First eurorack for live performance

I’m interested in something very immediate to improvise with and flexible for some psychedelic beats and melodies and drones. I planning to make sound environments that are quick to tweak and change while i play saxophone over it. Any advice from more knowledgeable community members?

I'm presuming that these are all 60 hp Moog skiffs, and you're using the existing ones that came with the DFAM and M32.

I wouldn't make the third one yet another voice. Instead, consider what's in the two Moog patchables: sequencers, VCOs, VCFs, etc. Now...what are those synths lacking?

First up, some clock modulation could get those sequencers to behave in some rather complex ways. Logic could be useful here, too.

Another thing the 60 hp Moogs lack is a comprehensive selection of modulation sources. Adding a Batumi and a Zadar here would blow that limitation away, though...and do so in only 26 hp, provided you include their expanders.

Now, that Chronoblob2...good choice, but you'll want to exploit its feedback path insert. Some simple bandpass filtering in there could be fun to get the delays to degrade in an unexpected manner...or a mono reverb, perhaps, to turn the delays into a blurry ambient wash. In either case, using something 4 hp and smaller should be fine due to the case limitations.

Mixing...mmm, nah. The Moogs output line level, so you're probably better off with an outboard mixer that can also handle your sax pickup. By putting all of the level controls on the same mixer, you can get a better handle on your balance between the synths and your horn, plus you can then globally process the overall mix with ease.

I'm also presuming you're aiming at something of a John Surman sort of thing here, btw...not exactly easy to replicate, since Surman used EMS synths as a rule, and those have a very different sonic character than Moog stuff.

Yes, you’re right, 60hp everything. Thank you so much for taking the time to give that comprehensive answer! That’s really helpful. I don’t know who John Surman is, I’ll check it out.

Surman's stuff is brilliant...much of it is on ECM, and he does a lot of workouts with reeds over constant, flowing VCS3 patterns. Another brilliant electric reeds player worth looking into would be Van der Graaf Generator's David Jackson...his use of electronics with sax, plus a lot of extended blowing techniques cribbed from the likes of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, create a sound that can flow from ethereal to sheer brutality at the blink of an eye.

Quick and easy would be something based in Ableton Live triggered by scenes and simple settings.

You're looking to play sax over what you generate. That's an instrument that you really can't play with one hand and tweak settings with another. Everything in Eurorack must be patched and tweaked and might need lots of meddling with. How many bars and beats can you hold off playing your axe while you twiddle with Eurorack?

If you were already experienced with Eurorack, you might be able to pull it off. But if you're new to the platform, you're asking a lot of yourself.

Okay with that said, I'd look at the Tip Top Trigger Riot, a Euclidean capable module, as well as a Turing Machine module. I think Pam's New Workout can do Euclidean, but don't quote me.

The Monsoon is nice. But it's one of those modules that takes a lot of time to hit the "sweet spot" with and there's a lot of unlabeled modes and features. I wouldn't bother with it if getting to a sound quickly is where you're at. I'd replace it with a reverb module and multi-fx module that can do flanging, comb filtering (if possible), and possibly a phaser.

One thing that's missing is a performance mixer. You need to be able to manage all of your audio sources quickly, including effects. I don't see that here.