Rapid Flow’s Workflow: A Rave Bunker for Building Live Sets Fast

Let’s be honest: most producers have a graveyard of half-finished tracks and a folder of projects that sound like they were made on different planets. Rapid Flow’s Erik isn’t having any of that. His workflow is all about turning that chaos into a live set without the usual pain of exporting stems or wrestling with mismatched mixes.

The trick? Start every track with a solid, reusable foundation. Erik lays out his session in Ableton with all the building blocks ready to go, so you can sketch, arrange, and perform without ever losing the plot. It’s a system that took him two decades to nail down, and it’s designed to keep you moving fast, whether you’re jamming for YouTube or prepping for a festival stage.

Forget mouse-clicking your way through a set – Erik’s setup is built around dedicated hardware. The AKAI APC40 MKII is the main weapon, handling clip launching, mixing, and those all-important macros. Add the AKAI MIDIMIX for extra faders, and you’ve got a hands-on rig that keeps your ideas flowing and your performance tight.

He even throws in a Novation Launchpad Mini for percussion duties, proving you don’t need a spaceship’s worth of gear to get pro results. Everything you need is within arm’s reach, so you can focus on the music instead of menu-diving. This is how you turn a DAW into a proper live instrument – no excuses, just action.

Here’s where things get clever. Erik’s workflow is all about reusability – set up your tracks, effects, and routing once, then use that template for every new project. No more starting from zero or reinventing the wheel every time inspiration hits. It’s like having a rave bunker pre-stocked with everything you need for the next sonic street fight.

By tracking your sounds into audio and saving the project with all the right settings, you dodge the classic headaches of missing plugins or lost synth patches. The result? You spend less time fixing problems and more time making bangers. If your kick and bass sound good once, why not keep that magic rolling? That’s the Rapid Flow way.

Erik channels old-school tape machine energy with his real-time audio capture approach. Instead of endlessly tweaking MIDI, he records everything as audio, locking in the vibe and letting you edit, loop, and mangle to your heart’s content. It’s flexible, fast, and keeps your tracks feeling fresh.

This method means you can tweak sounds live, capture automation on the fly, and never worry about losing that perfect take. The integrity of your track stays intact, and you’re free to experiment without fear. It’s a workflow that’s as much about performance as it is about production – and it absolutely slaps when you see it in action.