So I've finally worked out how to get my vintage yamaha md4 minidisc recorder to send midi start / stop and clock signals to my volcas. So I've been enjoying doing an electro track in multiple takes, with each take in sync with the other, and my hands free to turn all the knobs on all the volcas, one at a time. So I can lay down a stuttered hi hat on the beats, then use the beats for a massive 808-style kick, then bring up the sample to give it a proper snare (the beats snare has its charm but its weak), then add some boops.

THEN eq it and mix it all down to one track on the multitrack, freeing up another 3 tracks to add more sounds and boops.

I don't work with a DAW, so previously I was doing this on my zoom r16 using the 'press the play button on the sequencer at the right time' synchronisation technique, which got really sloppy after a few overdubs.

I'm kind of digging this, I can see why people get into DAW land. But I'm loving ATRAC 4-track land, where I have to dial everything in, decide it's good and then write it to disk, some kind of commitment to an ever evolving song, rather than 42 stems that you can endless go back and forth on.

The recorder losing it's shit every hour and needing to be turned on and off 5 times before it'll read the disc again kinda sucks though.