Just be more strategic with your midi channel separation.
So how am I doing this currently? Ooff! It's actually pretty simple: A3K with no extra outs, QRack, Xbase, and either my laptop running Cubase 2.8, or my MMT8 or both to sequence. I'm using five of the six outs of the Q, two stereo pairs, and a mono for kicks, and mono basses, the stereo outs of the A3K for most everything except kicks, some snares, and some basses, all resampled compressed. The Xbase sometimes gets the kick seperated from the snare and hats, depending on what else I'm plugging into my dinky little board: 1202vlz. All of it goes out into an RNC and soon into a T.C. 1120. I'm just using a couple of stomp boxes for effects right now, but my favorite thing is running stuff through the Q, even other instruments inside it. Yup, that's right, you can feed an audio output of the Q, through the board, and effects if you've got them in line, and back into itself, refilter it, and chuck it out of another output. Sick shit.
As for the rest, like which kind of sound is coming out of which out, that shit changes all the time. In accordance with the phase of the moon, and alignment of the stars, and what I've recently eaten, I'll pull acid lines from the sampler, kick, hats and snares from the Q, and noises and aux percs from the Xbase at times, and sometimes just straight up feedback and noise from all of it. It just depends on the mood, the track, and whatever else is influencing me, and the crowd at the time. Sometimes I'll use a bass or mic as well, but these are usually special occasions. Oop, forgot to mention the keyboard controller as well, for live lines. Flexibility is key. I really need to get more of it. I think my Yammy really cut my flexibility down in fact because of the architecture. Don't get me wrong, it's well designed, but it's nothing like an E-mu, or Ensoniq. Ensoniqs can LOAD WHILE PLAYING, so even if you have only 16 megs, you can use 8 megs per track if you want, and load the other eight at the same time. I never use that much, in fact most of the time I probably don't even use 8 megs in my whole set, but that's because it's all in the sequences, with just little bits and blurbs of sound strategicly placed.
I don't usually use sound loops, because I don't like being restricted to a certain tempo in a live setting. Some of my friends just sit at one tempo the whole set, with loops done perfectly, all individually compressed and EQ'd beforehand, and then they just sort of mix the loops as they go. I have a freind who uses an E6400, with peavy midi controller, and a laptop to sequence, an ER1, and MicroModular, but the majority of the set is just sampled loops thathe does up in Fruity, exports, touches up to his tastes in SoundForge, then exports to the sampler, sets all to the same BPM, and pops them into the different slots in multi-mode as he sees fit. He sets the sliders so that from value 0-20 he gets volume 0-127, and the rest of the slider controls the cut-off on a low pass filter on each sound. Puts it all into a mix-wizard, with an m2000, electric mistress, and some other little bits and pieces, and compresses the whole thing through a focusrite Platinum Series in the Master Inserts. He sound is very pollished, super tight and never makes a mistake. He can play no matter how wasted he is, and the crowds love his sets. He's actually a really big name here. All that aside, I feel like his sets still lack a bit of spontanaety, dude to the tempo restriction.
I also kind of detest loops, because sometimes you get the neatest stuff when you stick the 'wrong' sequence into the wrong groups of sounds. Lots to be said for serendipity, but then there's the times you fall on your ass too. I'm getting better at landing on my feet, but I still enjoy the fact that my sets at times sound just a little sloppy and human. My buddies here are all super pollished,and tight on their changes, my friend Simon's probably the best at it, but I don't hear those guys throwin out the really wierd shit, and pulling it into a groove that works.
Most of the sounds from most folks I hear here, although very well arranged and conveying a feel are VERY meat and potatoes. There are exceptions during each set, but they are a bit rare. I think it's that willingness to go out on a limb a little more, and still manage to bring it into a coherent expression that wins their respect.
It's one thing to make really messed up sounds, but it's completely another to take those noises that most folks either are afraid to make or just don't know how, and when intitially presented resemble little other than chaotic nonsense, and then as they comer together, it all takes on perspective, and you see the groove in its entirety, and it makes perfect sense, but was nothing at all like what you thought it was going to be, and that moment of realisation just tickles folks. The look as people realize where the groove actually lies is just too cool, like 'Whuh,.....ooohhhhhhh!!!!!! Damn! Hellz yeah!'. It's even better when the groove turns out to be something fat and funky to boot. Anybody can make an interesting percussion line, and then throw a 4-on-the-floor under it, and move it around a little, and that's a step in the right direction, but there are way more avenues to explore. That's part of why I take it live, anyhow. Ok, enough blither and banter. What are other folks up to?
Ape