Introducing Octatrack MKII

I noticed the power use going up from ~18 watts to ~24 watts. You reckon this is due to the new display and input frontend? Or just elektron dropping the old 3A wallwarts in general?

Backlit buttons

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You are right, indeed, that the controls listed are in the main windowā€¦and can be controlled by knob or fader.
However, there is not full overlap between the PlayBack page controls and the remote MIDI commands.

The point I meant to make earlier, which I still stand by, is that one cannot fully control the PU machines from direct remote/MIDI/control.

The MIDI spec (Appendix C) specifies that there are MIDI note-messages dedicated for PU machine (on active track), including

  • combo Rec (doubling Rec1 button) input-specific record triggers, which become Overub and Replace depending on context.
  • Play-stop (like Rec2) depending on context.
  • the Multiply simply doubles the loop to be longer, but there is no way to divide/shorten the loop.
  • controls for hands-free tack selection, Mute, Cue, and toggling Sync.

The remaining Playback controls of a PU are only MIDIā€™able by CC #16-21 to address the PlayBack page controls (Pitch, Direction, etc), to specific values. This makes things complicated, as some MIDI controllers can only button-switch between 0 and some value, where it would be better to have (more) dedicated macros or toggles between simpler controls.

Loopers come from a heritage of people with at least one hand full, and itā€™s really frustrating to have to set obtuse button-combinations or indirect MIDI mapping to do things that have classically been controlled directly by one-touch actions.

If they were able to add reception for PU-specific MIDI-note command like ā€œPickup Play/Stopā€ and ā€œMultiplyā€, I donā€™t see why they could not (eventually) add dedicated one-touch MIDI actions for

  • divide (cut loop in half)
  • Replace (regardless of context, so it can have seperate action than OverDub)
  • change direction (Forward/Reverse)

I used to own a Gibson EDP+, and the (more abundant) buttons were context dependent, but it was intuitive.
It is for the same reason that Iā€™m presently doing most looping with a Boss RC202.

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Amen, brothers.
Iā€™m right with you on the need to flesh out the PU machines.

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In addition to improved pickup behaviour, Iā€™d really love it if MMC became supported for the mk II boxes. A way to engage/disengage realtime record via MMC commands for all the elektrons would be awesome, and might not require a lot of coding to the firmware.

The more I think about it, the more it would make sense to have MMC working with the octa, as it can be used for controlling multitrack recording (among other things).

Back to OT experiments ? :content:

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I get what youā€™re saying with all the other stuff. PMs are my main method of sampling on the OT, so Iā€™d love to see much more attention paid to them.
Just in case you havenā€™t discovered this: you can record a PM loop of any step length (up to 64) and actively shorten/lengthen it in step increments by manipulation of the loop length parameter in the record setup menu (menu A, encoder C). This is way more powerful than just divide, but probably not midi controllable.

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Mine :elot:onomoulsy experiments on me. :ballot_box_with_check:

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Iā€™m a huge Elektron fan boy, I wear their shirts at least once a week and havenā€™t made a track without using one of their products in who knows how long. That said, an Octatrack 2 without Overbridge??? No thanks
Sorry this was just a criticism post, but hopefully they will get the picture that almost all of us want this feature. I understood not implementing it on the first one, but you bring a whole new improved version to the table and donā€™t give the main feature people are asking for? That said, when my old one breaks yes Iā€™ll still buy the mkii because I love the product. Just wish it was Overbridge enabled is all.

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Was the OT mk I USB 2.0 like the mk II by the way?

Yes

Oh yes I seeā€¦ on the mk II page it just reads ā€œUSB 2.0 high speedā€. The xfader also seems to be different, mk I states infinium and mk II ā€œcontactlessā€.

I am getting hopelessly optimistic about the future of the OT. Need to chill out and get my head back to the real world.

But man, if elektron fixed all the lil niggles with the OT, wouldnā€™t that be badass indeed! Better DJing implememntation wrt the mixer and repitch, up to 16 parts per bank, MIDI scenes, solid pupsā€¦ just sayin

I usually LFO the ARP for nice wobbly melodies, will need to try it on drums!

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As I already had the A4 and RYTM (Mk 1 ;-)) I just picked up an ā€˜originalā€™ Octarack of ebay today so that I have the matching ā€˜Dark Trinityā€™ so for me the introduction of the new Mk 2 spurred me to get a Mk 1 as I always planned to pick it up and the only thing stopping me was worrying about a Mk 2 coming out with Overbridgeā€¦FOMO

so for me at least- all good, Octarack isnā€™t changing (where it counts) any time soon and will still get support/updatesā€¦so I am in with the DT :slight_smile:

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I wish the A4 could do it :totes:
love it on the ot

all i know is that iā€™m glad i waited to buy OT. i really like the new design, but the original one would work just fine and presumably used prices will come down.

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Before I purchased my first OT I had been waiting for like 1 year thinking about it. :slight_smile:
Finally when I got it I knew I should just buy it earlier. It was a waste of time.

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Same gray chassisā€¦ thatā€™s funny

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Sighā€¦ :neutral_face:

So please inform me on what else would be a solid reason to purchase this OT MK2 minus the OLED screen and audio headroom? Assuming you already own the OT Mk1, or thinking about getting one. It looks great! From a functionality standpoint Iā€™m not seeing the benefit. I would rather have 8 outputs via OB vs a new screen, button layout and headroom (which is an easy work around if you know audio).

Just sayinā€¦

Yesā€¦ finally a chance to build a wall of octatrack.

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