Orbital used MMT-8 hardware sequencers in a loop-switching live setup that performed music by swapping patterns rather than triggering samples

Phil Hartnoll of Orbital describes a live rig based on ‘mmt8 — little hardware sequencers’ where each machine holds eight loops (eight different musical patterns), and each machine has 100 groups of eight. In performance, the operator switches which loop is active on each machine simultaneously to build, drop, and rearrange the composition in real time. ‘I might think let’s have some drums and let’s change the sequence at the same time.’ This is a pattern-switching approach to live electronic music — fundamentally different from playback DJing or song-form performance. It represents the foundational live performance logic that later sequencer-based live sets (hardware and software) inherited.

Examples

‘Put the Baseline in take the drums out and then prepare myself for the something a bit bigger and bring all the drums back in’ — Hartnoll swaps patterns live while a sampler layer plays over the top.

Assessment

Describe Orbital’s MMT-8 live performance approach and explain how switching loop groups differs structurally from both DJing (mixing pre-made tracks) and band performance (playing instruments).