I try to commit to audio as soon as I can, and flip to a sampling workflow. Well, lately I have. This is with the Octatrack, so I'm still sort of testing limits to see if I should be using this for other things instead of composition. I want my synths and drum machines to be the source material, but then find myself getting bogged down in sequencing. So it's a balance between sequencing external gear and flipping to audio to make room for gear not currently on the desk. I've found I can't really rely on patch notes, patch saving, pattern saving etc. because the audio routing ends up being so critical to the sound I ended up creating- if I change that at all, it's kinda over. I can make notes for that, sure, but then the effort of faithfully recreating that just to add more audio-stuff for processing is simply not worth it.

So I try to set up a novel sound-design setup, explore it, then capture the audio-stuff I'll be using for later. Sequence that audio as long phrases or manipulated slices in a sampler, then overdub if needed. Tear it down, add another piece of gear with all the trappings needed. Rinse and repeat until I have enough to work with, then push those sounds where I need them to go with processing and arrangement.

I mean, that's what I'd be doing if I made music instead of masturbating and playing video games