Octatrack - Just ordered! [update]: received. holy sh*t!

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

48 mo, no interest at sweetwater!

Digitakt was my gateway drug the first week it came out… been eyeing the Octatrack since. Next week, one will be on my desk. I’ve been pouring through the threads of folks using the DT and OT together. Not sure if I will keep the DT, but will give it a chance.

What’s the first thing I should try with my new OT? Lesser known feature you wish you knew day 1??
Beer pairing suggestions? :wink:

Should probably point out that other goodies include: saxophones, 0coast, OP1, Minitaur, guitar, Ableton 10 beta.

#2

Sure wish this was available to Canadians! Congrats on the new toy

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#3

Don’t want to rub that in, by any means! Wish everyone had that access.

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#4

The DT is more powerful than people chasing after the OT acknowledge- is hold onto it.

I mean- being able to see the waveform as you’re p-locking it is just wonderful!

Also OB is going to really add the competition between the two- and I’m sure midi configuration will be a real ease once OB drops.

Edit:

Congrats on the OT, though. It’s a lot of fun!

#5

I totally agree! I’m not after the OT because I’m unhappy with the DT. It’s a fantastic sampler and the midi tracks are pure pleasure so far. The OT is appealing for reasons that I don’t think cross over with the DT… my whole thought on selling the DT is only about streamlining… I’m expecting differences in the vibe of the two will lead me to keep both.

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#6

yeah but on the OT you can set up slices…no need to plock start points!

#7

On Octatrack you can edit slices in realtime, so you can edit the plocked slices in Audio Editor and see the waveforms. :wink:

It can be done selecting a silent part in Trim, create slices in Slice, choose them with arrows and edit them.

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#8

enjoy it!

#9

Dive into the arpeggiator setup page. Set up a MIDI track with long, sustained notes and start messing with editing the arp pattern in real time while a sequence is playing. Your Minitaur is perfect for that job.

Comb filter modulated with LFOs!

Dark reverb sounds a lot better if you turn its HP control almost half way up and its LP control down a little bit, and add a bit of predelay in the setup menu.

Run the same synth trough multiple thru machines in parallel and tweak all of their parameters at once with scenes to get all kinds of massive walls of sound.

Put lo-fi in FX1 on a thru machine, play a melodic pattern from one of your synths into it and use plocks or scenes to make the aliasing artifacts harmonize with the synth melody.

Use two or more MIDI tracks at once to control the same monosynth, and use a different pattern legth for every track. Extra points if the monosynth has a built in arpegiator.

Slide trigs, slide trigs, slide trigs!

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#10

8 stereo buffers with looper and rec trigs for Octatrack.
Easy access for track mutes, TRC for DT.

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#11

I suspect DT OT pairing would be great. I sequence tr8 from OT and it works well but for a different sound palette at a decent price DT is on the horizon.

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#12

It’s a bit more advanced than the other things I recommended, but everything in this thread:

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#13

Thanks! I have a lot to dig into!

#14

Update:

Alright. This thing is no Digitakt (I did not expect it to be) … I knew it is a dense machine, but wow. wow wow wow. Took me a moment to find the trig modes, and understand slicing… I read Merlin’s guide yesterday, and about half the manual. Treating samples outside of their track placement was difficult at first, but, I’m getting there. I only got about 2 hours with it after work yesterday (right… I didn’t leave “sick”).

There’s a lot of basic hands on needed that is not as intuitive as other devices. With the OP-1, a few years ago, I knew how to use most of it right out of the box from all the vids I watched. But, no matter how many OT vids I’ve seen, getting through the menus really requires a hands-on experience.

Thanks, everyone!

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#15

My experience with the OT was it made learning fun again.

It’s the most directly satisfying educational experience as the information is easy to come across, internalize, and apply. You are expanding your abilities to make SOUND(not something silly like mathematics or building a shed)
Have fun, homie

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#16

i owned an OT for about 6 months (circa 2011/2012) and i primarily used it as a one shot drum machine…very awesome and a lot of new features since i last used it, but it definitely requires a great deal of prep before you can jam out with it.

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#17

My experience with the OT was it made learning fun again.

Exactly! I can’t remember having to really dig into a manual this early into owning anything. I’ve always taken to hardware naturally… but this is a whole other level. My plan is to work on a concept at a time before I do anything really tangible with it. I have so many uses in my different live settings: live loop mangling, backing tracks, drum machine, texture synth, melodic and harmonic accompaniment, can’t type them all out.

My main live thing is a duo performing with Ableton, guitar, synths, saxophones, but I’m thinking we can move our set to the OT eventually. It will be nice not having a computer on stage. But, i’m not going to get ahead of myself.

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