Duuuude, Ricky, after YEARS of insisting...to myself and everyone...that I had to "do everything" while performing live, I realize may have actually been hurting myself with a poorly informed self-imposed "rule". I'm deeply considering what you're saying. Both audience and performer may actually have a better time when the rudimentary aspects of driving a live show forward are somewhat handled automatically in exchange for the performer actually feeling comfortable to improvise and react more in the moment on the gear he or she feels really good on. I've used my Analog Rytm as the meat and potatoes of my live shows, where drums, effects, sampled stabs, even basslines were coming out of it and I had full control of every single element. On the synth side, I used a Korg Radias and had full control over 4 layers (chords, leads, bass, etc). It has become almost a chore to be responsible for muting, unmuting, and tweaking EVERY element of the song for the whole show. I'm into the idea of mixing down a couple stems, firing them off from Octatrack, and using Analog Rytm in a much more live-improv kind of way. Cause I know that thing like you know Circuit! Thanks for taking the time to share with us your progress.

He's the Bob Ross of KZfaq musicians.

This is pure gold. Thank you for let us peek into your brain.

This is nothing less than a Masterclass!

Gotta say, freakin love your videos. They're like a sanctuary away from anything else on the internet or life. You don't put on some fake persona or talk loud and excited for no reason, and the production is ultra high quality. Keep it up, you deserve WAY more subs.

As someone just getting into live performance with electronic music, I don't feel like I can articulate how informative this video was on the process. Fantastic work on this, Ricky.

23:46 LMAO i love that you didn’t cut that coolguy moment.

Most videos I watch, I could easily say they need to shorten it. You sir, however, are the exception. I was just thinking that it is really nice that you have the medium available to show us your flow, insight to avenues of creativity, and the lack of time restraints to do so. Thank you for taking your valuable time for the sake of sharing with us. BTW, what I was thinking is what I do is play a guitar or flute or sax or a drum...If YOU are having fun, it really translates to the crowd and gets fed back to you...you know how it is!!! Peace, Ricky and thank you.

Ricky, Ricky, Ricky, can't you see? You're like a professor to me. Really appreciate you sharing this. This type of structural knowledge is hard won through trial and error, it is not immediately apparent, and it is not widely shared online. This is invaluable to people who want to work in live performance of electronic music. And it really isn't subgenre specific, this can be applied to all kinds of electronic music. And again, few are ever really talking about their approaches. So, thanks. Also, you must have sold a million Circuits for Novation. A raise and a promotion are in order. You are a great communicator in a lot of dimensions; verbally through your well thought out and structured *high value information* that is totally accessible to all levels of producers and music makers, including total newbs and legit heads who're coming from other angles; audio-visually through your casual shots which are actually really well composed and lighted with clear and present dialog/audio; musically with your music that is always groovy, no matter the subgenre that you're demoing in, which ties all these dimensions together into your omnipresent posivibes. You are doing it, man! Looking forward to your work in 2020. If I may, I've got three questions for you: 1. What are your thoughts about using Circuit's synths live? You seem to always suggest that you use the Circuit as a performance sequencer, sending midi information to your Moog or other midi based sound sources. You ever use Circuit's two synth engines for live work? Why or why not? 2. Do you ever use discrete Fx, like delay, reverb, chorus, etc. after sound sources like the Sirin, Circuit, MPC etc? Why or why not? Do you ever use master Fx on your whole mix? Why or why not? 3. Do you ever process your mix buss while performing live through master processors like eq, comp, limiting? Why or why not? And a sentiment I wish you would deliver to Novation regarding the Circuit: 2 more outputs would explode the utility of the Circuit for me. If I could have the synths on outputs 1 and 2, my choice, either each synth on its own channel, like green on 1 purple on 2, or both synths in stereo on 1 and 2; and drums on outputs 3 and 4, again, drums either assigned to individual outs like kick and snare on 3 and hats and other on 4, or all drums out stereo 3 and 4. This would be so huge for me, and I'm sure to a lot of other producers out there. I mean, as always, I'd like individual outs for each sound source within the Circuit, but now you really are adding expense, but I'm talking about just two more trs outputs, chump change! And the fx, man! In this day and age, and all that... are you getting me? They're instant mud, even used sparingly. They always take away more than they add, so I always try them and always remove them. Think of the fx in Roland's x0x pad based samplers like 303, 404, 404sx, 505, or the Ensoniq ASR-X Pro aka DP/4. A little more expense there, but only a little, and huge gains in extensibility and productivity. You could pull lofi heads to the Circuit platform, you'd literally add a whole genre's worth of customers to your product's user base. THINK ABOUT IT! Thanks man!

