live PA with just two boxes I’m calling DAWless Live PA from now on. That’s what it used to be called and I was on livepa.org way back. It’s funny how things progressed. It’s great actually, it’s no longer a fringe thing and honestly everyone’s game really improved. Back then it was people with a bunch of keyboards on a…

First look at the This is Noise NM2 I bought this little Bluetooth MIDI controller on a whim when an ad showed up on my Instagram feed. It really is tiny. It uses little soft tactile switches that are non-clicky. I ordered some of these same switches for my own projects but never got around to actually using them. I…

Live workflow on the Akai Force I’m doing an obligatory post on working through issues with the Akai Force. As you know my approach for grooveboxes centers around building up tracks from scratch live without stopping the transport. This makes some older grooveboxes choke because you have to stop the transport every time you add a track load a sound.…

DAW-less dreams I’m going through my hardware collection and I’m thinking about what caused me to buy a particular piece of gear. I recently bought the Ableton Move, which I think prompted all of this thinkery on my part. I was on a kick with MIDI sequencers for a while. I think it started when I found an MMT-8 for…

Octatrack forgetfulness I was watching this video on Youtube and remembered that I have an Octatrack sitting here that I don’t use enough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqdczUpXy4c He’s using the Polybrute 12 along with an Octatrack to make a beat. I dug my Octatrack out and hooked it up. I had some random project loaded up that I forgot all about, that’s always…