Issue with sampling

Thank you! I will save this one,

I’m not sure of what happened, but I can confirm that this incident affected my perception of the machine; I still like it, the thing is that one gravitates to hardware, mostly in order to escape the unpredictable behavior that computers may have. I hope I figure out very soon what happen, in the mean time, this feeling will be lurking, while I keep enjoying making music in the my Octatrack.

Cheers!

I decided to get into the Octatrack last week while watching Moderat performing in New York. The whole show was being run by five computers, the system crashed 2 times, leaving the audience cold, and the artist embarrassed. The show was amazing, mesmerizing visuals and sync with music, but it could have been a lot better, it is still memorable but the accident are part of the memory. I hope the Octatrack proves to be the solid machine I want it to be.

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The OT is really techy and operates in a very scientific logical way, it’s not that straight forward, and not exactly user friendly. Most of the problems that occur using the OT have to do with not fully understanding the way it operates. It takes quite some time to get the hang of, and you will get stumped time to time about what is happening.
Good news is once you figure out each roadblock you come to, the door opens up again and you never have to figure that part out again. Sometimes a different approach is required than one would expect, but you can still get the results your after. You may find its not the device for you, but if your willing to put up with it until it starts to click, I assure you you will be impressed with the results.
As far as reliability, after defining a suitable project for my needs, and learning certain things to avoid, my OT has been steady as a rock and I totally trust it for playing live…
I suggest giving it some time and don’t get bogged down, once you feel the magic that is OT, it starts to outweigh its quirks… :panda:

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Hi. Me too !
The main problem for me with Octatrack, is to find a workflow, because there are so many crazy possibilities as a looper, multifx, multitrack, sampler…
I’d need an Octatrack for each category ! :smile:
But I don’t play serious live for the moment, and I don’t care about my workflow, sound tricks/research make me happy.

Once you understood well Ot philosophy, you will have to make choices for your workflow.
Think about your real needs. :wink:

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stay patient. while imo it is almost impossible to master the ot completely, it’s not that complicated to get the things down you really need and want it to do. And you can control a full reliable live performance from it for sure.
And for me it’s more intuitive and fun live compared to a laptop plus midi controller.

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@Gina

You’ve received a lot of good advice and good tech support so far in this thread, so I will just echo what @unifono said and offer a bit of my own advice.

First, be patient. The Octatrack is an incredibly complicated machine that rewards, and frankly, requires, diligence and repetition.

Second, figure out what basic tasks you want to learn to accomplish and focus on those to start with. Don’t try to learn everything at once or you will end up incredibly frustrated. You’ve started well – learn to sample something, whether through trigs or manually. It seems crazy to say that you have to learn how to sample with the Octatrack, given that that IS what it is first and foremost, but it’s not straightforward. At all. That being said, once you’ve mastered the basics, including saving those samples! :), you’ll be on your way.

But first things first: wiggle your big toe.

(Also, it shouldn’t matter, but it does (let’s be honest): it’s nice to see another woman on the board. :sunny:)

M

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OT (offtopic)

Great to see you here, papertiger!! Hope all is well :slight_smile:

I can’t tell for sure, but I guess the problems at the show could have been caused by the computers. My experience with hardware and Elektron boxes in particularl is … they are much more reliable then computers. I can’t remember one single issue, where one of my three Elektron boxes crashed or went crazy … rock solid … also w.r.t. timing and synchronisation.

I wouldn’t call the OT complicated. It’s a machine with many features and options and this makes it complex. There is good advise given here already to take time,learn, and follow step after step. Begin with the feature you want most, learn it, practise it, then continue to the next. It could be also a good idea, to have the manual around. When I got stucked for more then 15 minutes, I had a look in the manual and this saved me hours of frustration :wink: … TBH … after having had some frustration by not following just this advice :wink:

I have one more last question related to your advice. As you know I created another project, and I think when doing it I lost track of the Presets now is there anyway to fix that? or should I mount a new set and do it in the Presets folder in order to have access to those sounds?

I hope this makes sense,

Thank you in advance for your advice.

-Gina.

What do you mean by that ?
In Preset folder, there’s a AUDIO folder were samples are recorded.
There’s no need to create another set.

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Well, there’s the presets project which has a bank full of demo tracks loaded with sounds, and then there’s the factory samples.
If you want you can load the presets project again and add to it…
If you just want the factory samples you need to load them to flex or static sample slots using the file browser, pg. 29 of the manual…
I suggest only working in one set, that way you will always have access to all of your samples, there’s no need for another set unless you start getting really complex. All that is needed is different projects within one set until you find a reason to have two…

If you do load the presets project, be aware that if you made any changes to it before they will still be there. There are two project states, the active one, and the saved version. This allows you to make changes which are recalled after power off for the bank your working on. When you load a project it loads the active state, which contains changes you’ve made. To get to the saved state you will need to load presets project and then perform a reload project. This may seem weird right now but it is actually very useful…

This applies to all projects, when you create a new project it is always a good idea to save project right after. If you do not save right after you are working with the active project state and don’t have a saved state to fall back on. You can think of the saved state more as a restore point to get back to…

Hope that helps more than confuse!
I’m off for the day but @sezare56 is always a good OT resource and there’s many other helpful nauts as well…
Take care… :monkey_face:

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I think I lost track of them when I chose “CREATE EMPTY PROJECT” instead of Presets

Thank you, It looks my Factory Samples are not there, I check the instructions in page 29, and all I get after pressing the right arrow, are the three samples I have created so far.

I will contact support, my machine I basically in mint condition, I bought from a frustrated guy, (he was very vocal about it :slight_smile: ) I will contact support and see if I can get those factory samples!

Enjoy your day off!

Thank you,

-Gina.

Create empty project for a new project, choose an existing project if you want to load it.

Mint means the Cf card was empty?

Yeah, it looks like it was at least missing the factory sounds, I don’t see them while trying to get sounds loaded to the machines, all I can see is my own samples.

Ok. Normally, the samples are recorded in PRESETS>AUDIO folder.
A folder is created when you create an empty project, or when you use SAVE TO NEW.
PRESETS>MyProjectFolder.
You have the choice to save sample in the AUDIO folder, or in the actual project folder. You can set that in MENU PROJECT >SYSTEM >PERSONALIZE

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This might be of interest to you to get the factory samples …

And there are many free sample packs available in the net. At Loopmasters

http://www.loopmasters.com/

you can download up to 16 GB for free and there are other places too, like

But the most fun is to take a field recorder in- and out-doors and use this material creatively :smiley:
Happy sampling :wink:

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Thank you Sound RIder all I need is a Kick drum the rest of the stuff I am sampling!

Have a nice one!

-Gina

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Me off for the day was actually me off to work but thanks!

Yay! :monkey_face: