How to go Dawless for £250

My setup is the electribe, a volca sample and a microkorg. Midi jams with these three are the most fun I've had making music

Love this tone! Beefy... Has weight, without being over-burdening in the mix! It cuts nicely in the solo. Great!

This is some solid advice, having a good sequencer is key, with that you can get away with cheaper synths like the volcas and not be constrained by their limited input and small knobs.

Indeed indeed , I had more fun and thrills with my 4 track Portastudio in the early 80s than I’ve ever had since.

Awesome video! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

yeah some very good points about starting off...i accidentally bought an e2 in 2015 and it was the gateway into dawless for me....best thing i bought for how it started me off...have the mpc one now aswell which to me is like the e2+...all those limitations gone but i can approach it exactly the same way

Your guidance is not only honest and direct for those of us who are musicians (rather than being solely obsessed with using a PC, which I don't use mine for making music) but it also encourages people to compose "on the fly"! The Electribes (and the Volcas) can use batteries so you can be creative with your musical ideas anywhere you go. I actually bought the Electribe 2 red sampler version of the blue synth model you show here and it is a joy to use. Thanks for your advice and please keep up the good work you do on here. Cheers!

I'm about to go dawless so your vid was so helpful.

You can also get the Novation Circuit, less channels for sequencing but double pattern length and more immediacy in its workflow.

Hey, great video and I agree with the direction one should take if they want to go dawless. I have some little synths, 3 pocket operators, a volca fm and a Bastl Kastle and they are all a joy to play with. Limiting and sometimes uncomfortable to use, but I've managed to be pretty creative with them. The only thing that concerns me about the electribe series is the sequencer locking to quantisation. Unfortunately, the pocket operators and Volca have the same issue with their sequencers but I would rather something that can record unquantised or can limit the amount of quantisation. It's really preference, because alot of the music I create is hip hop based, I find it essential to add a little bit of sloppiness and swing to my sequences. What would annoy me sometimes is recording something that sounds nice unquantised for that sequence to be ruined and sound less human-like. Having a piece of hardware gear that could fix that would be great! :)

I arrived at a very similar setup and also was a guitar player. I have ES2 sampler, 2 Volcas, 2 Berhinger mono synth and I love it. I work on a computer all day so I wanted to avoid it if I could. I think one value you left out of the Electribe is the ability to transfer your data to Ableton Live (IF you wanna do DAW or DAWless).

It's exactly how I'm doing it! It just clicked the other day, when i was wondering how to play live at the end of the Month. Bloody great machine. Contected to a TD303/Roland tr6s/korg monologue/Roland J-6 chord synth. blimey, its ridiculously good. 🎉

Thank you for reminding me where I originally wanted to go with dawless. My daw-less journey started with a bass guitar, Tascam Digital Portastudio, and E-mu Proteus rompler. I needed a user-friendly sequencer next. I tried a blue Electribe and fell in love with grooveboxes. I thought a vintage EMX1 would be more affordable, or I was gonna settle for an MC-505. I ended up with a used Boss DR-5 machine… not nearly as intuitive or versatile. The next few years are a blur, but the G.A.S. really went nuts during the pandemic. Acquiring various instruments for a non-existent home studio, while my dad keeps asking me to move out. 😣 Now I’m hooked on effects pedals for my bass, y’know for all those live gigs we’re (not) having… At this point, I’ve accumulated like $2000 worth of random budget gear with nowhere to set them up. I don’t have a cohesive workflow or workspace, alternating between Garageband for iPad & Reaper on Windows with a jumble of cables on the floor. I am neither happy nor productive. A big part of my confusion is a lack of clear purpose. Dancer? Singer? Composer? Live Musician? For profit? For pleasure? Maybe it’s time to quit being a cheapskate and start fresh with a minimal dawless setup. Going back through the usual YouTube recommendations, but probably still leaning toward my original groovebox desires… or maybe a Model Samples. 😑 Of course, no amount of gear can replace consistent practice.

Nice video and certainly food for thought. Looking for a sequencer brain for my setup, I have a few bits of kit but my brain at the moment is an old electribe ES MkII which I love but does not work as a proper midi sequencer being more of a drum machine sampler.

There's some interesting semi-modular for a low budget price like behringer crave or volca modular Also awesome points about the advantages of going dawless and the speed of production, good job man! thanks

I am a complete beginner and I happened to find the E2S for 200. Now due to gas i also bought myself a midi keyboard and a monologue, even tho the prices were super good. I am very happy I watched this video today, I will start to really get to know this instrument now and hopefully be able to make some juicy stuff on it ( and the monologue ) Cheers from Sweden 🇸🇪

Great video - I'm really enjoying working out of the box, it's lovely to get off the computer

Underrated for sure.

Good video. I agree that having a brain first (hehe) makes a huge lot of sense, and having one that can also act as a standalone groovebox gets you started right away. I kind of went the other way around, collected lots of little things without a central sequencer first. Tried out the OP-Z and the SQ-64 for the central brain - neither really worked. The OP-Z isn't easy to read when going to other gear and back, it really only works well standalone. The SQ-64 has lots of shortcomings when it comes to melody sequencing (it's much better suited for drums), and has only four tracks. Now I have the Hapax as my main sequencer and it's just amazing, brings together everything so nicely. It's not as budget friendly though. I love the jam at the end as well 🤩 Oh, and I started watching without sound, and the subtitles were all "door" and "doorless" 😂

Korg in 2020: price go brrrrr