Bearstripes wrote:Any one have any experience using the model sample as a brain to control all your gear?
I don't know how similar Model Samples is to the Digitakt, but I was using the Digitakt as the heart of my setup. Essentially, I sync'd the Digitakt clock to the Matriarch (but used Matriarch's sequencer/arp) and to the KeyStep (which was controlling the DX7). This gave me drums and samples from the Digitakt, a lead line or bass line from the Matriarch, and a pad or lead from the DX7. I also did similar things when I owned the Peak and Sub 37. The Digitakt sequencer has 64 steps per pattern and the ability to chain patterns (I think?). Elektron boxes all have a pretty steep learning curve, but once you get your head around them, they're amazing. I haven't really dug into using the MIDI tracks on the Digitakt, but it has 8 MIDI tracks that can be used to control external gear. I was planning on using them to control the Mono Station and Sirin.
However, I just picked up the Conductive Labs NDLR and that's going to change my workflow significantly. The NDLR will essentially be the brain of my setup. It sends out MIDI data related to a specific key to multiple devices, giving you a drone, pad, and two "motifs" that all play in key together. I currently have the DX7 setup as a pad, Matriarch as a motif, and Mono Station as a drone. Going to have Sirin as the other motif when it gets here and will eventually sync the NDLR to the Digitakt to keep everything in time. Might be able to use the Digitakt to control the NDLR as well, but I haven't got that far yet.
I do have one issue with the NDLR so far in that you can't select the gate length of the drone or pad. They're just sending note on data whenever those parts are playing. Would much prefer being able to mess with gate lengths and decay rather than having a sustained note. It does also seem pretty geared towards ambient music than anything else.
To be honest, now that the KeyStep Pro has been announced, I am tempted to sell the NDLR and pick one of those up as I could do a lot of the same things with it (control multiple synths/parts at the same time), but I'd have a lot more control with what I could play/program.
I also want to pickup the Conductive Labs MRCC when it's available. Won't be for controlling anything, but it looks like an ideal solution for routing all of my MIDI devices. It will make it easier to re-route things when I want to try out different ideas or combinations.
Note, I've never owned any of the Volcas and I've never tried syncing up any of my Pocket Operators.