I only listen to dawless music too, if it’s not recorded on a wax cylinder it’s not for me.

Hey Ricky, new to your channel. I suppose i must praise yt algo. Never thot id say that. I used to have a fleet of synths drummachines. All the elektrons before they discontinued for there newer tech. I sold the lot cause i got brain freeze. And moved on to sim racing where i raced f1 drivers. At 1 point i was faster than the soon tb f1world champion charles leclerc. ( dreams do come tru) but you and a few others have convinced me to come back to what i love. Im inspired. My head is full of new idea's. And its all thanks to yourself. Oh and possibly behringer with there insanely low priced snyths. It may b a month or so but i will b making beats again. A mpc is first on the list. This video has answered so many questions thanks for all your input. Your vids are really relevant. Like i said your perspective is much needed for beginners. You have already helped me join the dots, from my comfort zone to a new world of beat making. Ive been skooled. I thankyou

Hey Ricky, you're inspiring me to get out there again. Here's a 1$ trick: when you "explore" a sound like when you hit the "1" button on the Sirin at 16:00, or a taste of Track 06 at 19:51, or with knob 1 of the Circuit at 20:45, whether it be a goof in terms of 'wrong sound' or just sounds bad, or not-your-jam, I was taught a way to cover these is to do them rhythmically. When you hit a goof/turd/mistake, do it twice, or, four times, in time, and boom, its a transition.

You and Loopop... hands down best electronic music production ‘tubers out there. So laid back, info-rich, and enjoyable. No click bait or ‘tube bro crap. Yer a hero man.

"Oh that is DEFINITELY not a snare... But you get the idea!" Love it. This is now one of my all-time favorite KZfaq videos. 😎

Man, I've been watching your videos on and off for a few years now.. Just got my first SP-404SX a couple weeks ago.. Just had to chime in on how helpful this channel has been to me. You have taught me a lot!!! Cheers man, I hope 2020 is a good year for you.

This is definitely my favourite video of yours. Its like your talking shop but instructing at the same time. I always leave your videos feeling a little more knowledgeable, but this video really just takes the cake. Thanks for the knowledge~ Thanks for the Power!

I just got my first groove box 2 days ago. Not gonna lie i turned 12 years old again. The feeling of inspiration and content hit me all at once. It came with ableton DAW so i put that on a computer. Gonna do the homework. I already bought the ticket, time to take the ride. Your vids me make up my mind instead of spending countless dollars on somethin i dont need. Appreciate u for the vids n being alive. Stay ☝

Ricky really cares about presentation. Excellent audio levels for his narration, great lighting, clear concise message, and most importantly....his hairless nicely manicured hands !

Love it. As a dude building my first DAWless setup and hoping to do long form kinda mix/improv stuff, a lot for me to learn here. Keep keeping it real man.

I love this video so much. Seeing people explain their process like this is everything to me

Holy shit this video hypnotized me. I don’t even make house music but watching you work that MPC and Circuit blew me tf away. Wow.

Man this is a great channel. I don't always comment but watch most of your videos. Wish you good health and many synthesizers for 2020.

Somehow this is the first post you've made that really has made me consider that its better doing it this way. Really killer stuff here.

No mention of the most essential piece of kit on that table, the jaw bone!

Duuuude what a dope vid! This has just become my favorite vid of Ricky Tinez. Really helpfull, I am really looking forward to start getting into live performance and this Vid really helped me getting some lights, I would love to see more of this kind of content from Ricky, it really inspires me. And what a dope little set Ricky did at the end! I really love the content he does on KZfaq (and out as well) for me it is the best in this synth/production content channel, by far, and really diserves more attention.

