Hi all,
I’ve been recommended to get the Octatrack as a central sequencer. Would like to get expert advice on this and also for someone like me who has never used elektron kit I’m concerned about the learning curve and are the any recommended tutorials for the Octatrack?
Thanks
What is it you would like to know?
I would recommend tutorials by this well manored gentleperson…
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cabinet+of+curiosities+octatrack
Mono synths, poly synths, how many?
I’d say midi part of Octatrack is not very complicated. Just unusual ?
At the beginning I thought OT was too limited, bought again an Mpc I didn’t use after. It is a step sequencer, and chords are linked to one step, with same note length. No overlap between single notes (apparently Digitone and Digitakt can do this).
No midi overdub, 4 voices max, but the ability to set parameters for each step, with probability conditions, lfos, combined with a flexible arp make OT a great midi sequencer. Using different tracks on the same channel increase polyphony, parameters control, lfos…make individual notes overlap possible.
Won’t do what an Mpc can do, linear recording, overdub, sysex, Program Changes at any time (Mpc Live can’t do it 
but Mpc500 can)… but much more fun / crasy possibilities !
Mono synths. A Erebus, nyx, DFAM, Tanzbar and soon be getting a Pittsburgh 3900
Learning curve is very steep on the Elektron Octatrack. It is one device you have to read the manuals to learn well. My advice as a new Elektron owner is to download the free Octatrack manual and give it a read.
It is a great device once you learn it! Learning how to do sampling takes some time.
Thanks. My main concern is spending £1100 on something I may not be able to use properly or get the most out of.
Understand. It does take a few weeks to get the basics down.
For me, I am still learning and the complex parts take time.
This is a very good concern. Have been through this too.
I ordered my OT for the same reasons. I wanted a central piece of hardware to control my gear during composition and to free me to work with a DAW. It should also support live jamming with the ideas created during composition phases. TBH the OT did not work for the workflow, which I had in mind. But it wasn’t the OT as an instrument, it was step-sequencing. I hadn’t analysed deep enough my workflow vs the sequencing concept. To buy the OT has been a happy accident, because during learning the OT … and realising that this would not be, what I had planned to buy, of course, I loved, what the OT could do for me as an instrument of it’s own right.
This said, I would suggest that you first clarify for yourself, how your workflow will be, or should be. Then have a look at this non exhaustive list of sequencers:
Check out the various concepts for
It will possibly cost some imagination to match your needs with the descriptions. But the better this is achieved, the better the decision will be later.
My personal recommendation for XoX and linear like sequencing in one box, would be to check out the Pyramid and there the pre-view for the next upcoming OS 3.0.
Depends where you comin from.
If you have been using a DAW then you will have linear sequencing in your make up. This being simple and fast moving, making, and editing of your midi data.
Octatrack…some very different approach and non linear, this might leave you dead in the water or sailing across the sea to exciting new lands. Octatrack does however rock as a dedicated pattern based sequencer for synths as well as audio/sampler unit. (with some frustrations and workflows that take time and dedication to learn)
Like anything in life the only real way is to calculate the risks do your research and give it a go.
Hello;
consider Akai MPC live as an alternative.
regards
For midi sequencing it’s not that hard at all. Even for sample sequencing it’s pretty easy.
It does get more complex, but all that’s there when you want. It’s not going to make you work too hard to start with.
Cirklon seems the most powerful step / linear seq.
Absolutely … but the waiting list is about a year or so. I tried to chase one earlier for some time and gave it up. This said, I wouldn’t recommend the Cirklon to somebody, who is planning to set-up a working rig in the near future.
IMO the Prymid has changed much from OS 0.8 to OS 3.0. The developers seem to listen to their users and take effort to improve their product. Under Os 0.8 it wasn’t for me, but now I have ordered one myself. Expecting it to arrive in the next couple of days.
Pyramid seems very interesting, not simple.
Octatrack + my cheap MPC500 can cover all my midi needs I think.
That’s a great team. I’ve got a MPC too, but what I missed, is the capability to record and play back long sequences of quite variable lengths.
The pattern lenghth of the OT is often too short to catch my musical idea (live recording wise) and the MPC does not allow to have pattern of very different lengths in one sequence. Editing midi on the fly isn’t supported either on my MPC. The OT can be easily used like a midi-looper and editing on the fly is possible. But the MPC has to be stopped between some operations, which I need to do from time to time.
If I understood the Pyramids OS 2.x and 3.0 correctly, there will be almost everything covered. OT, MPC, and Pyramid will be … maybe … a little overshot, but let’s see, how this works out 
I must say I’ve been reading up on the synthstrom Deluge and it does look very tempting. Certainly feature packed.
Ive now read up on some of these and with the help of You Tube and other resellers realise that its either the Octatrack or the Polyend Seq for me. I love the simplicity of the Seq and linking patterns so effortlessly. Against the mass of features and great use of sampling capability on the octatrack. I am an Electron Virgin o may find this difficult and either way its a lot of money so need to get it right.
Have now dismissed the deluge. Not right for me.
Take both ! The Seq is pretty. Linear recording, overlap possible ? Lfos, arp ?
Depends on what you’d like to do with your sequencer, but for me now it would be impossible to get rid of my OT, even for the midi part only. Tons of variations possible with the 24 midi lfos, Trig Conditions, random arpeggiator…
If only I could afford both but with the sound manipulation on the OT may get that now a not spend money on a new drum computer / machine so I get more value for my pound
