I hear you on that, it’s certainly hard to integrate. I use it most as an idea starter, which it’s very good at, then rapidly move to Ableton for arrangement. The part I haven’t cracked yet is getting it back into the OT for live performance, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
At times I feel guilty that I’m underutilising it, but I already learned that I miss it like crazy when it’s gone. Chameleon machine.
It’s funny, I avoid using timestretch as much as possible for sound quality reasons but the other day I was kind of flipping it on and off while a loop was playing and decided I actually think it sounds good. I wasn’t actually changing the duration of the loop at all, just turning the timestretch on and off and while it sounded noticeably clearer and more detailed an had a bit more high end with timestretch off, subjectively I liked the way it sounded with timestretch on a little more, it gave it a kind of blurriness that worked for me.
I also think minidisc compression sounds better than CD audio, though, so take my opinion here with a grain of salt. Although to be fair, back in college one of my professors set up a proper, level matched A/B comparison between minidisc and CD for a class to demonstrate how lossy compression degrades sound quality (complete with then top of the line Apogee D/A converters and his personal far-field monitors that were the size of small refrigerators and cost his old studio something like $8k each back in the 80s, and really did sound incredible) and everyone in the class, including him, unanimously chose the digitally transferred (so the only difference between the two was the compression) minidisc dupe as sounding better than the CD audio original. So it’s not just me. It’s technically worse but it sounds nice.
excuse my rather crude categorizations, but reading the DJ Shadow article made me think what you experienced has a bit to do with the producer/dj/instrumentalist ‘conceptual/workflow spectrum’
I think those closer to the dj/instrumentalist end of the spectrum will have the longest and most fruitful relationship with the octatrack compared to more ‘producer’-oriented types
That’s definitely a thought provoking idea. I don’t feel it’s accurate for me, I think I would fall more on the dj/instrumentalist side vs. producer end if that was the spectrum. I’m interested in mixing and mastering just for the purpose of polishing my songs. Most of my time is spent generating beats and melodies, then chopping them up and trying to arrange them in an interesting way (maybe that is a producer thing idk), and the rest of the time is spent experimenting for sound design.
I think for me it was more learning to do all the things I could do on the OT, in Ableton and not sacrificing limitless options. I know that the limitless options are something that we sometimes associate as being a creativity inhibitor, but then I get 20 plugins deep on a single kick sample and demons are punching through the walls and I’m grabbing my rainbow blanket reciting lyrics from Sacrifyx…and… 
I had that with the OT at first, but maybe we got domesticated too quickly and she just wasn’t into experimentation…
I’ve gone back and forth a few times since, trying to get back to that place where I was with the OT being the center of things, but every time I do, ill find myself back in the DAW for what seems like simple things; routing, mixing and arranging. The OT sequencer is still my favorite hardware sequencer but aside from parameter locks I haven’t found much that makes me think I can’t live without it. Maybe when I used to sit on the couch and write beats the OT was pretty nice, but I’m strapped for time these days so it’s pretty much in the studio or not at all.
I think I’m saying the Octatrack has definitely aged both in physical capability and sound, but just like the MPC 1000, or any instrument, an inspired person will be able to make amazing music with it.
No worse than an older mpc.
In my experience, one of the biggest crippling factors for older gear is storage media. For example, Roland used the zip disk for the sp808 which was the bees knees back in the day but aged terribly. The correct voltage SM for the 202s & 303s are rare/expensive. Otherwise they’re still fantastic pieces of gear.
Stocking up on CF or SD cards while they’re still plentiful could go a long way in protecting your gears from future obsolescence.
That DJ shadow interview took me back to my ITB years… Seems like nothing has changed on that front. MPC live & OT for me any day of the week pls, DAWs are a necessary evil but THEY R NO FUN.
btw - u need cubaase for making dnb? 
Interesting that many cats doin dnb use MPCs, something that should have been a very familiar instrument to Mr Shadow…?
this.
Im pretty sure that a lot of peoples problem with the FX modules is that they lack any presets for instant gratification and so forth… for example, the Chorus effect definitely sounds different than a standard chorus unless you dial it in specifically yourself… and same with Phaser and Flanger…
and especially with Reverb… ive heard complaints but I think its pretty great and it can get into the A4/AK territory if you want, but also it can go quite a bit beyond in terms of wildness and harsh funk
Yep. I even add lfo to modulate Chorus Flanger DEL parameter, for stronger effect.
I prefer A4’s reverb. I miss my Eventide Space !