You're amazing. Always great to not only watch you videos but also listen to them.

Saying nothing of your tutorial and content - great visual aesthetics. Birdseye shot revealing your station complete with bone fragments, talismans, and rugged table. Good youtubing dude.

this has been such a valuable video for me. I’m just getting into making house with the goal of playing live sets, and Ricky’s advice here on not just unmuting tracks and having something to play with helped with what gear to buy. I settled on the MPC One and TR-8S. Thanks Ricky!

thanks man. great video. i love how you transition from one song to another here (multiple times).

Hey Ricky, some great content this year. Cool channel.

You should be proud of your love to this man. It's always a pleasure to watch you do "on the fly" - Great work

Great vid. Just shows less can be more and familiarity is key. Basically a synth version of a two decks + mixer setup allowing transitioning and improvisation. Some great tunes too 😎

this video inspired me to go dawless, after alot of noodling and experimentation with my 1000, re-visiting this video im realizing using two samplers is akin to spinning between two decks, one you just play, and one you can "scratch" and modify/noodle/sequence live on without losing the momentum. Glad I came back to this video it was much more helpful the second time around.

Ricky you are dead-set showing everyone every day that the Circuit is so powerful, out of all my gear across the full spectrum of price tags, it’s still the best thing I’ve ever bought, bang for buck in what utility & pure fun I get out of it - not just in performance but in studio integration & sound design too. Thing is a beast! Always love your workflow videos too (Circuit or not XD )

Ricky, more great content as usual. At the end of the year, like every year, there's loads of "Top 5" lists of gear, and your central nugget of good advice in this vid is a timely reminder of the fact that knowing your kit inside out is probably more important than what the gear is. There is one more basic principal that I think it's good to remember, and that's what the most important hardware there is for music production - your ears. One little bit of constructive crit for you - there is a difference between "scale" and "key", so using them interchangeably doesn't work.

"Never trust a dj who isn't dancing"

Absolutely top notch video. Super useful explaining the transitions between songs and sequences. The MPC always sounds better than the OT to my ears - don’t know if that’s the internal summing or something about the workflow that encourages snappier envelopes on the sampling within the MPC. Thank you!!

Just throwing it out there: when i saw squarepusher live in Detroit 2013, he transitioned from song to song with silence. He played a song till it was over, then played the next, just like how any band would. It was honestly badass.

So many useful techniques to take away from this ✌🏻. Added an Octatrack to my setup this year so 2020 I’m gonna try 100% dawless.

This was one of the most comprehensive videos of a live laptopless set I've ever seen ahahaha wow

Sick! I've made a ton of MPC1000 tutorials on my channel but I never figured out how to use it live like this. Glad you figured out a cool way to use it haha

met you at the Novation tent during Movement 2018 and you put me in front of the circuit for an hour or so and I fell in loveeeeee. went home and bought mine right after the festival, thank you for getting me started with this!!

Thank you for sharing your workflow(s) and insight! 👏👏👏👏

I operate on FL Studio and only with vst for many reasons and i won't change this anytime soon, but i found this kind of videos highly entertaining and enjoyed so much the performance, i kinda entered in a binge

BADASS! Love this demo man. Love your approach. Such good ideas and reflections!

I love the way you set this up and share it with us. Thank you so much. As a musician who likes some dance music but also really values improvisation, this rocks my world.

That white background display upgrade is ESSENTIAL. The military green factory display goes dark when hot, new Akai make 2 generations of MPCs with terrible displays.

Fucking love this video. I caught myself kind of dancing and moving along while I was working. It's very interesting to hear you talk about what you're doing while jamming.

Gold stuff ! Great thoughts and insigns, really valuable content ! You are doing great job with this channel !

Thank you for making this video. Lots of wise words from your research. Love your work.

