I recently acquired the squarp pyramid MK3 and want to use it as brain/sequencer for my setup with:
Moog Matriarch
Vermona Perfourmer
Analog Rytm
Elektron Octatrack
Novation Peak
DSI Prophet 6 (keys)
Nord drum 2
Conductive Labs NDLR
with some fx pedals also receiving midi din clock
I have a kenton midi thru 12 box, and a kenton midi merge 8 box.
Main goals are:
To keep everything clocksynced, with pyramid (or octatrack) as master clock, which ever is best.
To be able to do live recording (like mr tuna haha) of the midi (i think its called omni mode?)
Iād love to be able to drum in my drums āliveā using the nord drum 2, and have the pyramid ālive sequenceā it immediately thereafter.
My concerns/questions:
what would the best master clock be (squarp or octatrack)
what would the best midi cabling/routing option be?
latency: will this be an issue?
midi channels: if the vermona already uses 4 channels, and the nord drum can use 6, and looking at the rest of my synths, I fear I will run out of midi channels, and will have problems with echo-ing or multiple synths being triggered at times I donāt want them to.
Curious to hear your thoughts, iām quite a newbie, so any advice on the optimal setup and how to prevent above described problems are very welcome, thanks for your time!
Rhythm - samples section out bank B:
3. Analog Rytm
4. Elektron Octatrack
7. Nord drum 2
Midi in:
Conductive Labs NDLR
Clock out:
with some fx pedals also receiving midi din clock
ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦
My opinion (I hope you donāt mind):
If you are just starting Iād also recommend first to separate Elektron from pyramid. Just the clock for now. It will do your life easier ATM.
Better to be a fully fledged oktatrack, rytm, Perfourmer player/artist one by one, slowly instead of getting lost in translation. Less is more. All your instruments need to go deep before you combine and all are good enough even just standalone, IMHO.
What do you mean with separate elektron from pyramid? you mean leave out the octatrack? and first just sequence all the rest with pyramid? You are probably right, I plan on starting that way.
And thanks for pointing the Bank option out, this means that when using separate banks I can use those midi channels two times? or is it just to have a better overview/sorting over the tracks.
Yes, each output line has their own channels, so this gives you 32 channels with DIN MIDI and if you add USB into the picture you can have 48 channels total.
Exactly that. 2 x 16 MIDI channels A B + one bank for CV C + one bank for USB D.
OKTATRACK is fine alone // you not sending midi stuff there from pyramid, just clock// Iād connect it with rytm to stay pure Elektron. Plenty to perform, really.
Pyramid would be your brain for the synths. Samplers, drum machines work well alone.
Pyramid or any Elektron would be your clock (preferably pyramid because you use Kenton merge).
The way Iām setup is I only get my pyramid to sync start stop to my rytm and Digitone, I create patterns on them. It saves a lot of midi channels and headaches. The rest of the gear is recorded on the pyramid.
I wouldnāt hook up everything at once. I started with two devices then slowly added more to my template.
If youāre out of channels maybe give up some parts if you can disable them on things. 32 is a lot of programs, especially if any of those are key-mapped to multiple samples/sounds.
yeah I am probably going to do the same. Sequence my synths with/on the pyramid, and use the sequencers on the octatrack/rytm separately (pyramid just sends start/stop + clock)
Iāve found that unless youāre okay with one pattern on your Elektron stuff throughout the whole song, switching patterns is cumbersome since you have to send the PC message early. Navigating the song then becomes a big hassle because you donāt have those early PC messages happening. Forced to manually change patterns before pressing play.
theres a few topics on using the OT with the Pyramid that would be worth reviewingā¦
initially, I tried to make the OT slaved to the Pyramid, with patterns and such like.
(and then tried flipping it round, to have the OT as master)
but after a while, I ended up feeling like I was crippling the versatility of the OT.
it almost felt like I was doing just because I couldā¦ rather than because I needed it.
for my needs, I ended up using the two pretty much independently, just simply slaving the clock.
which should be master?
unfortunately, no right answer, both can work - and often the answer is , which ever you are using the most
for me conceptually the Pyramid felt like it should be master (and it was for a long time).
however, in the end I switched over to using the OT as master, because the OT as a few issues (things like pickup machines) when its slaved.
that said, its so quick to switch them around (or even slave them both to a daw) , I change it up depending which device Im more focused on in that session/track ā¦ not ideal, but as they say āperfection is the enemy of good enoughā
This sounds like great advice, thank you, we are on the same page here!!!
I think I will end up the same way as you, thats why I love the forum here.
Might end up selling the octatrack, although they all have their own perks / benefits.
what I like about the pyramid is the fact that there is no 64 step limit and how it deals with polyphony and ālive recordingā , which is mainly ideal for chord progressions on my matriarch and prophet 6 (keys). However, its no sampler like the octatrack, and I like the step sequencer of the elektrons better for some purposes (and the arpeggiatior is pretty great too).
yeah, Im sometimes unsure about having both the OT and Pyramid due to overlap.
but the OT is exceptional for live audio processing, so thats not going anywhere
on the flip side, Pyramid is a more midi powerful sequencer.
that said, I like conditional trigs on the OT, and also its simplicity is nice at times.
ā¦ so, I do use it for midi sequencing over the pyramid occasioinally.
(esp, for eurorack, where I dont need the polyphony)
) have separated audio outs from drums. Thatās 8 tracks from rytm only. So your problem will be, some day later, the mixer and how not to block the frequencies you need for both, bass/drum and deep sounds synths/ambient. I use 32 tracks digital mix with single track recording, separĆ© 4 groups of ensembles, a small ājazz comboā, analogue synth section, modular/sample section and the already recorded ones. All those need different mixing.