Even without the 2 FX page, don’t forget all we can do with sample modulations (pitch, rate, loop, length…) and resampling with feedback to make crazy FX. With several tracks panned with the same sample, wide and wild chorus, flanger, pitch delay…
I feel a lot of things you are saying.
In fact, software is so capable nowadays, for me it questions the need for hardware in general again and again.
Yes, I do that too. Gives you that “real” flanging sound.
But to the topic, one of the knobs on mine is playing up and the caps are not so grey anymore. But can be fixed.
Silver fox
Of all the bits and bobs I have bought and sold over the years I have to say that I think the OT sits on top of the pile for, at the very least, it’s uniqueness alone.
I’ve owned VA’s and analogues, drum machines, samplers and other jack of all trades (OP1 for example) and on the whole came away feeling that I could do it all ITB but cheaper and be happier. The OT bucks that trend. There is simply stuff I cannot replicate ITB in the same manner or with the same results.
So, to me, with that in mind, it is a classic and should be cherished. In today’s day and age of wanting the next big thing and always looking for upgrades, the OT has really held it’s own for nearly a decade. That’s some achievement.
Im making myself want an OT AGAIN. Sake.
I don’t think the article was saying you need cubase, but there are probably a large amount of producers that were more effectively designing sounds using computers for that genre. I dont know the term for the technique but a lot of sounds were achieved by separating the waveform by high, mids, lows (multiband processing is what is coming to mind but that doesn’t seem correct), and applying a series of effects to each. Sure it can be done on the OT, I’ve done it before, utilizing neighbors and resampling. Then one day I decided to follow along a tutorial based in Ableton and it was quite a bit easier, and didn’t require resampling (mind you my computer is rather beefy). However I would be interested in seeing someone start with a simple waveform on an MPC60 and eventually shape it into some kind of nasty dnb reese using said techniques.
Your statement about DAWs being a necessary evil and no fun is just a personal opinion, on the flipside, for me working with a DAW and plugins at this stage in my life is much more fun. Hardware can almost be a necessary evil because of pretentious beliefs that a utilizing a DAW requires no skill (I have also heard eurorack people say that using the OT requires no skill). Take Reaktor blocks for example. I used to have a decent sized eurorack system, 21U at 104hp full, after Blocks came out though it quickly got parred down. I can open blocks and just start building a rack…I never run out of vcas…or any other module, I never run out of Case space, I never run out of power (I could run out of screen real estate, but a 34" monitor is only around 350$…).
@invisible_acropolis - I think the initial effects state probably turns a lot of people off too. You definitely need to read the manual and experiment with them, but for example, after using an eventide space, it kind of killed just about every other reverb out there for me. Valhalla doesn’t come close, the Boss RV-500 was returned after 15 minutes and the OT Reverb feels so vanilla. There are complete threads on the distortion, where some people will say it’s sufficient, but once I started using the Analog Heat, the OT distortion was OK, but rarely used. I don’t think the OT effects should be seen as a negative, but I would have enjoyed a refresh that opened up more possibilities. (perhaps more LFOs is all that was needed IDK). The comb filter is still one of my favorite effects on the OT.
@Unifono - Definitely not necessary, but some hardware can be a real boon. For example, I was never able to get a low enough latency with my MOTU 828 MK3 (granted it’s an older interface so an upgrade might have helped) to effectively use hardware pedals through ableton without hearing an audible delay (along with other functions). I probably could have tested a 1.5k RME interface but an analog mixer at the half the price seemed like a sure win. A lot of hardware based FX really do have a tone to them that I haven’t been able to reproduce in VSTs, maybe from lack of experimentation, or because of the the hardware components and nuances?
Did I mention that Analog Heat has quite a rejuvenating effect on the Octatrack?
What happens if you use the incorrect voltage, instant failure or slow failure over time? Someone gave me a 303 a few years ago and I just bought some factory sealed cards for $5 each on eBay because I thought SM was SM. They’ve all worked fine, so I guess they’re 5v, but I just moved and it’s still packed so I can’t actually check.
Yeah, dialing in the filters and damping on the reverb makes a huge difference, and having pre-reverb LP/HP filtering immediately puts it ahead of most onboard reverbs I’ve used - rolling off the highs and lows on the send signal before it hits the actual reverb is pretty key to getting a really good reverb sound.
Lately I’ve been sweeping the actual decay time in dark reverb with the crossfader, you can get some really good rough-but-musical buffer glitch kind of sounds out of that.
Good idea about xfader on reverb decay, totally stealing!