3:40 he he he! in 2008 I coined the term, "DJ Dance" to describe a DJ going through the motions of "touching" their consoles whilst moving their bodies, but not actually adjusting anything - "faking it til they make it" so to speak. Its so refreshing to hear a, "performer" call out that kind of behaviour. It warms my heart. :-D

Wow Ricky T, these are pretty much exactly the conclusions I’ve drawn for myself after playing live electronics for about 1,5 years. I’ve had the very same journey of un/muting parts, working on my transitions etc. I hope most viewers can skip that first year now! Also, it’s such a joy to see you play through your set while commenting on what’s happening. This is the part of music making that people rarely share, which makes the process feel a bit..lonely? Keep this stuff coming, never mind the gear reviews! ❤️

I'm totally into the less is more approach. Picking a few instruments that you known well and mastering them will ultimately inspire you to create more music and make your live sets more engaging to the performer and listener. Excellent vid and sounds as always bro!

Very inspirational my brother, I'm enjoying your flow!

this is totally awesome. this reminds me of James Zabiela who would create his own tracks live with sampling from either a pioneer CDJ (1000 at the time) or a Vinyl turntable and an EFX 500. this was in 2005 when i saw him. He created 2 HOUR SET WITH ONLY 5 RECORDS. I later had an idea to recreate a similar set using Traktor and their sample decks. Yes I know you are Dawless, but at the time and still currently i use daws. But this just opens my mind to so many ideas. Tight Work!

That scale mode is a great take away for me. Thanks for the knowledge.

Wow. This is exactly what I've been looking for. I don't know anything about gear (the reason I subscribed to you) but I never realized you could fall into the similar trap of "press play and walk away" that you would have with a DAW. Really inspiring stuff man. I'm looking forward to whatever's next from you! Thank you :)

Best thing about it. No set playlist. No limit as to what you can play because you can always improv something and the crowd will still love it.

Love your videos man. I'm not a huge house fan by any means, really I'm approaching my setup as an organic group of machines that can fill in some gaps in a 2 man band. Super interesting ideas you have. Sirin seems dope af

Beautiful, the content, the video, the guy, the ideas, the music. All the best, Brother

Brother this is so dope! super inspiring stuff. Love the groove at 9.22 🔥

This is a phenomenal video in it's relaxed but incredibly well-executed approach. Great angles for teaching. Generous sharing of process and exploration. I really appreciate this kind of content. Thanks for sharing, Ricky. Keep em coming.

Thanks! Pretty good live set workflow. I also noticed there's a bit of redundancy built-in in case something goes south mid-set. Most of the time I just end up DJing at gigs since I haven't found the right set up that has a balance between solid reprentation of the tunes and space to improvise and make it "live". Looks like you cracked the formula: one machine that has structured tracks, another you can improvise with, and a main synth that sets the tone and ties everything together. I have a ton of gear that could fit in this formula.

Thanks for sharing your process. I'm personally a DAW guy, but hearing your ideas and thoughts dramatically improve my own songwriting process.

Very cool of you giving your insight on the dawless experience. I found your set up to be very inspiring and can also be applied to any hardware set up! Thanks!

OMG it want a one vid thing. Thank you Soo much for continuing the music even tho the vid is over. Thanks Soo much!

yes this is what i needed man, so inspiring. i have not been in the mood to make music lately, but now i wanna jam around with my mpc and the synthesizer again! thanks for the amazing vibes, i subscribed instantly!!

I'm setting up my DAWless system and was noticing the same thing: I can't just push a play button and mute a few times and that's all I do. lol. You definitely have to be hands on, even when I'm just playing to myself at home, I think I'd fall asleep if I didn't try to put more improvisation into it.

MPC needs a scene crossfader like the OT, that ish is lit.

These days I’m into building texturally with a few short patterns (2-3) instead of adding/subtracting more complex arrangements of patterns. Achieving this by evolving and moving the track forward with efx, filters, envelopes, lfos, additional oscillators, etc. and blending the parts as they both individually and connectivity evolve. Permutations are endless. This is what I’ve discovered works best for me creatively, performance wise, and allows for maximum improvisational composition within a simple frame work.

That freestyle at the end was the jam session i needed this morning! So good.

