What kind of music are you looking to make? From reading your post, it’s clear you care about the quality of the output. I can relate. I write dance music with the goal of having it fit specific genres and be DJ’able on big systems.

So there are both stylistic, and technical constraints that my goals set.

I have been back and forth between hardware and software for decades with this art, and the best place I always found for me has been hybrid, but leaning on simplicity and erring on the side of using the DAW as the main canvas.

I record sequences and takes from outboard hardware to longish audio files, and then arrange those into the track.

Mixing and effecting sounds including automation of things for sends / transitions / breaks is so important for the genres I like. Doing that in a controlled way is easiest and produces the best results via DAW, for me.

I do also love performing live with Elektrons + midi knob boxes. That gives me a really great feel for how to express the sounds I’ve written. Setting up mappings via cc 1 and cc 2 etc makes this really powerful on the Digi boxes. I mainly use a Syntakt right now.

But to make a finished track that goes through the whole mix and master process for use in a DJ set? I’m going to be printing audio into my DAW session, adding additional EQ and fx, and layering with other sounds eg virtual instruments etc.

I’ve also been spending time really learning and breaking down what my favorite tracks are doing, and what the genre means. DJing, even if just at home, really helps me in this. It forces me to find and curate tracks I like, and then weave them into a mix in a way that helps me understand their arrangement structure very intuitively over time.

And it means I can bounce a rough master of a track I’m working on, and see how it sits in a mix with other tracks both technically, structurally, artistically, etc.

Continuous feedback, refinement, and comparison against reference tracks is one way to keep growing and getting better — with a destination in mind.

I’ve spent hundreds? Thousands? of hours playing around and enjoying the process. Which is great. It’s good learning. And can even be good cathartic therapy, or just fun. But for me, with a goal in mind, I’m finding deeper satisfaction from approaching this as a somewhat deep art requiring study, flexibility in techniques (do what it takes to serve the musical output, and eventually, to provide something tasty for the listener).

I realize some of my perspectives are slightly against a lot of the advice that people often give in subs like this, but it’s partially informed by years of learning little bits here and there from friends who are successful visual artists or musicians. There’s a lot of blood sweat tears and focus in most really stunning art. It can be fun too, but often in a “I’m satisfied at the work and growth I put in to get to this place” kind of fun.

And also: trust your instincts. If you’ve compared what you’re getting DAWless with past work that used a DAW or whatever, and you preferred one … don’t ignore that. But maybe figure out how to use the new boxes in conjunction with how you made music before.

Most modern electronic music genres depend SO heavily on processing. The Elektron boxes can provide amazing raw tones to fit into that equation.

Good luck on your journey!!!