just got home from playing a show with this setup. just wanted to post while i’m still beaming with excitement. i had a real “a ha moment” while making this all work together. norns mlr live sampling samplr and synths out of audulus. octatrack being used as a sequncer / mixer / fx unit as well as slicing and remixing my “written songs”.
basically i found that instead of making every instrument do a million things at once, it’s much better to lean in to their respective strengths in the context of a song. for example on the ipad, i long ago discovered that instead of using five different apps at once it was better to focus on a particular element of a song ( i.e granular stuff, synthesizers, effects etc ) then find the best instrument to perform that one element for that one song. similarly, i recently had this realization with norns. during my perfomance today i switched between mlr, glut and ekombi depending on the song. meanwhile the ipad switched between samplr, audulus and borderlands. the octatrack kept everythig steady while norns and the ipad added life and variety throughout the set, allowing me to perform better by focusing on only a few elements at a time. i’m sure this is all very obvious but if this helps anyone think about their own process at all then, hey, thats awesome. thank for letting me vent. just wanted to share my excitement. norns is such a wonderful instrument for live electronic music.
oh also, the crystals are for more than show and good vibes. i use them to strike the xylophone. 