Thank you so much for this video. I have needed this for a while (for several reasons). ty :)

Dude just discovered your vids and I love your approach. I'm more of a traditional Rock and alt rock kinda guy but i'm learning heaps from you and the way you go about music. Thanks for sharing

I love this vid. I am not someone who plays live electronically but just watching your methods is fantastic. really cool vid man.

Yo this is some dope shit! I danced right through this video. Also really appreciating the high quality audio and thoughtful editing of this video. I see your attention to detail and totally dig it. I'm finally giving in to playing improvised electronic music and your videos have been so helpful and inspiring. Big up, rock on.

Dope video, man.. Always such a chill, genuinely cool dude that shares his knowledge.

keeping house music alive! hardware is the way!

Slaying it again! Your clarity is always appreciated. I have a similar setup with Akai Force, Moog Subphatty and small euro setup. The combo of the MPC 1000 and the circuit made me connect the two. Looking at your setup- You would very much dig the force! Cheers

Great content. Would love to see more of this. Subscribed! Not a lot of people talk transitions and it's core to performance.

what a good video, it was just the essence of your process, thanks for sharing dude

As always, a stellar summary of the advantages and disadvantages. noice.

What a discovery! Awesome.

5:47 When that kick from the circuit came in onto that fat bassline and the chopped up keys... instant dance vibes.

This is such fire. Come to Canada sometime. Not now. It's freezing.

A lot of good info here. Thanks Ricky

You seem embarrassed to reintroduce toys/tools to perform freely and have fun. This is why we love it! Keeping things alive.

The MPC I always see as a midi sequencer with the audio engine a nice addition. The OT on the other hand is a machine built purely around its sample engine. The addition of midi tracks was a nice addition, my philosophy

15:50 "Yes Sirin. Take me there" XD love the video!

The way you set this up with the corresponding pads for both 16 grids is very smart! Thanks for this. I'm working on a similar type live jamming style set up for gigs and in the studio, using a Pioneer DJS-1000 in the middle with a MOOG Mother32 and a Roland TB-3. I was wondering about a cool way to go from track to track, this video gave me some good ideas of how I can approach that. And nice beats House beats you did too!

great example of keeping yourself engaged in the performance

@3:35 You had me rollin' there lol. "So what do you do?... I un-mute tracks."

This was super educational. I am in a bit of a rut and do not really know what direction I want to go in, this was pretty halpful

This is the most educating video i found about live performances :) thanks for sharing!

It does matter if you the performer/dj is feeling and enjoying it, in that there is always the potential for the set to be elevated from being good, everyone dancing, you're doing your job, to everyone totally getting down, going off and vibing with you through the music. Your chopped wood can burn steady and be adequate most of the time, but there are those special nights where it can flash over and cook hot if you set it up and blow on it just right.

I appreciate the acoustic drum implementation into your beats !

I copped a MPC 2500 for £180 last year by accident (weird ebay listing!) and took the dive after endlessly tossing up between making concessions with different samplers (mono sampling in the takt, and the complexity of OT!).... Anyway I have never really considered the MPC as a live tool and since playing on it i thought 'it will do' in consideration of it's price... I have also been putting together a DAW-less liveset, and i have been only using the MPC for playing back chopped breaks etc... well, can i say, man you have opened my eyes to the MPC's ability and creative potential in a live setting. Thank you!

Duuuude you made that session look fun! Dope stuff man. 👌

Grareful you shared this. I've been trying to fine tune a workflow where I can change parts of the song and not keep the same ongoing track, yet do it in a way where I'm not just running through pre-built sequences and muting/unmuting. I play guitar and need to loop, currently running the mpc live, rc-505 and bass station 2. Seeing you present this workflow and ease into new songs and parts was real inspiring!

that's real neat man, your gifted. not many people get to do that!

Great insight! We totally agree. It's gotta be fun. We like to play synthesizers and guitars while the MPC takes care of the beats. Having everything be midi lets us dial in that base per venue/space etc. - and it's fun to turn knobs! Having another option to build loops outside of the MPC on the fly sounds like a great idea for vibing out. We also use pedals and loops to break through repetitions in sequence mode to avoid too much mute/unmute wood chopping. Thanks for this great video.