$harkToootth wrote:Inconuucl wrote:If my zoia breaks down the road I'll have a lot harder a time replacing it than if my install of ableton does.
Controllers like Push aside I don't count my computer as part of the cost because that's something I would need regardless. I paid about $600 for my suite license and it's given me a lot more mileage than the glitch and delay pedals it is taking the place on effects wise. Also not counting the whole DAW bit.
What is your set up now? You've been preaching for years and I haven't listened. I'm all ears now. I asked you in another thread too (like 5 mins ago
).
I want to know (I know you are using Ableton as the DAW).
1. What controllers are you using?
2. Plug ins?
3. IDK any tips for integration of everything?
I must have missed you past post
My setup is pretty lean on purpose for table real estate reasons, this is also why I've gone to partial pedal zen mode too.
So for pedals I concentrate on what I can't easily replicate digitally and anything I would have before that point. So it's Tuner -> EQD Aquaduct -> SS/BS Mini -> Cvlt Deluxe Preamp. This is fed into my interface, which tomorrow will be a Motu M4. I chose it because it has an insanely low latency (we're talking sub 5ms roundtrips) with the option for direct monitoring to even remove that. It fairly new and a huge leap for the price range. Low Latency is always a must, but even more so if you're using your PC for more than just recording.
Review of the Motu M2:
Thanks to the ever hand 1/8th to 1/4th audio cable I also connect my iPad on this chain. I could write essay on how a lower end iPad is huge for sound making. It has as good apps as a PC for a fraction of the price. I use that a lot with an app matrix mixer called ApeMatrix and make a lot of feedbacky stuff. Also using the microphone on the ipad itself is more than good enough when recording weird audio or sampling hits/materials/things you have lying around. I mean of course it's not "pristine" but if I'm using my iPad instead of my Mic I'm already running it through so many effects that worrying about fidelity is hilarious.
For controller I knew I was not going to go for the full on Push; I love the idea of not needing to see my computer, but the times I've tried switching to a workflow like that I ended up adding a screen regardless. Luckily the newish Launchpad X has all of the note playing coolness of the push, so I have all the note mode replicate a guitar which lets me jump between the two easily.
In the future I'll be looking to get a full foot MIDI remote, my plan is to use the clip view in ableton as a giant looper playground. I already do but I want to do that while playing guitar lol. This would also let me better use my favorite favorite app/VST Enso. Which is a crazy Frippertronics style looper with so many crazy things, like decoupling the read and rec heads' speed and direction. It's like $7 on the ipad rn for black friday and I think $40 on PC.
Aside from Enso I use a lot of creative routing of pretty generic stuff PC. Most out there app I have in the Ableton Grain Scanner, which I'm still exploring but using to morph sounds beyond what my usual chopping an stretching can do. There's also a lot of iPad shenanigans going on thanks to Ableton Link synchronizing my sessions.
Anyways, to tie this rambling essay down. Integrating depends entirely on what you want to integrate and how. My simple one lane chain is pretty cheap all things considered, but the more you'd want to have loops between hardware and digital the more you'll have to spend. I work in layers to solve this, but I know a lot pf people are put off by that. This entire idea for my setup started with the idea of working with layers thanks to the Doom 2016 soundtrack, where he said that he takes all of the sounds and uses a hardware matrix mixer to drive everything to the edge of becoming feedback and noise and then records and take all of the layers he made to make the music. That approach of making sounds and stacking them one by one was a complete epiphany. Like I knew of the concept before and I semi employed with looper pedals and such. But the way Mick Gordon would talk about it as a whole workflow clicked with me really well.
Also
https://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/rtpmidi.html for Midi over network, which when combined with Ableton Link makes life a lot easier.
