I’m looking to build a small setup for live sets, using a sampler for beats and synths for bass, leads, pads, music, etc.
I currently use a Polyend Play for my central brain. This is nice because the sampler is integrated and allows me to place basically any drum sample on any sequencer pad. The 255 samples per project across, let’s say 32 songs, allows about 8 unique drum samples per song. That’s pretty good.
As with all gear, there’s limitations. In order to mix songs together to form a live set, I think I’ll have to build the transitions into the patterns. This is workable, but Hapax seems better designed for this purpose.
But I can’t find a sampler that would pair well with Hapax’s dual project feature. Some samplers are limited to 4 tracks, others are limited to 128 samples per project. Digitakt II seems like a good pairing: 16 tracks and lots of sample memory. But I’m curious about how the memory architecture interacts with Hapax–specifically if it would be able to load multiple drum kits for Hapax to trigger from 2 different songs/projects at the same time.
Surely an MPC or Maschine would do the trick, but they’re more computer than I want. I’m trying to get away from staring at screens and deep computer-level menu diving.
Being able to mix drums together is important so the dancefloor doesn’t chill out with every track transition.
So my question for you, Squarp community, is have you found a single rhythm box that can load a set’s worth of drum sounds and play 2 songs/projects of drum sounds at the same time?
having used both, my gut is the Blackbox 1010 probably fits the bill but really MPC is just a beast for Hapax. and now that they’re porting some form of disk streaming in 3.0, that may solve the dual project problem of having to wait for a new project to load if you’re aiming for seamless transition. Blackbox already had streaming from disk from the start. and with the ability to assign any function to either the Q-link knobs on the MPC itself or an external midi controller like Launchpad etc. you can keep the menu diving to a minimum during a live set.
I currently use the DT2 with a eurorack palette case and the hapax. Euro is for bass/lead voices and a few drum modules (kick/hats) The DT2 tracks 1-8 are for a ‘drum kit’ and 9-16 are then available for anything else (other percussion, loops, etc) In project A on the hapax I use tracks 1-8 for DT2 tracks 1-8. Tracks 9-15 I use for the euro case and 16 is for TRSP. In project B on the hapax tracks 1-8 are for DT2 tracks 9-16. The rest of the tracks in proj B I leave unused for now. This setup allows me to fully utilize each track on the DT2 and then the mix/mute page on the hapax allows me to perform them all
Awesome.
And let’s say you finished mixing from project A to project B on the Hapax and were ready to mix to a new song on project A, how hard would it be to have a 3rd “drum kit” with 8 new drum samples ready to go on the Digitakt 2?
It looks like the DT2 can now hold 1024 samples per project/in active memory which is dope.
Can you use the Hapax to select the sample on the DT2?
Just wondering how accessible the sample pool is from the Hapax–whether you can play any of the 1024 or if you can only play the samples that are assigned by DT2 to its 16 tracks.
The way I use it I will have both proj A and proj B running unmuted. I haven’t used PC to switch kits yet as a single kit on the DT2 has proven enough for my needs (Surco style improvised sets). I’ve planned on having different kits on the DT2 to switch between if I needed more sounds or samples but haven’t got there yet. I usually keep the same drum kit throughout on the DT2 and modify kick and hats as needed in the euro case (battering ram and archers rig from shakmat). Only had the DT2 for a few weeks now and I feel like I’m just starting to settle in but the potential seems massive. Your idea with having multiple kits on the DT2 seems possible and the sample pool is pretty massive per project.
I was looking at 1010 Tangerine today and thinking I could maybe create multi samples with multiple drum kits on each of the 8 pads… I think it can handle something like 49 samples per multi sample.
That could be 4 kits of 12 unique drum sounds per multi-sample x 8 multi samples could = 32 songs.
It seems like Blackbox had an update last year and can hold the same number of samples per preset as the Tangerine–576.
So now I wonder if Blackbox updated how many multi-samples it can handle in a single preset and if this is a viable strategy.
Creating multi-sample drum kits feels less spontaneously creative than the Polyend Play and I’m sad that there’s no overdrive on the Tangerine or Blackbox.
But so far the Tangerine at least seems like the most viable option
Yeah correct.
The multisamples are a bit tedious to set up manually, but it works, I use it to group loops
But you’re still limited to 16 tracks so I will manually switch projects during live
perhaps you dont want to hear this but reaper daw allows you to have several tabs, ‘projects’ open at once. all with individual routings, definitions, plugins, synths, fx including external midi routings etc that can be seen as a completely separate studio for each ‘song’ and in reality if youre good with hapax, it becomes like a virtual rack ready to animate with your midi input. this can all be ran from a tiny module in your eurorack case with separate outs if you wish, or just stereo.
my other answer would be to get 2 dirtywave m8 headless setups at around $45 each from amazon. they are also usable as simple midi racks of samples synths etc with amazing modulation, high tweakability and many sweet spots and mechanisms that make it a great choice, one being amazing sound quality
@nickterrestrial From what I’m aware of there are no physical samplers on the market that can do what the Hapax does with loading 2 projects at once with the intent of having seamless playback of multiple projects.
This isn’t possible with the OG Digitakt, I’d expect it’s the same with the Digitakt II because Elektron’s pretty consistent with their design. While you’d get 16 sample slots, you can’t load 2 patterns at once. You can p-lock different samples per trig, but that’d be hellish menu diving to manage when playing live.
The closest that comes to your idea is the SP404mk2. 2 use cases:
Use DJ mode to play recordings & patterns stored in the SP & fade between them. You won’t have separate drums, bass, pads etc but you will have loads of control & get to read the room in the same way as a DJ. I’ve jammed out with DJ mode a few times, it worked really well. Setting up was to record each section of the track I wanted to use as a separate loop, then fade between them. For instance- song 1 intro loop fades to song 1 body. Song 1 body fades to song 1 outro loop. Song 1 outro loop fades to song 2 intro loop. Mess with FX as obliged. Intro loops were drums & bass only, outro loops were some percussion, pads & melody. Files names include camelot wheel codes to keep it all in tune.
Run the SP using midi mode B. This stacks all the pads from banks A through E on 1 midi channel & F through J onto the next channel. Just load 1 song’s worth of loops onto each bank. If 1 bank = 1 song you get 10 whole songs & the SP will respond to the Hapax perfectly.
As you said, building transitions into your set is probably the best way to go.
Alternatives: Get a looper to fill potential dead air/loading times. Get an iPad with an AUV3 host (Drambo, AUM) & Koala sampler, then load as many instances as Koala as possible.
Interesting discussion, I was pondering this very question not just with samplers but with my setup in general.
I use the bitbox micro as a sampler and before hapax was considering upgrading it to the bitbox mk2 (double the sample pads), however my current GAS solution is to perhaps get a second micro so they can controlled by a project on the hapax each.
There is the other issue of projects in hapax, this would mean projects would have to be written for A or B to allow this, which makes it less fun.
Would have to make A and B versions of every project to retain flexibility that way
Maybe a silly idea, but having different midi outputs depending on loaded in A or B could solve that problem more or less. Just a bit weird hah
But how else to solve it?
MPC 3.x will have a form of disk streaming for projects so, in theory, may not have to load a new project entirely to switch between track A and track B in Hapax. but the benefit of using Hapax is you can continue to sequence other external gear while sample programs load to transition between A&B continuously, even if you do.
Well this may convince me not to sell my MPC, though it’s a little large to just be a sampler.
I tried the new beta firmware for MPC and hated it so much it drove me to buy the hapax (so I thank it for that) as I was trying to use it as a sequencer. It may just be useful as a sampler and the odd synth part.
